Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco – Recap!

So heeeeere’s the booth!

I’m sorry I only have bad phone pics! I didn’t take a real camera!

The idea was to create “Twinkie Chan’s House,” and while we sat at the table, it would look like we were sitting in the couch.

Manda sewed the walls out of heavyweight shower curtain liners from Target, and then I outlined the drawings in yellow Sharpie (which the paint didn’t cover up!). I was reminded how sucky of an artist I am, and I couldn’t draw a straight line! I needed Manda to stand back and guide me while I drew, to make sure all the proportions were approximately right. I was like, “HOW DID THE MASTERS DO IT?!?!?” And then she, Ben, and I painted the walls the night before the show at my parents’ house in the driveway. We were painting until like 1 or 2 in the morning. Then I drove home (about a 45 minute drive) to pack up the other booth stuff, take a shower, and then nap for a whole 20 minutes before I had to get up, get dressed, and drive back down to my parents’ house to take apart and pack up the booth because it needed those few hours to completely dry. And then drive back up to the city to get to Fort Mason and set up the whole thing again.

The show started at 11am. I don’t think we were done setting up until like 1pm because we had arrived pretty much an hour or two later than we had planned. C’est la vie. I was freaking out because we were late, the paint was peeling off the walls, we brought the wrong Astroturf for the floor covering, it was 80billion degrees in there, and I felt like everything was going wrong that could possibly go wrong! In the end, it turned out ok, but I am sure the sleep dep was not helping! I had not gotten hardly sleep any week for a few days. I am surprised I could form sentences still!

 

Our booth was pretty much always busy. A LOT of people came through on Saturday, and by the time we were able to drink the Frappucinos that Hairy had brought us, they had returned to a liquid form.

I hadn’t had any time to plan out the table displays, so we just sort of winged it. One of the legs on our small table ended up being wonky, and we were afraid that it would fall over the whole time. My usual red checkered table cloths were still in LA from Anime Expo, and I didn’t have time to shop for fabric for new ones, hence, blank white wrinkly table cloths!

I did somehow make time to create this odd little holder for the new honey bear coffee cup cozies. Here’s the blog entry about them in case you missed it!

So, we have 10 ft by 10 ft for our booths. My house was 10 ft by 8 ft, leaving 2 ft in the front to create my “garden” or my yard. We had two picket fences and a bunch of fake grass. I had also planned to crochet roses to put in little basket boxes. However, after setting up, and after pushing our house as far back as we could without crushing our neighbors, we still didn’t have that 2 extra feet of clearance. Oh well!

Ok so the mailbox has this weird place in my heart. I had a hard time finding the perfect size. Real mailboxes are humongous, and craft mail boxes are usually tiny. I finally found this paper mache mail box, spray painted it black, and stuck on a plastic mailbox flag. The idea was that I would put my postcard/coupon cards in it for people to take. I also had one of my penpal/fans Gabby send me some decorated envelopes to put in the box as Twinkie Chan’s mail. Her envelopes are SO CUTE. But then I was afraid someone might take one on accident while grabbing a postcard, so I took the envelopes out of the mailbox and displayed them at the table.

I just wanted to show you the funny plant details on the walls. I love my little plant on top of the stove, and Manda painted the ficus, modeled after the ficus in my parent’s house! (She took a photo for reference.) Originally, the windows were going to be actual cut-outs with clear plastic coverings, but, we kinda ran out of time and steam for that….!

Pardon my awful candid photos! Remember. No sleep was had here! Plus, I couldn’t figure out what to wear in the morning, and I think I had perhaps chosen UNWISELY. Anyway, one of the first fun people to visit the booth was Andrea Currie from Craft Wars! Actually, I am way behind on Craft Wars and haven’t seen her episode yet….but it was so cool that she came to say hi! She mentioned that all the Craft Wars contestants are buddies with each other, and they they all loved my re-cap of the first show. This was very delightful and awesome to hear! I hadn’t really planned to recap all of them, but my post got such a great response, that I think I might try.

On the left is me and Kat. She really made my day. She saw me and said, “I can’t believe it’s you! I cannot believe it’s YOU!” She kept saying this over and over and staring at me in disbelief and apologizing.Β  I was like, “Have you really heard of me or seen me before?” And she said yes, and that this was so amazing. We chatted for a little bit, and then she randomly pet my hair! This was like the cutest moment of my life! In more cuteness is Walter who is Jules’ dog. I think I’ll keep him!

Pardon my very strange facial expression. Here’s me and Angela (I stole this pic from her), whom I’ve known on Livejournal for a while! This is the 2nd time we’ve met at Renegade. Her kids are getting really big and it’s making me feel old!

