Maker Faire was WAY more awesome than I thought it would be and WAY more overwhelming.  I ended up giving out 15 of my 30 handmade business cards ... which I think is awesome!  They definitely helped me take the initiative and introduce myself to people.

The first thing I did when I got to the fairgrounds was go to the CRAFT: booth to meet Natalie Zee Drieu, Editor-in-Chief.  I've talked to her via email for years and she's always been such a wonderful supporter of futuregirl.com.  It was so awesome to finally meet her in person!  As an extra-awesome bonus, I also met Rachel of Average Jane Crafter (who took this photo and made sure to get the shuttle in the background) and Lish of Handmade Detroit (among many-many other things).

I had a funny, "am I in a David Lynch movie?" moment when I got a text message that said, "Are you here at Maker Faire?"  I literally looked around to see if anyone weird was standing near me staring at me with crazy-eyes.  I just so happens the text was from my good friend Kuky.  Ha!  I'd forgotten to put her in my new phone.  Yay for accidental run-ins!

When I saw Garth of Extreme Craft I had an internal "AAAAAHHHH!" fan girl moment, but I got over it enough to introduce myself.  He and his wife Claire were super sweet!

In fact, in this outtake (someone had their eyes closed in this photo ... ) you can see Claire taking our picture.  And, bonus friend-of-a-friend sighting: on the far right you can see Mr. B.,  a good friend of my good friend Michelle of Green Kitchen.  She told him to be on the look out for a girl with long red hair. Ha! He just happened to be hanging out with Garth.

By the time  I made it to Bizarre Bazzar, the Faire was PACKED.  I could barely move around in there to see all the awesome stuff being sold.  Thank goodness I went ahead and introduced myself to Rita of Mochi Studios.

What's funny is I introduced myself by saying, "I've been following you on twitter, so I'd knew you'd be here, " thinking it sounded a little stalkery.  But she totally knew who I was!  In fact, I now know that Sigmund Octopus is the first felt octopus she ever stitched.  How cool is that?  Pretty darn cool when you see the amazing plushies she makes.

This isn't even the half of it ... it's such a great event.  I can't wait for next year.  I'd actually love to participate next year.  I took a breather in the MOCFA booth for a while knitting and talking to Marita.  It's actually a lot more relaxing working a booth than it is walking around and looking at everything!

You can see all my photos in my Flickr Maker Faire 2010 Set.  Funny what my photos say about me ... I focus in on things.  There were tens of thousands of people there, and my photos barely have anyone in them (other than me).  Well, I did a good job taking photos at least.  Now I know that next time I need to get some establishing shots of the event I'm at.

I'll get some good practice at the upcoming Craft Bar at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in SF.  Thursday June 3, 2010 6-8pm  I'll be teaching crochet again, there will be knitting instructors and a cool craft project from Giant Robot.  If you come, please introduce yourself to me!