Home from Maker Faire

This was such a crazy week, wow!

I wanted to take tons of photos, but it was too crazy on Saturday and Sunday to walk around and see anything. I also missed my opportunities to photo the Bazaar Bizarre, which I'm really bummed about.

Here are the rest of the photos I took (there aren't that many, since I only brought my camera on Friday during set up): http://www.flickr.com/photos/breadnbadger/sets/72157619216519718/

Maker Faire & Bazaar Bizarre 2009 Recap
(The Short Version)

We drove a lot, worked really hard, made a bunch of money, met TONS of amazing people, saw some great spectacles, ate some incredible food, and drove home. It was super fun, and we hope we can have the honor of doing it again next year.

We completely mis-judged the amount of pint glasses to bring with us, and completely failed to bring some designs that were in high demand. We're sorry! This was really hard to plan out. To make it up to you folks, we're going to be running a big Father's Day Sale this weekend to help offset the cost of shipping. Join our mailing list here, or stay tuned for more details!

Maker Faire & Bazaar Bizarre 2009 Recap
(The Very Long Version)

Sean and I filled our little car to bursting and drove from Portland, OR to our friends' house in Berkeley, CA on Thursday. It was a great drive, with great weather. We set up our booth on Friday afternoon, and walked around the faire to see all the great stuff we'd be missing while we worked the Bazaar Bizarre indoors. We got free beer and paella (which was amazing), and said hi to our friends Cathy Pitters and Sister Diane.

Our Berkeley friends were missing us, so we headed home to play some Arkham Horror (board game based on H.P. Lovecraft stories). Late in the evening, I had my friend take me to the ER (while Sean attempted to get some sleep before the big day ahead) for an infection that turned out to be kind of serious. I finally left around 5am, after a catscan, IV fluids and a mysterious un-diagnosis.

Saturday was a little rough, due to the complete lack of sleep and general not feeling great, but we had so much fun anyway! People visiting the BazBiz were amazingly friendly, chatty, and fascinating. There was always someone walking by in a great costume, or with a great story to tell. I was blown away by the number of people who were already familiar with our work online, since we'd never sold in California before. I was also struck by the professionalism of the other crafters at the Bazaar, since I was already a fan of most of the work that was there.

Our booth was next to the Swap-O-Rama-Rama area, so we got to see the mayhem of massive crowds of people, all digging through piles of donated clothing for screen printing or sewing. I wish we could have had time to participate! Sunday afternoon, Daryl Hannah was spotted getting her craft on at one of the sewing tables, and she hung out 'til closing!

We rested as much as possible, and had an other fun but tiring day on Sunday. That evening, we headed in to Oakland for some grub at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, which I believe is owned by one of the guys from Green Day. It was exactly what we needed!

The drive home on Monday was uneventful, except for an impressive lightning storm that we drove through when crossing the mountains in southern Oregon. Man, I'm a fan of lightning! Especially when it's flashing across blackened mountains. That was some of the heaviest rain we've ever driven through, too. Really amazing!

So now we're back to work, with a little detour to Urgent Care yesterday to switch my antibiotics. Things are finally improving, so I'm feeling relieved. We shipped out all our orders today that had accumulated over the weekend (19, total!), so we're ready for gear up for our Father's Day Sale and release of some new designs.

Oh, and I just found out that I'm one of the 11 raffle winners from the Bazaar Bizarre, and I'll be getting a whole gift basket of fun items from other vendors!! There was so much talent represented there, I can't wait to find out what I've won. Unbelievable!