Bohemian Mermaid Palace

I always have. Now, I'm trying to make a living making stuff... sheesh. It's fun, but there are plenty of challenges. Mainly I like selling at craft fairs and such. I have a great time. Traveling, camping out, meeting interesting folks. I love all that. The up side (along with all that stuff) is I'm getting full retail price for all my goods, personal interaction with my customers and therefore direct feedback. The down side, I suppose, is the added cost of travel, booth fees... and personal energy. Physical and emotional. Well, that's not really a down side I guess, but a cost none the less. The travel, setup, and breakdown takes lots of physical energy. And being 'on' all weekend, schmoozing customers and such, is exhausting as well. Still, it is my preferred mode of selling... versus say, wholesaling to shops. That's a separate post I think. The problem I'm trying to solve right now is, well... there are only so many craft shows. The ones that are goo...

O k, well you can all relax now. I got my confirmation in the mail yesterday... whew. Not only that, but it looks like I have a killer spot! All alone on a little island, in the middle of the show. Sweet. I did this show once before... when I was doing Wax Hand job. That is, the job where I worked in a kid's wax hand booth in college. As I recall, the quality of crafts was mixed... not too high end handcrafts, mixed with buy/sell goods. Well populated, large festival with a difficult setup. I also remember hitting some bars at night and having fun. I think it's a sort of historic section of town. Anyway... I think I'm set up to do as well as possible, which is all I can ever do. At the very least, I'll cover my expenses. Not worried about that. And I'll get some quality time with my little sis, a rare treat. Get a little visiting time with Dad, also fairly rare. AND get out of town to someplace warm where I'll be doing my thing. Good times. But first, I have app...

This could be a blues song... But I hope not. Any day now the Dandelion Days - Lions Club guy is going to call me back and confirm my booth space. Yep. Pretty soon. Festival is this weekend. Ha. Anyway I'm proceeding as if it's a go. My first ever double booth. Yessss. I've got bead kits, hat kits, dye kits, lots of new jewelry... oh, and some new goodies for my booth set up. Extra baskets, better dressing room and awnings! Oh, I'm ready. And clothes . I always have lots of those. Jackson is waaay down near Stockton, so there's a bit of travel involved. I'm getting excited to leave town, now that spring is starting to spring forth. It's gonna be in the 70s! Plus, my little sister will be my sidekick for the weekend. That will rock. So... yeah... once I can get this all uh firmed up... that will be cool.

Well, it's been decided. The Same Old People will run the North Country Fair this year... and Washington Whatshisname has resigned as coordinator. Yippee! I can't wait for September and my same old festival.

Well, I think my foggy winter head is waking up finally. I have my lists of potential craft fairs and application deadlines nicely plotted out on my yahoo calendar. Printed and color coded and pinned to the bulletin board. I'm even sending off applications! I have my lists and charts of new bead and jewelry stuff all laid out. Sweet. Gawd how I do love going through the bead catalogs and web site. Rather than doing it for 2 weeks, though... in a cave-dwelling haze of notebooks and pajamas... I'm getting it all done in a couple days. Not bad huh? Sometime today I'll be conferring with The Buz about some new clothing designs. Heehee. I'm gonna have my OWN original designs. So, we need to get going on all that and work out some details. I'm also working on my booth setup. I want to order a few items to beef up the display a bit... it's getting freakin crowded in there. I've been needing a rolling clothing rack for the travel of wrinkle-prone clothing... and a f...

(Hey, there's my booth up in the top left corner... see that purple spot?? That's me!) Ah, the saga continues. You can see my previous posts about this on my Craft Fair Reports list over on the right there... and more recently, here . So, the other day I got a letter and email from the Same Old People, the traditional organizers of the North Country Fair. They seem more than confident about reclaiming the fair from Washington Whatshisname. So, that's good. Apparently, they both have submitted applications to the city to use the Plaza for the festival this year. No decisions yet. But, I see also that the city has adopted a new policy of only issuing permits of use to non-profits. That's pretty cool, considering the SOP have now attained that status. They had always worked like a non-profit, but never really felt the need to officially get the papers... because things just worked very well as they were. Anyway, that might be a help. Also, they have issued a letter to What...

At work, we sell this movie called The Secret. I haven't watched it... but I watched most of Oprah's show about it. Man, she can make even the most deep and wonderful things so very cheesy and lame. I didn't realize that The Secret isn't just a movie, it's a book and a lecture series. A little weird, as far as 'spiritual' type teachings go I think... the method, not the message that is. Anyway, the secret isn't so secret really. Stuff I've lived by for years. Ask for what you want. Visualize your life as you want it. You create your own reality. That sort of stuff. The idea being, you reap what you sow... or putting out thoughts and energy will create that path for you. I know all that, but I think (aside from the television-cheesiness) it's neat to see it put out mainstream style. I guess. I mean, if that's what it takes for folks to accept some of this info. Things enlightened hippy-types have been spouting forever. Somehow on Oprah it'...

Well, I just got the first issue of my new subscription to the Craftmaster News . Wooo! It's been a few years since I subscribed, and they've really done a lot to it. This is a giant list of fairs and festivals, including all pertinent info. I mean lots of info... fees, deadlines, contacts, type of show, types of crafts, whether or not commercial items are allowed, if there's camping available, everything. Now there are lots of emails and websites too. Sweet! Used to cover mostly California and a few surrounding states... now it includes shows all the way to North Dakota and Texas! Also some articles, indexed ads for supplies and shows. Each issue used to cover 6 months, now it's almost a year. Pretty cool. I remember hunting around for a craft fair list a while back and many cost hundreds of dollars. This one, I think, is a good value. They send you an updated version every other month, and now you can get updates online and via email. All for the low low price of abou...

Yes, the new studio room at the house is getting broken in, finally. You know... it takes me a while to settle into a studio space. Moving the stuff in is easy. Making it a comfy place to create takes some time. For some reason, until I get my mojo going in a place... I just want to leave. I stay long enough to get stuff done, but then I'm eager to go. I can't explain it. So, I have to make an effort to just spend time there... reading art books, writin g, sketching... quiet time stuff that gets my creative juices flowing. To that end, last weekend I spent lots of time in there... added some shelves, emptied some boxes, set up more lighting, put some of my favorite art on the walls (some of mine, some I have acquired from friends). And I made a wonderful discovery. While the super bowl raged just a few feet away... my little studio was a calm oasis. Quiet except for my npr favorites on the radio and the occasional passing car. Lovely. The photos really can't capture the cal...

Oh, I have some craft kits alright. Do I ever. I love love love the idea of kits. I guess because I love to come up with craft projects, especially for those who think they are not crafty. That's what I like about teaching art ... showing folks that everyone can enjoy it, not only those who have a talent for it. It's fun and satisfying to start with a pile of stuff and end up with something pretty or useful. My approach is to have them make one item that incorporates a number of skills, pretty much foolproof but with room for creativity. So at the end of the class they go home with something cool that they feel good about. When I prepare a new class, I write up all the instructions. Once they are done, I can just teach it over and over. The hard part is finished in planning the activity. I like to take the instructions and some supplies and make up kits to sell. Likewise, I can just sell them over and over without much more thought. Except for what the next kit will be. So, an...