Post Move
I have this whole series of studio building posts in mind but moving has resulted in more mess than I was able to imagine. And my imagination is excellent! So here’s a little clip from the garden where I had ladybugs earlier.
The last of my furniture and shelves came with my stepdad yesterday. That means the bookshelves and racks are here which will help with the unpacking since the stuff will have a place to stay.
My studio thus far - and yes, the first functional spot is the computer station - is chaos. In two weeks when Lloyd gets back from scout camp he promised to help me out with wall shelves and I should be ready to put baseboards and window trims in then too.
The Move
Just a note to let you all know I’m offline from tomorrow through Monday-ish as we finish picking up and hauling the contents of my world 500 km east of here.
I hope you all have an amazing weekend!
A Little Goofing Off
My apartment is utter chaos right now. There is a stack of boxes that confronts you as you enter the door. We pack the truck on Thursday, move on Friday.
So Sunday? Did I spend time finishing up my last crumbs of work? Packing boxes? Nope! I woke my poor put upon kid and dragged her off to meet my Etsy co-conspirators at Eau Claire downtown. It was great - I traded beads for various jewelrymaking bits and more of Splurge’s excellent cookies. We talked shop.
Did I head home to work? Nope! I had a family bbq in the evening but on the way we stopped at Olympic Plaza. Here’s a clue as to what we did:
My daughter found out the Nerf soccer ball thing sinks in seconds but can then be rolled around on the cement for neat little drippy ball-prints.
She was pretty convinced I should come and join her.
So I did. I guess I made a face going in the water and she said, do that again mom so I can take a picture of it. Wasn’t hard, the ice cold water on feet thing makes for good faces.
At some point, my kid’s feet got to be the same size as mine.
Then on to the family bbq (yes, we bbq family here). The kid was happy to collapse on the bench at the bus station.
Today I get to scramble though! And don’t forget, last of my Yart (well the yart portion is done but now it’s the ‘Moving’ sale) Sale is on in my bead and cane shops. Free shipping until sometime on Wednesday.
YART Sale!
It’s a sort of unfortunate name but it’s fun 
The YART sale is the Etsy Supply Street Team’s Yard + Art Sale, a huge event not limited to only supply sellers. And, of course, since I’m a good lemming I hopped in.
I’m offering Free Shipping in my two Etsy shops (I would on ArtFire except there’s no way to batch edit it or to add sales discounts in batches. Nonetheless if you buy there, I’m happy to refund the shipping!). The special will run until the 17th for me, then I close for a week or so while I move.
Some of the goodies in my Bead Shop:
Some of the nifty cool things in my cane shop:
Don’t forget there are a LOT of sellers doing this on Etsy. A good way to start looking is to enter your usual search terms + Yart. So, for example, search for: polymer clay beads yart and find some clay loveliness!
Festival Fun
May 31 I had a booth at the Lilac Festival in Calgary. It’s a very, very big street fair and when the weather is nice it often has in excess of 100,000 people. The weather was amazing and there were an astonishing amount of people.
The show is the biggest one I’ve done yet and I’m very pleased with how it went. The money was good, the traffic was unbelievable and best of all the things that need fixing - more stock, better displays, better table layout - are things I can actually do.
I did learn a few things about doing this show, in comparison to the smaller (not all of them were much less expensive mind you - just smaller) shows:
- Canopy, tent or umbrella is necessary. The booth across from us, with jewelry as well, had some very very sunburned vendors by the end of the day
- People to help you or a smaller setup. Not both. I could not have run this by myself. I would have had to have a much smaller setup to be able to answer questions, help customers and still keep an eye on things.
- Enough stock in a variety of price points but avoid anything fussy (in terms of change or items - I damaged one expensive piece.). Accept credit cards. Decide what your policy is about bill size (I won’t accept $100s at shows for example). Decide what to do about hagglers.
- Put your literature at several spots. At times we were too busy for people to get across the booth to find my pamphlets or other business cards or freebies. So I put bowls with these at each end.
