Weekly update. . .welcome to November

Welcome to November, there has been a shift in weather all over the country but down here in Georgia the cold did not last. 😎 You just can't keep those 80's away. I have the big WinterFest event next weekend. I call it big because it will be big for me, and I should have a "big" 10'x15' booth. 

I'm not really ready, I don't feel ready. I had so many plans, but life got in the way and most of it I am just letting go. 😏 Although, the "letting go" is not easy, I have been planning for this event for months.  I am making a few things and I will do something about the pendant display even though I don't know what yet. 😅 It may sound weird but my biggest worry at the moment is "what am I going to wear?!?!" I don't own an ugly sweater, I have a few Christmas sweaters, but they are actually nice. So, I am definitely not winning the ugly sweater contest, and probably not the booth decorating contest either, but I will at least try for that one. 😉

I am working on decorating a wreath with the star ornaments to use as display, it's not done yet. 😉 I am almost decided that I will take my mini-Christmas tree.  I keep going back and forth because it's bulky and awkward to pack but it will make great decor and display. 😐 Stars on the wreath, balls on the tree, looking very Christmas-y, add a Santa hat on the sign and some "snow" blanket on the shelves and it should be a pretty "winter" looking "holiday" display. 😁 In my head it looks great, so we'll just have to wait and see if I can pull it off.  

Weekly update. . .1 down 2 to go

I did the first of my 3 scheduled holiday season events yesterday and I am exhausted. I got up so crazy early, to make sure I had plenty of time for the drive and set-up, that I was literally unloading and setting up in the dark. 😅 

I wasn't super thrilled with the uneven grassy area for set up, it made things difficult, my wire racks need level ground. 😐 Plus I watched several older people pause, look, speak from the pavement but it was like they were afraid to step off the pavement into my booth and I don't blame them. 😞 However, that type of thing is always a risk with outdoor events, especially ones you've never been to before. 

Overall though it was a beautiful day weather-wise and there was a good crowd, so sales did happen. 😉 Bye-bye Fire&Ice painting, see you never again little bird's nest tree 

Now the countdown clock resets for the next event, which I am not as nervous about because I have been to that venue before. 😏 I do have stuff I am worried about, like how to display the Christmas ornaments and re-doing the pendant display, but the earring tray displays seemed to work out yesterday as I saw several people touching them looking thru and picking up earrings. 😁 

Weekly update. . .freaking out

Less than a week left before the first event and my anxiety is going through the roof and I'm starting to panic that I'm not ready. The Boston event is outdoors so weather will be a factor, I find myself freaking out over how much art to take: part of me is like don't take much, art is a hard sell, I don't like exposing it to excessive sun or heaven forbid other even less friendly weather. 😟 BUT it should be a really good crowd and you cannot sell what you don't take so. . .😕 Then there is the display itself, I haven't set up a 10x10 outdoor booth in a couple of years, so while I have a couple of standard layouts, I have no way of knowing which way my booth will face in relation to the sun, which determines side-wall which can affect the rest of the setup. 😐 There are always too many unknowns with a new event.

I bought a couple of new and different things for jewelry displays, like this board with the embedded hooks. I had originally been thinking of using it for the pendants, but the leather cords don't hang neatly. 😞

Also, some of them were just too long and it became obvious that it was not going to work, at least not for these. However, I'm stubborn by nature and since I already bought it I wanted to use it for something, so I decided to try the actual chain necklaces and they look awesome! 😁

 

So, the pendants have been relegated back to their original board for now while I work out another idea for them, but in the meantime, I am pretty happy with the chains.  Although, I think I do need to rearrange them so they are in order of price, currently they are just kind of in the order I grabbed them because I was just testing how they would hang and if they would all fit. 😉 

I have checked my tent canopy, located and packed my sidewall, have my tables and shelves lined up, but most importantly I found my sandbags. 😎 I need to work out the last of the displays, select the art and start packing.

Weekly update. . .tick tock

No, not the social media app the clock in my head that is counting down to upcoming events. 😉 I am officially less than 2 weeks away from the Boston, GA Mini-Marathon event. 

I am both excited and growing nervous. This always happens, my anxiety builds up before an event but in the end I'll go and everything will be fine. 😇 I am just making lists, planning displays and trying to decide what to take. 

I have also continued to try getting photos of the Christmas ornaments and have declared this batch good enough for now, because I just needed to get them listed. 😎 Last night I added multiple listings, for the different star styles and 2 sizes of balls. I am pretty pleased with myself now that the Christmas Ornaments page is full and most of the listings have coordinating photos. 😁

Check out all the new listings. 

Weekly update. . .what a week

If you follow the facebook page or instagram you've probably seen the photos and videos of the tree removal and trimming that went on, well let me tell you the few things I posted do not begin to cover the Days of work they did. They completely removed 4 trees and trimmed 14 others, so giant boom truck, often dueling chainsaws, mini skid loader for hauling the logs to the trailer, stump grinder, what I'm saying is it has been nerve-wracking-ly noisy around here. Add on top of that some sort of stomach bug making me miserable and it's kind of surprising that I managed to finish anything this week. 😐 However, the pile of ornaments continues to grow and I managed to finish a bracelet and another cross. 

