Two Shows Down; One to Go!

Home show / open house -- check!
Deluxe -- check!

The home show was a fun event, but a moderate success.  My friend Jen did great, because her stuff is adorable!  She makes jewelry and accessories from leather scraps, which makes them, in my opinion, perfect because they're feminine without being too girly.

[See?]

Our friends generously hosted again in their House of the Spacious Front Rooms. (I don't know if they have a name they call their house, but I think they should seriously consider that one.)

[New this year -- puzzle piece magnets!  Some of them even have glitter.]

Then this last weekend I did Deluxe again.  I'm not gonna lie -- when we found out for sure we were moving back to Oklahoma, after initial feelings of hopelessness and disappointment, I had two excited thoughts: "Book sale!" and "Deluxe!!"

Deluxe is the best, most fun show I've done, and it's consistently awesome.

 

And I feel like my booth setup is really gettin' good.  I've been working on height, and I think I'm making good headway in that department.

[Tiny dresser for displaying sachets for your dresser!  I'm in love with my own idea.]

I sold a ton of stuff!  I must of sold about half the magnets, most of the yearbook sticker sets, and I sold out of floppy disk journals.  They always say you can never tell what will sell and what won't from year to year and show to show, and it is so true!  It seemed like nobody was touching those floppy journals with a ten-foot pole before, but on Saturday they all got snapped up.  ::shrug::
 

[I had Lucy put business cards in my business card holder. ...Norman fixed it later.]

Story time!  One lovely lady visited my booth, and upon looking at the yearbook stickers, started saying, "I know her!!  That's Betty Miller*! Oh, it's Kathy Smith*! This is our class!"  I explained to her that I use old yearbooks, and she explained to me that she was Norman High, class of 1967, and that a bunch of them still live in the area and hang out.  Then she called her friends and told them they had to come see this.  When she came back she had about five of her friends with her -- they were so excited!  More name naming -- they thought is was just the funniest thing ever.  And then one of the ladies bought 4 packages.  LOL.  They just made my day!

Also, I've been taking this up all over Facebook, but if you need to take money from people in person on a regular or semi-regular basis, and you have a smartphone, you need a Square.  Easiest thing to use ever, and the fees are beyond reasonable. They're downright cheap, compared to all of the other ways to accept credit card payments at the point of sale.  I love living in the future!!

 [Getcha some!]

Up next: Junk Hippy!  It's a handmade and vintage show, so I'll have about twice as much inventory as normal, crammed into the same size booth. ::nervous laugh:: Yeaahh.... We'll see how that goes.  Should be fun, though!


*Names completely made up by me in the style of women who graduated high school in 1967.

Harvest Fest Recap

"And here's what my booth looked like this time!"  Oy.  Are we like so totally over the photos of my various craft booths?  If you are, I apologize.

I showed up to the Harvest Festival with no idea what was going on or where I was going to be.  The lady in charge was supposed to call me the week before, but Saturday morning came and I had heard nothing.  Usually this would make me crazy, but I was oddly at ease.  I'm a craft show veteran.  I can roll with it.  (It may also help that I don't actually have a booth set-up, and I just putt things wherever I feel like it while I'm setting up.)  Turns out I was in the gym, on the stage/dividable classrooms, next to the Altar Guild's White Elephant table.  Ha. 

[The view from my corner.]

This, in part, is why I was surprised when I actually exceeded my sales goal!  And it was kind of fun to talk to everyone, and the dinner was delicious.

[Table setting before the sauerbraten-nomming mob descended.]

[The view of my booth from the front/gym floor]

[Lucky me, this mobile bulletin board was already in my space. Perfect!]

[Buford's back there with my cedar sachets. Keep up the good work, man.]

[Free stickers. For the kids. {Which is funny because there are only like 8 kids in the whole church. Not even exaggerating. Lucy is the only 2-year-old. So different.}]

I got a lot of people saying, after looking over all my stuff, "Oohh, so you recycle stuff! That is so great!"  Humboldt County, I love you.

A Fun Event You Can't Attend

I've lived in my current town for nearly 3 months, and I still have no Facebook friends who also live here.  This strikes as very weird, but it seems people here just aren't big on the internet.  I think they might be busy doing other things like hiking, gardening, and eating good food.  Weirdos.  (Please note the sarcasm.)

So it is with a slightly wistful sigh that I post the following, knowing that none of you reading this could possibly act on this information.