- Bring a first aid kit, office supplies, a toolkit and water. Make sure you know where they are. I usually also bring tools and items to fix or trade out small components but in this show, there was literally no time for that.
- A good banner is fabulous. Good signage is also fabulous. I was lucky and my cousin made me a banner with my logo and I have the software to do relatively good signage. It was complimented frequently.
- Smile, be positive, helpful, cheerful, give your neighbours a hand, try to work with the organizers, volunteers and staff as much as you can.
There are a few more pictures of the parade, friends who dropped by on my Flickr. I’m already looking forward to next year!
How Not to Spend Your Saturday (sort of)
I did the third Abbeydale Spring Craft sale and it was a flop. I don’t even think it was anything the organizer did either - the first one was disorganized but the second was good and I did well. This one was well organized and I think the only table that did fabulously was the one with puppies!
Beautiful weather, clear, obvious street advertising. Vendors, a variety of stuff and prices. Plenty of lead time. And… nothing.
I did get the opportunity to encourage all the crafty folk there to try out Etsy, look into the Etsy Alberta team and generally network. The lady with the table beside me is FROM the small town I’m moving to next month. My mom picked up a fabulous purse from a talented artist there and I’m hoping I talked her into trading buttons for an artists roll.
This is the table in progress of setting up. The board on it is actually a hinged, shallow box now thanks to my stepdad. Totally awesome. It needs a bit more painting and sanding but I ran out of that. It will be fabulous next week at my Very Big Show with many more pendants on it and charms and dangling items on the reverse side of the arms.
As for the puppies, we bought cookies at the fundraiser bake sale. Chloe tells me she’d rather have the puppies.
The Shop: Flowers & Frogs
My main focus is elsewhere this month, working on the details and stock for my big show but there’s always good stuff in my Etsy and Artfire shops!
The newest little addition in my Claychicks shop is a frog cane. I love him in all his chubby green-ness.
In the bead shop, some of the items I had marked ‘made to order’ are now actually in stock (go figure) until I pull them to use them myself. That’s one of the problems with making beads I like… they get used. I remain my own biggest customer. At least I don’t bake, I guess.
I’m updating my ArtFire shop to reflect these new items as well and ArtFire offers the advantage of no sign up needed shopping so if you’d prefer that head on over there.
Happy Mother’s Day
Hallmark holiday or not, let’s give the mom’s a pat on the back today (and while we’re at it, the kids and dads too, I’m generous).
I spent the day making beads of course. It’s work and it’s a loved task. Dangerous combination. And then some of our favourite food for supper which goes to remind me that I am lucky in my kid. She ate pasta with veggies and chicken Caesar salad and cookies and presented me with a complexly folded origami card she just figured out the routine for.
Bowl Goals: What’s New Here
This pile didn’t make it to the bowl before it got photographed, fresh out of the clean off tumble with white craft felt:
A lot of green hearts in there, some of my sunshine and sea garden lentils and rounds and a few small swirly lentils that match the hearts.
My Big Show is coming up pretty quick and while I made my goal for bead production quite a bit ago, I find myself with fewer beads to work with due to the uptick in sales online. Nice problem to have I know. It does mean that I’m madly making beads. This new blue butterfly was to help my in-progress-but-stalled beads:
And finally the cutest of What’s New in my world is, while not mine, still darned adorable. My latest family member - a nephew, Liam Declan - was born just the other day:
Clay and Walking
This weekend was sweetly productive. Saturday and Sunday morning after The Regular Errands were spent cranking out little clay goodies like these cell phone charms.
And this bowl that I started after I stalled making some beads.
Sunday afternoon was an interlude outside doing our third Walk for the Kids Help Phone. From the chaos of registration to the start line and, of course, the yearly tshirt model:
A surprise bonus was the not bad shot of me! I’m one of the many who prefer to be on the other side of the camera to an almost phobic extent.
Satori Life, a local indie pop rock band played the fundraiser. They were pretty darned good! Except I now have the tune of theirs - that you can listen to on their site - that played endlessly on the radio last year STUCK IN MY HEAD.
