Benbow, Fairfax and Tiny Mermaid Dresses

Hey do I have time for this right now? Hm, if I make another cup of coffee, sure... mmm. ok.

Well lagging still on my reports. However I have photos! woo! The Benbow show was nice as usual. That is, the Mateel Arts & Music Festival. Perfect weather, good attendance from what I could tell. Although Stu pointed out there is usually a time when it's elbow to elbow and we didn't see it get that crowded. Still lots of folks. We were across from the Holistic Hooping booth which was fun to watch all weekend...


Two little bummers, ok 3. 1) Stu was a freakin grump. Note to self, leave him home next time and take a girl. 2) and I haven't dwelled on this at all really, but one of my nicest pieces was stolen. It was a bummer, but I hate giving that sort of thing much energy so that's the end of that. 3) I managed to get poison oak, which finally cleared up a few days ago (that's 3 weeks of pure torture my friends).

Haha. Still my favorite show... I mean look at our view out the back of the booth. Hello.



So next was my little trip to Fairfax, down in Marin Cty. I stopped over at my friend Shannon's new house on the way, which was lovely. Then up at the crack of dawn to set up at the show. Thank gawd for GPS is all I can say. This is The Bay Area and as close to City as I can handle I think. Whew.


Well the town is cute as a button, very cool and eco-groovy. The fair was held in this beautiful wooded park with two stages, food, crafts, and a flea market area which I didn't actually get to see. Saturday there was a big parade and I had a great view.


My booth neighbors were fun too... two old Italian guys with cigars and about a ton of bird houses, each one different. They are obviously local favorites here. Super nice guys... father & son it turned out.


I ended up doing quite well, sales wise. The only hard part of the show was the parking. Yikes. Literally half of the town is a no parking zone, no designated vendor parking. That part was so difficult I might not go back. Of course my whole weekend was soured a bit by the fresh poison oak situation. We'll see how I feel next year... overall a really nice festival.


So now I'm up to my elbows in little dresses preparing for the big 3-day 4th of July hootinany in Mt. Shasta. This year it take place thurs, fri, sat. So I'm leaving after work wed. Whew. I was a bit late in reserving a campground in Castle Craggs which is like 20 min out of town... but got a spot instead at the KOA practically right downtown. My first koa stay, but it should be super convenient and with nice showers. aaaaaahh showers.

I plan on hitting the Goat's Head Tavern (I'm pretty sure I got the name right) again, which Stu and I found last year to be off the hook awesome. Great fresh food and a bunch of micros on tap. Also gonna bring stuff to cook over my campfire. Going solo this year, but I'm ready for some quiet time. The show should be rockin and I'll be seeing my friend Doug the Whale Guy.

But still tons to do before I go... onward!

Festivals in Full Swing Baby!

Yep another hopping spring turning into a busy summer... along with my new day job (sigh) I'm super busy right now. Loving it.

Of course, the big one coming up is the awesome Mateel Arts & Music Festival next weekend June 6-7 in Benbow. Our biggest and most fun local event, I would say. Tons of music and performances on 4 stages, over 100 high quality craft booths, a big kid's area and a beautiful location. Just lots of smiling folks and a super fun time. I'm SO happy to return this year, after my little hospital vacation last year. Yes... this is a much better year by far.

I've been a little behind on my postings here... um let's see... I'll briefly recap my festivals so far.

After the local Spring Fever Festival, which was fun as usual... I headed up to Gold Beach, OR for the Art & Wine Festival. A lovely little show near the beach with wine tasting and nice quality crafts. Not a huge money maker for the crafts vendors I think... but the beach camping, gorgeous area and friendly folks (and wine!) make it worth while for me. I have a great time there. This time around I was happy to meet two lovely ladies from the Moose Creek Bath & Body who are now carrying a nice selection of my hand dyed clothing (Hi to Alice & Haley!!). If you find yourself in the area, you need to check out the Gold Rush Historical Cultural Arts & Health Center where they are located (right on 101). It's a beautifully made-over school building, really gorgeous and worth stopping for.


Last weekend Stu and Panda and I headed for Lakeport for their Memorial Day Crafts Fair held right on Clear Lake. Again, the location is 50% of the draw for me (this was the view from our camp site). Just a nice mellow weekend on the lake, perfect weather and margaritas at sunset. Lovely. This year we were joined by my dear friend Caroline and it was great to catch up with her.

Ok enough chitchat... I have some serious work to do. Oh did I mention my new hemp and bamboo wraps?? SO super excited to get these out! Visit me at Benbow for more new goodies, like wonderful rayon gauze flowy jackets... wooo!

Spring Fever in Eureka

I know I have the fever, so do you! First local craft show of the season... woo!

Bodega Bay Fisherman's Festival Report

Hey that was fun! I know that's what I always say... but really. A great festival, (nearly) perfect weather, gorgeous location, nice quality crafts & music and very well organized event. The show folks came by VERY regularly to see if we solo vendors needed breaks or food. That alone was quite impressive. We even got food vouchers, very nice.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many art friends I saw there. Always fun to catch up with my peeps. And Stu joined me on Sunday so I got a couple smooches too.


