renegade sf

What a beautiful day in the Bay Area today! We headed over to San Francisco for the Renegade Craft Fair and I'm SO glad we did! I had hoped to have someone watch the kids so I could go alone, or with just Brooklyn, and hang out with Mati for a while, helping and chatting it up at her booth.... but since that didn't work out, I just brought them along. And it went better than I had hoped. I told them all on the way not to ask when we were leaving, and not to ask if we could buy anything. I assured them that I would be the one most disappointed that we weren't buying anything. We talked about just going for fun, for them to meet Mati, and for all of us to look around. Brooklyn is as addicted to window shopping on Etsy as I am. I told them it would probably be like a huge Etsy marketplace in person. Turns out, that's exactly what it was like. So much fun. And on our drive over there, the kids and I decided to make our experience into a treasure hunt of sorts. We were all going to pick one item that we would want most of all if we could choose something. And we were all going to look for something that we thought was most clever. We ended up having a great time, maneuvering our double stroller through the crowds and all.

Mati had a prime location near the entrance, and her booth was our first stop. Here she is with her other new intern, Caitlyn. Super cute set up, right?
I love all of her artwork so much and am really really swooning over these new necklaces.
I had a hard time picking a favorite today.
I will definitely be swooping one of these up asap!
Once back outside, we saw this guy riding around. How awesome is that? I think I want him to follow me around playing little melodies. Or not, because that would be kind of creepy. But I so love piano, and thought this was brilliant.
Remember I said it was a beautiful day in the Bay Area? Just look at this. This was taken on our walk back to the car. It was a bit of a walk, but we loved it. Gentle breeze, sloshing waves, sunny sky, silly kids.
I was very proud of the kids for their great attitudes. They were fun to have along. We didn't get to do any shopping today, but we collected cards and oohed and awed.
Oh yes, and our picks for what we'd buy if we could have:

Brooklyn chose the Monster Fuzzie by Fuzzy Ink. (Which we're really hoping to win in a giveaway they were doing.)

Zeke liked a poster of a skull with eggs for eyes and pieces of bacon for the crossbones. We can't find it online so far, but it was in the booth across from Mati's.

I heart Mati's necklaces. And I loved a dress from Rebe, although I can't find the one I really wanted online. I think I heard them say they're one of a kind, which I think is pretty cool. Once they make a dress in a particular combination of fabrics, that's it.

And we thought that these journals were very clever. Oh the thinks people think!

Lots and lots of other great artists/crafters. You can see the full list here.

You can still go see all this crafty goodness for yourself. They'll be there again tomorrow from 11am-7pm. You won't regret it.