Bohemian Mermaid Palace

At long last... it's time for the craft shows to begin. It's been a long dark winter in the depths of the sea here at the Palace. But now it's time to rise up to the bright surface and do some serious Mermaid work. I am SO ready to get moving! First round of shows begins in 2 weeks, here's the confirmed line up so far: March 28-30 - Spring Fair - Douglas County Fairgrounds, Roseburg, Oregon. This is my firs time at this show. I didn't do spectacularly well my last time in Roseburg . But, it's a nice drive and an indoor show so at least I won't get rained on. I plan on having lots of little girl dresses and clearance items at this show. April 12-13 - Bodega Bay Fisherman's Festival - Bodega Bay, CA. I've been wanting to do this one for the past few years. Last year I heard it poured rain... but maybe I'll be lucky. Looks like an awesome festival right on the bay, boat parades, boat building, kite flying, animal parade. Sounds like fun! April 2...

Check out the Pancake video ... I tried to embed but I don't think it worked right. Wait, let me try again here... maybe it's my crappy computer, but mine keeps stopping. Go to youtube and it works great. lol. I enjoy this video every time I watch it. Yay Pancakes!

I think I'm just about ready to get going on some festivals. Lots of planning and purchasing going on here at The Palace. This weekend though, I mostly hung out with Barney. He started working in the bay area, so I only get him on the weekends for a while. Sigh. We did lots of movie-watching and snuggling... and I made so much jewelry I got a blister. I'm a machine, I know. Well it really started with a flower garland I made to decorate my booth. The wire in the flowers was hard to cut and I worked on that thing for like 3 hours. I was having so much fun I didn't care that my hands hurt. Then I made jewelry for 2 days. I can't help myself. I got a couple of neato packages yesterday... one full of hats! I'm excited to have found these cotton hats to dye. I want one of each. I also got my first shipment of shirts from the Buz finally. They are sweet! I'll get a photo at some point...

Last saturday was my birthday. Barney had a training thing in Benicia on friday. So, I went along and afterward we headed over to Reno for a visit to my little bro and his wife. It was lovely. Weather couldn't have been nicer, sunny and wonderful the entire time. Let's see... it took about 5 hours to go from here to Benicia. No problem. The drive to Reno, according to mapquest , takes about 3 hours. Hm. 3 hours got us just through Sacramento. Bloody hell. It actually took 5 hours. We could have driven home in that time. Anyway, that's life in civilization...I don't know how people can live that way. Blech. We mostly hung out at the house there... went out for birthday sushi. mmmmm it was good too. And got some ice cream afterwards. Perfect. Otherwise we laid around and watched movies, drank beer and visited. Oh, we did visit Pam & Jim and their two little kids, which was neat. I had never seen the kids awake. Of course I didn't take any pictures. Trust me, the...

Ok. Let's see... I posted my first 2 skirts onto etsy.com before I left for the weekend. Yesterday, I posted 4 more. Today I sold one. I'm in shock I think. Woohoo! Thank you Pamela in SoCal!! I'm totally excited. Of course, I hoped the larger sizes would win some hearts... I notice there aren't many larger sized things there. Nor much hand-dyed clothing really at all. Let's hope this is a sign of things to come. Woopie!!

Uterus Skirt by hissyfitoly Maybe you've heard of it. Etsy.com "Your place to buy and sell things handmade." I have. And it looks like after only 2-3 years, lots of other folks have too. This site is awesome. It's very cheap to list things, the listings last a long time, and you pay a small percentage when the item sells. The variety and quality of goods on there is amazing. From fine art to jewelry and everything in between... there are also sections for vintage goods and art/craft supplies. From what I can tell, buyers know about it too. And they buy things. Sweet. This has been on my list of things to do for a while... I'm just about ready to list stuff. If not today, then next week when I get back from Reno. Here's my (empty) store: Bohemian Mermaid .etsy.com I'll probably re-post when I have actual stuff in it.

Man, I am just full of plans and schemes right now. After checking into the teaching studio thing a bit more, I'm not as convinced it's for me. We'll see how they evolve... but for now that's kind of off the list. However, after doing my taxes and deeply assessing last year's show income, I'm once again thinking about having a kid's activity booth (in addition to my clothes booth). I think I do this every year. Ha. I have two ideas for activity booths - Silk Painting with Kool-Aid and a Print Your Own Shirt booth. The first one I usually think of more around the holidays. It takes electricity and is sort of gifty. The latter is what I'm thinking for this summer... no electricity and m ore general appeal. All I need are some cool rubber stamps (made by me) and some T-shirts. The tricky part is the printing ink... but I think I have that figured out. Anyway, I have always liked this idea and I think it could really take off. If it did, later I would add b...

