Bohemian Mermaid Palace

I don't think I have mentioned this... I was waiting until I had a photo to go with it. But, my dear friends Tom & Dimitra Chase have opened a new restaurant in old town Eureka, Cafe Nooner. Oh man it is good! Located at the site of the old Opera Alley Bistro... in Opera Alley, sort of behind ChinChin around the corner from Ramone's. They are open from 11am - 6pm daily. The food is really really good and interesting. Focus on local fresh ingredients, the menu is Greek & Cajun inspired but very California. So far my favorite has been the falafel... either as a kabob with red bean hummus, veggies, and pita - or on top of a big spinach & feta salad. Oh man. Ok so that's my plug. These are very old and dear friends of mine, they've owned two other restaurants... the Vista was theirs a number of years ago, then the Afternoon Deli in Nevada City (which they sold as a thriving cafe, still open to my knowledge). Really really great food, fresh and different. Outdoor...

Ok that was really fun and exciting... I'm still a bit stunned. Now let's keep Obama from being killed by idiots, ok? On the other side, I'm also stunned and saddened by the passing of prop 8. I really don't get it. Look, people... nobody wants to go to your house and sleep with YOU ok? Why would my little sister's marriage affect YOURS?? Oh wait, IT WOULDN'T! Argh. And trying to say it's not discriminatory is just ... well I can't buy it. Clearly we have a ways to go. But what an exciting time! Wooo! (Still a few Obama shirts left in the ebay store .)

I'm practically vibrating right now... I'm so pumped up for election day! I was out the door by 10am to vote. No crowds, no problems. I even turned in Stu's absentee ballot with no issues. Oh man, I am so full of um... a mix of excitement and fear, I almost can't stand the wait. Either way it goes, it will be a huge deal. Aaaaahhhh I just want to watch cnn all day. But alas I must dye some stuff... Speaking of coverage, the CNN web site has some great maps of results & polls. Not only for the national election, but state issues as well. Looks like locally, the Journal and khum radio will be covering results together. North Coast Journal website will turn into an interactive live chat-blog-thing today at 4pm. I'm all over it.

Hey wow... I am way behind on my updates here. Jeesh. Suddenly a whirlwind of creative activity and it feels so good! Let's see how much I can summarize here... Well, the big one right now is the mall store. That's Schatzi's Hidden Treasures near the food court center in the Bayshore Mall. This is my friend Timotek's shop full of fair trade imports from Vietnam, Ghana, Thailand... AND my own locally-dyed Bohemian Mermaid clothing and jewelry. Woo! The store just opened up and will remain through December. I'll be setting up the rest of my display Thursday. It's a beautiful store, not your usual importy stuff... an interesting variety of very high quality artisan goods. (You may have seen their store last year in old town behind the gazebo, this one is 3x the size!) Oh, we (Timotek and I) also have some Barack Obama T-shirts for sale on ebay . Free shipping, adult and kids sizes... now is the time, my friends. I have this great new print I want to share... ...

Holy smokes! Was anyone else totally amazed by the weather this weekend?? Who could have predicted so much warm sunshine, after the cold grey week we had before it? Nobody that's who. That was by far the most miraculous thing about the weekend to my mind. I couldn't shut up about it. No wind, very few clouds or fog. Party perfection. Of course, we all know what follows the sun... everything. Tons of smiling people came out to festivize with us at the fair. It was great. I heard multiple vendors saying sales were great as well. Saw lots of friends, plenty of regular customers, made some good connections. My sweety hung around all of Sat, which was extra fun. Oh, and my friends Kulica finally played on the stage near me! They are usually on the other side of the plaza... so I got to dance a little. In my booth, between customers. lol. Yes, another awesome North Country Fair. I'm all aglow... I took some pics of the parades, I'll post them shortly. For this upcoming weeken...