The van ran great, no problems there whatsoever. I did have one minor adventure during setup. Gale force winds were a-blowin when I arrived. Most other vendors chose to wait to set up in the morning... oh but I was sure I could do it. Once my booth is up it's very heavy, I never have wind troubles. So I stubbornly insisted on trying to set up my tent, as I watched my neighbor's tear right through the top. She and another neighbor held my frame as I tied tubs and racks to each corner... and the thing STILL moved along the ground. After a half hour of this, I said I could take it from there and relieved the troops. But I really couldn't. lol. A few minutes after my kind helpers left the scene, my friend Doug The Whale Guy and team 2 came over saying "can we help you take all this down?" I guess it was obvious to everyone but me that it just wasn't possible. Sigh. So I piled everything in my spot for the morning. (That's the stage tent in the background totally collapsed, they had to remove it the next day!)


Luckily the rest of the weekend was pretty mild. Here's a photo of some colorful kites flying over these guys playing jazz. Lovely.


They also had this cool wooden boat contest. There were teams who had an hour (I think) and set materials (including a sheet of plastic and duct tape) to built a little boat on site. I ran over to see them go into the bay, and saw one sink which was pretty exciting. They left them on the shore afterwards, so that night after some margaritas and calimari, we got to take a closer look. A couple even had time to paint theirs.


But Bekki, you may be asking, how were sales? Huh. Well some folks said they did great. But most of us agreed the crowd was pretty thin and not buying much. I heard tales of shows being down overall so far and some are being cancelled altogether. Bah... every year it's something. Last year it was gas, this year 'the economy'. Whatever. Sometimes you do well, sometimes not so well. Some folks have money to spend, some don't. All we can do is keep working, right?

And have fun. That doesn't hurt either.

Spring Shows Baby!

Oh man... do I really have to say how excited I am that show season is starting? Nah. It's understood.

My first show this year will be the Bodega Bay Fisherman's Festival down near Santa Rosa. Last year, as some may recall, this was also my first show scheduled and I was equally excited to go. However, it also turned out to be my first New Van breakdown, one of many in a string of unfortunate events. So I am feeling um... hm... a little nervous at the memory of being stranded in Willits. But I'm also feeling it will be a small milestone. If all goes smoothly, I will see it as a sign of a better year to come.

Anyway, I came across this video of the festival so I thought I'd share. Seafood, boat parade, pet parade, kite flying, wooden boat contest, music, and crafts of course.



Bodega Bay Fisherman's Festival

How To - Make a Quick Recycled Notebook

This is the first in a series of How-To articles I'm working on. I have a billion little projects in my head and I thought it would be fun to start posting them here. A girl's got to keep busy…

The other night I was brainstorming some of these projects, itching to make some lists, but couldn't find a clean notebook (I swear I have a green one that's practically new argh). After tearing up the house a little bit, I decided to just make one. I wasn't fussy so it took me about 10 minutes. Maybe I should number the steps, huh? Ok...

1. Prepare the Paper. I have acquired a good stack of reusable paper under my printer, as you have I'm sure. You can use full sheets or cut them in half. I personally had lots of 3/4 and 1/2 sheets from printing mailing labels for my ebay stuff, so I used those. I didn’t worry about them being the same size or cut straight, but you could use a paper cutter to even them out. Make a stack of paper thin enough for your stapler to go through. Face them all the same way (sounds obvious, but I missed a few in my fervor).

2. Add a Cover. Making the cover out of something a little heavier will help the notebook last longer. I used some misprinted card stock for my cover. If you don't have any, you could use an old phone book or catalog cover. Even slightly heavier paper with an interesting design (like an old poster) would be fine. Again, just make sure the stapler can go through it. Cut 2 pieces of your cover material slightly larger than your paper.

3. Staple the Binding. Stack your paper between the covers like a sandwich and line them up evenly on one edge to be your binding. Staple through all the layers. Mine was a bit too thick, so I stapled on both sides and covered the edge with clear packing tape to protect myself from the staple ends.

That's it! I'm happy with how it turned out… and how quickly. I felt great satisfaction in using those odd pieces of paper. Probably too much, I'm like that.

The photo also shows a sketchbook I made in college using more involved methods. Still it was really easy and completely recycled. I was broke and just wanted it to last through the semester, but it lasted for years!

In the close-up, you can see I took small stacks of paper (from a ream I'd had forever, those were pre-computer days) folded in half and stitched them at the crease with a needle and thread. Then I took all the little sewn stacks and hot glued them to a strip of felt in the binding. The cover is cardboard that I decoupaged with grocery ads. To make it a little nicer, I glued the front/back pages to the inside covers. Pretty fancy!

Score on the Christmas Gifts for Me!!

Hey I did pretty well with my Christmas scores this year. Luckily, I got to ask for what I need... so it worked out well.

Ok so first on my New Year agenda is to get my biz records in order. Stu got me Quickbooks for Christmas. Yay! I have used it at a couple jobs in the past, but now I'm learning all the ins and outs. I'm going to use the inventory tracking... so (theoretically anyway) after a show I will type in each item that sold and be able to see updated inventory levels. That will make quick supply orders so much easier. Rather than unloading the whole van and doing a physical inv each time, or trying to do it at a show. Argh. Lots of other neato features, and it cost less than I thought.

Oooh I also got a few gift cards from Mom... one I used to buy 3 new craft books. Heehee I get all giggly looking at them. I guess it's been a while since I added to my (awesome) craft library. I decided I needed some specific beading and jewelry making books. I want to start making more interesting stone pendants, so I got two books on wire work and one on bead weaving. Oh man... I can't wait to order some wire and get to work. My hands hurt just thinking about it.