Yeah, definitely hibernation time around here. But never fear, I'm doing stuff. I'm always doing stuff. I maybe in my pajamas all day, but things are being done. Let's see, a few interesting developments. I have connected with a new art teaching space that sounds pretty cool. I'll find out more this weekend, but a lady has brought together a multitude of artists to teach classes in a big studio. I like teaching, I like studios. Um, I used to teach in mine, when I had one in public. So, this might be just the ticket to not working another regular job this year. Fill in the craft show gaps with teaching. Perfect perfect. I convinced a sewing friend of mine to make some cool cotton bags for me finally. She wasn't sewing for a while, but bags are her thing. I really need one or two nice bags... like girly purses. Not tote bags, which is mostly what I have now. Yesss. Awesome. And I found a new source for more hip type cotton hats. I find that exciting. What else... I...

Hm... what a weird day. My little baby brother turns 30 today. I also learned a few minutes ago that my old friend Jim Fahey has died (I guess there's a big remembrance piece in today's Eye... I'll see if they post it for reading). Both pretty trippy in themselves. Hmp.

So, there I was... minding my own business... recovering from a pretty good little New Years psycho breakdown (don't ask)... when I get a call from The Busam saying she's on her way to my house from Oregon. Just what the doctor ordered. For those who don't know, The Busam, aka The Buz, aka Heather (or Sweet Heather as my dad calls her at times) is my super best friend. We met the first day of our senior year in high school, and have been like sisters ever since. We were roommates as wild young adults in Stockton, then again here in Humboldt as wild college students. Now, she lives with her hubby in Alaska where they both work for the forest service. I hadn't seen her since my brother's wedding like 1.5 yrs ago. How she knew I needed her right then one can never know. Vibes. They are actually seeking some sort of property for Joe's retirement ... either around here or up in Oregon. Both completely acceptable to me. Woo. They stayed for a couple days and it was su...

Jeesh... guess I've been snoozing on the whole blog thing eh? And still no snotty comments from Fred. Go figure. Well, I see I haven't yet put up a craft fair report from the Arcata Holiday Market. Mostly because I didn't take any photos... not as fun to report that way. Ha. But also it was fairly uneventful... bah, I'll make one anyway I suppose. One project I've neglected to report on is my friend's little temporary store in Old Town Eureka, on the Gazebo next to Sjaak's Chocolates . I know you know where that is. So, yeah... two friends of mine who import stuff from Ghana and Vietnam opened this store just for the month of Dec and asked me to consign some of my goods there. Not sure how many I have sold... some. But now that gift giving is over, they are trying to drum up business by having a super blowout sale. So, I guess I'm putting stuff on sale too. I think they plan on being open through Arts Alive on Jan 5 and then close the next day. So for ...

Get the eBay Listings (Slideshow Format) widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox ! Yeah, I have skills. Sortof. I've been making all sorts of doohickeys online lately. My ebay store has lots of bells and whistles, which I've been trying to take advantage of since I do pay a monthly fee. Pretty fun. See how my store is called Bohemian Mermaid Crafts?? Yeah, cuz that doll chick has Bohemian Mermaid as her ID (mine has a 9 in it) so I can't use it to name my store. Sigh. Whatever. I also finally made a myspace page . Ok, I knew it was a very populated site... which is why I wanted to join. Just to promote my biz like all those bands I hear are on there. What I didn't expect was to actually know people. Like local people and bands I love. Trippy. So, I have connected with some friends... AND I'm promoting my biz. Woohoo! Oh, and I just sent out my very first marketing email. Got a sale in like the first hour! Sweet! I kept it simple and linked to my sal...

Of course I was going to post this last week, but every time I started I blathered on and on and on in such an almost pukey way. I made myself sick. Plus, who wants to read all that? I think I can boil it down to a few bullet points. Ha. Try this... Man, am I freakin thankful! I have pretty much the exact life I've wanted, and do just what I please. It all boils down to support, I have lots. Here are the highlights: - Barney, the Bestboyfriendinthewholewideworld . He supports my endeavors in every possible way AND he's very easy on the eyes. - All my friends ROCK . They believe in me even when I don't and are just super awesome people. - My family is pretty cool too . Even though they think I'm a little nutso, always behind me 100%. - This place is magic. I'm thankful every day for this amazing place where I live. The people, the nature, the vibe... all keep me going and allow me to live this creative life. - I'm pretty healthy and capable . Thanks. Mostly, I...

