Sparkle and Charm goes to the Craft Fair

The craft fair on Saturday was a success! It was not a great success for my friend who makes jewelry, and had a table across the room from me. But, people like the necklaces and earrings I make, and I sold as much as I could have expected to, and was very pleased. I had set my goal high for this one, and realized afterwards that I didn't even have enough inventry to meet that high goal. I sold at least 10 necklace and pairs of earrings, and people liked the beaded gold swirl ribbon bookmarks too. Some of my items I marked down at the end of the day, and that was fine too.

Craft fairs are not really all about the vendors. They are really all about getting the customers to come in a shop, but organizers don't know that yet. I think they put so much effort into the vendor side of things, that advertising gets second place and the crowds that we expected at this recent fair never materialized.

I have a lot of fun talking to everyone. Lots of people stop to stare at my necklaces, since they have never seen anything like them before. Then I tell them how they are made, and some people move on, and others love them too and want to buy one or two. I have even had some teenage girls buy them, which REALLY pleases me, since they are very sophisticated shoppers these days.

After the fair, George and I packed up the lamps, tables, cloths, inventory that was left, and baskets, and went home to a pizza and bedtime at 8:30 p.m. We were exhausted and happy. A good day.

A busy week

My office is moving this week to a new building, and all the packing was up to the seven of us. They brought in big orange bins, which are stackable, and are on wheeled carts, and we just put everything in the carts. It hasn't been hard at all, but it is still hard for me to leave the old office with the huge windows that I have enjoyed so much.

George is going to his flying club meeting tonight where he will be nominated for President of the club. That is exciting and I hope everything goes well. Go George!

Saturday is the craft show in Wakefield, and I have been making jewelry like a madwoman, and putting it in the "box" to go. I have about 30 necklaces and 200 pair of earrings, as well as 20 bookmarks, which I will sell for $4 each. My feeling is that not everyone brings a lot of money, and sometimes you just want to buy something that won't break the bank.

We are busy at every turn, and enjoying thinking about our drive to Washington DC on Monday for Thanksgiving. I went to a sale and bought five new sweaters in pretty colors, so I'm all ready for the fun week with Michael.

Have a great day!

Mug Shots

George and I had our picture taken yesterday at the church for the new church directory. Before we got there, we drove to New Hampshire to buy apples and squash. We stopped at a few stores, and then on to the church for our 5:15 appointment. When we walked in the door, we knew something was up. Everyone there had a dour expression and looked pretty unhappy. Turns out, the photographers were more than an hour behind, and everyone had nothing to do but sit there in their pretty dress-up clothes and visit. It was enforced visiting.

We drove off to a hobby store, and I looked at beads for thirty minutes, and then we went back to the church and I changed out of my Red Sox sweatshirt, and into a jacket and scarf. George changed in to a tie, shirt and jacket. We both were wearing jeans from the waist down, but the photo wouldn't show that.

Everyone laughed about being dressed from the top up.

They took our picture and we went into the room where the saleslady was. Turns out, they took lovely photos of us, and now all we had to do was choke down that the cost of the "lowest package" cost about $200. We didn't want to pay anything. In the end, the good pictures of me, and of us, spoke to us, and we ordered three 5x7's of one and one 5x7 of the other. We had already stood up to go when she offered us a lower price. She said it would be $90, but by the time she added shipping and handling and insurance, the cost flew up to $140. By that time, George and I had already invested about two and a half hours of our Veterans Day holiday evening into this production, and he handed her his credit card. We felt a little ripped off, but we also saw that the pictures were really beautiful and framable, and would be nice for...Christmas presents?

Get ready Mom and Mike. Santa's coming.

Have a great day.

A holiday on Friday, woohoo!

Today is Veteran's Day, and I am very happy. Even though I always have Fridays off, I found out yesterday that for every holiday that I am already off, I get a floating holiday, which means I can use that time any other working day. That seems like a pretty good deal to me. Of course, I'm not getting rich, but I do have a lot more time now to do the things I love to do, like make jewelry and list it on Ebay.

George is home today and we have no plans at all. He is going to work outside on the garden and I am going to clean out the pots on the deck and get ready for winter. We have a lot of bulbs to plant today, both here and at church.

Time to get started.

Have a great day!

Thanksgiving Plans

November is here. The trees in New England are not nearly so colorful this year, but most have changed now to a deep orange rust color. The air is crisp and people have gotten out their LL Bean velour I've noticed. The sky today is a white, cloudy sky that looks like winter.

