Getting Ready for the Summer

It's that time of year! I'm getting ready for doing the summer bazaars and there is so much to do! The biggest problem is finding a tent. I found one I LOVE (not the one pictured) but it's twice as much as I was hoping to pay. *sigh* The one pictured is a good price though. I need to do more research :)

Tonight I'll be meeting with John, my brother and partner, to make plans for the bazaars. And just so he can know what to expect. I have experience doing this and he doesn't, so I'm sure we'll have tons to talk about!

On top of buying a tent I need to buy another table, fabric for covering the tables, and some new displays. *whew* Lots to do and lots to spend up front, but I'm confident about earning it back this summer :)

I'm really excited! Can you tell?

Last Bazaar of the Season

Yesterday was my last bazaar of the Christmas season! I didn't think I was going to get to go because of my sprained ribs, but my wonderful Mother in law offered to come along and help out with carrying and setting up, so we went for it! For some strange reason I didn't get a picture of her though :(

La also came with us this week - and she was sitting there writing when bored :) Oh yeah...um... we were bored a lot. There were hardly any customers!

This was La's table. She's one of the people who really inspired me to start following my dreams and start selling my jewelry. She's a great friend/sister and we have a lot of fun!

This adorable little fairy that you see on my table is named Lira - and she's my crafty muse :) My dear friend Meri over at Elbit Enterprises made her for me as a Christmas present :D During the normal week she sits on my desk next to my laptop (Jack) where she watches over my work. And then she went with me to the bazaar - and she'll be doing that in the future too!

I also FINALLY remembered to put a sign up sheet for my newsletter this time! Hopefully that will be a regular feature from now on. I only got one sign up - but hey - that's one more reader!

I really need to learn to sit down and let other people help when I'm hurting! Even though my mother in law was there to help I still did too much yesterday - so my ribs are rather mad at me today. Oh well. At least we all had fun (and a couple of sales) and I got a bunch of crafting done :P

Middle of the Night Ramblings

Good morning! Erm. Middle of the night? (and yes I did TRY to sleep) Or how about whatever time it happens to be there? *giggles* Ok, it's just after 1am so I'm a wee bit silly right now, so this post might also be a wee bit silly, but I'm WIDE awake for some unknown reason so what else is there for me to do other than blog all about bazaar and the rambling thoughts running through my head?

I did a bazaar today (well technically yesterday since it's now early Sunday), and I had a blast! Sales weren't stellar, but I had a lot of fun! I remembered my camera - but I forgot to take any pictures. Bad Ruthie, I know.

Mom went with me on this bazaar and she sold a couple of her items and even got a custom order! That was really exciting for her :) She's decided that crafting to sell isn't for her, so after the holiday's we're going to be closing down Kindred Spirit Treasures. You may notice I'll be moving my charms into my jewelry shops on Etsy and Artfire, and you'll be seeing a huge sale in KST as we get closer to Christmas! I'll keep you posted - don't worry!

One thing I loved about this bazaar, even though I could have asked for more sales, was that there was definitely plenty of foot traffic. I got to have lots and lots of great conversations, both with other vendors, and with the people walking through. I'm a people person, and I thrive off of interactions like that!

Plus I heard a lot of people saying they weren't quite ready to shop for Christmas yet, which is weird to me, but I guess that's a reflection on the current economic situation. I don't really think that the lack of sales I had were a reflection on my art, it was reflection of the economy in general. Most of the people today were looky-loos. The others I got comfortable enough to ask said that their sales we're about the same as mine.

I did get several people who said that they were really excited that I'd be back because they were planning on shopping more next month! I take that as a very promising sign. I also had a gal who will hopefully be sending me information so I can do a custom order for her. To top it all off, I was originally only going back one weekend next month and it now looks like I'm almost definitely going to be able to do 2 weekends next month at this venue! Woohoo!

What else am I excited about? Well I can't precisely tell you, because it's a surprise, but I can tell you that assuming all goes well I'll be doing the big reveal on the 1st! I've been doing a lot of talking with some people I trust (gotta love Mom's and friends who are willing to listen to you hammering out your ideas) and I'm really excited!