Yes, once again I'm up to my elbows in dye baths and mermaids as I prepare for another North Country Fair. Takes place each year on the Autumnal Equinox weekend at the Arcata Plaza. That's this coming weekend by the way. A great great festival. Tons of local and area artists, great quality of crafts every year. Music and dance on 3 stages. Local food and brew. Really a showcase of local talent, everyone comes out to play. You are sure to see friends you haven't seen since last year's festival. So so much fun! And entrance is free. Oh and the parades. Saturday at 1:00 is the Samba Parade, which is fun to watch. Steel drums and dancing women, hello. Sunday the All-Species Parade, anyone can join this one. Kids and adults in creative costumes, kinetic sculptures, and who knows what else. On the vendor inside tip... this year for the first time (at the last minute), they required vendor liability insurance. I know at least one vendor who withdrew, hopefully it didn't im...

Hey, another fun year at the Blues by the Bay festival. Check out my sorta panoramic view from the booth. That pointy thing just to the left of the glare spot is the stage. As usual the music was awesome, the crowd fun, the sun shining. We were only a few booths from the stage in one direction, and 2 booths from the beer in the other. Perfect! Well, the only imperfection was the wind. Wow. Super super windy, especially Sunday. I know there was at least one tent taken by the gusts, and setups were definitely shaky. And it was quite cold. But the sun shone and that was all we could really ask for. Saw some friends too... like CJ here, who turned out to be one hellofa sales woman. Jeesh. Who knew. She's just a natural schmoozer, and cute as a button. Who can resist? We had a great time visiting with her and her hubby. I also got to see Sarah at her booth nearby... found out she and her man are expecting a baby!! yowza. They will be opening a temporary store in the Bayshore Mall from O...

Wait! Don't forget about Blues by the Bay in Eureka, CA this weekend!! I'll be there with tons of goods, my new color and prints... we'll all dance and have a great time in the sun. Wooo! Hm well I'm not usually good about posting my creative updates here. So I thought I'd share my latest color adventure... Rust. I've had lots of requests for orange, so this is my version. Happily, it turned out exactly as I pictured. Rich and earthy, but with lots of orange light... a bit brighter on the rayon than the cotton. I was a little shocked by the orange dye bath... it was practically neon orange. Barney would call it safety orange. Most of my dye colors begin with a bright under color, much like underpainting. I think it gives my fabrics an energy, some of them sort of vibrate. (or maybe I'm just a dye geek... ) Then I overdyed it with my favorite dark brown, and I'm really happy with the result. Oh, and I have a couple new prints I've been using... um tw...

Oh yessss, it's almost time for another Blues by the Bay , coming up on Labor Day weekend. Wooo! It's gonna be great. We had such a fun time last year... and this year my booth is much closer to the stage. Oh I'm excited alright. I just love a good music festival. If you haven't been, do it. It's really a family event... lots of dancing, food, local brew. Right on the water. People paddle their kayaks right up to it. Looks like there are more vendors than last year... of course, crafts have only been included for the past 2 years. I'm hoping their move to a holiday weekend will bring in more folks. And that the weather is nice. Woo! Meanwhile, the Buddy Brown Blues Festival in Blue Lake is also coming up on um... this Saturday, the 16th. I might need to go check that out as well. It's nice to be at a festival and not working, from time to time.

As I believe I mentioned a while back... I did a nice art & wine festival in Gold Beach, Oregon, where I met Mary from the South Beach Gallery. A very nice lady who now carries some hand-dyed Bohemian Mermaid pretties in her shop. Entire colorful outfits of ponchos with matching pants or jackets with matching tanks and skirts. So if you're in the area, check out her gallery. South Beach Gallery on hwy 101 in Gold Beach. Wooo!

What a weekend! I took my little clothing booth to Mt. Shasta for the big 3-day 4th of July festival. It's gorgeous up there and the show was fun. Barney's been working in the bay area for the past few months, so it was great to hang out with him and camp. My friend Doug the whale guy was right behind me, visiting with him was a nice bonus. Most notably though, was the drive across 299 and all the fires still going on there. Wow. I mean it's sad enough to hear all the reports... but seeing all the fire crews, big base camps, and thick smoke really brought things to life. In a few spots, fire spread all the way down to the river and was in view from the highway. Heartbreaking. But, thankfully, the smoke in the Mt. Shasta area cleared for the weekend and the weather was beautiful. Now I'm preparing to head down to Mendocino for the Mendo Art Center's summer craft fair. Time to get busy dyeing...

