Bohemian Mermaid Palace

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),...