Petaluma Craft Mafia Hatches a Half-Dozen.

Since forming the Petaluma Craft Mafia with my other two founding members Anna and Dee, our crafty little famiglia has grown by double this past month. In the land of butter and eggs, (and films), commonly known as Petaluma, we are hatching creative DIY chics as fast as a hen lays eggs. In livestock speak, our famiglia head count is now a half-dozen and counting.

Yay!

We approached our membership carefully and methodically as we had such a great existing group dynamic. Adding or subtracting members can change chemistry tremendously for the better or worse.

And for the worse was quite simply not going to cut it.

The Petaluma Craft Mafia had simple and honest criteria that we expect from our members: Play nice, be professional within the group and our community and exercise good communication skills and adhere to our basic rules and policies. Listening is number one. Follow-through on correspondence and group activities are key in excellent communication.

Our founding members are busy women with many commitments and responsibilities outside of the Petaluma Craft Mafia. So, we decided early on that baby-sitting other grown women was just not going to work for us and would cramp our style tremendously. Plus, we wanted to have fun. It's no fun having to coerce other members into doing what they should be doing anyway. And if not, a major red flag for potential flakiness and possibly obstinance. In other words, not our kind of member.

They had to fit with our core group and roll-up their sleeves in community and group activities as well as help promote each other's businesses. Commitment to the the group's well being is priority. Selfishness is something we wanted to avoid at all costs. Squatting with the PCM name was just not going to cut it.

We had clear things we outlined in our membership criteria. I also received some excellent counsel from my girls in Richmond. Hey Richmond! They were doing what we knew we wanted for our group as we saw it growing. While growth can be scary and we didn't wish to come across as exclusive, yet we knew we didn't want to disrupt the good chemistry and wanted to keep the harmonious flow going. The Craft Mafia probably says is best, "no Ax murderers need apply" Or something like that. :)

Very important to us too, is possessing a sense of humor. Oh Yeah. The Petaluma Craft Mafia thrives on fun. Fun and hard work. The two should go hand in hand.

Seems simple, the requirements not terribly stringent, but finding good members is not always easy.

So, it is with much pleasure that I announce our newest member, the charming , and talented Tami Lovett-Brumfield of The Felt Baron. We feel she will make excellent addition to our crafty famiglia and we are proud to have her aboard.

The Petaluma Craft Mafia is hatching a craft show this summer. And will post applications at a later date for vendors and local crafty folks. More on that later!

Himself, who knows all the work I've put into the PCM, teases me, "Is it cheaper by the dozen?" Well, I don't know about that, right now we're working on a half dozen for this crafty famiglia, but maybe a dozen ...I'll keep you posted!

BTW- The PCM chics may be thrifty, but we're never cheap .... cheep, cheep!