Finally! I have put my hand-dyed clothing into some local stores. Yippee! The Emerald is located in Arcata at the corner of Alliance and Spear (in the Westwood Hood, where I lived for many years) . This is a fairly new shop, filled with all locally handmade goods... like jewelry, T-shirts, Bohemian Mermaid skirts and tanks, sculpture and more. She's still adding artist, so I'm sure there will be plenty more interesting things to see. They also have a pool table and plans for a coffee bar. So, when you are picking up your burrito at the taco truck there, go in and check it out. Gorgeous murals on the walls too! um mermaids! helloooo! Conscious Home is located in McKinleyville in the Miller Business Park, behind Miller Farms. A great little shop full of natural goods for the home, foods, and a large selection of natural fiber clothing... now including Bohemian Mermaid skirts. Woo! I'm sooo happy to have my goods in these great local shops! Go check them out!!

I'm sick of looking at that heart post... now let's move things along. How about a craft show eh? Well, since my hospital stay, I've had to cancel 2 more festivals I had lined up. Add that to all the previous van misadventures and hm... not good. I'm thinking this recent episode has to be the grand finale of all these problems the past few months and I'm ready to get back on track! So, next we have the Nor Cal Blues Festival in Fair Oaks, which is a burb of Sacramento. This should be fun! It's relatively small, I think, just one stage... possibly akin to our local Blues by the Bay in size. Which means a mellow setup and some hang-out time watching blues. Sounds great to me. It's close to my dad's house, so I'll be visiting with him as well. He's been home with a smushed foot for the past 4 months, so he could probably use some company and lovin. Also, my friend Leisa wants to host a home party for me while I'm down there. Have her friends o...

I don't think I was... lol. A little over a week ago I had a heart attack. No kidding. I'm a little embarrassed to say so... I guess because it sounds so weird, or like I live an unhealthy life or something. Not so. Aside from the blockage that caused this, doctors say I'm perfectly healthy. And lucky in so many ways. It's pretty rare for someone my age (under 40) to go through this, and often women have odd symptoms that are misdiagnosed. Not me, luckily. My chest hurt, my left hand went tingly, I started hyperventilating and sweating. I had a good idea of what was probably happening, unbelievable as it was. And I was at home, only a couple miles from St. Joe's. Lucky. I called 911 before I could pass out... with nobody knowing where I was or that anything was wrong. Lucky. I'm recovering quickly and plan to back to work next week. Lucky lucky me! :-)

Well the art & wine thingy in Gold Beach was so much fun! Ok... there were mishaps, but first the positive. Gold Beach is gorgeous! Right on the ocean, as was the Event Center on the Beach, aka Curry County Fairgrounds. And the people were SO so friendly, wonderful crafts and wine vendors. I just had a great time. Not only that, but I was approached by a nice lady who owns a shop in town, South Beach Gallery on 101... and she'll be carrying some of my nicer clothing items from now on. Woo! I really made some great new friends and business contacts. Fun fun. The downside (and I'm a little embarrassed to add this) was that Shiny Van broke again. Seriously. Barney came up all the way from the bay area to help me tow it back home. Again. I know... ridiculous. Well, the good news is that a) I believe the correct diagnosis has finally been made and is on its way to being fixed, and b) after a little sit-down with the lot we bought it from (used & 'as-is'), they seem t...

Pretty...

True, the show was not busy... still it was fun. I was surprised at how not-busy it was, really. I know it was an unusually warm weekend, but jeesh. Last year's was much better, even with all the increased advertising this year. Hmp. Again, the crafts were great, the music was fun (we were right in front of the stage), I saw many friends and spent some quality time with Dimitra & Veda, my awesome booth helpers. The print booth was a hit... well, relatively speaking. If there had been more kids or um people, I think we would have cleaned up! Still it was a great first run, learned a lot and over all it was well received. Yvonne of The wax hands come by to consult for a while. She had some great ideas for improvements. I think I'm going to try it (by myself!) at the show in Old Shasta for Mother's Day weekend. Woo.

