AHH sorry it’s been a million years since I’ve blogged! I went to Seattle with Manda for Urban Craft Uprising, and then 2 days of manic work later, I went to Disneyland with my pal Courtney of Iggy Starpup.
Here’s a snap of my promo art on a billboard!! SO COOL RIGHT!??! I didn’t get to see the billboard in person, since we didn’t have time to drive around looking for it, so I’m glad I at least get to see this one snap from the UCU Instagram!
Seattle was pretty amazing. I got to see old friends and meet new ones. Manda and I flew in on Friday, picked up our rental car, and went straight to the venue to set up for preview night. When I travel for shows, I try to keep all my show stuff in 2 suitcases, so my set-up is pretty basic. I didn’t have time to plan out what the table would look like or where everything would go. All I knew is that I would have my trusty risers, my cake stand, a lil Christmas tree, and a checkered cloth. Everything else just sort of fell into place.
I had just received my magnet shipment and had no idea how to display them. At the very last minute, I grabbed my toaster tray and a book stand and shoved it in my suitcase! I must say it worked pretty well…!
On the preview night, I met Aleeza from Sushi You Can Hug. She was super sweet and adorable and brought me a present: a banana sloth that she made! I was like, “Did you KNOW that I have a plush banana collection!?” And she said she did and was trying to think of something I’d need/want. SO THOUGHTFUL. We chatted about our work and anime/comic cons.
Here’s a shot of the crowd in front of us.
That night, Manda and I were deliriously tired and we ended up eating at Buca di Beppo and having kind of the worst food, even though I usually like the ones we have in the Bay Area. It’s ok though cuz the rest of the food on the trip was good!
The next day, Saturday, I got to see some familiar faces. Here’s me and Cuppy, who I hadn’t seen in YEARS.
She came with her friend Amber, who I actually met back in 2010 when I was touring my first book. Her mom is a fan of my work, and I think the story is that she sent her daughter instead!
I was really surprised when people came to meet me and also brought GIFTS!! Seattle, you are so nice!!!! This gal, (I can’t remember her real name), said she watched my YouTube channel and gave me a little drawstring pouch that she had sewn from another tutorial along with some toys and goodies inside.
This sweet lady came with her mom who was also so adorable! They were both super duper nice.
A few days before the show, someone on Twitter was tweeting at me that she was going to meet me and that she was surprising her cousin with a trip to see me. For some reason, I imagined that these girls would be older, and when I met them, they were much younger and so cute, and obviously didn’t drive themselves! Best cousins ever! I only found a photo with the surprisee and not the surpriser, but the surpriser was really cool and was wearing a pizza scarf she had made from my book.
I also bought myself a cute crocheted cactus made by my buddy Kristen from Schmancy who also helps run Urban Craft Uprising (I think her name tag said she was PRESIDENT).
That night, we went to eat dinner with Cuppy and her hubby Moofs at a vegan restaurant called Plum which was SO YUMMY that I keep thinking about it and wishing we had something like that here!
I ran out of pickle ornaments on the first day, so I went back to the hotel room and tried to bust out some more.
Usually at craft fairs, Sunday is the slower day, but I felt like this was not necessarily the case at UCU. I actually ended up selling more than on Saturday!
Here’s me and Crystal who made me a super cute purple jellyfish!
This is me and Cherry who handspun me some amazing rainbow mohair!! I love all her color!
At this point, I was crocheting more pickle ornaments at the show, but finally I ran out of yarn. I ended up making this tiny pickle nubbin, and someone bought him, too! It was actually The Pickle Lady (as we called her) who had a real actual edible pickled-vegetables booth at the show. Manda had grown quite attached to this little guy, and I think she was kinda sad to see him go.
This gal and her boyfriend were so adorable! When they walked away, Manda and I remarked about how stupidly cute they were together.
Cuppy came back to visit us!
This gal and her friend were so adorable. They hung out for quite a bit, and it felt like we took A LOT of photos, but this was one that I found on IG. I told her my hair was breaking off and that I needed to pick some other color, and she was very insistent on blue or purple.
Here’s me and Tripper Dungan whose work I wasn’t familiar with until this show, and now I am such a huge fan!! We did a partial trade for one of his wooden mushrooms and my hot dog scarf.
Manda and I named him Cashew!
We took Cashew back home in Manda’s carry-on, and here he is on the plane, chillin’ out with a Luna Bar and listening to Coolio.
Here’s part of Tripper’s booth. Check out that pipe chair!! OMG!
In the last hour of the show, I got to run around a little bit and check out the other booths (I’m not sure I caught all of them, though.) Here are a few of my favorite hits.
This is Great & Small. I kind of have a thing for fake brains, and I was like, “I REALLY LIKE YOUR BRAINS,” and he was like, “That’s a really nice compliment.”
Next up is Ugly Baby, who was actually also a sponsor in my shop last month! I’ve been a fan of her shower art for a long time, and I was super excited to meet her and buy some of her work in person!
This is ZOMS. I kept seeing people walking around with their zombie plush toys. ALSO they have plush brain ornaments, so that makes them cool in my book!
Here’s Bishop Art. I bought a cute yeti magnet from her!
Here’s Plush Goodness. I just thought all her toys were so cute, and she was so cute, too!
Blobhouse was pretty neat. I really dug all of her little quirky sculptures. In particular: THE WORRY WARTS.
That night, we packed up all of our goodies and said our goodbyes. Then off we went to eat dinner with my buddy Alek, who I’ve known since I was 18. We were friends on … wait for it… AOL TEEN CHAT, and we hang out from time to time throughout the years (that would be 20 years, btw). We met up close to the venue at a place called the Lost Pelican. We had Southern/cajun food, Pimm’s cups, mini beignets, and french press coffee. It was a gross rainy day, but the company was great!
Monday was our designated tourist day, since Manda had never been to Seattle before. Cuppy said she would join us, and we met her and Amber for veggie/vegan brunch at Cafe Flora. It was super rainy again and kinda gross for running around town. Our plan was to hit Pike’s Place Market and the Space Needle, and that’s all we ended up having time for.
Here’s us in the rain!
And us in the market!
We’re right in front of Cinnamon Works buying DELICIOUS cookies, and we had just gotten hot apple ciders, too.
At this point, Cuppy and Amber said goodbye, and Alek found us in the market. Manda bought a few mementos, and then we drove over to the Space Needle. The Space Needle is kinda spendy to go up, so we just decided to go HAM and eat in the rotating restaurant, too! We had to eat anyway before getting on the plane.
After dessert, we had to go return our rental car and fly back home. It was definitely a work-hard play-hard kinda weekend! Manda was a trooper, as she had a cold the whole time and sounded like an old man, and she also bravely did all the driving because she’s the best.
Stay tuned for Disney Adventures with Courtney! I’m also going to try to get the leftover stock from UCU up in my Etsy shop ASAP!! AHH So busy right now!!! Hope you guys are all doing well!! xoxo
