Craft Show Notes

The Bizarre Bazaar has come and gone making me a little wiser (that wisdom has not extended to my ability to correctly spell 'bazaar' consistently), the owner of some lovely items that I received in trade but, unfortunately, none the richer. None poorer either so that's a good thing! Note to self: don't do a small craft show unless you have a free babysitter. All that said, if I can break even and have a day with my husband hanging out with a bunch of fantastic artists it's not a loss! The Low Key Arts Building is a super cool space run by super cool people.

My sis-in-law is awesome! She made me this craft show apron from jeans and a really cute pink skulls fabric! It was a nasty, cold, misty day outside and a little chilly inside so I was all bundled up most of the day.

My husband manning The Beehive booth. We were lucky enough to have Doc Ray, the fabulous tie-dye artist, next to us again! We left with shirts for the whole family in exchange for his wife picking out some goodies, what an awesome couple. We definitely got the best end of that deal.

My most favorite thing of all is finally getting a Heather Montgomery pendant! Woo-hoo! These are not just any 'ole slapped together pendants. She crafts her pendants using vintage postage stamps, vintage poker chips and some quality craftsmanship. I had spied this pendant at the Handmade for the Holidays show and was excited to see it hadn't found a home yet. The stamp has an image of a foot painting a rainbow. Another awesome trade!

The Beehive on Etsy is back to stocked with plenty more goodies to be added daily. Until next time, Happy Handmade Holidays!

Craft Show Survivor

Well, I'm no longer a craft show virgin! The Handmade for the Holidays show Saturday was a great success in my book. I have nothing to compare it to but all I'd hoped in a first show was to make back the money that I put in on fees and displays and to get my little craft show feet wet and I think that happened. I was also incredibly blessed to experience so much love and support from friends, family and complete and utter strangers who were all so generous and flattering.

I loved my booth but am afraid it would be way to cumbersome for me to haul anywhere out of town.

I had forgotten how wonderful it is to spend quality time with other artists. My booth neighbors were fantastic, everyone was friendly and roamed around meeting each other and I got to meet several people that I've talked to online for years but never met in person. I could just go on and on about that part of it. The people make it and this was so much fun!

It was interesting to see what sold in person that doesn't sell online and what didn't sell at the show that I expected to. I also see ways I think I can improve for the next one. Overall for a first timer I really like the way my booth turned out.

I really liked my displays, especially the front table and Christmas table. I also liked the unusual shape of my space. I was a little bit crowded on my big table though and am thinking up some ways to give the little goodies some breathing room.

My lovely assistant for the day.

Photo taken by Lisa of Golden Muses on Etsy

I thought the crowds were great for a first time show. It wasn't super jam packed but there was a steady stream of shoppers.

Photo taken by Lisa of Golden Muses on Etsy

I finally got to meet Brandy of Ekioart on Etsy, she's also on my street team, AREtsy. And I adopted two of her robots to give the boys for Christmas. So adorable and incredibly soft. You can get yours here.

Photo taken by Lisa of Golden Muses on Etsy

I made a fantastic trade for one of Briana's lovely bars of vegan eucalyptus spearmint soaps and it is divine! There's a good chance I'm now an addict! Briana was one of the gals who ran this show and you can purchase her soaps online at her shop Nest on Etsy.

Needless to say I will be doing this more in the future. Now that I've been through the process I think it won't be so all consuming like it was this time. Figuring out set-ups, how to take money etc etc really took up some time. Oh and I'm really glad I signed up for Propay to take credit cards. Those transactions added up to about 1/4th of my sales and I can see that growing in the future.

Stay tuned to my shop, The Beehive. I'll be filling it up with all the goodies that didn't sell at the show.

Upsetting The Delicate Balance

Mr. Golden Curls and Mr. Cash all tuckered out.

Just letting you know we're still alive. My computer died, again. This time it looks as though it is not to rise from the dead and through this I'm realizing what a big online addict I really am. And how much I hate to have my routine upset. On the upside, my house is starting to look a lot cleaner! I am managing to get some things done in the mornings and evenings on my husband's laptop so be sure to check out the latest to my shop!

Put Down The Chocolate Bunny

Lest we in our caramel-filled chocolate egg, sugar-induced stupor forget, something really cool happened today! Now, where did I put that Peep?!

A Merry Handmade Christmas

Handmade die cut paper boxes and tags filled with candy for our neighbors and church staff.

