Patchwork Show Oakland Fall 2017

Patchwork Show Oakland turned FIVE last weekend! In those five years, we’ve switched the location (always within Jack London Square) four times! But this season we were thrown a curveball when we made a last-minute location switch… the week of the show! The forecast called for rain BUT luckily our friends at Jack London Square had a building that we could move into. It’s rare to have the opportunity to switch from outdoors to indoors at a venue (especially last-minute). We don’t have this luxury at our other locations, since there aren’t any buildings at our other venues. Switching from outdoors to indoors meant I had redo all the work I’d done two weeks before (measuring the space, assigning the booths etc.) but I knew that the extra work would be worth it if it meant our vendors and shoppers would be protected from the rain.

After I finally finished redoing all that work… the forecast took a turn for the better and the chance of rain kept getting slimmer. AND… I thought about moving the show back outdoors. Being outdoors meant more foot traffic, but being indoors meant being dry. I woke up in the middle of the night several times the week before the show sweating from anxiety and questioning myself on if I’d made the right choice. Even after nearly 20 years as a creative business owner, I still get nervous before shows and deal with the stress and pressure of making the right choices. I remind myself that I will never be perfect and that every experience (good and bad) is “grist for the mill”. Every moment and decision gives us the opportunity to learn and becomes a “useful experience” that shapes us and every single thing we do.

In the end, I was glad we moved indoors. Even though it didn’t rain the day of the show, it rained the night before and the hours we would have spent marking out the outdoor vendor spots would have been wasted if the rain washed away our chalk markings. It was also cold and windy that day, so being inside was a blessing.

I know that at future Patchwork Shows, I won’t always be able to move us all indoors but I also know that after being after at past rainy shows, there’s this truly lovely camaraderie that emerges when we’re all stuck in a less than perfect situation together. And… there’s no other group of people I’d rather be stuck with in the rain than this Dear Handmade Life community.

Big love to all of our vendors, guests, partners, sponsors, staff and Jack London Square for joining us for creativity and community at Patchwork Show Oakland.

P.S. – If you missed Patchwork Show Oakland and will be in Southern California in November, join us at our last two fall shows.