Friday, June 29, 2012

Friends and jewelry and ample amounts of cheese

Hello working world.

All of you nine-to-fivers sitting in your offices, wondering why you packed a baloney sandwich when you were obviously thinking turkey.

I won't rub in that I'm looking out at the ocean on Cape Cod right now, or that the sound of the waves consistently drowns out Law and Order reruns at night.



But that's beside the point.

Corey and I have been in North Truro since Saturday and are packing up to leave early tomorrow.  We're this close to Provincetown, which is where we've spent a lot of our time, walking up and down commercial street; shopping, window shopping, filling up on Portuguese baked goods, and thinking aloud "are those storm clouds coming our way??"

Every Thursday you can find an arts and antique fair downtown.  I found it.

Which reminds me that I forgot to go back for the old sink stand I wanted.  Dangit.

I met a very nice girl there.  She was selling some old goodies that included a few scarves I would have loved to cut up.  For what purpose, I'm not quite sure, but I don't always have a plan when I make purchases.  Corey doesn't understand it.

The girl uses turquoise in the jewelry she makes and she had a display of earrings in her booth.  Not an entire representation of her work, but enough to make out what exactly she's about.


It was very pretty; intricate with bold colored beading.  I'm more of a simple gal myself but I can appreciate details in others' work.  I can pick out good composition when I see it.

Hello?  I did spend one whole year as an art major in college.

I'm kicking myself a little for not catching her name for the purpose of, at the very least, not having to call her "the girl" in this post!

What I loved most about our brief interaction was that as a slightly more seasoned, semi-professional crafter I was able to share some of my experiences with her (solicited, of course, i'm not that kind of girl) (wait, what does that even mean?  what i was trying to say is i don't go all yammering on about myself to people who don't need yammering to),  we talked about what works for me, what doesn't.  At the end of it all she can do what she wants with it, but she'll be able to make a decision with an iddy bit more information than she had before.

Helpful?  Maybe.  Hopefully.  But at the very least I wanted to impart that as a fellow crafter who would also like to make a little dough at this gig, I'm here; for support, and advice and criticism.  The good kind.

Ohmigosh.

That was cheesy.  So cheesy.  I'm sorry you had to read that...unless you're like me, trying to make your way in this crazy world.

Again.  Please excuse.

Time to pack anyway.  Adios Cape Cod!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

A study in booth design

Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council.

LARAC for short.

For 40 years they've run a spring craft show that is now nearly busting at the seams with vendors, attendees, and lemonade stands.

And yet, still only one crab cake sandwich truck.  Why?

Why??

This year was my second as a vendor.  You can read about my horribly wet first attempt here.  It was a live and learn experience.  I lived.  And learned.

What did I learn, you ask?

Enough to draw people in to make purchases, which aside from the enjoyment of making the goods, is pretty darn important.

I wanted, no I needed, a booth design that was more inviting.


...so I went with more layers.

Height.



And if girlfriend is going to claim she possesses whimsy there'd better be some element of fanciful.

If milk glass, driftwood stolen from the shores of the Pacific Northwest, and antique silver trays turned chalkboard surfaces does not scream fancy I don't know what does.

Ok.  Maybe lace does.


A lot of my favorite display items are garage sale finds, things families have no use for, like this old wooden tray (and the picture frame from the first picture) I walked away with for $3.  It's former owner, an old man that lives down the street from me said, "Sure, I'll give it to you for three.  I can tell it's going to a good home."


Little known fact: I have this thing for collecting picture frames.

And milk glass.

And cow creamers.

Among many other items.

But I put the frames to work here with a little help from a Staples pack of cork board and sewing pins.  Easy, easy, easy.

(white wire frame is another garage sale fine.  i love it more than life itself.)

The colorful table runner is courtesy of Joann's Fabric (and my mom's handiwork on the Bernina), but I don't think you'll find any of it for yourself.  I've cleared every bolt from every shelf from Queensbury, New York to Yorba Linda.

But I exaggerate.

......

More to come on this great festival and some deets on my displays.  It was a two day affair, after all, and just one post doesn't nearly do it justice.

Plus I'm hoping to make one more appeal to the Internets for another crab cake sandwich vendor.  The world is ready, LARAC festival organizers, for more crab cakes.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Almost ready!

My new favorite thing to do is tell people to hold on to their britches.

Why?

It's a dash old-timey and a sprinkle stuff-I-wish-we-still-said.

And maybe I get a little giggly when I read it real fast and it looks like something else.

Did you try it?

Are you giggling?

No?

Ok....then it's just me.  Well this is embarrassing.

Anywho, what I'm trying to say is that you should just wait one hot minute because something lovely is going to happen here!  Ashley, owner of Little Leaf and blogger at Our Little Apartment is designing a blog for me to share this:


...and this:


...and sometimes this:

....because everyone needs to complain about the clumpiness of an awful tube of mascara every now and then.

So until we're up and running, keep holding onto those britches and check my facebook page for more deets!

........

UPDATE: Sooooo, we are obviously up and running.  Many, many thanks to Ashley for the design and not LOLing at my computer illiteracy.  "Self host WHAT?!"