stuff i bought myself at the bad girls show part 1

every art show i've participated in (all 3 so far) have wonderful perks. not only do i get the opportunity to meet a lot of new people, i also get to show my work (duh) and network with some of the best artists in alaska. they take craft to a fine art level, in my opinion. and one of the joys of these shows is that i get to shop - unique gifts for other people and sweet stuff for myself. i sometimes wonder how i make any money at these shows since all i want to do is buy everyone else's stuff. so here is the first post of "stuff i bought myself at the bad girls show". now, i didn't go all super crazy shopping, but i did buy a few items that i just love.

one item i get every year is Wicked Good Lip Stuff made by Carol Green of Sound Soap.

(sorry it's blurry - my camera phone tries hard)

Carol creates hand made soap, lip gloss, & other body products in small, carefully controlled quantities. everything is certified made in alaska with premium plant oils. and let me tell you, i have bought a LOT of lip stuff over the years, looking for the perfect blend that doesn't leave my lips sticky or dry - this stuff is the best. plus the ingredients are things i recognize, like vitamin e & olive oil. no weird chemicals here. if you get a chance, check out her website and all of the yummy things on there.

bathroom remodel

bff & i have talked a lot about making a functional office, one that we would actually like working in. we are still flinging ideas around, especially since there hasn't been time to put our ideas into action. (after the art shows are done for the year!) we've also talked about glamming up the bedroom and bathroom.

so where do i go for ideas? design sponge, of course!! here's a super cool bathroom:

(thanks to design sponge for the picture)

of course i don't think it would fly with bff. can you tell i love blue? he's told me a million times "you can't make everything in the house blue!!" which i respond with "why not? there are lots of different shades..."

bad girls of the north show!

thursday night i was up til about 3am, prepping for the show. here are some pictures:

books & ribbons & price tags, oh my!
(notice the puppy keeping me company)

working hard

lots of books!

watching some quality tv (ncis)

i packaged tons of books & cards! setting up friday early afternoon went quite well and my table looked great! i'll have some more pictures soon.

one of the nice things about prepping for a show (besides all of the necessary coffee drinking), is getting to see all of the products i've made. as i packaged books, i looked at the stacks and stacks of bright, festive books and realized that i've done a lot of beautiful work. that sense of accomplishment is SO satisfying.

the morning of the show, as i was setting up, i was nervous. and this happens with every show. "what if people don't show up? what if lots of people show up, but no one buys anything from me?" lots of "what if's" pop up in my mind...i'm a bit of a worrier, if you couldn't tell.

the show itself was excellent - it was packed friday night! tons of wonderful vendors to visit and lots of great people visited my table. saturday was busy too, very steady. i did get a chance to look at a few of the other artists work (WOW!) and bought a few goodies for myself :) i'll post my goodies later.

the puppy was so sweet - he actually stayed out in the living room with me while i worked into the wee hours. he slept on his bed and would get up and check on me every once in a while.

time to do some sales analysis!

check this out!

i've gotten hooked on yet another blog: frenchie and flea! these gals have a gorgeous etsy shop and they are big supporters of handmade products. they make stationary, beautiful things to adorn your home with, wedding & bridal items and lots more!

they will be highlighting 12 different artists & their etsy stores and will also be doing some giveaways too. click on the picture below (borrowed from frenchie & flea) and read the details.


enjoy...i'm back to prepping for the show tomorrow! if you get a chance, come see me at the bad girls of the north show, millennium hotel (on spenard road), friday 4-9pm & saturday 10am-5pm. it'll be tons of fun, food, shopping, & handmade items!

blast from the past

so the other day, i was at the pharmacy (due to an obnoxious, nagging cough that hasn't completely disappeared yet) and the pharmacist was a girl i went to high school with! that got me thinking about how quickly 10 years have passed. i wonder what other people are up to. i know i've changed a lot since then. maybe our reunion will be like the movie grosse point blank, excluding the guy trying to kill john cusack.

i finished gluing book covers last night and have some binding to do tonight, then packaging and packaging and....packaging. sweet. i wonder how many things puppy will try to eat tonight.

paper!

just ordered more paper for the next show (crafts weekend at the museum - thanksgiving weekend) and am really excited about it! here's a sneak peek of what is coming:

images courtesy of paper source

i'm seeing a teeny tiny light at the end of the tunnel for the shows...it's about this big -> .

i'm down to 7 sets of book covers left to glue...then some binding, which shouldn't be too bad. overall, i'm in pretty good shape for this weekend's show. although, i'll probably be up in the wee hours of thursday night. i think, no matter how prepared i am for these shows, i'll always be up all night doing last minute stuff.

printing weekend

at the end of last week, i was busy carving linoleum blocks for some new notecard sets. i was up pretty late and had a major hankering for chocolate pudding. one night, bff came home with this:


and pudding :) how sweet! definitely recharged my batteries! (see my blocks in the background?)

i did a massive amount of printing this weekend - 350 cards total. tried printing on some new paper, which was great for my new bird card set. i also printed a new 3 color card of presents for this weekend. a total of about 11 hours of printing.

halloween was fun and relatively quiet - dinner, games & a movie with our friends. puppy got to come with us and play with his friends too.

i have about 800 things on my to do sticky note lists...time to start conquering things!

p.s. i hope puppy is like this while i work!