Craft Show III, ADD, and Me.

It's been a busy week.  Sunday, I did my third show, which I helped to coordinate.  Had some new tricks up my sleeve, including the nifty stamps I used on my once-plain brown paper bags.  The setup is essentially the same as it was last time...

...but there are a bunch of things I'm looking to change up.  My bunting is starting to look kind of rumpled, which is not quite the image I'm shooting for.  Also, I'm feeling like all the green is a bit much, so I'm on the prowl for ideas about what to cover the table with.  I forgot a bunch of my signs, and had to fudge a couple and do without one entirely.  And see that solitary burlap display in the back?  Must. be. revamped.

Luckily, I had a slew of helpers this go round.

I'm pretty sure this one ate most of my profits.

And this one wasn't too happy to leave once the festivities had ended.

The studio has taken a hit during this succession of shows, so I'm hoping to put it to rights this week.  My workbench is hidden under all manner of findings and tools.

And my Power Tool Station (okay, the counter next to the sink) is the very picture of disarray (and headless silverware).

Naturally, I'm coping with the urgent need for organization in the way I know best: ignoring it and doing something altogether different. Here's a dark, amateurish photo of the business card holder I put together this afternoon while the Huz took the kidlets to a movie.  It's made of balsa wood, buttons, and the ever present paper bags.  Amazing what lurks inside these cupboards of mine.

On a final note, my new bracelets were the hottest seller at this event.  (Which was cool, since I've been sweating blood over them.)  Any clever ideas for quotes or phrases to stamp on them---with no more than 30 characters?  Yeah, that's been keeping me busy, too...

Off to light candles with the family...hope your week is filled with light!

%(^$&! I Screwed Up Again! (or "Momma's Got a New Keychain.")

I'm slaving away like a madwoman to get ready for my Show Number Three, and here's what I've got to show for it:

And this.  (Keep Calm and Pay Attention, Woman!)

And this. (Tricky, no?)

And, embarrassingly, this.  (Failure to plan...)

I take significant pride in the fact that I'm a spell-check with a pulse, but apparently this neurosis talent does not carry over to metal.  I've got a nice little stack of silver-plated mess-ups piled up on the floor next to the workbench, and I think I've figured out to do with them.  I'm gonna make me a windchime!  Because, really, the thought of just chucking those laboriously scavenged, polished, cut and systematically screwed up bits of flatware just rubs me the wrong way.

Meanwhile, I almost managed to do this one right---I was so excited!---and then I fudged the last letter.  So I've got a fancy new keyring, complete with wonky "n."

No biggie...Like the fabulous Jess, I can handle the wonk. 

Craft Show #2: Done!

The "after" isn't a whole lot different from the "before," is it? This was a terrific show---my second, for those of you who've just tuned in or aren't paying attention---and I'm still trying to get my proverbial act together.  I made a bunch of sales, though, and people had lots of nice things to say about my work, so it was a success in my book, hands down

.

 Check out my new bunting!  Yup, that's the one I was working on while Chevi had her surgery.  It's lighter and easier to schlep around than the big wooden sign I made for my first show.  Also a heck of a lot easier to hang.

 See those burlap necklace displays?  They're about to get a significant facelift, because the "look" of my setup has changed pretty drastically since I made them. I also used them to hold my ornaments this go-round, since the hanger I made for the last show was un-hangable in this setup.  I need to work on that, I think...

 Okay, this display is my current favorite---it's lightweight, holds a boatload of product, and cost me nothing.  (Except that I had to find a new location for the potatoes, because that's the crate they usually live in.  Don't ask me how I stumbled upon this little stroke of genius---just be glad it happened and know that the spuds are doing just fine in their slightly less glamorous new-old plastic-milk-crate digs.  Get it?  Digs? Potatoes?)

 New product for this show---my washer keychains!  Even had the wherewithal to put together a drawing for a freebie, which generated a surprising amount of interest.  People got a kick out of the idea of designing their own keychains, and a couple of folks actually wrote down their ideas along with their names and email info on their entries. 

 My button jewelry got a lot of attention, and the sheer number of people who told me tales of their mothers' or grandmothers' button boxes/tins/jars boggled my mind.  If I had a button for every person who mentioned the huge stashes of buttons they have collecting dust at home, I wouldn't have to troll the thrift shops and estate sales the way I do!  (but, really---how much fun would that be?)

All in all show number two was a winner.  And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a birthday cake to frost and a pinata to hang.  Miss Chevi is having her seventh birthday part this afternoon, and her mom has been a little too craft-show-focused this week to get much planning done.  So I'm off to fly by the seat of my pants once again....I'll be back with photographic evidence later!  (Here's a teaser from the actual birthday---which I was reminded incessantly wasn't her real party---last Sunday.  Please disregard shoddy cake frosting.)

First Craft Show: Debriefing

So I did my first show on Sunday.  And I made back my booth fee, which was my first concern.  I even sold a little beyond that, so I’m feeling like it was a success.  My booth looked a little thin, in retrospect, so I’ll need to beef up my inventory before the next one rolls around.  I was very happy with the ornament display my 12-year-old helped me put together:

And I found myself in dire need of an earring showbox once I’d set up most of my table.  Luckily, I’d packed my trusty glue gun --along with a ridiculous and unnecessary assortment of ”just in case” goodies---in my supply box(es).   So I MacGyvered this little drawer display that I’ll be using in the future.

