Bohemian Mermaid Palace

Mermaid Tour 2015 - Heading East   I said goodbye to my hubby in Washington and started the trek east toward my next show in North Dakota, really the main event that I build this trip around. I have family there, went to high school there*, and it is so much fun to be able to drive over to this other world and do my thing. (*For the record I am originally from California, lived in ND for 6 yrs then ran back to CA as soon as I turned 18.) This was my 3rd time doing this show in Bismarck, and every time I get there my first words are, "damn it's a long drive!" It's far. Crossing Montana is just a big beautiful beast. I took way less photos while driving this time, it's dangerous and also I just wanted to soak in the sights. The pics rarely do it justice anyway.  First campfire of the trip in MT. Day 1 I set out to locate a campground I f ound on my first tour in 2010, just over the MT border. I remember it was a couple miles off the highway and cost o...

Mermaid Tour 2015 - R&R&B in Washington Leaving Sandy, OR I stopped in Gresham to get a good breakfast and do some laundry. At first I couldn't find a laundromat, but when I pulled into the restaurant, hey look! A laundry in the same little strip mall. Sweet. I think the place was called The Biscuit Cafe, but the biscuits were not great in my opinion. T he omelet and potatoes were tasty. The guys working there were very nice, and seemed kind of intrigued when we chatted about where I was going. My waiter really was interested in getting his girlfriend on board with a travel adventure. Ah it did my heart good to inspire a youngster, if that's what happened there.  Columbia River, east of Portland OR. From there I headed east along the Columbia River Gorge, really a nice drive... until I had to turn north near the Dalles, on my way up through central Washington . Then I hit the vast and dead wasteland called the high desert. Not my favorite, but this was...

Mermaid Tour 2015 - Starting Out in Oregon Day 1 of my 5 week tour started right on time. I could hardly believe it.  By noon the van was packed and ready (see above)... a few errands around town, and I was on my way out of Eureka, CA by 2pm.  Wooo!! Feeling great! Finally all the long hours of hard work over the past month was done. Seriously, I worked my ass off every day of June making clothes for this trip. 5 shows is no joke, and I wanted to sell sell sell. When I finally left I felt more ready, I think, than any tour before.  There is a real sense of relief when I get started on a trip like this... so much work and prep and stress happens in the planning, and then the moment you leave town it is over. Bam. The rest is just coasting with your plans, no more can really be done. It feels a little surreal too, after all the planning and visualizing. Here I go, now I am doing this thing I've talked about for 6 months. I think I spent a lot of that first ...

  Sunset at the blues fest in Winthrop, WA.   Mermaid Tour 2015 - Overview Well, I did it. My third big Mermaid Tour is complete and I am currently recovering from 5 weeks of driving, craft shows, camping and visiting. I think with certainty I can say I will not be doing another Tour next year. At least not as long and far. It was fun and lucrative, but exhausting. Plus it is just too long to be away from my husband, although he is very sweet and supportive about it.  Every year I have made improvements to the Tour, and this year was indeed even better than last year in many ways.  My van didn't break down for the first time in Tour history. Ha. The air conditioner worked for the duration, which was great. I convinced my husband to meet up with me for one week of the Tour on his motorcycle. That was excellent. And since I mostly duplicate the shows from last year, I knew where to camp and mostly what to expect sales wise. I improved my sales at 3 out o...

Camping Out Mermaid Style    Oh this could be a good one! I love to camp. LOVE it. It's one of the best aspects of traveling to craft shows in my opinion. I am talking here about camper-less camping, aka 'car camping' or 'dry camping'. Took me a few years to make it as comfy as possible, adding and changing things bit by bit. Now that I have it nailed, I can go anywhere. In fact, it was preparing for my big Mermaid Tour 2010 that really got my digs styled out, and that 5000 miles provided some amazing camping opportunities for sure. Here are some of the main aspects of camping and how I do them.    I mention a bit about where and how to camp in my Taking Your Show on the Road post. Here I will get more into detail. So I guess the act of camping basically involves 3 areas... Sleeping, Eating, and Bathing .  SLEEPING I cannot emphasize enough the importance of getting good sleep while doing shows. Make your bed as cozy as possible. M...

Take Your Show on the Road So maybe you've been doing your local craft shows for a bit, and are feeling it's time to look beyond the horizon for more selling opportunities. You will have a few things to consider when deciding whether you want to head out of town: - How much will it cost in gas, lodging, food and travel time? - How far are you willing to go?  - Where will you stay?  - Will you need a helper? - Will you need time off from your day job? - Considering all these factors, will it be worth it?   Should I Stay, Should I Go  Personally, I have always looked forward to the travel part of this job. For me it was never a question IF I would travel, just HOW I could do it in a way that worked well for me. Generally I'd say that if you want to make any kind of living, you have to sell regularly. If you have other selling venues like a web store, studio, galleries, wholesale, or plenty of local shows... you might not need to travel. Most vendo...

Hey well maybe I'm back to blogging for real. We'll see. I do have many many things flying around my brain right now, and what are blogs for if not to blab about them? Maybe I can bore my friends on facebook a little less. Ha. Mostly I've been planning my craft show season for 2015. This always gives me a kind of Far Off feeling... concentrating on all the details of the summer and fall, I get kind of stuck there. Already living in the future in my mind. Imagining where I'll go, where I'll stay, what kinds of festivals I will attend, who I'll visit on the way. I'm already there. Sunset over the Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival in Winthrop, WA. It's shaping up nicely so far. At the start of the new year, I sat and thought about what I wanted my year to look like. What are my goals. The only thing I could see was doing another long distance Mermaid Tour to North Dakota and back, like I did last year. So I'm doing that. I'm still con...

At long last, Part 4 of a series I'm calling (5 Steps to) Get Started Selling at Craft Fairs . Read Step #1: Find Your Shows , Step #2: Booth Display , and Step #3: Marketing Materials . Money Talk Okay, now we are getting down to business. I think most of us start out just making things because we love to, we are compelled to. Soon we have boxes of things, and then begin trying to sell them simply because we want to make more. At some point you can't help but consider making a living doing all the things you love most. And I fully believe in that dream. But now after so many years, I can tell you... while it is possible, it is not easy. Very few artists I know make a full time living, where they can buy houses and support families. For that you need some real business finesse, a way to sell consistently in multiple venues, and probably mixed with teaching classes or other service based offerings. I don' t have any data behind it , but this is what I've...