Did you take advantage of all the craft fairs before the holidays and buy handmade gifts? We sure did! And what’s that? You want to hear about all the fun we had on our holiday market marathon? Well, if you insist…
First up was the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Market. You may remember from this post that I planned to volunteer. Well, I did! I helped at the welcome/merch table for a day, and it was a great opportunity to get a peek behind the scenes.
In truth, I wasn’t too far behind the scenes, but I was still able to garner some insight into their operations, customer service practices, and vendor relations. And the free mulled wine didn’t hurt. Didn’t hurt one bit.
Between selling merchandise, answering questions and a quick lunch break, I didn’t have a lot of time for picture taking. But I did take off an hour early for some shopping with Brian, and I managed to snap a few photos in between purchases!
Next up was the PGA: Please Generate Art Bake Sale. Ok ok, this wasn’t really a “handmade market”, but all the treats were made by hand, and it was an event that I was really happy to be a part of.
If you remember, I’m participating in PGA:Please Generate Art, a yearly, interactive art exhibition at school. My friends/classmates and I are already busy planning our noisy, colorful “golf hole”! To help raise funds for the supplies, the student organization for the exhibition held a bake sale on campus.
I got Brian to bake two loaves of his famed carrot tangerine bread, and I helped set up in the morning. It was a success, and I can’t wait for the next one this semester. Stay tuned for our exhibition progress!
After that, we hit up the ShopColumbia Holiday Market. If you remember from this post, ShopColumbia is the campus store where students at Columbia College Chicago sell their craft & fine art.
We went to their reception before the weekend market, and would you believe it… I won the raffle and got $20 to spend there! I got the mirror shards earrings above.
It was a hard decision to make, though.
There were a lot of lovely things to choose from.
Last but not least, we visited one of the holiday markets at 22 in Berwyn, which they hosted every Saturday in December. It was a small affair, and I sadly only got one photo. But I left with a cute little handmade gift for my grandmother! I’d say we had a pretty successful craft fair season. Did you give or receive any handmade goodies for the holidays?