Bohemian Mermaid Palace

Well, the time has come once again to say Buh-Bye to another day job. Muaaaahahahahha! Yes, I've been at the peace sticker place for about a year and a half. Seems like plenty. I had planned on staying through the winter and leaving in the spring... but I don't think I can make it that long. A few reasons. One is that I'm just plain burnt. Much as I predicted when my coworker/supervisor started taking 3-4 weeks off at a time and the big boss didn't hire anyone else. I told them I could do it, but if the stress level stayed high for too long I'd burn out for sure. Hey, guess what? I was right. Secondly, the boss is freakin nuts. Which is fine in itself, most of my best friends are nuts. Yeah, it was fine when he barely spoke to me... but I would hear him sometimes go batty on my coworkers and I'd say, "good thing he doesn't speak to me that way or I might have to tell him to fuck himself". Then he started talking to me... and eventually in that way

...cuz it's time once again for the wonderful North Country Fair! Wooooooo! I hope all my friends and neighbors are gearing up for the big fall hootinany on the Arcata Plaza this weekend. Cuz man, it's the funnest thing around. Yes, funnest. Three stages of music and dance, featuring all our favorite local talent. 200 crafts, food and info booths. Two parades, one each day. Beer. Sun. Friends. I mean, what more do you want? I for one have been feverishly dyeing stuff, ordering booth supplies, getting ready for a great weekend. I have my new specially-made-by-Busam festival skirt... but alas, the rest of the goods she's been working on are not ready as I had hoped. We were so close, but now she has other life things to tend to and the Mermaid must wait. Sigh. Maybe I'll have them in the spring. But at least MY skirt is done and it's fantastic. Full circle with ruffles. Yesss. And of course I'll have some other new goodies to show off. Don't worry. Um, what el

Ok, well it's time to get ready for this next round of shows. Fort Bragg was a nice warmup. I dyed whatever random stuff I had here to dye. It was a lot, but mostly unusual special items... I didn't have all my stock up to what I like. Now, I need to do a full inventory and order whatever I need to fill it all out. About a ton. In fact, I should over order, since I'll have 2 shows in a row right away. I have 2 weeks until North Country Fair on Sept 22-23. woooo! I'll see you all there. It's the rockinest hootinany around. As I've mentioned before , the drama is over and this will be a great show for all I'm sure. Hey, looks like there are still some vendor spots available. The following week, I'm off to Caspar on the beautiful Mendocino coast for Caspar Fest. I loved this show last year, it was my intro to doing shows in this area. So it will be fun fun fun. Also they are adding more eco-groovy & community themes and activities, like demos and a din

I'm still here. Vacation was swell, thanks. My attitude was adjusted appropriately I think... just in time too. I'm back to work at the peace sticker place. Most of my coworkers left for a week or two, so I'm holding down the peace fort. I have skills. And it's been slow. Also, I refuse to be stressed. So it's working out fine. I also just scored a last-minute spot in the Fort Bragg festival this weekend... um Paul Bunyan Days. Yippee! I have wanted to do this one for a few years, but always miss the deadline somehow. I usually do pretty well in that area, and it is a holiday weekend. So I suspect the wealthy vacationers will be in abundance. Luckily, I have been reckless in my online ordering during my break, so I have lots of stuff to dye up. I'm a bit behind schedule, due to car issues and my own lame tendencies... but I can hear the washer finishing up a load of Ocean colored stuff as I type. I'll have a few things for the mendo throngs to adore. Worry n

Oh, yessss. I'm lovin it. After months of hard work and slaving away at the Peace Sticker place between c raft shows, filling in for other folks and whatnot... I now have a whole week off! Yippee. Can I afford it? I don't know. But that won't stop me from enjoying myself. Oh no. I managed to work o ut a Mom visit, which is pretty cool. She'll be arriving on Tuesday from North Dakota, and on Thursday we'll drive to Reno to visit my little bro and his wife in their new house. I'm getting pretty excited about the whole thing. I mean, Mom hasn't been here to visit for a couple years, hasn't seen the new digs. And I haven't seen my brother since his wedding over a year ago. Eesh. Way too long! It's going to be so fun!! So, for now... after I'm done basking in my vacation-ness, which means lounging on the computer in my pj's for hours at a time... it will be time to clean the house real good. Yip. I have a few things planned for Mom when she ar

Oh yeah, baby. One of the best things about vending at festivals with such talented artists is definitely the booty. I love to trade mermaid clothing for goodies on my travels. Sometimes I even buy stuff. Like the painting above. I bought it from the guy selling next to me up at that oregon show. I love it. sort of a cross between sunset at the beach up here and maybe some other planetscape. Plus the guy was neat to talk with (and he wasn't selling much I think). This bag is great and the fabric is fuzzy. Love it so much I made it my new magical money bag for the booth. I scored both of these at the fair on Clear Lake. The bag I traded for. The painting I bought from this little old lady who was so sweet! She was doing her booth all alone and it was painful to watch, she wouldn't accept much help cuz she said, if I can't do it alone I might as well stay home. The painting really reminds me of her. The card above was SUCH a score! I was at that oregon show, running to get so

I'm resting. But as we know, the Mermaid's work is never done... I have things to take care of. Let's see... uh, website stuff for sure. I haven't updated the inventory on it for months. Gotta do that. I also have a bunch of items not shown on the site. So, new photos and new pages are in order for sure. I think I'm going to hire my friend's daughter to help with a bunch of stuff. That will be fun. I have business crap to take care of too. This place is a mess! Gotta fix up my files and sales records and all that. Ick. OH, and it looks like I'm gonna get me a new VAN finally! Yipee! A nice big cargo van, just like the one I use that belongs to Barney. But newer and not creepy. THAT is freakin exciting. Christmas fair applications are showing up, so time to figure out what the hell I'm doing this year in that area. Sigh. Oh, and the designs I've been working on with The Buz are coming together. I should have at least 2 new pieces for North Country F

So today at work , as I slaved away over a hot keyboard/phone/stickerpile... we had khum on the radio as usual. At some point I noticed they were playing the friday songs. (Larry usually plays a few particular songs near 5pm on fridays and then announces it's officially the weekend. Sometimes he'll play them at like 2pm and just say he's 'calling it'. It's the weekend people, start figuring out your excuse to leave work early. Cute, I know. I love Larry.) How odd, thought I. Why the hell are they playing friday songs at noon on tuesday? Cruelty? I may have mumbled about it to myself throughout the set of songs... I'm not saying for sure. Well duh Mermaid, there is a holiday tomorrow and many many folks have the day off or even long weekends. Sure, ok. At the end of the set Mike says, "call me up and tell me what just happened, using the proper phrasing and I'll give you a cd". So I did. You called it, man! Then he asked if I had to work tomorr

Oh, let's see um... huh... maybe I might do ANOTHER FESTIVAL. Wooo! Tomorrow I'm off to the Umpqua Valley Arts Festival up in Roseburg Oregon. It's a 3 day hootinany with over 100 art booths, 2 stages, kids area, food, wine garden... the whole shibang. Sweet. So, it's about a 4 hour drive north. I'll be going alone, Barney has to be at work friday I think. I am splurging for a motel for the entire trip and that will be quite luxurious. Showers and beds and everything. Heehee. Barney might show up at some point, not sure yet. But, I have no problems with doing a festival alone, I've done it lots of times and it's a little more of an adventure that way you know. Yeah, I don't have much else to tell. Except that I have about a ton of stuff to do and I'm still sitting here in coffee mode. Yawn. Thanks for helping me procrastinate...