Bohemian Mermaid Palace

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...

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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...