For some reason, my calendar for November is filling up with appointments, dinners, and meetings. It is a busy time. Then, Thankgiving comes, and it all seems to start a fast slide into the hoiday rush. I am very excited about our Thanksgiving car trip to Washington DC for Thanksgiving. It is a crowded time on the highways, but we have decided to go anyway, and will make a stop in Atlantic City to put a few quarters into the slot machines. One year we did that, made a haul of quarters at one machine, and used those quarters for tolls all the way home. It was fun. I always have a box of goodies to cook with and a few extra pots and pans that I need at Michael's house. The doorman in Atlantic City that year didn't seem to mind at all when we had him park our car, and I said, "don't let anyone steal my turkey that is in the back".

We enjoy the drive through Deleware, and don't enjoy at al the drive home on the New Jersey Turnpike, but...we will allow for 2 days for a 1 day ride, and we will make it home fine I'm sure. No matter what, it will be worth it to see Mike at Thanksgiving!

Have a great day.

A little busier than I like it

Time to let my blogging audience, (if I have one), know what is going on. I have been very busy with my jewelry business. Over the past two months I have worn a path from the diningroom photo studio to the computer to list hundreds of pictures on Ebay. I do not have this down to a science. Each photo is labored over, edited, color balanced, thought about, and each description is hand written with a lot of thought. Ebay told me that when you open a store, it is best to sell items that are the same, so that you can write one description and then just keep relisting. I'm not doing that yet. All my jewelry is different. Each piece comes right from the heart, and I take a lot of interest in making each piece different. I am a jewelry designer and creater, not a robot.

Will this worn out patch of carpeting between the two rooms lead to anything? George said this morning, "well, you are having fun with it." "Trying to make money on your hobby is a little different". I'm not making money, of course, but I am making just enough to pay my Ebay bills. Urg. Not enough money to pay for the beads yet.

But my life has taken another turn I think, and I am committed to making jewelry and getting it out to people who love to wear it. I make far more than I could ever wear, and I love making something that someone else likes enough to pay for it. I lay awake and think about new designs, and I love shopping for beads, of course. Doesn't everybody?

My prices are low. My hopes are high. I feel like the hours that I spend doing what I really love to do are worth the effort. My favorite times are working quietly at the jewelry bench with a cup of herb tea and some classical music. Oh, and of course, when I do that happy dance when something sells!

Have a great day.

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Photo editing for hours and hours

Today I worked on new logos for my jewelry business on Ebay. I have Corel Paintshop for another two days from my free 30 day trial. It is a complicated program and gives me a headache. This morning Michael told me about another program that is free, called Gimp.org. I downloaded that and started playing with it. It took hours. I don't know what I'm doing, but...this is what I have to show for about two hours work tonight.

See Mike?

"More caffeine?" "Yes, please."

My mother took me aside when I was at her house in Oklahoma. Taking me by the shoulders, and looking at me square in the eyes, she said, "Yvonne, you are drinking too much caffeine." She really took exception to my preference for dark coffee. She likes her coffee rather caramel colored, so you can see thought it. I like mine so you can stand a spoon up straight in it, as they said in cowboy times.

I know that everyone in Massachusetts is addicted to Dunkin' Donuts coffee. It is not hard to tell that, since there is a Dunkin on every corner. I got used to having a medium tall coffee every morning, and now that is a very hard habit to break. Today I went until 10 without coffee, and then broke down and walked to the convenience store for a coffee. Aha! They had run out of regular roast, and had Pumpkin. It was GREAT! I now have a new addiction--pumpkin flavored coffee.

I take mine with a little real half and half. That too, is probably not a good thing, since that little bit of cream every day adds up in unneeded calories. But, that too is something I like which I am not ready to give up.

My mother is much better at giving up things than I am. Hence, she is going to celebrate her 96th birthday at the end of this month. She gave up sugar in her tea and cream in her coffee years ago. Now she uses plain iced tea, with nothing in it, a habit I can hardly think about. She gave up desserts recently when they started monitoring her blood sugar. "No thank you" are her favorite three words I guess. Mine are "Bring it on!"

Have a great day!

Have a great Halloween! 

Turkeys, turkeys, 

and more turkeys 

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Speechless!

This morning I was struck speechless. I looked out the kitchen window as I was making the coffee, and there were wild turkeys in the back yard. A LOT of wild turkeys. I wanted to call to George and I was so excited I was struck speechless. I didn't want to yell, for fear of scaring them off. As it turns out, that was not a problem. George counted 21 wild turkeys, and as we watched and whispered, they went from our driveway across to the neighbors yard and were finally stopped by a high fence. As they meandered back, we got brave. I went out on the porch and they didn't seem to mind me or my camera at all. Then George went out onto the driveway with a liter of sunflower seed, and as he dumped the seeds on the ground, the turkeys came running! Just like wild ducks.

