I blame Facebook. I've got two blogs that I try to update, with varying success. The first one caused me a lot of grief after it was discovered by my work cronies. I sanitized that a little, and have been using it as my place to post about craft shows and such. However, due to my addiction to Facebook, I haven't been updating that like I should. And this poor blog has completely fallen by the wayside. No good.

Fall wasn't bad. We did 7 shows from the time I got back from the beach, (Sept 12) until October 17. Pretty much every weekend. We were graced with rain during 4 of them.

The two day show right after vacation turned into a nightmare:
I came home from the beach on 9/11, Barney was sick and had to go to the vet. As it turned out, he had a urinary infection, and was hospitalized. On 9/12, we drove to Maryland, found the site, IN THE RAIN, dragged all our stuff across a muddy football field to get to our booth site, set up (still raining) and we stood there for the day (drizzling) with me phoning the vet for hourly updates. After the show (day one) we went to our hotel, only to find that there was some snafu with the room, and we were moved to another hotel. An upgrade, but at the time, I was not amused. I slept very little that night, even in a posh hotel room. The next morning, the sun came out, and while it didn't dry up all the rain, the people came out, and we actually did okay. We got back home around 9:00 on Sunday night, went to the vet to visit Barney, then home and crashed. Barney ended up coming home two days later, and cost a fair amount of money.

As if my head wasn't already on the verge of exploding, Monday the landlady showed up, and apparently had been in the house while I was on vacation. She noted that I have too many cats (agreed) and that I need to do something about that, or I'll be evicted. I agree that there are too many cats here, and something needs done, but they've already been thrown away once, what am I going to do? Throw them away again? That's a story for another day.

The show the next weekend was okay, nice fall weather, clear, chilly and sunny. We did all right, and got interviewed by the local paper, and ended up on the front page of the Sunday edition. That's a small town festival show, and we've had a good time the last two years we've done it.

The next show was my hometown festival, and we always kick butt there. This year, it rained. But we did pretty good, despite TORRENTIAL downpours. There were a lot of mad vendors. But people have to understand, a promotor can only control so much, and the weather isn't one of them.

By now, we are into October and we had another local hometown festival. Last year, this one was very good, despite me leaving the cashbox at home (D'oh!!) This year, eh. They've torn up all the sidewalks in the town, so there were big pits along the street, with boards across the pits to get into the stores. The brains of the festival didn't think to close the streets to traffic during vendor set up, so we're putting up the popup while large semi trucks are cruising by. It wasn't a stellar day. But after the show, we had dinner and beverages with my best buddy from high school, and that made everything a little better. The next day we took a road trip to Baltimore to check out the Fells Point Fun Festival, which was an absolute BLAST. Maybe we'll try & vend there next year. My favorite beader and good pal Erin was there, and we hung out. It was all very great fun.

The second show of October was in Virginia. Another great location, and previous shows have always been fantastic. This year, RAIN, and not a great location (partially due to getting the app in late, because we were waiting for another huge festival to 'jury' us in, alas, it took them four months to say no thanks and return the check, more on that later) Anyway, it rained in Virginia.
And we were sandwiched between a guy selling bathroom renovation, and a guy hawking spaces in an assisted living community. I was afraid it was really going to suck. But we prevailed, with humor and good attitudes. We didn't do badly, but not as great as past years. The bar is set pretty high with that show because we spend at least one night in a hotel. No way I'm driving 100 miles at four in the morning to set up for a show! We did go home right after the event, however, which saved some money. Both Joe and I were ready to be home though! The day after, we went to Maryland to check out this giant festival we had heard so much about, and had tried to get into. The town closes down for two days and becomes one big festival. There are a couple venues that are 'official'; and then there are a couple venues that are craft shows put on by the fire dept or VFW or any organization with a big space. It was nuts. They shuttle bus folks in all weekend long. There is a lot of kountry krafts, and lots and LOTS of crap. We got turned down by the 'jury' for one of the official spaces, but we saw at least five buy-sell vendors, and several open spaces on our walk through on Sunday. While I'd like to do that show just for the sheer numbers of visitors, I'm put off by the tons of touristy garbage and crappy buy-sell stuff being touted as HANDCRAFTED. We have to discuss that in a staff meeting.

The last outdoor show of the year was a complete rain out. Which is a bummer, because it's a real good time, put on by classy people and is well organized. We do exceptionally well there every year. While I always say "Craft shows aren't for sissies", torrential rain, high winds and temps in the upper 30's is stretching it a little. Nobody is going to come out to shop in that slop, while should I risk pneumonia for a couple bucks?

So now we're down to three shows left. The one next weekend is huge, and I'm hoping we do well, (as always) I'm distracted with the creating of stuff, because the landlady is making a walk thru of the house this week, and the place is trashed, as it usually is after the fall show season. We're using this opportunity to do a 'deep clean' and trash a bunch of unneeded junk and redo the floor in the utility room. We've taken THREE lawn & leaf bags full of clothes to the homeless shelter, and I threw away 8 pairs of shoes. Hoard much?? Hopefully we'll be done today, and I can use the rest of the week to make jewelry. This is a good show, and I want us to look great!

Stay tuned for the recap of the last shows of the year. I promise I won't wait two months to update.

