San Francisco Bazaar--Craft Fair

Nearly a month ago, I ventured out with Liz and Jossie to attend the San Francisco Bazaar.

I love going to craft fairs.  They are inspiring, but I really wish I was a billionaire, so I could support all the local artists!

Here is my loot from the fair.

From Tint & Tonic I purchased some "beach-like" hair sprints to see if I could tame my hair (haven't tried it yet) and orange hair chalk (for my daughter).

From Hello! Lucky, I found the cutest Christmas cards--that I never sent out :/

Then we met the nicest girl, Meagan, from Brown Pigeon.  I bought her book because she was so sweet!  I have no idea if I will ever make my own stamps :/

After she signed my book, she posed for a picture with me (photo courtesy of Liz).

We found the Zig Zag City Guide booth and I fell in love with the cute cartoon cards.  I do not have a young child, but I think I can use the cards for scrapbooking.  I was going to get the New York City set, until I seen the Giants card…then I had to get the San Francisco set!!

And finally, we walked back around and I bought a cute knitted hat for my Goddaughter from Nisey Knits because I loved the look, but I cannot knit! 

I spent a little more than I would have normally spent, but it is going to local artists!!  I did collect a lot of cute business cards along the way.

I seriously wish I could have bought an item from everyone!  Such talent San Francisco!!!

Then we headed over to Typo in the Stonestown Galleria.  They had lots of funny stamps, but I only bought 3 along with the cutest vintage looking photos.

Isn't the bag so cute!

And my fabulous friends gave me the cutest bag of goodies.

Jossie initialed this mug for me :)

And don't laugh, but no fair is complete without a trip to the Magnolia PhotoBooth.

Yes, we had a fun silly time!

Renegade Fair with my SBBF (ScrapBook Best Friend)

Last summer, my SBBF and I went to the Renegade Craft Fair for the first time in San Francisco.  We had a blast.  Unfortunately, we haven't seen each other since!  But today we went to the Holiday version of the Renegade Craft Fair--still in San Francisco, but at a different venue.

They had the most awesome booths, but these two vendors were mobile!

I didn't catch the name of this bicycle vendor, but this crocheter is dorklandia (love the name!).

As much as I wanted to buy something from everyone at the fair, I could not.  Only these items came home with me.

1. Death Birthday Card by genuine haha  My 16 year-old daughter said she would cry if she got a card like that :/

2. Cutest Robot cards by Satsuma Press  The designers son made this design.  He is 6 years old and has a neuromuscular disorder :(

3. & 4. 'to-do" list and tape measure washi tape by Oh, Hello Friend

5. Giraffe button by Steppie this was for my daughter who loves Giraffes because of Brandon Belt

6. Toffee...mmmmm... by P.O.P. Candy  mmmmmm...

Even though I didn't purchase much at the fair, I brought home a bunch of business cards so I can purchase from them in the future.

(you can see the picture of me and Liz in the Magnolia Photo Booth--we couldn't figure out when the picture was being taken...I look like a dork!)

Here are a few of my favorites...

Le Petit Elefant~Cutest drawings ever!!  I am hanging her business card in my craft room (rawr!)

Neiko Ng~Cutest drawings ever!! (yes, I know)  I missed out the first round and wasn't able to catch Snow White and Ariel the second go round...must order from her :)

Unicorn crafts~cute earrings

Oxleberry~Cutest monsters and sad snowman (I should have gotten the snowman!)

Skeletal Dropkick~I'd love to grow a plant in them!

Sincere Sheep~pretty yarns

Collage Lab~I'd love to Scrapbook with those papers!

Wool Buddy~Adorable Stuffed Animals

Leafcutter Designs~Again, I should have left with the Notepaper Embroidery kit--too cute!

Victory Garden Yarn~I wanna be her! :)

There were a ton more vendors...I could be here forever linking all the vendors, but that would be silly since they are listed online.

One thing that the majority of the vendors had were the most awesome tool ever!  It was called Square and they could swipe credit cards from their iPhones!!! (we seen one vendor with an iPad 2 and another with an Android phone.)  I want one of those!

And since my bestie and I haven't seen each other in forever, we exchanged gifts (birthday/Christmas/everyday findings for each other).  Here is what I received

Liz made me the cutest book ever!  I can't wait to use it and show it in more detail :)

Craft Faire goodie

In September, I ordered a crochet hook holder from a seller on Etsy.

(picture from seller's etsy)

I waited about 2 weeks and I hadn't received my item.  So I sent a message through Etsy to the seller.  An automated response came back that the seller was severely ill and if I wanted to wait for my item or request a refund.  I replied that I would wait.  I waited about a month and still nothing.  I went to send another message and the Etsy seller no longer had a shop.  Luckily I "only" spent $12.50 on the item.  I really hope the seller didn't die!  But I did let both Etsy and PayPal know of the non-receipt of the item, just in case the seller just "skipped town" with other people's money!  I let the $12.50 go and didn't go any further with PayPal.  I mean if the seller was severely sick and is in the hospital or going through treatments, I totally wish her the best of luck, but if it was just a scam, then that sucks :(

Anywho...I received an email that there was going to be a Craft Faire in San Jose called Jingle Fest 2011.  I love Craft Faires.  Since it was on Sunday aka husband's football day, I decided to check it out.  It was kinda small, but it was cool to look at all the stuff people make.  There was a bunch of jewelry, that I don't wear, but there were a few booths that sold handmade cards and crochet items.  One booth had the cutest little girl one-of-a-kind dresses.  The one dress I absolutely adored was too small for my youngest niece.