I'm a stay at home mom and my husband's a youth minister. You can probably guess that can make for a penny pinching lifestyle on most occasions and saving a few pennies during the holidays is the only way to go. For us that means trading money for elbow grease and going handmade baby! I couldn't share all the goodies I'd made as gifts until after they'd been given so here they are!

These magnets with matching monogrammed tin were for my sister-in-law.

My absolute favorite handmade gift wasn't even made by my hands but by my baby's. Mr. Golden Curls specifically requested that he be the one to make Uncle Casey's gift. "Sure what do you want to make him?" "I want to make a thing where I cut a bunch of red paper and glue it to another paper." "A collage?" "Yep." "Alright, collage it is!" I was so excited he wanted to join in and when he was done and I had it all framed up I was tempted to keep it for myself. I know, not in the Christmas spirit! I finally decided I could just have him make me one of my own so Uncle Casey received his collage.

My husband's sis, Sarah, requested some clothespin magnets so I made her these to match her newly redone kitchen.

And special bookmarks for my oldest nephew and niece.

I also received gifts that will help me with my handmade goodies... a mega Starbucks gift card, I like to think of Starbucks less as coffee and more as my beloved muse. A Hobby Lobby gift card, always the perfect gift for me. And three really nice paper organizers from Target. (you can see the three drawer here, the 12 x 12 paper shelf here, and apparently you don't get to have a link the the third, I couldn't find it!) Thanks everyone!

Mamma vs. Crafter

Sometimes it can be pretty tough to get much of anything accomplished around here, as most of you can imagine! Many of you don't have to imagine because you live it too. The other day I got asked if I was going to list more of my Jesus Saves cards. I was tremendously flattered and of course set about to oblige. Yesterday and today I worked way harder on finishing such a meager number of cards than is healthy for the maintenance of sanity. Good grief, I thought I wouldn't get them finished until the boys moved off to college!

I felt a little guilty being frustrated with my precious angels with a dozen or so smiling Jesus faces staring at me. Soccer goalie or not, He's the baddest cat on this block!


Part of my frustration stemmed from the fact that I was working at the kitchen table, just like the olden days. Why was I doing this when I have a fantastic new craft room at my disposal? I think the next picture might answer that quite nicely!

The whole room looks like this! It's like a paper bomb went off and ever since creating my lovely light box I've been lacking a work table. Ok, I know, if I would take a moment to reorganize and tidy up a bit it would be functional. That's the first thing on my to-do list for tomorrow! Sometimes it's hard to do that part when all you want to do is make stuff!


Some of the interruptions while creating cards today:

• Lil' Spitfire getting up from nap 4 times
• Dog needs let out as soon as my bum finally hits the chair
• Delivery guy brings a delivery, as they're prone to doing (the boys' Halloween costumes, yea!)
• Mr. Golden Curls tries on his costume
• The dog "needs" out again
• Too late for napping now, I let Spitfire get up
• Spitfire sees his costume so he has to try it on
• I pin the arms and legs on his costume while he's wearing it. Sort of along the lines of trying to put a sweater on a crazed Chihuahua I imagine.
• Help Spitfire on/off the potty
• I rue the decision to let Spitfire get up as he throws a massive tantrum about anything and everything while I frantically try to glue card parts together between (or during) outbursts and timeouts so they'll be finished by the time we leave for church where, for some unknown reason, I've taken on co-teaching the Jr. High Girls Bible Study.
• I have to referee several fights between two boys, neither of whom took a nap or really even rested and therefore are grumpy and impossible to reason with.

Four hours later I've managed to complete four measly sets of Jesus Saves cards! I know, woe is me! But sometimes it really does feel like woe is me! The amazing thing is that even with all the woe is me-ing I do, being a mamma and getting to stay home with my boys and craft on the side is the most rockin' awesome job I could ever have dreamed of having!

From Bob Ross to Edward Kienholz: My Artistic Evolution

My artistic evolution was a very slow one, truly an evolution. I don't think my parents recognized my inclinations as something that could be encouraged with classes or field trips. They weren't unsupportive, quite the opposite, I was always the one they came to for creative advice of every kind, they were very proud of my fledgling art projects and I knew it. They didn't have that "we just thought you'd do something with your life, we thought you'd be a doctor" mentality, they just never said "hey, lets get this kid to an art museum!"