Our (Lutheran) church is having a Harvest Festival on Saturday!  It's like a Halloween carnival, minus the costumes, plus a severely authentic Oktoberfest meal.  Seriously -- they have already been marinating the sauerbraten for 5 days at the time of this writing.  There will be carnival games, a giant cardboard maze in the gym, a quilt raffle, a silent auction, live music, the German food (and beer), and craft booths! 

 

[Someone else's marinating sauerbraten]

Craft booths is plural there, but I'm not actually sure if anyone will have one besides me.  I think the church ladies were doing a collective one or something.  I kind of assume the crowd will be small and not so spendy, so I'm not planning on raking in the cash or anything, but it's still very exciting and a little nerve-wracking.  These people don't know me very well, and they certainly don't know about the seriousness nor the sheer quantity of my crafting.  But they will very soon.  Yikes!  Just kind of exposing, ya know?

In other news, the Bible study I attend got together to make a basket for the silent auction.  We had so much stuff it turned into two baskets.  And by "turned into", I mean that I kind of just took over and decided what would go where and what it would look like and how it should be.  First-born.  Although I usually find that people are happy to delegate.

 ["Family Fun Night"]

["Quiet Night at Home"]

That's right, I named them and may or may not have typed up and printed out a list of the contents of each basket on nice cardstock with a fancy font.  Ahem.

Deluxe Happened

[My booth was next the Crafty Katie's booth]

...and that was probably the last one I'll attend and/or sell at. That makes me kind of sad. But not too sad. There will be other opportunities wherever we end up (In case you don't know what I'm talking about, my husband is almost done with his PhD, he has applied to a ton of jobs, and only one of them is in-state. Chances are we'll be moving far away this summer.)

I remembered to take photos! (Which is a miracle, since I did not remember to bring a chair. I spent the whole day sitting on one of my Rubbermaid tubs. Oy.)

[I liked the Geek Corner set-up at the home show so much that I did it again!]

[Can ya see that? Across the way? That's the "Pirate Party". Unfortunately they're political, not celebrational. More's the pity.]

It was super-busy all day -- it was amazing! I saw several of my crafty friends and met some fun, interesting people. Oh and I sold a bunch of stuff. Woot!

[I also had this great helper to help me clean everything up afterwards.]

Deluxe is coming!

[My Deluxe booth in 2008 (pregnant!)]

My favorite craft show is tomorrow. It's called Deluxe, and it is so fun! I'll be there with all my wares. You know who else will be there? About 70 other vendors and a whole bunch of Oklahomans hungry for some indie crafty goodness.

Come join us, won't you?

[My booth from last year.]

Deluxe Indie Craft Bazaar
Centennial Building - OKC Fairgrounds
Saturday, December 11, 2010
11 am - 5 pm
FREE parking and FREE admission

Live music, kids' crafts, coat drive, raffle, etc, etc.
Check the website for the schedule!

[You need these. I will have them there.]

Oh, and here is my interview on the Deluxe site.

Okie Crafts

I've lived in Oklahoma my whole life. Aside from a few assorted summers spent in Kentucky and Minnesota, it's been Oklahoma. I know a lot of people who have lived in Oklahoma their whole lives, and they are damn proud of it. They love it here. They might die for Oklahoma.

I'm not one of those people. I've actually been trying to escape for the last 9 years. It looks like I'll (probably) finally succeed this summer.

Maybe it's the happy prospect of leaving, or maybe I've finally made peace with my home state. Or maybe I stumbled across some Oklahoma-type items and I knew I could turn them into something awesome. (Psst -- It's the last one!) But I made some Oklahoma crafts. They're pretty cool, actually. And they'll be for sale at Deluxe on Saturday! Woohoo!

[Oklahoma picture book turned into a blank journal]

[Note cards made from the pages of the above picture book]

["Oklahoma is justly proud of its Symphony Orchestra."]

["Sooneropoly" board game coasters -- I've got two sets left!]

Home Show Recap with *GASP* photos!

This was the fourth year for my annual holiday home show. It was also the FIRST year that I remembered to take photos. (Which I would not even have remembered to do if my sister-in-law hadn't reminded me!)

We had a great time! Hot spiced cider, chocolate cookies, great chats with good friends, and plenty of the selling of the wares. And of course, my favorite part -- when people look at my stuff and say, "Coooool!"

Photographic evidence that this does indeed happen every year, and I haven't just been making it up:

[Jewelry scrolls on parade.]

[Chatting!]