Ok, on to something more uplifting. Spring! It's again time for the Spring Fever Festival at Redwood Acres this weekend, Apr 26-27. Wooo! The theme is luau and folks are encouraged to wear their loudest Hawaiian shirts or mumus. Again there will be hourly door prizes, donated by the artists. This time it costs $1 to get in, but that gets you into the prize drawing and the prizes are always really nice. This is a relatively new festival in its 3rd year, and it's really a fun family scene. Mostly it's a craft fair, featuring wonderful quality handmade goods from local artists. I have been impressed with the quality and variety of crafts. There will also be non-profit booths like a photo booth & face painting, food, beer & wine. Oh and music both days. I have had a great time at these shows (spring and fall), although they aren't very well known yet. This year there's an ad on KHUM, so maybe that will help. Really I'd love to see these shows take off and ge...

Never a dull moment around the Palace. Adventure is my middle name. Or is it Panky ? One of those... Yep, worked hard all week to prepare for this big awesome show down in Bodega Bay... about a 5 hour drive from here. Packed up the Shiny Van by noon with a big smile on my face. Ready to go! But, Shiny Van wouldn't start. Made noise like it wanted to, but no go. Fighting back panic, I called Barney who sent our friend Bob over to help with some male mojo or whatever. Bob shows up, looks under the hood (just looks, doesn't touch anything), casually turns the key and tada ! Started right up! I was baffled. I may have felt a little dumb. But hey... it's running and I'm behind schedule. Thanks Bob! Barney suggested I take it by his mechanic for a quick look-over... but after driving it around town doing my errands with no problems, I decided to get going. Good thinkin . Driving down 101 was great fun... the sun was shining, the ipod & I were singing, the van was runnin...

Wooo! Man, I am sooo ready to hit the road next weekend for my first show of the season, the Bodega Bay Fisherman's Festival . As I mentioned earlier, this is my first time vending at this show... but I have art buddies who do it and say it's great fun. I've been checking the weather, and right now They are saying 76 degrees for next weekend. What? 76?? At the coast?? Ok, sounds good to me. Since it dumped rain last year (and last night), I'll take warm and sunny no problem. I wonder if I can embed a little weather doohicky that will update itself... hm let me see for a sec... Bodega Bay Weather Forecast, CA Ok, that didn't work. I guess blogspot doesn't like java script... huh. Anyway, back to the festival. Lots of neato activities happening there... um, a wooden boat race, blessing of the fleet by a mermaid lady (at least that's what I read someplace - I sure hope I get to see that), boat parade, kite flying, pet parade (and me with no doggy T-shirts grr),...

That's right, people. At long last a new Mermaid Mobile is born. AaaaaahAAAAAAh (that's my imitation of angels singing). After maybe 2 years of whining and hoping and hunting and discussing , yesterday we brought home my baby. A shiny 1999 Chevy Express cargo van. This is by far the newest vehicle I have ever owned. It has running lights and air bags! Never mind that, CUP HOLDERS and air conditioning! I'm fairly bursting into the nineties here. And see my birthday-ipod radio adapter? Oh, I'll be traveling awesomely this summer alright. You bet. I might hyperventilate. I don't think I could be more excited. It really has been like bringing home a baby. OK maybe a new pet. All kinds of new toys and we just want to play with it obsessively. I already have new tires, oil change, a paint touchup pen, washer fluid. We're discussing how to outfit the back for shows... liners, storage. Whew. Barney keeps poking at stuff. I can't wait to clean it. And I'm thin...

I'm working on my booth display some. The Mermaid jewels are a relatively new addition to the booth ... and displaying them has been a challenge. So far, I've been putting them on hooks. I've tried more hooks, shorter hooks, horizontal bars, that little board. I do sell them, and they do catch people's eye. But, they are still too hard to see. All bunched up with no fabric behind them. So, recently I made these lovely boards. Tada! Nice huh? I got some big picture frames on sale, covered the mats with batting and some fake raw silk fabric, and I think they look fabulous! I still want to add some swirlies with a silver paint pen... but they really give the jewels some presence. I think when they were bunched up they looked kind of cheap. Now they are in a showcase and so they look a bit fancier. I just had to accept the fact that I don't need to display every necklace I have at once. That whole backstock concept is hard for me. Oh, and I finally got some of those ni...