Oooh Goodies!

Joe and I went to Beadfest in Philly on Saturday.

Wow, talk about sensory overload! I think next year we're going to break it into two days. We were so fried by the time we got to the end, that neither one of us could look at any more beads or stones or glass or ANYTHING. Which makes me sad, because Beyond Beadery had it's big ass traveling roadshow of seed beady delights in the lobby. I couldn't concentrate on any of it, and that makes me very sad.

Before we glazed over, though, we managed to snag these from the dollar strand guys:

and these from S&S Lapidary (they're really nice people)

A neat button from David Christensen (The Furnace glass KING) and cool guy

A few stone beads from Cherry Tree Beads:

But the coolest stuff, we bought first. Both came from Artsian Glass ( a PA artist!)

My birthday present-Maille or seed beads?

and I bought this to make something to sell, but I think I'm keeping it for ME. Because it's freaking COOL.

Part of my problem is that my 'work space' is in heinous disarray.

I started organizing the bead portion of my program two weeks ago, and I've corralled most of the seed beads. MOST. There are a lot of stragglers. Of course it does not help that I keep buying beads. You see, this is the first time in my life that I can afford to buy (most) of what I want. Which has led to massive piles of stuff. Some stuff I've forgotten I've purchased. I read all these wonderful things online, and go off to get the supplies. I've got the full compliment to make soldered pendants, including sheets of cool scrappy paper, cool 'found' things, solder, microscope slides, glass, foil-the whole bit. Alas, I've sold one pendant this year. I need to rethink how I'm selling those. Although I've seen them for $19 online, show patrons have shown no interest in purchasing them for that. Even with a spiffy ball chain. I guess I really have to do a cost analysis on them to see exactly what I can ask. (Lazy, I just used the price point from online sellers)

Back from that tangent. I seriously need to clean up this mess and organize things. I think it'd help my creativity.

Last year, I made a nice beaded cab with a piece of pink rhodonite, and some old pink seed beads. It's really pretty, but I never finished it as a necklace. Lately I've been fiddling with all kinds of different necklaces for it. The latest one is a neat herringbone necklace, but it's going really slow. REALLY slow. So I'm exploring other options.

Again.

I've been really bad about keeping up with this blog. Sorry about that. I'm having a hard time keeping up with the other blog too. With the day job, and all the shows, I'm kind of busy. No more shows until September (at least for now) I'm trying to make a lot of stock so I have less 'panic' before the show. Yeah, we'll see about THAT.

And so it goes. Stay tuned for more pictures of cool things I've made, and works in progress.

It's been an interesting weekend here at the Groundhog Ranch. Yesterday we went 'junking' at a local twice yearly flea market. Junk is the operative word here. However, I did manage to find a shopping bag full of stuff. A box of colored crushed glass; a bag of watch parts (for a buck); three small boxes of tiny shells; some glassware that will be repurposed (a secret project) and a cool little corner rack for the boof. All in all, a successful junk hunt.

We then visited a couple other yard sales and got a couple cool rocks for the display (35 cents) and ended up in a little town 'up the river'. There's a neat art gallery there, so we swung in to check it out. There was the usual ridiculous amounts of jewelry, and various and sundry other artsty stuff. I got an application package to see if my stuff would pass muster to be able to be displayed. Now I have to come up with five kickass pieces to go to their jury. Of course, the five kickass pieces will need to be made AFTER I make a bunch of kickass stuff for the booth. The stunning success at the Virginina Craft & Wine festival, has left the cupboard bare. And last week, I was too strung out with the great refrigerator drama to even try and make stuff. So this week I kick into high gear and get some stuff made. I have three pieces that got broken in Mercersburg, so fixing them is the first priority, THEN filling up the rest of the spaces with goodies. I'm still boggled by the Wine Fest. In the fifteen years of selling stuff at craft shows, I've NEVER come that close to selling out of stuff before. I've always made fun of people who stress over have doubles and triples of all their stuff 'in case they sell out', well, no more. Dang!

We dug the garden today and planted those poor broccolis who have languished in big pots out back. Also put in some tomatoes and basil. Once I get the peppers, we're good with the garden.
I hope so, because there was lots of digging and 'forking' (aerating the dirt with a pitchfork) today, and tomorrow is going to HURT.

Before I start really hurting, I've got to get another box of glassware out of Obbie's car. I didn't want the whole box, really, but the guy didn't want to haul it home, so he sold me the whole banana box of odd glass for two dollars. Dear goodness, I thought I was out of the glass junk collecting phase. I keep telling myself it's for a project, it's for a project. We shall see.

I'm off for an Advil, and to fetch the box before I seize up like a rusty hinge.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

And here's the schedule until fall, when more are added:

May:

Mercersburg Home & Garden Festival - May 9th
Virginia Arts & Wine Festival - May 16th

June:

Middletown Fair June 13 & 14
Westminster, MD Arts in the Park June 6th

July:

Waynesboro, PA July 4th Jubilee July 4th
Carlisle, PA Summerfest July 11th

August:

Off for now

September:

Mount Holly Springs Holly Days September 19th
Mercersburg Townfest September 26th

October:

Thurmont Colorfest October 10 & 11th (Pending acceptance)
Dillsburg Farmers Fair October 17th