If you happened to stop by the booth on Saturday after 5:30ish, you would have met Rita and Pierce! Rita is my O.G. crochet elf. She emailed me years and years ago, asking if I wanted to help with crocheting, and I decided I would give it a try. She is the bestest! One day when I make a million dollars, I am shipping her to California and keeping her forever (she lives in Vegas). At first I didn’t think I could vend at Renegade this year because my brother’s 30th birthday dinner was Saturday night, but Rita said she and Pierce might visit SF on that weekend, and she’d be able to cover for me at the booth a little bit on Saturday. YAY! She was also a trooper and packed up all the goodies at the end of the day and dropped them off at my house. I HEART HER!

On Sunday, my mom helped me vend for the first time. So cute, right? We were eating lunch one day and she mentioned she had always wanted to try vending at a show. I had never known this, so I said we would try to work it out at Renegade. It was fun teaching her how to use the Square register on the iPad and teaching her the ropes! Here’s a pic she took of me.

I took a pic of her, too, on her phone, but she didn’t send it to me! πŸ˜›

I walked the floor a little bit with my mom while Hairy manned the booth, and I noticed there didn’t seem to be many knit/crochet vendors, and also not much cute/kawaii stuff. I’m wondering if this is due to lack of applicants in these genres or what. Are we a dying breed? I hope not!

All in all, it was a whirlwind show. Met lots of people, saw a lot of smiles. Friends and family pitched in to make my booth happen, and that was really awesome. There was a lot of love inside Twinkie Chan’s house!

35 Comments on “Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco – Recap!”

  • Ionic

    says:

    what would you consider cute/kawaii stuff? Your booth looks amazing btw. Kudos ^.^

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      I guess it’s just a shorthand for colorful, whimsical, girlie, inspired by Japanese fashion/stationery/styling….just CUTE, not so serious.

  • LOVE LOVE LOVE the booth! I was so excited when I saw the Instagram posts! You totally rocked it!
    Sounds like a great show! I hate I’m all the way over here on the right coast because I would love to attend and meet you of course! lol
    XO

  • p.s. I don’t think you’re a dying breed….it’s been popular since I was little and maybe even before – I think its foundation is too strong….perhaps everyone else has just given up because you rock so hard lol! OX

  • the cutest! i wish i was ANYWHERE NEAR the area so i could’ve stopped by. that sentence was worded very ….. idk. excuse my grammar b/c i, too, have not had much sleep.

    anyway- WTF A TURKEY BUTT HAT THATS SO CUTE!!!

    AND HONEY BEAR COZIES
    AND STRAWBERRY RINGS?!?!!

    NOT TO MENTION PIZZA PINS AND POPSICLE CLIPPIES

    i would’ve just gone nuts. πŸ™‚

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      πŸ™‚

      What big city do you live near? Do fun craft fairs come though?

      • I live in Fort Collins (an hour north of Denver), and there are lots of festivals and market thingies around this area, but not really anything like renegade. It’s usually like art and craft all smushed together so you get a LOT of different mediums and things like that.

        denver’s fun for that stuff though πŸ™‚

  • MsAmandaJayne

    says:

    Yes! A new crochet revolution must be had!

  • NICOLE

    says:

    I wish I could’ve been there and bought everything!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      ME TOOO!! πŸ˜‰

      You were there in spirit. I had your photo next to the books for sale :). I think you might be able to see it in one the photos!

      • NICOLE

        says:

        Ooh! Yay! I couldn’t really see the customer pictures so i thought you had decided not to use them or something! Thanks so much! πŸ˜€

  • I’ve always wanted to go to Renegade. *sigh*
    I told you on Instagram, but I’ll tell you again– you and Manda killed it with the booth. WAY TO GO

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Aw thank you so much! It was really a miracle that the booth existed πŸ˜‰

  • GabbyAnne

    says:

    AWWW SO CUTE!! Thank you for taking pictures of my envelopes Twinkie! Did you recognize the tissue cozy on the green envelope? Did you see the pickle on the yellow envelope haha? I drew that, because I know you love pickles! You and Manda did great job on “Twinkie Chan’s house.”It looks really cartoonish and cute!! The kitchen and couch looked so cute. Manda did a great job drawing the Ficus and the plants look awesome. You stayed up that late and drove all over? You must have been so tired! I bet your mom had fun vending. I’m really glad that you liked the envelopes! What did you think of the return addresses PotatoCreek and CookieTown? Can you believe those are real places? That little girl was so lucky to have met you! Thank You so much Twinkie! Your booth was definitely the cutest at Renagade!