[Two crafters and our hostess taking a break.]

[Jen's bags]

[Kirsten's potholders and coffee sleeves, and Taryn's fabric flowers]

[Some of Karla's adorable stuff]

[Our trusty doorman next to Karla's aprons]

[The Oklahoma corner]

[The Nerdiness corner]

It was such a great success and so much fun, that it is doubly bittersweet that I will not be here in town to do Number 5 next year. Hopefully I can start a new tradition in our new home, wherever that may be!

(PS - If, upon looking at these photos, you are interested in any of the items you see, please contact me at phile_1013 [at] hotmail [dot] com. I can put you in touch with the lady who crafted the item.)

Open House Time!

It's that time of year again! This will be the 4th year for my Holiday Home Show/Open House/Tiny Craft Fair/I Never Know What to Call It. (See my post here for why I have so much fun doing them.) It's this Thursday evening, and this year, it's shaping up to be a lot more like a Tiny Craft Fair than anything else! We've got the crafty goodness of FIVE different ladies to show off!

Taryn makes fabric flowers for headbands and pins.

Jen makes very classy purses and bags.

Karla will be regaling us with some fun Christmas-y items.

Kirsten will bring the housewares -- throw pillows, pillowcases, pot holders, etc.

And then there's me! You know the kind of stuff I make. But look! Pictures of some of my stuff!

[New Jewelry Scrolls!]


[New journals!]

Of course there will also be spiced cider and tasty snacks. And this is strictly a browsing event. We're not interested in making you sit through a speech or accosting you until you buy something.

If you are in the area and you're free on Thursday night, we'd love for you to stop by! Please e-mail me for directions. phile_1013 [at] hotmail [dot] com

Deluxe, a Recap: 2009

Deluxe was fun! My booth was right next to Katie, and we had a fun time chatting. Several friends came out to see me. It wasn't the financial success that last year's was, but we're gonna blame that on the economy. Seems everyone's sales were down.

But it was still a blast! Plenty of customers to walk half-way by my booth, slow down, stop, back up a couple of steps, pick up one of my items, and say, "Oh, cool!" Sigh. I love that reaction. Even if they don't buy anything. Really. I understand.

I bought a wooden cross for some dear people, but I didn't catch the name of the maker. D'oh! It's gorgeous, though. All scrolly.

Here's my booth:




Here's the view from my little corner:


And here's me and babby... NOT getting high:


Across the aisle from us, Science Museum Oklahoma had a booth, a tub of cheese puffs, and a tank of liquid nitrogen. Awesome. They were soaking the cheese puffs in liquid nitrogen and having people eat them. After watching about 75 people do it, I finally got my turn. See, if you close your mouth while you chew the cheese puff, all the steam comes out your nose! Fun! So I had the guy take a photo of me. Repeat: NOT getting high. You hear that, internet?? (Probably not.)

Deluxe Indie Craft Bazaar

This Saturday, I will be peddling my wares at the annual Deluxe Indie Craft Bazaar at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds. It will be a marvelous affair. Did you go last year? Well, this year it's in a different place, there will be a ton more vendors, and various non-profits will be there to tell you about themselves. Cool, right? There will also be door prizes, goodie bags for the first 50 shoppers through the doors, kids crafts, a band... It's really more like a carnival than a craft show, isn't it?


Plenty of your favorite Oklahoma Etsy sellers will be there. And, of course, me. I'll have fresh batches of comic book note cards and recycled book journals, along with board game coasters, Christmas stockings, cute little zipper pouches.... You know the drill.

Be there or be awesome-Christmas-present-less.


Deluxe Indie Craft Bazaar
Saturday, December 12, 2009
11 am - 5 pm
Oklahoma City Fairgrounds
[Modern Living Building]
Free admission | Free parking


And if you're lucky, you'll catch a glimpse of my adorable baby, who you'll notice in my post about last year's Deluxe, went by the non-gender-specific name "Bun".

Home Show recap

The home show was a success!


Sadly, I cannot prove it. Remember last year, when I forgot to take photos? Yeah. It's like deja vu. Except instead of being four months pregnant, I was recovering from the flu. And our car broke down on Thursday. (It got a new radiator on Friday.) I was lucky to show up at all, frankly.

But it went great! Carilyn got a bunch of truffle orders, and I sold a bunch of crafts. Hey! That's what we were going for! Hooray!


I'm so mad at myself for not taking photos.

Here, have a cute baby: