I'm a little nervous. . .

I am preparing for a craft show next month, but I am more than a little nervous about it. 😕 First off, this will be the first event I've done in nearly 2 years.  Secondly, being the first event since the cross-country move I have to actually find all my tables, racks, set-up stuffs. 😣 Also, it's the first event in a whole new area, state actually, and who knows if they even know what chainmaille is.  I have some fear that I will end up just sitting there all day and no one will buy anything.  😏

Ok, so nervous may be an understatement or my social anxiety is getting the better of me, it is over a month away and I'm nervous and obsessing already.  

I do have quite a lot to do to get ready aside from digging through the garages to find my racks and shelves and tables.  I need to find a box to hold all my displays. I need to make a few things to fill out the displays. I need to wash and press my tablecloths. I need to find my big metal sheet to display the magnets. I need to figure out how I'm going to display the bigger wire trees because this event is indoors, I can't just hang them from the canopy, I won't have a canopy. 😅 

I may need to rethink which tables and racks I take, if I drive my little car I'm limited to the 4' ft. racks, if I borrow my husband's truck I could take the 6' ft. tall racks and have more space to hang art and at shows like this tall things tend to attract attention. I may need to ask the organizer for some more specifics on space and use and if I'll have a wall. 😐 So many questions with a new venue. Since the event is having a beach themed booth decorating contest, I plan to put the ocean waves paintings front and center and lucky for me my tablecloths are already blue. 😉 After that I get a bit stuck with no canopy or uprights "decorating" gets a bit tricky my tabletops and racks are pretty crowded already with so much stuff for sale. It really is a good thing I have so much time to plan. 😅

Summer Craft Festival 2023

I have not done an in-person event since fall of 2021 before we moved to Georgia last year. 😏 The moving was a process; stuff was in storage for months before we bought the house and actually "moved in".  Even once we had the house and I unpacked everything I couldn't just start doing events I had to register with the state and get sales tax certified, etc.  

I have been researching and looking for events for several months now and the truth is I'm surrounded by really small towns and I don't really want to have to drive hours just to get to events, because I do them alone it just makes too long of a day for me to drive far, set-up, sell all day, break-down, pack-up and drive far home. I was looking at one that was over an hour away and I would have had to get up at 4:30am and by the time it was over and I drove home it would have been like a 17 hour day.😒

I have had some success and yesterday I officially registered for my first event in Georgia!! The Thomasville Summer Craft Festival, I am actually really excited because it is held at the local fairgrounds and I got an indoor spot, so I don't have to pack the canopy, it makes my "set-up" time shorter and easier. 😁 

I really hope it goes well because there is a second "winter" version organized by the same person also at the fairgrounds, so it would be great to do both. 😇

April = taxes

For most people the title may be true, but I did my taxes back in February 😁 and when I say "I" did my taxes I mean my husband. 😉

Although, since moving to Georgia I have to do sales tax filings monthly, which seems weird to me because Indiana had me filing annually. 😏 With slow to no sales online and no in person events, it seems pointless to me to have to file zero returns monthly, but I have been told that after a year I can "request" an annual schedule instead.  

It has been a weirdly unproductive couple of weeks since the "surgery" and stitches, but the good news is it's mostly healed and I will get back to making stuff soon. 😎

Do you want me to be nice or tell the truth?

Not sure why that is a saying? One can tell the truth diplomatically and to me telling the truth IS nice.  I would rather hear an unpleasant honest thing than any lie, maybe that is just me though.  😕

So, when people post things like "hey I just listed my first item did I do it right?" or "I just opened my shop how does it look?"  I do not understand telling them that things look great when in fact their banner is bigger than the screen, the listing only has 1 photo and no sizing info, when their shop is incomplete and has no Meet the Maker or Policies, or, or, or.  Because there are so very many things that most people could improve but you have to be able to tell them that and they have to be able to hear it without taking it personally or being offended. 

Goimagine sends a "getting started checklist" with the welcome email and boy oh boy do I wish more people actually used it. Getting Started Checklist | goimagine Maker Support Center

It is a 7 "step" instructional that goes tab by tab to complete shop information, it includes the correct size for a banner, it includes the definition and difference between a "tag line" and an "announcement", it includes suggestions for what should be in shop policies, it has links to other help articles.  In other words, the checklist has just about everything one needs to start setting up a shop properly so I'm not sure why/how so many people seem to ignore it.  😔  

Maybe they are just excited and think it's not important. 

Maybe they don't get the email because it goes in their spam folder.

Maybe they think because they have an etsy or a shopify or whatever they think they know what they are doing, even though every platform is different. 

I like helping people, I like answering questions.  I wish everyone watched Sarah Sewell's shop critiques and then took her advice to heart and followed through on it. 

I want goimagine to become a huge success, we all know that sellers are an integral part of that, that is why I want every shop to be as complete and professional looking as they can, so we all have the best chance.  😇

If I tell you your banner needs resized or listings need more than 1 photo or more than a single sentence description, I'm not trying to be mean, I'm not picking on you or trying to humiliate you, I am in fact trying to help you see from a buyer's perspective that your shop and/or items could use better representation. 

I know my shop is not perfect, my photos need work, my listings descriptions are dry and technical, my mosiac needs more banners, we all have things we can improve. 😉

#MarchMeettheMaker

Honestly, this is the longest I've ever stuck with the posting challenge, in past years I've only managed a few posts before getting distracted or sidelined.  I think the fact that this year's challenge has weekends off has helped me personally.  Also, I've been using fb's planner to schedule the posts, which is helpful to be able to plan the whole week of posts in advance.

With 13 posts down and only 10 more to go I may actually complete the challenge this year, although I admit I have no idea what the next prompt even means. 😅 What is "glow up"? anyone?!?! anyone?!?

March Madness. . .

Not that I'm a basketball fan more like I'm mad it's March already. 😏 I've been sick for 2 weeks so February kind of got away from me and I haven't gotten a lot of things done that I had planned to. 😥 I did not get my submission in for the #MakerChallenge on goimagine. I have not found or registered for any in person events yet. I have not gotten all the art sealed or listed yet. ~sigh~

But I am starting to feel better so hopefully I'll get back to getting things done soon. Oh, and I did get my new #goimagine business cards, which are pretty fabulous. 😁 I have entries lined up for the next 2 maker challenges, but one of them I still need to get photographed and make the listing.

planning vs. plans

 I always have a plan, but things rarely go according to plan.

Do you know that old saying "planning is everything the plan is nothing"?  By planning we think through possibilities, so that when things don't go the way we planned we can adjust, adapt, mitigate, re-direct.  I am a in a constant state of planning and adjusting. LOL😅

I did finish some new 3" inch trees and even got them listed. 👏

I want to get back to painting but I am still working on sealing, touch ups and cataloging the last batch of canvases, so paint must wait. 😞

I have started on some new 5" inch trees, which I hope to have finished and list by the end of the week. 😇 

This week I need to file my first monthly Georgia sales tax report, which is weird to me because in Indiana I only had to file once a year. I suspect I will be filing multiple zero reports. LOL  Maybe sales will pick up online, maybe I'll find some local events, maybe 2023 will be better than I expect. 🤞