Yep. I'm pretty sure that THIS time I really AM getting a new van. One that looks very much like these photos. Possibly by week's end. Why now? (you might be asking yourself).... when shows have barely started and you must surely be broke as hell, Bekki?? Yeah good question. Because, the (ugly) reliable van I have been using for the past couple years needs some work. Barney took it in for a pre-craft-fair checkup and found it needs at least $400 worth of repairs to safely leave town. Tie rods I think. Plus it needs some other work soon, brakes I think. Yeah. Not stuff you let slide when you drive 200 miles of winding mountain roads to get to work. So, we decided it would be best to take that $400+ and put it toward a new van, which we've been hunting for anyway. It's exciting. But also a little stressful. I had to cancel my show in Oregon this next weekend (ouch)... I'll have 2 more weeks until the next one in Bodega Bay. So, hopefully this van thing will pan out a...

Yep. Confirmed for my first show with my new Stamp Art print your own T-shirt booth. Ha. I'm a little nervous... just because I want it to go well, and it's so different from my usual booth. But, I think it has real potential. And the Spring Fever Festival at Redwood Acres (apr 26-27) is the perfect first show... not too busy, but lots of children. Heehee pretty exciting. Here's how it will work. To start, I'll have bandanas for $5, baby onesies and kid's T-shirts for $10, adult T-shirts up to 3x for $15. Eventually I'll add black and dyed shirts for an extra few bucks. For the money, you choose one awesome rubber stamp and one ink color, extra stamps or colors are $2. The key will be having cool stamps to choose from. I'm making them myself. The ink will be water-based and non toxic, so it will have to be heat set. For this show I'll probably have an iron for that... outdoor shows will need a take-home instruction sheet. It only needs like 1 minute of i...

At long last... it's time for the craft shows to begin. It's been a long dark winter in the depths of the sea here at the Palace. But now it's time to rise up to the bright surface and do some serious Mermaid work. I am SO ready to get moving! First round of shows begins in 2 weeks, here's the confirmed line up so far: March 28-30 - Spring Fair - Douglas County Fairgrounds, Roseburg, Oregon. This is my firs time at this show. I didn't do spectacularly well my last time in Roseburg . But, it's a nice drive and an indoor show so at least I won't get rained on. I plan on having lots of little girl dresses and clearance items at this show. April 12-13 - Bodega Bay Fisherman's Festival - Bodega Bay, CA. I've been wanting to do this one for the past few years. Last year I heard it poured rain... but maybe I'll be lucky. Looks like an awesome festival right on the bay, boat parades, boat building, kite flying, animal parade. Sounds like fun! April 2...

Check out the Pancake video ... I tried to embed but I don't think it worked right. Wait, let me try again here... maybe it's my crappy computer, but mine keeps stopping. Go to youtube and it works great. lol. I enjoy this video every time I watch it. Yay Pancakes!

I think I'm just about ready to get going on some festivals. Lots of planning and purchasing going on here at The Palace. This weekend though, I mostly hung out with Barney. He started working in the bay area, so I only get him on the weekends for a while. Sigh. We did lots of movie-watching and snuggling... and I made so much jewelry I got a blister. I'm a machine, I know. Well it really started with a flower garland I made to decorate my booth. The wire in the flowers was hard to cut and I worked on that thing for like 3 hours. I was having so much fun I didn't care that my hands hurt. Then I made jewelry for 2 days. I can't help myself. I got a couple of neato packages yesterday... one full of hats! I'm excited to have found these cotton hats to dye. I want one of each. I also got my first shipment of shirts from the Buz finally. They are sweet! I'll get a photo at some point...

Last saturday was my birthday. Barney had a training thing in Benicia on friday. So, I went along and afterward we headed over to Reno for a visit to my little bro and his wife. It was lovely. Weather couldn't have been nicer, sunny and wonderful the entire time. Let's see... it took about 5 hours to go from here to Benicia. No problem. The drive to Reno, according to mapquest , takes about 3 hours. Hm. 3 hours got us just through Sacramento. Bloody hell. It actually took 5 hours. We could have driven home in that time. Anyway, that's life in civilization...I don't know how people can live that way. Blech. We mostly hung out at the house there... went out for birthday sushi. mmmmm it was good too. And got some ice cream afterwards. Perfect. Otherwise we laid around and watched movies, drank beer and visited. Oh, we did visit Pam & Jim and their two little kids, which was neat. I had never seen the kids awake. Of course I didn't take any pictures. Trust me, the...