I'm also happy because my health has been showing signs of slow but steady improvement and if this trend continues (Lord willing) I have a lot of ideas that I'm working on developing. I'm dreaming big I'm hoping to find ways to continue building my business through a variety of venues. So far, so good! I'm seeing slow but steady progress there too.

Crafty ADD Update #15

Well - I missed a week of doing my Crafty ADD updates :( It made me sad because I was ON TRACK with everything after my bazaar...until I sprained my ankle and had to ride in the elevator that had just been painted and got a HUGE whiff of paint and was dealing with both the ankle pain and massive migraines. Yah. Lots of things got missed the first half of last week :P So here's where I'm at THIS week :P

Knitting

I was so excited cuz it looks like it's getting pretty long! 35 1/2 inches! And only one small mistake that I know the recipient won't mind right? Um, until I started thinking about what that translates too. Based on who the recipient is Mom said I should make this 6 ft long...which means that I'm only half done! Oy vey! I can dooo it! My goal is to be done by the time Thanksgiving is over so I can start on my last scarf Christmas present. Who thinks I can do it? I do! And here I was soooo proud of myself for knitting my way through the entirety of the "The Corpse Bride" the other night...

Cross Stitch

Almost done! Working on the border, should have that done in the next day or two, then I'll hand it off to Mom to let her put the backing on it. I'd do it, but I don't want to ruin it :P Don't worry, I'll take one last shot before I pass it off! And then no more cross stitch until my Thanksgiving Weekend bazaar is over :) Maybe not till after Christmas. Because my next project is for a wedding next summer and I have plenty of Christmas presents to work on....

Jewelry

My Mother in Law ordered some charms at the bazaar last weekend and this is what I came up with for her :) She smiled pretty big when I delivered them so I'll take that as a good sign!

While I was at it I whipped up three more charms to (eventually) restock my store with because they were pretty good sellers for me at the bazaar :) At the very least I'll get them tagged before my next bazaar, but it would be nice to get them on-line too. We'll see...

I've found myself getting caught up the last few days in a mad frenzy of "promote, write, promote, promote, network, promote!" and while all that has it's place, I wasn't creating anything! NOT GOOD! So I'm trying to come back to a healthy balance by working at the computer for awhile and then doing crafty stuff for awhile and then switching again. Seems to be working well so far :) I'm feeling much less stressed for one thing! Creating relaxes me :D Although technically it's still work... Anyway, I was looking around trying to decide which project I wanted to work on when I took my first break this morning and these purple chips caught my eye, I bought them last week and hadn't got them put away yet, so I whipped up a bracelet!

This is the detail to the neckband on my evil twin's Christmas present. Don't worry, this is one Christmas present I can blog about, I let her help me design it! The band is almost done...hoping to have this finished in the next day or two. I'll take more pictures, don't worry!

Bizarre Reflections about the Bazaar

I had a lot of fun this weekend at the bazaar! Sorry I didn't get this posted up sooner. I had a million things I was trying to do yesterday, and just as I was starting to feel on top of things and ready to get this post put together and put up...I sprained my ankle! Yah. I'm talented. I know. The good news is that up until I sprained my ankle I was still going strong after the bazaar, which makes me really happy :)

I'm also really excited about getting to actually meet two of my team mates in person this weekend! On the left is the fabulous Char of Char Spirit Creations. In the middle is Dori of Sassy Clay Creations. And I'm on the right! Yup...proof that I was there :P

I did some new things that I really liked with this bazaar. The first is that I made a second level for displaying my fancy necklaces! It was really simple. All I did was drape a piece of cloth over one of my storage boxes that I had brought my jewelry in :P

The second thing I did was I added a bracelet display! Made things a lot less cluttered. And made things look a little more professional. And I STILL had things lying on the table :P Next bazaar I think I'm going to put my strand and wire wrapped bracelets on the bottom level of the display and put my memory wire bracelets loose on the table. They didn't get as much attention as they usually do and I think it's because it wasn't as obvious as it normally is what they are.

