renegade craft fair

I have been trying to go the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago for years. I always ended up scheduling a session or wedding for the same weekend. This year I looked up the date months ago and put it on my calendar. To say I was excited would be an understatement.

Josh and I left first thing in the morning after dropping Jasper off at my awesome babysitter’s house (my parents). We got into the city and drove around looking for a parking spot. I seriously thought we were going to park miles away. As we turned down a street, a car backed out. Josh quickly pulled in and we saw that we were a half block from the fair.

We made our way through the fair looking at all of the amazing vendors. We even ran into Katie which was awesome. Josh got the two things he went for: a leather wallet and cycling hat. I, on the other hand, could not make a decision. There was so much pressure especially since we took a set amount of cash to spend and no more. I just kept thinking I would know something when I saw it. I did introduce myself to Elsie and Rachel since I’ve been reading their blogs forever. I felt like such a fan girl/dork but knew I would be mad if I didn’t say anything. We made it through once and I had only bought a small robot pillow for Jasper. So we stopped for lunch and regrouped.

We met up with our very good friend Brian after lunch. We haven’t seen him in almost two years so it was great to be with him and meet his boyfriend. I had told Josh before that I didn’t know how to dress for the day. 1. I would be outside and walking all day. 2. I would be surrounded by hipsters. 3. I would be with my gay friend who’s into fashion. This presented quite a dilemma. Luckily Brian approved of my outfit and commented about how he liked my “style”. Score.

Josh and I went through a second time continually saying “we lost our gays” because Brian loves talking to everyone. However this gave me time to make my decisions. I tried on a necklace that I looked at the first time around and realized I didn’t want to take it off. So I didn’t. I picked out earrings that I had seen online and a couple small pins. I was really pleased with my purchases and we left the fair $1 under our budget (which included food).

Next up was the amazing pizza that is Giordano’s. Oh good grief, that is the best pizza I’ve ever eaten. My friend, Fran, met up with us so we got a chance to visit quite a bit. It was so great to spend time with my friends.

Before we left the city we had frozen yogurt with Brian and his boyfriend. Great end to an awesome day. I absolutely loved the fair and hope to go back next year.