Bohemian Mermaid Palace

 Video: Driving Through Oaxaca to Monte Albán   Another quick post from my trip to Mexico, mostly video. This day (feb 2020) we drove up up up to the ruins at the top of a huge hill just outside of Oaxaca de Juaréz. Actually, I turned on the camera after we drove through a gigantic intersection of death. Okay not death, near death haha. I thought something else wild might happen, but not especially.      Here's the video:  Oaxaca Mexico! Driving to Monte Alban   It is a neat view of the side streets of the city, each turn becoming steeper and steeper until we drove along the cliff to the very top.            The ruins were amazing, I believe one of the largest sites in Mexico. We had breakfast at the beautiful little restaurant overlooking the city. I feel so lucky to have been able to celebrate my 50th juuuust before they locked everything down for covid. More stories and videos to come.  

Video: A Wonderful Wedding Parade in Oaxaca, Mexico   While wandering the long pedestrian street in el centro de Oaxaca city, we found ourselves in the middle of a massive wedding parade or Calenda. It was magical! Giant puppets, bands, and beautiful people in traditional dress as far as we could see. You know I love the full embroidery and skirts, they were everywhere. There was candy flying, and of course the usual shot of mezcal in that little bamboo shot glass. So much fun!! More from my trip coming soon. It's about time! Here's a short video from that day:  Beautiful Oaxaca! Huge Wedding Parade      

2021 Veggie Zone Garden Tour    Heeey! Veggie season is here and we are going nuts with our Veggie Zone expansion. It is so awesome we almost can't stand it. I'm working on a building video before and after the construction. For now I'm just doing a current tour of how it is rolling in mid June. Things are just starting to pop, my husband is very impatient, but in our mild coastal climate it is just starting to warm up.   So a reminder that we are total gardening newbs. We said that when we found our dream property, we would start growing veggies and learning to can and preserve them. And get cats. And chickens. We moved here just over 4 yrs ago, and we've done everything but the chickens so far. At our old house we did zero gardening. I had like 3 houseplants I got as a gift, and hubs would mow the lawn and sometimes butcher innocent shrubs nearly to death. We started out here knowing almost nothing. Just google and youtube and two people in love. haha.   ...

For my first long awaited story from my trip to Oaxaca, I want to share about one of the most wonderful adventures we had there. I haven't posted about my trip at all yet, which is kind of weird. But this trip had so many layers and moments... I've had trouble organizing it all into words. Not a problem I have very often. Ha. And there are other current distractions as we know. I'm starting with this experience because I gave one of these red pottery items to a friend, and due to social distancing I couldn't tell her the cool story that went along with it. So here it is! Ok quick intro, the whole reason I picked Oaxaca for my 50th birthday trip was for the art and crafts traditions there. Entire villages will focus on one craft, everyone does it and has for generations. It's all very down to basics, which I love. I also speak some spanish and have always wanted to visit Mexico. So when I saw an article about how you could go stay with native Zapotec famil...

How to Get Comfortable with Selling Your Artwork I wrote a little bit about this here: Make the Switch to a Business Mindset . But I want to go more in  depth about getting comfortable with selling what you make. I know it's different. You start out making for the sake of making, it's fun, you get good at it, people want more. Boom suddenly you have a little business. Now you have to get a bit more "businessy" and actually try to sell stuff. You don't want to be pushy or annoying or ask too much of anyone. I totally get it. But if you ARE in business, you just have to get over that. At least somewhat. Because you will have to "sell" your work, and the idea of it. I'm going to share how I overcame those feelings and gained a different perspective. What I did was work on a marketing plan . I found some kind of outline with questions that helped me fine tune what it is I am selling. And to whom. Going through that process helped me to...

Please. Artisans. Advertise Your Craft Shows! Well, it seems I am just writing things that get my attention at any given time. Ha. So far it's working for me. Write when the inspiration hits! So yeah, it's holiday show season right now. I thought this year, since I'm not vending at all (still weird to say out loud), I'd try to hit as many local craft fairs as possible. Just to check them out, see what's happening out there, since I don't usually do that when I'm working. Here's the problem. I just missed I think 3 craft fairs this past weekend because I didn't see ANY reminders on facebook. I am on fb a lot lately, I follow many many artists and local groups. What. The. F. Okay it's not all on the artists, the organizers need to be advertising their shows for sure and getting the word out. But you can't count on only them! It takes so little effort to do a few things yourself, and costs nothing. So I guess it's time for...

Taking Custom Orders - Keep it Simple This was on my mind today, as I saw a horror story in one of my embroidery groups. The stitcher had taken a custom order, and the customer fought payment every step of the way. So much back and forth and craziness, until this poor woman was just done with custom orders. It can be frustrating! You put a lot of extra thought, planning, supplies and work into a special order, only to spend days (maybe weeks!) playing email tag and trying to get paid. At some point you have to decide what your boundaries are, and stick to them. Figure out a process that works for you, and spell it out for your customers ahead of time. Everyone will be happy. I guess my general advice here is to make sure you are not doing a lot of extra work for free. A custom order should cost the customer more, not you. And also to keep the process as simple as you can . I'll outline some options in a moment, but overall you want to do this transaction with as...

Craft Fairs Need Feedback! Your Fear is Killing Them Ok I'm feeling frustrated right now, so I guess I'll rant a little bit. Just Idk, about how powerless fear can make us! And it's so easy to get fearful sometimes. Ugh, ok start from the beginning.  A concern I see expressed often in many artist groups I'm in, is how they *must* keep out the show promoters from these groups, so we can freely speak about our experiences at shows. I get that, I do. In my own groups, I have that rule as well. *Unless* it's an artist who is also involved in running a show. I feel like we can trust our own people, artist to artist, and I don't think I could regulate that very easily anyway. I've gotten some flack for it too.  But honestly, even though I understand the desire to feel comfortable expressing opinions freely, I don't worry too much about who's listening. Even if the organizers walked into my booth in person, I would absolutel...

The Ultimate Craft Fair Checklist As I finished up my last post about Your First Craft Show , I was looking around my fb groups for an opportunity to share it. I actually saw a lot of first timers asking for *specific* items they might need that maybe they hadn't thought of yet. I get it! I have said to put everything on your checklist. But of course you may want to know *exactly* what is on that list! So here I'll share my own checklist that I've used for years. As I've mentioned before, the checklist is maybe the most important thing you can use to prepare for your show. Because, if you're like me, you will be stressed and possibly overwhelmed by alllll the many details and items that you have to remember. Using a checklist will help you organize all those swirling thoughts and worries for you. At least mostly. And I'll bet you one crisp dollar bill that you will sleep a whole lot better when you have one.  I started using my own chec...

Your First Craft Show! Everything You Need to Know I am in a lot of different facebook groups for artists and festival vendors. In fact I run 2 of my own: West Coast Artists & Artisans , and Artisan Vendors of Humboldt County . Since I am a total craft show nerd, I soak up all the information posted there. Just like when I attend shows with my booth, I observe and listen to everything. I'm into it! Some of the groups focus on tips for making your booth better, or specifically selling at shows. So I love to chime in, and also take stock of what newer sellers are thinking about. It interests me and I'm always thinking of how I can help.  Very often I see someone say "Help! It's my first show coming up! What do I need to know??" Kind of cracks me up, because that is a huge question! They will get all kinds of answers, long and short. It's always a little chaotic because like, where do you even start? So I thought I'd make a post tha...