While making the 4th cross, I was reminded that sometimes even the micro-difference between anodized colors can effect the tightness of the weave. The previous 3 colors all had some wiggle in the bottom section but the shiny gold was so tight I didn't think I was going to be able to finish it. 😐

Now I only have one more color I want to try before I start round 2, but I probably won't make a second of the shiny gold unless it sells. 😅 Just watch it become the most popular, that happens sometimes, the thing I like least everyone else loves. 😆 

I have 3 weeks until my first fall event, so it is time to start making lists. I need to get my canopy tent out and set it up to make sure it's good to go, find my sidewalls. 😏 I haven't used the canopy in 2 years, but I pull it out last year and check it so it should be ok, provided it's not moldy or buggy from being out in the garage. It is only a 10x10 booth, so I'll have to decide what to take, because I have too much stuff. Selecting which 20-ish paintings out of the 100+ to take is always hard. Looking at the advertising for the event I don't think I'm taking the Christmas ornaments, plus with the small booth I won't have anywhere for the tree display. 😅 

The fact that there are only 2 weeks between the first and second event is making me a bit nervous. I have high hopes for the first event, but if it is good sales, I won't have much time for rebuilding inventory. 😐 Heck I still need to replace the Japanese Lace bracelets that sold back in June. 

Weekly update. . .scheduling events

I started making my Christmas ornaments in August this year so I would have lots of them available. 😎 I have spent months searching, researching, contemplating events, trying to decide which ones I want to sign up for. There are a lot of things to think about when considering events aside from the booth fee and space. Is it an established event, does it have good attendance history, what kind of crowd is it? 

I tend to do well at craft shows and family events, I have a variety of products that range from $5 braided leather bracelets to $100 fancy necklaces, from jewelry to paintings so there is plenty of stuff to look at for each age range in a family. 😇 So, I have selected a long running family event, a large craft show at the venue I did well over the summer, and a Christmas specific downtown event. 

Now I have less then 30 days to make sure I'm ready. The good news is the first one is not holiday themed, so I don't have to have a lot of extra "Decor" for the booth just my standard set-up. However, it will be outdoors so I will have to take my tent and sandbags and all that jazz. 😏 Probably stealing my husband's truck instead of using my little car that way I can take the 6' tall racks. I am planning to change up displays for the holiday themed shows, including a small tree to display the ornaments on, new earring displays and a new display for the pendants. 

I've had this spinning rack for years but it has issues, it blows over at outdoor events, the hooks are badly spaced, some of the hooks have broken off so it doesn't hold as much as it should, but worst is people don't spin it around to see everything. 

I'm playing with an idea and made a test version the other day, using recycled plastic trays, I think it's pretty cute. It holds a dozen pairs of earrings in a small footprint, in a way that I think people will be more likely to touch and interact with. 😉

I am hoping to have at least 3 of these little trays by the time I do the holiday show in November. I want to sort the earrings by material and style and put the little displays near the other jewelry they coordinate with instead of having all the earrings separated in another place. At my last event I had someone looking at bracelets and she had to ask if I had earrings to match because they were on the other side of the booth. But it made me wonder if other people just didn't bother to ask and I missed out on potential sales. 😕

I also plan on changing the way I display the pendants, for years I have had this big board and in some ways it was ok but the more stuff I make the messier it looks. Back when it was just the leather barbed wire, basically 1 style, in different colors it was cool but now it's cluttered and kind of a blur. 😒

I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do but it is clear that I need to replace this relic. 😅

I am leaning towards a plan that involves separating the pendants from the cords and making them more of a custom item. Only display 1 of each color of cord but have multiples made in each color in different lengths, offer the barbed wire as an $ upgrade, and have all the pendants in a tray so people can pick the pendants and then pick the color and length of cord. This way I could also offer an option to just attach a large lobster clasp directly and they can be zipper pulls or necklaces. 😎 It is currently just an idea I don't have a stand or tray or an actual plan yet. 

Weekly update. . .it's fall

Some people may have noticed I have been largely absent from social media this week or maybe no one noticed, but my stats show different. 😅 I've been kind of lazy this week, but I had a birthday so that's allowed. I have made a few things, mostly repetitive things just making the pile of stars and balls bigger. I am over 2 dozen now total, so many more to go. 😅 More rings are on the way and will hopefully be delivered soon.

I decided to recuse the cross from the "fail" pile and try, try again, after the 3rd change of center ring size, I did manage to mostly stabilize the design. The top and side arms are pretty locked-in but there is still some swing in the bottom. 😏 It hangs right most of the time. 

I have also found another pattern that works and modified it, so I actually like it better. This pattern works so much better with my standard ring sizes that I made 3 of them in 1 day. 😁 

So, as it turned out my lazy week "off" was still productive, I just didn't post as much social media stuff. 😇