I was about to leave (only stayed about 25 minutes--that is how small it was), when I seen a booth, Firebabe Boutique, that had some crochet hook holders!  Well you can use the case to hold hooks or make-up brushes.  And she even had crayon holders.  Anyway, I picked this one up

I am so excited to finally be able to keep my hooks in order by size!

I left thinking about maybe seeing about selling there next year...if I have a big enough inventory :)

Renegade Craft Fair-San Francisco 2010

On Saturday, I spent an exciting day with my scrapbooking bestie Liz at the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco !

The doors opened at 11, but because we were so excited and because I have never driven through SF, we left her house at 8:45—I was a bit early! We got to Fort Mason at 10 am and found parking in a jiffy—when we left (at 3:30!) there wasn’t any parking to be found. Luckily, I had parked near the exit and parked so I didn’t have to back out—yay!

There wasn’t much to eat at Fort Mason, so we settled for a latte (sans Vanilla—boo!) and a mocha from a very pleasant lady who was thrilled that we both paid with twenty dollar bills—um, it is the morning lady—we hadn’t gotten a chance to spend any money yet. The coffee was bitter just like the barista—ha ha ha! (The coffees weren’t even picture worthy)

We sat facing the bay waiting patiently for the doors to open and chatted about this and that. It was nice and relaxing even for an early Saturday morning.

A couple of minutes before 11am, we headed on over to the Festival Pavilion. Some of the booths were still setting up while we did our first go round—there were no purchase made the first time around.

After we seen all the goodies, we went upstairs to the Etsy Make-n-Take area where they had a REAL DJ…the kind that played Records!! You know those big black vinyl things? No cd player…no iTunes off a computer! YAY…the best part was the awesome 80’s music that came out of the turntables!

Also upstairs was the “bar” which had some wine and beer. We held off because we didn’t want to chop off our fingers while doing our make-n-takes. The host wore a cute apron…So Manly! We never were able to secretly take a picture of him from the front, but it was really ruffle-ly.

Before our second go round, we stopped at the Magnolia Photo Booth which was “free” (with a donation jar). It was fun with all the props they had! So something I could never do with my family—ha ha ha.

Then came our purchases…I loved so many of the things, but I only left with these:

1. is a note pad that says "To Do*", then the bottom says "*or not to do, that is the question".  Old Tom Foolery was quite the place was cute cards I would never be brave enough to send out.  One of my favorites was "You tied the Knot*...*the knot to the noose that just killed your social life.  way to go party poopers"

2. wood print NY version was actually a gift from Liz for driving.  She got the SF one...so cute from Petit Collage.

3. can't really see it in this picture but it was a bag full of cute postage-like stamps from The Tinted Mint.

4. hand dyed yarn (I ♥ yarn) from bricolag(e)able.

5. the cutest envelop from The Postage Service.  It had vintage stamps and the best part was the postage was usable--although I would hate to use it and then not have it anymore.  I left with the California theme.

6. a business card holder from Beyond Wonderland (to put my etsy shop cards when I finally open shop)I also left with a ton of business cards.

7. and my "big" purchase...a cute cell phone holder from The Pouch Place by alliebeans.

Here are a few links to check out:

Misha Ashton Photograph (she is awesome)

Twinkie Chan

Red Velvet Art

Spincycle Yarns (love the mascot)

Seibei (love the "I am fat...Let's Party" shirt)

Bunny Butt Apothecary (crazy name)

Mis Nopales Art (awesome)

Zooni (I wish I knew some little kids to buy these for)

There were so many other vendors...I can't name them all, but you can check out the list on the Renegade site.

One of our “goals” was to meet Elsie Flannigan. We even brought our copies of 52 Scrapbooking Challenges and Love, Elsie Recipe Idea Box to be signed, but when we were at her booth, we were both to shy to ask if she would sign them. We didn’t even get a picture with her. Liz did take a photo of Elsie holding a picture her daughter had drawn and gave Elsie the picture. Maybe we will run into her at another fair someday.

We also took a picture as the Renegade Mascot Owl



and lots of pictures of the “props” throughout the venue. I didn’t want to take pictures of the items—didn’t want people to think I was stealing ideas!

(from the Postage Service)


(from bricolag(e)able)


(from Twinkie Chan)

(this was my favorite prop...I thought they were selling these faux cupcakes.  When I picked it up, I was like these look so real...Liz had to point it out to me that they were real--ha ha ha--they were selling the bird candle holders)

This guy was AMAZING...

P.Nosa...he embroidered these amazing art works on the sewing machine freehandedly.

After we were finished wandering the fair, we went outside and took a few photos of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz .

Have I ever mentioned that I love old buildings?

I don’t think I have ever driven around that area of San Francisco —I totally fell in Love with all the architecture—someday I want to go back and just wander the streets and take some photos.

We—I mean I only got lost 4 times—ha ha ha. Once, we missed the turn going into the city, but thanks to my handy dandy (annoying at times) navigation, we still made it to Fort Mason in plenty of time. Then on the way out, I was in the wrong lane and I had to turn, but it was only a slight detour that we still were able to enjoy the lovely buildings around us. The final 2 missed exits were actually in the part of California that I know!!! First I forgot to get on a freeway—I was just driving myself home—ha ha ha…then when we finally got onto that freeway, I was in the wrong lane (again) and had to take another detour! By that time, it was a joke how long it took us to get home!

I had an awesome fun time with Liz. I was able to take my time and be my dorky self :)