Score Card: Abbie -0 -vs- Mother Nature - 1

Well the Handmade Faire was Saturday. It rained, and was extremely windy - not just a little rainy, it was like, build an ark rainy, hell....build an ark with a sail for the wind. There were enough crafty people there, I'm sure we could have come up with an ark.

I ended up having 95 vendors, including myself. 48 of which ended up having to pack up early - myself included. Thankfully, inside the tent had 48 vendors, which - even that in and of itself is a big show for this area. The indoor vendors seemed to do pretty well, a few I talked to said they did very well. My husband was counting shoppers, from 10-1:30, he counted about 1400. After 1:30 he couldn't count anymore because that's when I started to break down my booth, and he was no longer in a good place to count. I'm estimating about 1700-2000 people, total. Quite possibly 2000 people, since hubby's counting was happening between manning my booth, helping me keep my vendors tents from flying away, and watching our toddler. The goodie bags we made disappeared in less than a half hour, and we were giving them one per group, not per person.

I feel like I have unfinished business now! I worked my butt off for the last few months promoting this, advertising, finding vendors, organizing things, figuring out the best placement for all my vendors so they would compliment each other correctly.....and, Mother Nature literally rained on my parade. I just wish all my hard work could have come to fruition.

I suppose I am happy that despite the weather we got nearly 2000 shoppers. My vendors were amazing, and I heard some glowing reviews, but.....I still can't help but feel like it should have been better! I worked for better! I'm just disappointed.

My house is a wreck from the pre Handmade Faire cram. There's pieces of paper, and just general crap all over the place. I've made some headway with it but it's still just crappy. Neil is in a terrible mood, screaming and uncommunicative, and destructive with his toys. He's never destructive with his toys, I'm not sure what it's all about but it's making me crazy. I feel restless, but exhausted at the same time. I can't just sit still. I'm feeling like I *should* be cleaning, but I want to be creating, but then....I have this blockage where I don't let myself create in a messy house. I'm just feeling like an idiot. Somebody smack me.

Though, I will say that after the Handmade Faire, I went to my best friend Crissy's house for a Halloween Party - some old friends & some new friends were there, and we had a blast. I am never one to turn down a shot of Jagger or Southern Comfort (Soco, or, as Sean calls it - "neil's third parent") haha.

Here's some pics of the good times on Saturday, I did meet some awesome people, and I got some amazing stuff - including a handmade hat from Jon, I love it! I havne't stopped wearing it yet!

Here's Jonathan - I bought my awesome hat from him!

A shot of the crowd:

My amazing hubby, manning my booth for me:

and another shot - Heart Felt Baby

I am currently stalking her etsy shop, waiting for her to list more arm warmers, she sold out at the show before I could buy a pair! I wanted these striped ones she had! Ah!

Promoting

Things have been crazy. There is so much work to do these last two weeks before the Faire that everything else is put on hold. We got some awesome 12x18" posters in, and we've been blanketing the town with them - we'll be going out again today too. Our yard signs came in too, they look really good I'll have to grab a picture.

On the personal side, I a new batch of my prints made up. This time I also bought bags and boards for them, and wow, they look amazing. I am really happy with them. They'll debut at the Handmade Faire on October 25.

In other news, John from Greco Wood Crafts Blog has featured some tips I sent him for choosing a good art show! Thanks John!

Abbie

So busy

Wow, I can't believe it's been over 10 days since I last updated. Things have been so busy, I haven't had time to breath better yet post haha.

Let's see, what have I been up to - well, of course I've been busting my behind working on Handmade Faire stuff. We've had an influx of late applicants that are just too cool to say no to. So, we've decided to keep our applications open for the time being. It's really no skin off our back since we have the space to grow with the outside being so large, so, I figure why not. Things I have to do with that still include:
send in posters for print again
create a graphic for yard signs
order yard signs
find out about getting the banner up over Main Street
if I can get a banner up - create & order banner
do a real big push for promo's & give aways, we've got a few but not enough. I have to hit the Etsy forums.
Get out to local restaurants & stores and ask for promo/door prizes
Finish floor plan, get it approved by Flying W

Ah, there's more but if I list them all I might get bummed out!

I've also been busting my butt getting the new EtsyNJ.com website up and running. I'm one of the leaders of the group and I decided to put together an interactive website for the group. Hoping that the members will get in there and blog, post about their new items, etc. So far everyone is really taking advantage of the events calendar, so that's great.

The EtsyNJ street team is advertising in my favorite magazine, WeirdNJ. The issue just got mailed out and I believe it's on news stands now too. Mine came in the mail today, I was so psyched! The ad is on the second page of the magazine, really great placement if you ask me! I have been an avid follower of WeirdNJ since about 1998, and when I had my cafe in early 2000, we sold back issues and current issues of WeirdNJ & advertised in there too. So, yeah, love the magazine. Pick up issue #31 and look for the EtsyNJ ad - you'll get a secret URL that will give ya a special from participating EtsyNJ members!

Still in the search for a second car in the meantime. Also, Sean started his new job last week - it was all training. This week he starts his normal schedule, he's on his first 24 hour shift tonight! Ack! Cheryl's coming up tonight to keep me company hehehe.

Just around the willow bend...