I know you've all been dying to see some new stuff on my web site . Ok, maybe a few of you. Or someone you know ... or once heard of. Whatever. The point is, I have been spending my days taking photos and posting new items to my site. And updating the old ones to look better and hopefully easier to read. I made a check list to keep track of what's done and about half are checked off now. Woo! I added color swatches t o each individual item page, which I think helps a bit. Shows the new colors and odd vari ations of colors. I added a few pieces which I've carried in my booth for a while, but hadn't gotten to the site yet. Woo! Many more to go... like skirts, baby stuff, hats and jewels. But it's coming along. To fix the lighting/camera issues I've been having, I finally gave in and just set up the mannequin outside. I just can't get the indoor lighting right. Grrr. But, it's working ok so far I think. I'm using my old funky camera, since Barney's ...

I'm adjusting. Working on developing a routine for this new working at home thing. So far, um it's not yet in place. Ha. It's a process. What I HAVE done is ... let's see. Posted about a ton of buttons and stickers on my new eBay store. Mostly because they were sitting here in a box right next to me... and they're easy to photograph. I bought a bunch on my last day at the Peace place, while I could still get the cheapo price. Ha. Started working on my web site. The home page was totally deleted and redone. Removing the tables really helped the spacing issues I had. I tried to simplify the top and put the more detailed info further down the page. Once I have some better outfit pics, I'll move them to the top. I've also been taking photos of new colors and garments. Sigh. I have lighting issues. That's always the issue. I'm not sure what the problem is. I'm using the lights from my booth setup and the shot will look well-lit when I'm taki...

Ok, this is a new festival at the Redwood Acres Fairgrounds in Eureka taking place in April and October. It's put on by an artist who thought we needed a show to do during these two slow months for crafts vendors. And she's got the right idea here... again, I'll say how well she put it together, how I like the non profit activity booths, the themes, the quality of vendors, the beauty of the addition of beer to the festival. It's all very good. But, people just don't really know about it yet. I guess. Because attendance is still pretty low and slow. I did pretty well at the spring version... but this time not as well. My neighbor didn't show, so I even had a big Mermaid clearance area (in the empty spot) which didn't really yield results. Oh well. There was music. There was beer. There was a diverse selection of art and crafts. There were some friends to visit with. IF YOU LIKE TO GO TO CRAFT FAIRS, YOU NEED TO ATTEND THIS ONE AND BUY STUFF NEXT TIME! APRIL....

...for YOU to send me money... I'm working. I'm just about done dyeing, gotta finish up the label-sewing, ironing, hanging & pricing. Then, off to my last out of town craft show of the year. Wooo! The Steele Winery in Kelseyville... near Clear Lake off hwy 20. Easy little 3.5 hour drive. I'm hoping this is my last big shebang. According to the vendors I met down there this summer, this is THE woopedydoo event. I'm ready. Looks like the rain is supposed to stop just in time for 73 degree days and sunshine. Yippee. (hey, this could be your big chance to give me some money... you waaaant to go wine tasting this weeeeekeeeeend...) Let's see... what else... oh, yeah. I opened an Ebay Store this week too. We'll see how it goes. There's a monthly fee, but then I can list things in the store for super cheap listing fees but a higher percentage if they sell. They don't show up in searches as readily as regular auctions, mostly just in the store list. There ...

Yeah see, here's the cool part where the universe starts hurtling cash towards me in support of my move to save the world full time. You can be a part of this deep cosmic happening by sending me some money too . See? Ok, well I'm remembering when I left my job at the storage place to pursue my dream of self employment... a bit prematurely, but still. In the span of maybe 2 weeks, people sent me money that I didn't even know I had coming. Hundreds of dollars, I swear. Let's see... I got a power company refund of a deposit I had forgotten about. Which led me to phone my old roommate/dickhead boyfriend for another deposit I recalled helping to pay. Got that back too. There were some show fees I had written off... for a little market I had paid for then stopped attending. Didn't expect the money back. Yet, the organizer walked right up to me on the street and said,"I owe you money, let me write you a check." He insisted, so I took it. THEN, maybe the weirdest ...

Holy crap, what a fun time!! Maybe I have mentioned it before, but I LOVE going down to the Mendocino coast! It's so much like Arcata and home. The people are so cool, the area is so beautiful, the vendors are so talented. It rocks. Caspar Fest was no exception. We really lucked out with the weather, sunny and beautiful... while it poured rain at home on Sunday, I heard. A bit of wind and pretty cold at night, but overall nice nice. Now, there were a few adventures on my way down. I was running pretty late getting out of town Friday, so I thought it would be smart to book a room in Willits for the night. I couldn't set up the booth until Sat morning anyway and the van was full of stuff, which makes sleeping in it a challenge. Also, I wouldn't stress so much about getting there by dark if I wasn't driving all the way. Smart. Yep. I found a good deal online and booked it. Well, when I got there that night I found I had booked it for the following night. Smart. They said ...