There's one more big thing I want to change. I like my earring display - it's cute and I get compliments on it - but it's awkward to carry and I can't fit all my earrings on it! I'm thinking eventually (like for the spring bazaars) I might upgrade to rotating earring displays...but I haven't decided yet. The other solution is to upgrade to a bigger table and use my second display as well, which would allow me enough room for all my earrings and then some. I'm thinking I may need to upgrade tables by spring/summer anyway if things continue to go well, so the question will then be is a table upgrade all that's needed or do I need a table upgrade AND a display upgrade...

I had a lot of fun this last weekend and I'm really looking forward to the two that I have lined up between now and Christmas! I'm also talking with a close friend of mine about teaming up in the new year to do bazaars. Doing 10x10 booths and splitting the fees with me paying 2/3's and him paying 1/3...I'll set up two tables and he'll set up 1. He does a variety of fantasy and other interesting art along with his wife, and part of the reason for teaming up would be that he has a vehicle capable of transporting a tent! Something I don't have which currently limits me and prevents me from doing outdoor markets. Not to mention its always more fun to work with a buddy :)

I did get some more pictures at the bazaar - but I don't want to overwhelm you guys - so if you want to see the rest go check out my flickr page!

Bazaar Update!

Dori and Char :)

Yesterday at the bazaar was a lot of fun! It wasn't super stellar with sales or anything - but it was decent, and the most important part, is that I'm having a ton of fun and still feeling pretty good! I had a lot of fun meeting Dori and Char in person, and I look forward to talking to them more today!

Today is day two, and I'm hoping we get a huge influx of people when the three Churches on the corner get out :P But even if we don't, if I even do what I did in sales yesterday, I'll be happy :)

I have a whole bunch of pictures and I'll be posting a much longer blog post either tonight or tomorrow with more pictures and my thoughts about improving my displays and everything :) Although...looking at my pics this morning...I need to give someone the camera and actually get a picture of myself...

It's Bazaar Time! (And a Treasury)

It's Bazaar time again! I'm excited! It's great to finally be getting strong enough to do bazaars :) Hopefully this one will be more succesful than the last one. But no matter what - I plan on having fun! Two of my best friends are going with me, and I'll be meeting two of my team mates for the first time! If your in the Portland/Vancouver are and you'd like to come out and see us here's the details:

Sterling Heights Apts.

1221 SE Ellsworth Rd.

Vancouver, WA 98664

11-4, Sat. & Sun

Hope to see you there!

Both my shops will be in vacation mode for the weekend.

I'm also in another treasury! HUGE thanks to Liber Teas for featuring my necklace in her treasury :)

Purple Passion

Here's a shot of my current treasury! Thanks Meg of Little Studio Photography and Jewellery for getting a picture for me :)


We tried turning my lap top on last night and it was having problems. So we took the case apart and let it dry over night. I have a dentist appt that we're leaving for soon...and we'll try again when we get back! Hoping and praying that it works! If not...I've come up with a plan so I can do a make-shift inventory for the new items for tomorrows bazaar.

Oh! And I signed up for two more bazaars yesterday :D

It Seems Like Things Always...

Some times it seems like things always go wrong at the worst times! There are days I'd like to hunt down Murphy of famed Murphy's law and insure that he/she had never been born! *sigh*

Today I managed to baptize Jack. Who's Jack? Jack is my laptop. Yes, I know, your not supposed to baptize laptops! It was an accident. I would never purposely subject my baby to half a glass of water for any other reason. The fact remains, it happened, two days before my bazaar. Ahhh!

The good news is that I can still borrow my hubbies computer today for e-mail and blogging and the like. The bad news is that we won't know for sure if Jack's ok until we try turning him on tomorrow...and I can't access my inventory until Jack is turned back on. Which means I will have a bunch off last minute stuff to do tomorrow (in and around appointments and other plans) that I planned on working on today!

I was panicking earlier, but I know that the hard drive should be intact no matter what, and I can figure it all out eventually. It's just bad timing. And, if for some reason I can't access my inventory before the show, I've figured out a plan to wing it without it. I'll just be grumpy :P

Oh! In good news - I managed to snag a treasury this morning! I call it Purple Passion :) I'd post a pic of it - but I don't think my hubby has any photo editing software on here. *sigh* Can someone snag me a shot of my treasury and send it to me in case I don't get Jack up and running quickly enough?