Brooches, rings, and pendants all landed in this mini-muffin pan that got sprayed green the night before the show. 

I was amazed to find that I hadn’t forgotten anything at all---not the camera, the wire cutters, or even my special bag of vendor Red Hots.  I did a bit of wirework while I manned my booth, and people seemed happy to watch even if they had no interest in buying.  I'm looking forward to round two next month!

My Creative Space: Sticky

Let no one tell you that all caulk is created equal. And furthermore, let no one tell you that shopping for caulk is anything like shopping for, say, shoes. Because oftener than not, color is the deciding factor in my shoe shopping. Apparently, this should not be the case when one is caulk shopping. You see, I painted my window frames, I cut pegboard to fit, and I painted the pegboard. I waited for everyhting to dry, and was alarmed to discover thast in spite of my frequent pre-cut measuring, there were gaps betwixt my painted frames and my painted pegboard. At this point, I turned to The Huz for advice.
"Caulk," he offered. "Caulk will fill in the little (he was being gracious here) spaces. And it comes in colors!" Off I toddled to my Home (Depot) away from home. I don't have a whole lot of caulk experience, but I know where they keep it. (Across from the spray paint, in case you were wondering...) Anyhoo, they had lots and lots of caulk. All kinds of caulk. And, lo, it came in a host of colors, one of which matched the Dark Walnut of my frames to a tee, although my fancy color was a smidge pricey. Still, it was only a dollar more, and I was getting a little fed up with the whole project, so I wasn't about to quibble. I sallied forth to my favorite checkout guy, who batted not one eyelash at the latest in my string of Depot-purchases. "Have fun!" he called after me, and off I went.

After the exhaustive (and exhausting) search for the caulk gun was over, I set about caulking the gaps. Sort of. Because this caulk had the texture of, say...cookie dough. Which is tough to extrude through a knitting-needle sized hole. Thinking I was being a bit of a girl, I manned up and kept at it, sweating and swearing like I possessed Y chromosomes in spades. (Did I mention that this little adventure was taking place at the dining room table? It was, as the weather had turned gray and relentlessly soggy overninght, driving me in from my usual backyard post.) Finally, halfway through the second frame, I called in the local muscle, who indicated that I'd managed to buy some funky caulk. He did finish the job, though, and I left everything to dry on the table. I was chagrined to find that the caulk hadn't cured when I woke up the next morning, or even by supper that evening. Which prompted another trip Home (Depot)-ward in search of Regular Caulk in The Wrong Shade of Brown. Things were comparatively easy from that point onward, but there were some significant spray-paint moments involved. I'm exhausted, I'm covered in still-sticky-caulk, and I'm nowhere NEAR ready for this show on Sunday. Any advice, people? 

  

More creative (and less sticky) spaces here.

Not enough paint in the world.

I've been playing around with my booth setup all week, getting ready for my show on Sunday.  This is what it looked like this morning, before I decided to ditch the little corner shelf on the right and go with my original idea---reusing some windows I picked up at ReStore (my favorite place in the world) a few weeks back.

They look like this.

Well, they did before I knocked out all the glass.  Despite hubby's instructions to carefully cut out the caulk, then remove the glass panes in one piece, I headed to the trashcans after roughly four minutes of painstaking progress-less-ness and resorted to this.

Which was messy and nerve-wracking and not a little bit stupid, but yielded the quick results you know I crave.  I did a bit of tidying up afterward with a razor blade and some pliers and the orbital sander, but all in all it was relatively painless. (Look, Ma!  No band-aids!)

After being sanded and patched and primed, they looked like this.  And then, of course, I ran out of spray paint.  (Again.  The guy at Home Depot is certain I'm a graffiti artist, despite my fervent assertions to the contrary.) So now I'm off in search of some more Dark Walnut.  And then I'll be back, to show you the finished product, I hope.

But before I go, here's the original hardware, all primed and waiting to be painted up shiny.  You like?

My Creative Space: Sniff.

The germies have won this war.  Whatever little virus my kidlets have been passing around has hit the mama, and she's fallen, hard.  My throat is raw, my ears are itchy, and I have a hacking cough that makes me sound like an 80 year old man.  Jealous?  And in spite of it all, I'm plugging away, trying to get the shop back on track.  "All very nice," you say?  "Show us the craft," you implore?

So here it is.

I'm planning to do my first craft show next Sunday, and I needed to come up with a quick and cheap way to display my jewelry.   So I raided the garage and came up with a trio of collage frames that lost their glass in the move, and sprayed them with my old standby, Dark Walnut.  Then I cut foamcore to fit the frames and covered it with a piece of coffee sack I had left over from another project.  I stapled the burlapped  boards in place, and started playing around with display setups.    (Don't worry---this is just a portion of what I've got to sell.  There will be a rash of impromptu display-making throughout the week, I'm sure. 

See?  I just used some shiny little sewing pins to hold them in place---nice and flexible for ADD Girl's constantly changing idea-go-round.

More spaces here.