Craftaluma!

I woke up in the wee hours Sunday to make the trek to Petaluma. Sleepy eyed my mom (Kathy), Chris (the bf) and I piled into the car for our journey to Craftaluma.

I had spent the whole week leading up to this event madly making piece after piece of jewelry just so that I would have "enough" goodies on my table. That meant many a bead session awake until 2, 3 or even 4 in the morning! I actually forced myself to sleep around 2 on Sunday morning just to be awaken by my alarm at 6:45. Now I realize this is the time most are already awake by daily, but I usually sleep until 8:30/8:45 and then get ready for work! And I digress...

So we're on the road! Around the time we reach Marine World (I still call it that...it's really Discovery Kingdom now) my mom switches driving with Chris so that he can complete our drive to our destination. We get to Petaluma driving through the country past wineries, pumpkin patches, and other farmland then through the downtown area. I see a bead store, but sadly, it's not open at 10am on a Sunday! :( Chris notices the Mystic Theater, comments about a couple of his favorite artists he knows have played there. And we keep a look-out for the address to the Vet's Hall! We finally spot it and drive around to the parking area where we can unload!

We get there about the same time as all the other vendors. Everyone walking to and fro from their cars to the hall. We find our table and begin to unload when one of the Petaluma Craft Mafia ladies notices my necklace (I was wearing a pretty polymer clay skull creation Miss Shonda had made). I told her my friend in the Sac Craft Mafia had made it. Then she realizes that I'm in the Sac Craft Mafia and runs over to give me a hug and introduces herself. It was Cheryl of Moxieville, and she couldn't be any sweeter! She made sure I knew about the breakfast snacks they had for the vendors and to let her know if I needed anything! I thanked her then went to work on my table!

Set-up usually goes fairly quickly for me, but I had an 8ft. table to load up with Rain's Embellishments! Luckily my mom and made some purses and my sister had made greeting art cards to help fill up some space! Here's a pic of how it looked:

Thanks for the bunny ears mom! Anywho... after I was finished setting up I had a few moments to look around at all the other vendors tables! It's always so much fun to see what other people create! I found a couple of fun things and bought them right away! (***It's going to take me another blog to show you all the fun goodies I bought/traded***)

Then the flood gates opened! Putting free swag for early birds on the advertisements assured that people would show up on time! I was close to the entrance which meant a lot of people were lookie-loos for a while so that they could filter through to the the rest of the show. After a bit I got some sales and even some of my family stopped by for a visit!

One of the lovely ladies of the PCM

One of the bands that played

My Uncle Danny, Auntie Jessie, Quinn & Ian

It was a fun show! A couple bands played and had fun with the crowd... I got several offers to do the Dia de los Muertos show in Petaluma after people noticed all my calavera/skull necklaces & earrings (not to forget my cute pink sugar skull dress my mom made for me!)! I did some shopping and made some more sales! Then business trickled down to a crawl! So I did some socializing and left my table in the care of Chris & my mom.

As the show came to an end I was brave enough to ask a few vendors if they wanted to trade goodies! This has to be one of my favorite parts about art craft shows! As above mentioned, I'll write another blog to show you all the fun things I walked away with! I will show you my last trade-off - which was my colorful owl necklace to Cheryl!

Then it was time to pack up all my things and head back to Sacramento! I did pause for a moment and chat with my fellow Mafiosas before it was time to go! We chatted about doing future shows together and to keep in touch! Then my crew and I went home! Once home I made my last sale of the day to my roommate, Kendall!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to visit and buy some RE goodness! Thank you to the wonderful ladies of the Petaluma Craft Mafia! And a HUGE THANKS always to my mom, Angel, and Chris for always being there to help me out!

Check out the rest of my pictures on Flickr!