I went out to St Paul, MN to attend Craftstravaganza on April 28. I had such a great time meeting sellers and enthusiastic Etsy buyers face-to-face! I also met a ton of folks at the show who didn't know about Etsy, so I did my best to clue them in to the Etsy lifestyle. Special thanks to jojojammies and michellebrusegaard for watching my booth while I went around and videotaped.

Watch the Video 

The video posted here will give you a peek into the show. Andy and Jennah, who run Craftstravaganza said there were 5,578 attendees — " That's not including vendors, sponsors, families, volunteers, etc. Our 100 swag bags were gone by 8:45 AM, and there was a line of over 200 people at the door when we opened." I was struck by the inventive indie crafts scene in St Paul and Minneapolis. For instance, parked outside of the building, a converted milk truck served as an education depot for a fiber arts collective beckarahn is involved in.

On my way to the airport, I couldn't help but take a detour to the Mall of America, just for the mind-blowing contrast. You can check out the photos here.

A huge shout out goes out to all these Etsians:

amdowns
beckarahn
bitsandthings
boneofart
CandyEyeFactory
ericka and firstandfranklin
FantasticToys
Glitterworkshop
hezzamade
Iamnotfruit
ipodcrafts
jabarodesigns
jojojammies
Jsandquist
loosewirestudio
mamagrouch
marinaxfizzle
meredithdillman
michellebrusegaard
oddstuffbyXanthe
prrpots
rosybird
SDDesigns
Shelleyannstudio

Note: This was originally posted in the Etsy Garden.