A brand new space for a brand new start

I know I promised myself I would do all kinds of projects this weekend, but I got a bit distracted... and am so glad I did! On Saturday morning I decided that I needed to revamp my crafting space in order to maximize my potential and creativity, so I hit up ZipCar to reserve a ride for the trek across the Bay Bridge to IKEA. I got a great organizing box with 9 drawers for stashing stuff. The very best thing about the box is that it is unfinished wood, so not only does it provide great organizing, it's also a project in itself! Anyway, with a few other goodies I couldn't resist at IKEA, we headed back home to the city and I dove into organizing and rearranging my space.

I love it now! It's so wonderful and I feel so good sitting at it. The best part is that it's a mixed space - part altar, part craft center. Perfect! I can feel it now - many a wonderful thing will be crafted here!

During the process of pouring through all of my craft supplies, I came upon all of my business cards I used to get when I subscribed to Marie Kare's The Sampler (which I need to start doing again!). And this started me thinking how my obsession with crafting came to be...

When we first moved to the Bay Area, we knew lots of people, but we were getting used to being somewhere new and this promoted a bit of a nesting phenomenon, which lead to me trying to figure out how best to use my time at home. I started making purses. I can't believe I had never done it before that moment, but that was really the beginning of the serious crafting (while I was in college, I was so into my studies that I never really gave crafting the time it deserved so it never developed fully.) The purses eventually gave way to felt pins. I found out about a craft fair going on in Oakland and I thought, what would it hurt if I rented a table and tried to sell some of my pins? The craft fair was being sponsored by Rock Paper Scissors Collective. When I got there, before I even finished putting up all of my pins on my display board, I was mauled by a bunch of women ooo-ing and ahhh-ing over my stuff! It blew my mind! One of the women was Marie Kare, who had a small boutique called Mini Mart on Telegraph Ave, right down the street from UC Berkeley. She asked me if I wanted to sell my stuff there and I said sure, having no idea what I was in for! It was great, I spent a summer making stuff to sell at the store and all usually sold out immediately. Marie encouraged me to raise my prices a bit, and the woman who owned the larger store Mini Mart was located in wanted me to make things for her new store she was opening up... but the pressure got to me and I dropped out of the loop....BUT NOW I'M BACK! And I'm so excited!

So, moral of this story is, okay, well it's a couple of things: 1. do what you love and if it continues to offer doors to open, open the friggin' doors, sister! Don't run! 2. Marie rocks and Mini Mart turned into The Sampler, which kicks ass! and 3. Rock Paper Scissors is amazing and is the kind of model that all craft people should be uniting under to create healthy communities. I love them and want to get more involved with them. Check both of these projects out, you won't be disappointed, I promise!