KB at the JCC

Saturday, I set up a kokoleo booth at the Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center (SIJCC) for their holiday boutique.

A local customer of mine invited me to do it. Thanks Tracy! Here's my booth:

Note the tree growing in the middle. That's a first. I liked having my own little tree.

The event was awesome, not just the boutique part, but the whole kid-oriented affair. There were booths for craft-making, picture-taking, games, a bounce-house, a stage with kid-friendly music by The Hollow Trees (check out the downloadable coloring book on their site), Camp Susannah, and Tree Adams. I didn't get to see any of them, but I heard them from afar. The boutique was too busy to leave! I sold seven (seven!) toddler sundresses, my best ladies skirts (a Raggedy Anne wrap and a Cityscape skirt) and a bunch of other stuff. This lady bought my vintage Barbie eyeglass lens earrings that I recently made:

It was a fun group of vendors too. I saw my NoHo girls Susie and Heidi Bauer of Rock Scissor Paper. We keep running into each other at craft shows and yard sales. I wish I had a sister like they each do - twice the craftiness for your business!

I bought this book for Sage from Madallie.

It has lots of imaginative piratey activities and a flashlight:

and is totally his sense of humor.

It'll be perfect for our trip back east this Christmas.

I traded a with Doris Oswald-Burrell of I can fly one of my Raggedy Anne skirts (which she wore over her jeans for the rest of the day) for a Monkey on Bike dress for McKenna (the same Monkey on Bike print that was on a shirt I got Sage years ago).

With Teresa from Kumquat, I traded a Peanuts sundress for all this for McKenna:

She was having a liquidation sale and I scored!

Okay, no one needs to buy any clothes for McKenna for Christmas. She has plenty now.

I wish North Hollywood had a community center like the SIJCC. Seeing all the cool moms and their excited kids hanging out with all their friends made me realize that my kids and I don't have that. I'm making it my New Years resolution to find something like that in 2009. I long to feel a part of a community (like we did in Shepherdstown) and McKenna and I desperately need some playdate pals.

After the show was over I stopped by the Bust Holiday Craftacular at the Echoplex in Silverlake. I didn't even know about it until a week ago. I'm glad I did the JCC show instead because while there was lots of handmade awesomeness to see at the BUST show, I got the sense from my crafty friends and the vendors I talked to that it wasn't well organized. It was $250 for a tiny booth, there was little advertising, the event wasn't well marked (I passed it twice!), and I heard they opened a half-hour late. Maybe we're all just spoiled by Felt Club, but you'd think a big name like BUST would be a little more on the ball (the one in NYC is HUGE and I've only heard great reviews about it.) One highlight though was seeing my crafty pal Stacy McQueen there filming a video for the event. She's so fun. Next year they should have her be the host.

I hope I didn't just ruin my chance to be in a BUST show now. Don't get me wrong, I love the mag. It was just interesting to see a show from a customer's point of view, especially after having done a few.

Ahhh, the craft show circuit, it's a crazy one - you never know what you're going to get. I guess it's that way with any production. . . it all depends on who shows up.