My firsts - First Summer Show, First Outdoor Show, First Real Booth Design - Status: Overwhelmed and Excited!

There is nothing more dangerous to a home crafter and aspiring sewist than Pinterest.  I'd like to put that out there first. 

Along this journey, I am discovering (and rediscovering) things about myself. 

1.  I am still a pack-rat.  I've learned how to keep my mess inside of a single room, but I'm collecting myself out of space to work!  I like to look at my finished products for more inspiration, so the tubs never make it to storage - they take a corner.  I have a 1950's mangle that needs a new heat plate - it finally burned out one of the two heating elements.  Do I roll it out in the common area, to give myself more space?  No, it's a handy holding pattern table. 

2.  Pinterest is a dangerous thing.  Not only have I found a few dozen things that I've looked at and said "I bet I can make that for my craft show booth!" I've had the dubious delight of digging through dozens of photos of other booths, and the perfectionist in me is dismayed..."I want that for shelving!  I want to look semi-professional!  I want an awesome spectacular booth!"

3.  When I get in over my head on a project, I need to learn to set it down.  Not stay up all night trying to finish "one more seam". 

4.  Do not drink awesome Turkish Coffee at 10 pm.  By midnight you will be blogging, because you can't stop shaking enough to put pins in straight in the project you should probably put down anyway.  :)

Seriously, though - I'm working out the kinks in how I want my display to look (funny, since I won't have confirmation of my booth space until June 1st) and I've started collecting bits and pieces of materials I need to make the awesome booth I want, knowing that if I don't get a booth here, I'll just do other shows later.  (Like at Christmas again - those were fun!) 

1st big acquisition was today - the old wooden ladder.  I've seen lots of pics of people taking an old wooden ladder, painting it, and running shelves through it.  I think this would be the best display for some of the cute stuffed animals I make, so I hit Craigslist, and sure enough, found a free ladder!  It has some imperfections, but that is part of the point.  Now I'll run to the store in the next few weeks and pick up a few cans of spray paint, and by the time I'm done I'll be ready to post some pictures.

I'm working on the second project as well - a drop cloth rug.  I don't just want to lay down a big blank canvas, so I've been researching how to paint one to make it into a rug, and cool.  Again, spray paint seems the way to go, I just need to pick a size and a pattern.

I'll arrange to borrow a tent - my mother-in-law has one, for sure, and if not the type of canopy I want is cheap on Amazon - check to see if they will ship to Alaska.  I'll scavenge, find, or other wise procure a handtruck that folds down (space saving is a must). 

Overall, my goal is to spend less than $200 on my whole display.  I have one folding table, I can probably easily borrow another if I need it.  I have my ladder - it will need shelves - probably old doors for the wider sections, since the Restore alwasy has them.  My signs (20x30) ran about $20 - foam core, 2 18x24 prints, and clear contact paper to laminate.  My Square for taking credit cards arrived, and every day I get a little more sewing done. 

My big goals for this show - don't forget to bring stuff, have everything priced and tagged before I get there (made that mistake one show, ran out of time to get it all done before people started showing up!), and make enough money to take a real vacation - maybe Hawaii.  We'll see how it goes!  (Of course, I'm calculating how much I need to bring vs. sell to make that happen.  If I get my inventory up to the levels I want, no problem, based on how my Christmas time sales went!)

Mug Rugs - Animals!

So while I'm in process of cutting more and more mug rugs, I realized that I didn't post pics of them - so many!

I'm plotting more styles for this show - including otter, muskox, moose, caribou, and octopus   If I can make my horse pattern smaller still and keep the level of detail I have, then I might do horses as well.  But there will definitely be frogs at this show!  They turn out too cool!  (The first frog was a commission for a good friend last Christmas.  I am so pleased I kept the pattern I made!)

Prepping for Craft Shows - Falling behind in Blogging!

Hello!  I know, it's been a while...I'm happy to report that means I've been working hard!  Growth charts abound, and I'll post some pics here:

As you can see - a wide variety of fun!  Also, I've been working on more small stuffed animals - little bitty elephants on baby mobiles, fancy birds (kind of like hyper colored cockatiels) and tote bags!  

I'll be attending the Girdwood Forest Fair if they accept my booth application - hope to see you there! - and I'll have more with me than I have ever prepped for a show - tons of stuff, both new and old designs, and hopefully enough inventory to get me through three days of show - I've never done more than one day, so I hope it goes as well as I expect!

Hugs!