SDCC Highlights: Day 3 (Part 1)

Ah....Day 3 of Comic con.  Saturday is the day where you camp out all night before and hope to get into Hall H and never leave until at least 6pm.  Hall H line on Saturday is no joke folks.  Saturday is the biggest day of Comic Con - panels, attendance, cosplayers, you name it.  It used to be that if you didn't show up between 4-6am you will not get into the first panel of the day but still have hopes to make into the last panels.  This year you had to camp out starting at midnight to "guarantee" yourself a spot.  Next year it might be 8pm the on Friday night, who knows!

Map Image is a screen shot from Google Maps.

The map above shows the line up for Hall H.  You start near the Chute area of Hall H and snake through those tunnels.  A lot of people bring sleeping bags and air mattresses to keep warm through the night so the lines are shoulder to shoulder but it seems to be an understood rule among con goers that you can spread out to sleep and spend the night.   The line continues across the street and snakes around the lawn area.  My friends got to the line about midnight (blue star on the map) and got a pretty good position.  I was fortunate enough to sleep in the hotel for an extra 3 hours.  By the time I arrived at 3am the line had worked itself down the marina and towards the embarcadero are where the symphony hall was set up.  I'm not sure what the line looks like after that, but just know that if you're anywhere near that area you won't be getting into Hall H on Saturday.

You'll be lucky to get into the last panel of the day if you're standing out by by the marina area lawn.   Another thing to understand about Hall H is that they don't clear the rooms in between panels so once you're in you're in - along with the other 6,500 or so people.  If you're still outside then you just have to wish and hope that someone who had squatted in line was there for an early panel and will leave after (which is what happened after the Lionsgate Hunger Games panel).  Around 5 or 6am the security guards start walking through the line saying good morning to everyone and give them a wake up call to pack their stuff up because the lines are about to be compressed.  Once the line goes through the first compression and you're inside the awnings zig zags towards the beginning you have a very very good chance of getting in for the whole day.

So why do people go crazy and line up??  Some say it's due to the hype and teenage fanatics from movies such as Twilight and now Hunger Games, and others say it's because Hall H reveals greater and more amazing things year after year.  I'm thinking the early line ups are due to the rising popularity of comic books in movies.  People who wouldn't otherwise be interested in comic books are now coming out to see and swoon over the movie stars, such as Hugh Jackman.  I must admit that I am also one of those fans that have recently gained a love for comic books through movies, and the help of my boyfriend, but even if there weren't movie stars around I'd still be going to panels.  :)  Alright, so enough talk and more photos of panels (yes, lots and lots of photos)!

Etsy Craft Party Event Recap

How was everyone's 4th of July? :)  Fun with family & fireworks I hope.  For me it was a nice break from everything and I was finally able to write a blog post.  I have to admit though, I haven't been able to write a blog post partly because I was busy, but also because I was really heart broken after the Etsy party.

The event itself was really fun, but the turn out was a little disappointing.  We had 40 people RSVP online and only 3 people from that list showed up, and 7 walk ins (One was a family of 5).  It was a little difficult to process the feeling because although we had people show up and we had fun crafting, a part of me wondered why 37 people RSVP online and were a no show.  We had a huge stage room reserved for the party and put in a lot of time and effort to do the marketing, prep the stations, and shop for supplies for 40 crafters.  After putting so much time and energy into preparing for the party and only having 10 people show up I was really sad.  We were charging $5 at the door to cover cost of materials which wasn't an odd thing to see since other parties were also charging, so I'm assuming that couldn't have been the reason people didn't show up.  We also mentioned the $5 on the event title when people submitted their RSVP online.  (We couldn't charge customers directly because it would have gone directly to Etsy's eventbrite account.)

Before the party was started I was really excited about the number of people signed up and I guess I built up the party in my head that the night was going to be amazing.  We even had a box of supplies sent to us through Etsy with amazing craft materials!  A box of craft supplies is such an amazing thing so you can see why my level of excitement was up there.  But the night turned out to be a small gathering vs. a huge crafting party.

On a more positive note, we had great stations set up and also had cupcakes donated by my future sister in law - The Buttercup Baker.  :)

Mini Cupcakes graciously donated by The Buttercup Baker .

I love the details that she put into each one.

Chocolate w/ strawberry preserves

Lemon w/ blueberry buttercream

Chocolate w/ peanut butter frosting

I spent my time at the craft party mingling and making my own merit badge.  Materials were included in our box of goodies from Etsy.

We purchased some overstock of blank cards and had them available at the card making station.  My close friend also donated some Hero themed scrapbooking stickers for the event too and they looked great on the cards.  This had to be one of my favorite stations.  Crafters made the cards for troops to use to send home and were able to also leave a message to the troops.  I loved the cards that everyone made.  Unfortunately since there were so little of us, we only 7 cards made at the end of the night.

The following week since we still had supplies from the craft party still laying around I decided to take the time to create more cards so that I can drop off a larger donation with Operation Care and Comfort.  After an hour I had made 30 cards :)

Happy with my fat stack of cards.

I wish I took more photos of the event, but I spent most of the time chatting and crafting with others.  Overall I since I enjoy crafting in general, I had fun making and creating with new faces.  However, lesson learned is that if you're planning a big craft party and need to charge for material cost you should probably charge up front.  It was hard for me to digest the feeling but I think I finally got my craft spark back.  I was walking around Harbor Freight with my boyfriend last night and got so many ideas so hopefully more consistent blogposts to come.