Ok, so, aside from having Pocahontas songs stuck in my head, I have a new project I'm working on. It's nice to actually play with something crafty that I'm not pressed for time on - like the Jersey Devil shirts...which, shit, I still need to make more XL's and list them all in my Etsy Store.

So, yeah, aside from doing craft chores, and of course the ever life consuming work for the Handmade Faire - (still accepting applications, btw) which, don't get me wrong, I love, but it makes it hard to do anything else. Holly, from leafpile.org and I have been crafting inbetween sessions of me teaching her how to work her site hehe, and today she showed up at my house with a garbage bag full of curly willow.
Now, any ordinary person may have said something like, "why are you bringing your brush to me?!" but oh, no - no no no, of course we have a crafty use for curly willow. I'm in the process of trying to turn it into a wreath as we speak. My living room looks fabulous. I thought about not doing anything with it yet, cause - what if a spider crawled out or something? Ah. I get the creeps just thinking. But ya know, I'm strong and brave now, fyi.

So, I'm making a wreath. It looks a bit scrawny at the moment but it's a good start. It would make a really good halo or head dress, but, only if I had a giant head.....which I actually do, but not this giant....seeeeee

So, yeah, the living room is full of leaves and branches. Of course hubby does not even think twice about it, he's used to my craziness.

Ok, lets play I Spy........can you spy the wreath I'm working on in this massive pile of leaf?



if you can, I'll give you a cookie. Also, I'm pretty sure curly willow was the wood that Hermione's wand was made out of. I'm hoping to find a good "wand" in this bag! Might help complete my halloween costume :)

Sean does say that if I shake a branch at him and say "Wingardium Leviosa!" one more time.....bam, right to the moon, hahaha.

Too nice for my own good!

Well, I'm a little bummed. But, it's my own fault for being too nice, and not thinking before I speak haha.
The other day at the Flea Market there was a couple selling some vintage stuff, one of the things was vintage typewriter. It was pretty old, had a good charm to it. The first thing I thought of when I saw it was those awesome typewriter key bracelets that I've seen on Etsy.

They had the typewriter marked for $10. Quickly speaking without thinking, I said "you know, you should list this on Etsy - artists make jewelry out of the keys and you could get way more than $10 for it" they were interested, I like being nice, so I told them about Etsy, and the typewriter jewelry people are into. Almost immediately I regretted telling them, because as I spoke about it, I convinced myself that I should try it.

In reality, I don't have time to make a bracelet like that, but you know me, I'm a craft addict. It is literally an addiction - I HAVE to try something. It's hard for me to see something I like and not want to figure out how to make it. Even if I end up buying it, I want to know how to make it, even if I never do. I enjoy buying and wearing other people's work, don't get me wrong - it's just, I want to at least KNOW and TRY it myself too.

Well, immediately I regret not just keeping my mouth shut, and buying it. I contemplated sending my friend over to buy it, but I figured that would be wrong, or mean, idk. Well, today I was crafting with Holly from Leafpile.org and was telling her how I should learn to keep my fool mouth shut! See what I get for being nice to people?! Ugh. Well, she knows the lady and called her for me, to see if they were still selling it. I figured it couldn't hurt.

Well, turns out the lady took my advice, and is listing it on ebay this week. She offered it for sale to me for $40 or $45 with the condition that I made her a ring or pendant or something, idk. I passed, obviously. Ahh well. See. Normally I'm a bitch to strangers (hah, sorry, it's true, I enjoy being unapproachable to people I don't know) , and it always works in my favor. Figures - when I decide to be nice, it ends up beating me in the ass. Ahh well, live and learn.

I'm off to Etsy/Ebay to stalk/admire typewriter key bracelets. Anybody out here make them?

Abbie

New Tablecloths!

Whoo hoo, this week has been busy. My MIL & I took a trip over to Jomar's in Philly, which, they're an awesome fabric store - and really great prices. I've needed some good table covers for a long time, I'd been using chopped up pieces of felt in a mix of black, brown, and tan - I umm...hated it, for lack of a better word.
So, I found this brown teddy bear kinda material, but it's still pretty light (not fur or anything) and it doesn't shed - plus I got this funky purple & green fabric for an accent. Long term idea is to have it pinned up and hanging from one of the walls, so I can put my prints, etc on there - but....that's going to take a bit more of ingenuity on my part, possibly even a bit of sewing, so it will just have to wait, until I learn to stop being so completely stupid with a sewing machine.
So - I'm putting 2 pics here to compare the difference, now that I have to the floor table coverings ---
Here's my booth at the Beach Plum Festival on Island Beach State Park last weekend (which was a great festival, btw) -


And here's a pic from this weekend's Flea @ Kirby's Mill, normally I'm not big on Flea Markets, but I love Kirby's Mill & doing shows in Medford. Plus Holly from Leafpile.org is a good friend of mine, and she was running the flea, it's always a fun day @ Kirby's Mill.


I'm really happy with it, it makes a bigger difference than I even anticipated. It didn't cost all that much, either - Jomar's prices are fantastic, $3 and $4 a yard!

True Blood

Just watched the premiere episode of True Blood, and I gotta say it
was fantastic. I have always been a sucker for stories where humans
and vampires co-exist - Buffy and Angel years ago were favorites. This
show looks like it will kick ass though. I already can't wait for next
weeks episode.

Abbie Galie
Http://www.OriginalAbbie.com

Sent from my iPhone