The first time I did go to an art museum was in Buffalo NY, I was 18 years old and had been taken there by an ex-boyfriend who, I didn't realize at the time, was trying to win me back through my growing love of art. In my ignorance I wasn't distracted by the motives of my company but I was so distracted by my disbelief that these major, historical masterpieces would just be left within the reach of grubby art loving hands, sneezes and general air gunk that I spent the whole time thinking that these must instead be reproductions and that the real deal must be locked safely away in some super secret, waterproof, air proof, sneeze proof, grubby hand proof bunker in the desert. I realized later that I had indeed been in the presence of the real deal and had unfortunately missed out on the experience because of my disbelief.

When I try to think back to when the whole art thing started for me, I guess it was always there. My dad always drew these funny cartoon faces that I often requested. My mom's artistry was expressed in beautifully decorating her home and crafting, sewing in particular. That crazy lady could whip things up out of mid air. I once saw her get ready for a 4th of July party and decide 15 minutes before departure time that she wasn't festive enough, pull out the sewing machine and fabric and (without a pattern) create a stars and stripes vest and don it in time to walk out the door without being late! When I was a kid I could sit forever perfecting my coloring skills. I looked at fellow colorers and tried to imitate what I liked and avoid what I didn't and, like a true budding art nerd, I grew annoyed at the limitations of the crayon. In grade school I got a book on how to draw teddy bears wearing different outfits. My personalized teddy bears were the amazement of my peers and started to be heavily requested. Had I the entrepreneurial sense of Diana I could've been in business for myself, but I didn't so I took special orders on my classmates' teddies, what kind of clothes they wanted on their bears, did they want a hat etc. etc. and then gifted my early works.

I continued to teach myself to draw through books, but they got a little more sophisticated than teddies, thank goodness. I took my first art class as a high school Jr. and was sorely disappointed. Draw a picture of your summer vacation was not the kind of artistic stimulation I was craving. Art club was no better. The only thing I remember doing with them is painting silly Halloween backdrops for the school's Halloween dance. I left high school in possession of fantastic self-taught drawing skills but artistically illiterate.

College was artistic heaven for me ("You mean I can get credit towards an actual degree for taking a film history class?!"). My world went from my self-learn books in my room to an entire history of art from the first cave scribble to the present. I was overwhelmed in the most wonderful way. Then I got to take my History of Modern Art class and I was hopelessly head over heals in love. Roy Lichtenstein, Joseph Cornell, Frida Kalo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Egon Schiele, Edward Kienholz, Cindy Sherman ...my heart beats faster even as I type their names! I happily lugged my 50lbs of art history books around campus just for the joy of discovering more of this world in the dark of a lecture room lit only by beautiful art slides by the hundreds. As I unearthed and studied my heroes my art finally started becoming what I had envisioned since the beginning, something expressive, something me, something full of emotion; sadness and joy all rolled up in a mess of beautiful paint, mixed media pieces and finally an installation. My artistic evolution felt complete.

I've hardly picked up a paintbrush since graduating college and moving out of my campus studio. After graduation I actually used my degree as a graphic designer and worked for a card company. I guess that filled my creative needs and then, well, life just takes over. Marriage, kids, moves, new jobs...I started to really scrapbook after my first boy was born. I started out saying to myself, "There's no way I'm getting addicted to this corny craft, I'm an artist just making a baby book" but I was gone before I knew what had happened. But that is a completely different revolution! I debate painting again but don't know if I ever will, I don't know that I really need that any more. Time will tell. Right now I'm pretty content playing around with paper!

I've Been Scheduled

When I keep a schedule I can keep my sanity. I haven't had one in awhile and it was starting to show. I can now breathe a little! I was working myself up into a stressed out ball of panicked nerves so I finally sat down and wrote out a new schedule. Without that silly thing to look at I either panic at all that needs done and the feeling that it all needs done RIGHT NOW! or I pace circles in the living room carpet trying to remember what I was just on my way to do.

When I very first decided a schedule was in order I tried the schedule-every-cotton-pickin'-minute-of-your-day method. That sort of worked, because I'm a perfectionist control freak, but bored me to tears and put me in a tizzy anytime something unscheduled had to happen. Then I settled on the more relaxed schedule where I have a short list of things to accomplish in the morning (in any order that catches my fancy that day), one for afternoon, and one for evening. These are all things I want to do every day. My afternoon list includes a weekly chore (ex. Monday is clean all floors day) Then after each set of things has been accomplished I consider it my free time That means, barring too many unexpected head injuries or diapering incidents, I can have 3 free times! This is when I will pester people with email, rant incessantly on my blog, make stuff...you know, all the really fun stuff that I would sit around doing all day if it weren't for a schedule.

