Bohemian Mermaid Palace

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...