A faux furry and funky surprise

At the beginning of this year I joined the Etsy Plush Street Team, just in time to sign up for their plush swap. This year in honor of Leap Day. And last night I received my Leap Day Swap Surprise from Green Elevator in a large box with some promising decorations:

I excitedly but carefully opened the box and something furry started climbing out:

I squeeled with delight when I met this funky monkey in one of my favorite color combinations, Dunkin' Donuts' pink and orange:

Oh, and check out his fabulous tail:

He is so stunning, incredibly well made and really soft. I couldn't stop hugging and touching it. He's made of some amazing faux fur fabric that's making me want to get some for myself and start creating with it! But first I have to get ready for next week's tiny on campus craft fair at my husband's school, then I'll hunt the city for some faux fur to experiment with.

My first craft fair!

Today was the big day. Early this morning Yasu and I, each carrying two huge bags, found our way to his campus with public transportation during rush hour! We were so happy hundreds of stuffed animals and a dozen of baskets don't weigh a lot. And after about an hour of setting up those bags filled to the brim with eleventh monkey stuff turned into the eleventh monkey booth!!

I've been so excited these last two weeks preparing for this event, and I was even more excited to see it come together like it did today! I love the little Christmas trees covered in tiny owl ornaments, the huge vinyl logo banner, and all the baskets filled with neatly packaged products! 

As a little girl I always loved playing shop and now I got to do it for real, with real customers!

It was really satisfying to hear so much positive feedback from so many people, it was fun to answer questions about my shop name, my production process and what inspires me and it felt fantastic to sell so many creatures! This day over-exceeded my expectations! And the best thing is that I get to do all of it again tomorrow!

Craft fair madness

Guess what this display is? It's practice for my first craft fair ever! This Thursday and Friday (10 am - 4 pm) I will be selling my little creatures at a little craft fair at my husband's school campus in San Francisco.

I only decided to participate less than a week ago, so I've been crazy busy trying to get everything ready for the fair. I've ordered a vinyl logo banner online (it's not here yet and I'm anxious to see how it turned out), and I've been making a bunch of tiny owls (to have some cheap creatures to sell), I've been collecting baskets and Christmas trees to display my products in and on, and I've been working on packaging. So far, I'm pretty happy with the result!

I've also made a little money pouch to carry comfortably around my waist, and now I'm off to attach hundreds of price tags to my creatures. 

I only have a few more days left to prepare! I'm trying not to get too frazzled and to just enjoy the process. I'm really excited, but I think I can manage to keep it together! If you're in San Francisco on December 1st or 2nd and want to come and say hi, eat a yummy candy cane, or browse my little real-life shop, let me know and I'll email you the address.