I'm working on an etsy specific schedule like this where I have things that need done daily and others that would be better as weekly or monthly things. It's amazing how much time I have when I follow the schedule! Yesterday I was determined to stick to my schedule and I did it! Not only the necessary stuff but I had tons of time to do whatever the heck I wanted, which yesterday was:

1. relisting a few items to my shop
2.proof reading all my etsy listings
3.making some minor changes to my shop announcements, policies, and appearance
4. unifying the copy in my listings a bit
5. adding metric measurements to my listings
6. getting a little more done on my craft room
7. emptying a few more boxes

It may not seem like a lot but the etsy stuff was tedious and necessary (though I rather enjoyed it). I actually was a little embarrassed that I had so many spelling errors! I think I need to start reading more or something. I used to have great spelling but now it seems to be on the decline. I blame the internet.

Skunk De-Funk And Other News

I finally had the chance to try and rid Maya of the skunk smell today. I always kind of thought the effects of skunk attack were a myth, but now I know it's not. Maya still smelled awful after 2 days outside! Thank you to glassbead, a fellow aretsian who gave me the skunk de-funk recipe that I now pass on to anyone unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of an angry skunk.

1 1lb box of baking soda
1 32 oz bottle of hydrogen peroxide
mix with a little dog shampoo
add a little water if needed to make it usable
rub all over your dog, working into the skin
soak for 5-10 minutes
rinse

I actually forgot to add the soap in the recipe. What I did was soak with the magic elixir, rinse and shampoo her. Seems to have worked like a charm. Her head does still smell since I didn't want to get peroxide in her eyes, but I can't smell it unless my nose is practically on her so I let her move back in. It's pretty funny to use, the peroxide made it sound like I was fixing a giant bowl of Rice Crispies in the tub!

In other news, we'll be moving on Wednesday. The house that we were supposed to be closing on and moving into on Thursday isn't finished. Actually they don't seem to have accomplished anything in the past few weeks, nor do they seem in a hurry to do so. That's tremendously disappointing but we're moving anyway. We'll all be living under the same roof again at the house of the angels that have taken in my husband. Being the extremely shy, social anxiety ridden person that I am, the thought of living with complete strangers for an unknown amount of time threw me into a bit of an emotional tizzy, to put it mildly, but I'm slowly recovering from that and trying to see the good points. Like the hugely wonderful fact that our family will be together again! The boys are breaking my heart these days. Last week when I told Mr. Golden Curls that Pappa was coming to visit he said to me "maybe if we play lots of really fun games Pappa will want to stay with us." and Lil' Spitfire, who usually watches Pappa drive off and then goes back inside to play, instead stood on the porch screaming "No! No! Don't go Pappa! Come back!" and cried for a good 5 minutes afterward. They're breaking my heart and it's time to go!

The boys have been at Grandma's since yesterday afternoon and I've been kicking some major bootie to wrap up the odds and ends here. There are a lot more of those than I realized! I closed my etsy shop while we move, that was really hard to do. It looks so empty and sad! But I look forward to re-opening with new enthusiasm when we're settled.

The Big-Ass Book Of Crafts is MINE!

Tuesdays have become my 50% break from motherhood. Lil' Spitfire goes to Mother's Day Out and Mr. Golden Curls and I have have some quality time together. I'm also able to accomplish some of the housework that just doesn't happen when a rambunctious 2 year old is reigning terror throughout the home. Today we went to Barnes and Noble for the four millionth, six hundred fifty four thousand, one hundredth and second time, what can I say, I'm lacking creativity in all areas of my life these days. Mr Golden Curls doesn't mind a bit, he's a man of consistency and routines. He gets that from his mamma.

As part of my routine, I picked up some books to look at while he played trains. This book has been one I've picked up every visit for the past few months. I often get hooked on a book but tired after a few visits when I feel I have it thoroughly looked at. Since this one seems to have stuck I decided it was worth taking home. It's filled with lots of wonderful random crafts and alot of rockin' cool paper crafts, which allowed me to justify it as a business necessity. Ever since I got it home I've been rubbing my hands together mischievously, already anxiously awaiting the boys bedtime so I can dig into making something wonderful!