My Work for Sale
Find Me On
Etsy
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!