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Thank YOU, Gabby! Yes I saw the tissue box and the pickle! SO GOOD! πŸ™‚

      I was EXHAUSTED. I was falling asleep at the table at my brother’s birthday dinner! I was trying to text someone and I would realize I was texting nonsense!! hehe.

      PotatoCreek and CookieTown are REAL PLACES!?!?!

      Funny story for you: A lady was like, “Where are you from?” I said, “San Francisco.” She said, “I thought you were from South Dakota.” I was like…that is so random. She said, “I saw it somewhere.” And she saw one of the return addresses on your envelope! Hehheheeh.

      • GabbyAnne

        says:

        That is random…hehe, she must of not remembered it was the return address. You only took a nap for 20 minutes? How do you survive such a long craft fair hehe? Haha was your brother like “wake up, wake up were gonna cut the cake?” That would have woke me up! I love cake! Taking apart the booth sounded like alot of work and you had to drive it back to fort mason! Rita your crochet elf sounds like the awesomest crochet elf ever! Oh yeah and Walter is so cute!

        • Ellyssa

          says:

          Oh yeah and PotatoCreek, SD and Cookietown, OK ARE real places hehe. I googled “towns with food names.” There’s even a Cheesequake,NJ! Ding Dong, TX, and Oatmeal, TX, and Pancake, Pennsylvania!! I found out about pancake Pennsylvania after I sent the letters though, that would have been a good one? Oh yeah Twinkie whens your birthday?

          • GabbyAnne

            says:

            BLAH sorry another account was logged in.

  • Kimmi

    says:

    The booth looks awesome! The real question is, will there be any etsy leftovers? πŸ˜‰ I’d actually be happy for you though if their weren’t!!

  • ha lii

    says:

    All of the YES! Your haus, is all of the awesome. If it were any better people would have exploded into sparkle sprinkles. So glad the frame came out fine, but I had no idea {der, how did the perfection exscape me} that it was going to be this cool? It reminds me of Food Party! { http://www.ifc.com/shows/food-party }

    Yes, I wonder where did the kawaii go… I don’t see a lot in this town, at least not as much as in LA and Seattle.

  • Everything looks amazing! And I really hope us cute crafters aren’t a dying breed – the world always needs more sprinkles πŸ˜‰ xo

  • June

    says:

    GIRRRL you is CRAY. But I think it looked great from the pics! I miiiight know of a resource than can print at a large scale at a discount (thru a friend’s work) –if you need it in the future in the L.A area. and plan enough ahead of time… but anyway I love your new products as always!

    I may be biased, but I like to think there will always be a demand for cute & humorous stuff involving FOOD! Not everyone can pull it off like you do.

    btw I wore my popsicle scarf all last month (when I was staying in an over-air-conditioned house), and I showed off your book when people asked about the cupcake scarf I was working on. Carry on w/ yo’ bad self!

  • Awesome!! You have the best display ideas. Hehe, at first I was like umm, wrong color Astroturf? Why do you need Astroturf? But it all made sense, of course.

    Totally agree on the lack of cute/whimsical/fun/kawaii type stuff at fairs. I was at Renegade LA a few years ago as a vendor for one of my jewelry shops, sharing a booth with a friend. We were both selling very bright, colorful, cutesy style stuff (me – jewelry, her – shoes), and we consistently got the comment that our booth was the most colorful and our wares so different from everything else. And as a regular craft fair attendee, I have noticed that as well. I did find quite a few cool vendors at the Seattle Urban Craft Uprising (which I did a recap of on my blog), but mostly it was lots of earthy colors and products.

    Anywayyy I’m with you on hoping you’re not part of a dying breed!

  • Jules Chan

    says:

    Awwww. everything looked fabulous and these pictures are brilliant, and of course the one of Walter and you… simply adorable! I’ll let you lend him for your next fair, he can just sit around and pose with you : )
    Well done, worth those sleepless nights and bags under the eyes right : )

  • Pajamie

    says:

    Holy shit, the story about the little girl is adorable. My youngest daughter would be the same way. She adores you and your hair!

  • Caz

    says:

    Your booth is literally amazing πŸ™‚ You are so much fun πŸ˜› and that doggie was sooooo cute! I think you should deffo try and keep him πŸ˜‰

  • Danielle

    says:

    You definitely had the best booth at Renegade, no contest! It was so awesome to finally meet you! I am so psyched to wear the heck out of my new cupcake hat! Once I re-dye my hair (it’s kind of orangey at the moment) I’ll be sure to take a picture wearing it and send it your way. πŸ˜‰

  • robbie

    says:

    omigosh. your booth looks like the house from blue’s clues! <3

    • TwinkieChan

      says:

      Way cool! I haven’t really seen that show or paid attention. I need to look now!

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