Making Lemonade from Lemons

Hi all,

You know that saying about best laid plans?

We were supposed to go on vacation yesterday.  We had planned to go up to Pennsyvania for a visit with Tim's brother and his wife.  We were really looking forward to it.

Then, Tuesday, out of the blue, Tim suffered an accident at work.  It was not serious but it did render him unable to travel, at least for now.  So... we cancelled the trip.  Actually, post-poned it.  In a deal he struck with his boss, we will post-pone the trip until August and we'll be able to travel longer, since he'll be able to add two more days.

In exchange, Tim will return to work tomorrow for two days, and then have all next week off.  So, we may still do some fun things, maybe visit some friends, splash around in the Buffalo River, or whatnot.

So, at first, we were really bummed about having to cancel the trip, but now we realize we'll have an even better time in August since we'll have more time.  It's all good!

Meanwhile, I figured I might as well work, so I've spent the last two days making lizard beads, which I hope to start listing tonight or tomorrow.  Gotta get them off the mandrels and cleaned first!  Next on the agenda are frogs.  I'm going to be doing a show in Tulsa next month and those two are perhaps my best sellers, so I want to be fully stocked.

Besides, lizards and frogs are just too darned fun to make!  I LOVE them!  :)

New Hollows!

Howdy!  Just listed six new hollow focal beads on etsy.  Each one is encased and etched which gives a glowing appearance.  VERY cool, in my opinion.  :)  Check it out!

New Beads!

Woot!  New items just listed on etsy!  Yay!  Life is finally getting back to normal around here.  :)

The After Shot

Well, it's finally done!

I finally finished my booth makeover.  It has been quite a project!  It was fun, but it was a lot of hard work.  I made several trips to Hobby Lobby, Lowe's, Wal-mart and ordered stuff online, too.  I could not find the glass shelves locally at all.  I wound up ordering them online and paid more for the shipping than I did the shelves.  But, oh boy, do I love them!

I purchased eight glass blocks to use for shelf supports.  I added 2' panels of lattice to complete the lattice walls, I added a lush border of silk floral garlands around the top.  I turned my gridwalls sideways and hung them on one side of the booth.  I created new earring cards and hung those on the gridwalls.  I put lavender fabric behind the gridwalls to add some color there and to provide a back for the earring cards.  I brought out my old lavender table squares and put them back out (it has been a while since I used them).  I spray painted all of my black and white fully formed necklace busts lavender.

I recovered my dark twin towers and the smaller trio of towers with lavender fabric and spray painted the trio of candle holders.  I even spray painted the easel my books are displayed on.

I photographed four pieces of jewelry and had a friend of mine from the local art guild print them out in 12" x 12" size, (Thank you, Jim! You're a doll!) and framed them with purple-painted frames.  I spray painted the small choker bust on the table the same color of purple.

My goal with this project was to create a light and airy feeling to my booth and to definitely de-clutter it.  I have always been one to cram as much merchandise into my booth as possible, but I realize now that to give the classy gallery look and feel I need for better shows, I've got to integrate a lot of extra space.

This is fairly easy to set up.  The walls take longer than they did previously, but with less merchandise to put out, that part takes less time.  I guess it evens out.  I'm usually the last to leave any show, and I suppose that part won't change, but I am really much happier with my booth now.  It is something I feel I can be proud of.  I'll let you know if it helps me getting into better shows!

In the process of this makeover, I did find a lot of great useful information on the web:

http://bermangraphics.com/ is a site by Larry Berman, an artist who has tons of experience with shows and jury slides.  I even emailed Larry my images and he gave me some pointers on how to make them better.  I really appreciate Larry's help!  Thank you, Larry!

I also discovered http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artfestivalguide/ which is a yahoo group for art show artists.  Lots of great info there for anyone wanting to do shows!

Anyway, thanks for your patience, sorry to have kept you on the edge of your seat so long!  :)

Debby

The Before Shot

Hello all!

Now that there is a lull between shows, I have decided to take on the huge task of doing a booth makeover.  It is my goal to get into some finer shows and since I've been rejected a grand total of three times to such shows, I started to wonder if it wasn't my booth shot that was getting me disqualified.

I started researching booth photography online and sure enough I learned a few things.  The big ones are A) the shot must have an uncluttered look, B) NO signage of ANY kind and C) no people.  Well, obviously, I failed at all three:

This is the booth shot I've been using.

In addition, booth shots should NOT be photos take at actual shows, and should be taken with the three sidewalls up, in the shade or on a cloudy day, and using a tripod.

After reading all this, I realized I need to retake my booth shots and since I have to do THAT, I might as well do a booth makeover.  So... that's what I've been doing this week.  Things are coming along swimmingly!  I cannot wait to show you the AFTER photos.  I'm making some big changes, I think will be for the better.  I hope to finish by next week sometime.

Meanwhile, school is out and Ginny (the one in the above photo) is home.  She had an amazing year - the only kid in her class to make straight A's all year - and we are all very proud of her!  I can't believe she'll be in 3rd grade next year.  Time really flies...  We have some wonderful things planned this summer, which will bea lot of fun...  It'll be great just watching her get to be a kid for the summer.

Easier to Get Into Fort Knox

Hi all,

I am not very fond of Facebook right now.  I'm in Memphis, on my old laptop that recently had all of the software reinstalled.  Come to find out if A) you are in a new location AND B) using a computer that FB is not familiar with, you have to go through a series of seven questions before they will let you access your account.

If you have 208 friends like I currently do, and yes, I admit, I don't know them ALL that well, FB shows you random photos of seven people, and give you about seven choices as to who that person could be.  You can only pass on two, and the remaining five must be answered correctly or you will not get in to your account.  Fail three times and you will have to wait an hour before you can start the insanity all over again.

The photos FB shows you to identify are NOT "profile pictures"...  No, that would be too easy.  And, the photos might not necessarily be from their own accounts.  They could be tagged photos that someone else uploaded.  Using Sharon's (my show buddy) laptop, we searched for every photo in my list of friends and never found one that matched.  Some of the photos were artwork - as many of my "friends" are artists - and there was even one photo that showed 1/4 of a person's face and they expected me to recognize it.

Trying another approach, I tried logging in and clicking "I forgot my password".  FB sent a link to my email, and I clicked on that link from the email, fully expecting to access my account that way.  Even though I used the email they sent me, FB still did not trust that I was who I said I was, and attempted to test me again, and again I failed to get in.

I give up.

Anyway, needless to say I'm not fond of Facebook right now.  I will have to wait until I can return home tomorrow night and use the other computer from home before I can get on FB - and believe me, I will gripe!

Meanwhile, on a happier note, I had a great first day at the American Bead Show in Memphis today ~ still tomorrow to go!  :)

It's Show Time!

The Altus Springtime Gala went very well, I'm happy to report!  We had a little bit of rain that morning, but it cleared out and the rest of the day was beautiful.  :)  I had a great show!  Yay!

Now I am ready for the American Gem Show in Memphis this weekend.  I am SOOO looking forward to this show.  I've really missed the fine folks of the greater Memphis area.  It will be good to see some familiar faces again.  I have plans to meet up with some of them for dinner tomorrow night and again on Saturday.  My show buddy Sharon will be with me and we will have a great time, I am sure.  Sharon is such a hoot!  She is really fun to be around.

Anyway, I am all packed and ready to go so I think I will go relax in front of the tube.  If you're in Memphis this weekend ~ be sure to come see me!  :)