Anyway, we had a fun time watching this gaggle of turkeys and thinking about Thanksgiving!

Have a great day. Gobble gobble.

Poor George

Today we will have a "poor George" day. He had a wisdom tooth taken out this afternoon, and I got busy making peach jello and chicken soup. He is on the couch with an ice pack and I am being very kind and gentle. I made a killer chicken soup, with home made broth and an array of veggies like parsnips, potatos, spinach, cabbage, carrots, turnips, tomatoes and onions. This soup will cure what ails ya. It is delicious, and we hope George feels a lot better tomorrow.

Have a great day tomorrow!

Hurricane Wilma bends into a Nor'Easter

Hurrican Wilma raced up the eastern seaboard and is now twirling around our heads as a classic Nor'Easter. It is amazing to me, coming from the midwest, that weather can go out over the ocean, and then circle around and come back again, and again, and again. A classic Nor'Easter means that you have over your head weather that you have had over your head yesterday. It just keeps coming back round. Today is gray, windy and rainy, and tomorrow will be the same. But, trees are not blowing down, and it is not flooding--yet. It just looks miserable out there, but it could be worse.

My calendar for November is filling up and there is lots to do before my office moves to new space on November 19th. After that I will no longer have a window from which to see the weather---not sure if that is bad or good.

Have a great day!

Halloween in coming! 

Fall in New England fell with a thud

The whole country seems to be rolling with the punches this year, with all the hurricanes, catastrophes of floods, fires, and wind. New England in the fall is a beautiful place to be, but this year is a dud. The sugar maples, which turn a scarlet red have lost their leaves due to eight days solid of rain two weeks ago, and the rest of the trees are a rather mousy shade of brown and gold. My recent trip to Minnesota was very nice because I got to see fall colors there, but Massachusetts is not competing that well this year.

Now the forecast this week is for more wind and rain due to Hurricane Wilma which is going to race up the eastern seaboard and get here tomorrow. Not much we can do about the weather, but hope for a easy winter and a pretty spring. At least we have our homes, and hopefully Lousiana and Mississippi and Florida will be back on their feet and in their homes soon.

I have pictures on my desk at home of beautiful trees in yellows, oranges and reds that I took in previous years. I'll just have to use those to remember what fall in New England is supposed to be. Lets hope Hurrican Wilma doesn't blow Florida away today--so we have somewhere to go to escape the New England winter.

Have a great day!

Yesterday's craft show

George and I bundled up the car with crates, rugs, tables, tablecovers, and my fabric covered boxes of necklaces and earrings and we were at the Congregational Church in Medford for the craft sale. I had talked to some of my jewelry making friends online and they suggested that all tables for selling should be waist high. George cut PVC pipe into 10" lengths to put under the table legs. I had two tables set in a L shape, and when we raised our tables and put that pipe under them, people stared. It was a great thing! I covered the two tables (one rented from them, one mine) with taupe fabric and purple tableclothes and put two lamps at either end, laid out all the jewelry and sold a necklace five minutes after I was set up. Having the jewelry waist high meant people could examine it without reaching down, and it worked like a charm.

It was a fun day and I sold several necklaces and several pair of earrings. I didn't exactly deplete my inventory, but people had a lot of choose from, and that always helps. Selling out is not the goal, selling anything is the goal. Keeping my goals within reach, and having fun meeting people and spending the day showing my jewelry is my only goal. Several people commented on my striking color combinations, and it was nice to hear what they had to say. Getting out into the public with your art is a great way to get feedback and ideas. Indoor craft shows are a lot easier than out door. We were there from 8:30 until 4:00, and it was fun talking to everyone who came.

The advertising for the show was good, but there could have been more customers. There is going to be a first ever craft show at my church next Spring, and I am on the committee. We are going to have to make sure that people come out for it, since without shoppers there isn't much point. Getting good crafters and artists to display their work is one part, but getting people to come see it is just as important. Happy customers and happy crafters make for a successful show.

The next show for me is November 19th for Hallmark Health Hospice in Wakefield, Mass, and this one is going to be big, so it's off to the jewelry bench again to make more.

Have a great Sunday.

A few pictures from my trip to Lake City and Red Wing Minnesota early this week