Now I'm off to get my monthly newsletter out! If you don't get a copy of it in your inbox by this evening, and you'd like to (especially if you want the bazaar info), send me an e-mail to roseworksjewelry@gmail.com and I'll add you to the list and send you at a copy of this month's newsletter :)

Always an Experience

Yesterday was the first time I've done a bazaar in a long time! My health problems have prevented me from signing up for any since the beginning of summer. Then, a few weeks ago, I received an invitation to participate in a bazaar sponsored by Dream Givers. I was really nervous, but I've been getting a little bit stronger, so after talking with my Mom, I signed up!

Mom and Her Display

The bazaar was from 9:30-5:00 at the Vancouver Ballroom in downtown Vancouver. It turns out that the ballroom is owned and managed by an old acquaintance of mine. I didn't get a chance to talk to him, but it was one of those "small world" moments!

In another "small world" moment, there was a gal there who had been at the only other bazaar that Mom and I have done in the area!

My Main Table

Now the sad thing about the bazaar is that it was pretty much a flop. We had very little foot traffic, and Mom and I only had one sale each. Which means I didn't even make my booth fee back. The good news is that Mom and I had a lot of fun talking and we made some interesting connections! Plus...one of the ladies is interested in buying one of my bead woven necklaces ... so if that happens I'll be really excited!

Main Table - Center

I did spend quite a bit of time talking to two different ladies, Meg and Alison, and I'm hoping to connect more with them in the future! Meg is a fellow etsian, and you can find her work at www.megscreations.etsy.com. She specializes in gourmet soups, cookies, brownies, and dips, all in packages with easy to read directions! I was really tempted to buy one of her soups, and if the bazaar had been more successful (ie, if I had made more money) I would have bought the black bean soup!

Main Table - Left Side

The other lady I talked a lot with was named Alison. She's an Avon lady and you can find her avon at www.youravon.com/aeberhard . One thing that I'm really excited about is that she told us about a bazaar coming up next month that's at an apartment complex, and it's only $10! I'm really hoping to go to that one. It'll be a shorter day which I need. And at only $10, if it's a flop, I won't have lost much!

Main Table - Right

I did learn that I'm definitely not up to a 9-5 bazaar yet. It was just waaaay to much. I did pretty good right up until the end. But I was feeling really sick by the time we began tear down. My current plan is to look for shows that are shorter days (like the apartment show) and keep working on building up my stamina so that hopefully I'll be able to do the full day bazaars in a few months or so!

My Side Table

The good news is that I'm not anywhere near as exhausted today as I thought I'd be! I am tired, and very sore, but I can sit here and work on things, and I was kinda worried that I'd be curled up on the couch! Or if not curled up on the couch, sitting here trying hard to breath, but I'm breathing just fine!

Mom's Display

So all in all, it wasn't a profitable day financially, but there are a lot of good things to take away from it. Some new friendships, the success of making it through the day in one piece, and some connections that may lead to great things in the future! Moving forward and moving on!

It's Bazaar Time!!

That's right, in half an hour I take off for my first bazaar since early this summer! I'm really excited, nervous, convinced I've forgotten something important, and in general just running around like a chicken with my head cut off. :P

All three of my shops will be in vacation mode until...well...that depends on exhaustion levels. If I'm still riding high this evening I might go through all pull all the items that sold and reopen. If not...it could be tomorrow or even Monday before they all open again! It all depends on how hard I crash.

So wish me luck! Great sales would be nice, but I'll settle for moderate sales and staying healthy all day :P

Which, btw, we do have a bunch of strategies in place to manage any of my health problems that might come up, and my Mom will be with me so I won't be alone :D Just so ya'll don't worry :D

And I plan on taking a BUNCH of pictures and blogging about it :D When will I blog? Well...again...we'll see how my energy is afterwards :P

Panic Averted

Right now I have a delicate balance I'm trying to maintain. I've actually been feeling pretty good, and so I've been trying to exercise whenever I can. Why? Well I'm over weight because of the medications and my health problems, and with all of my health problems the doctors say that exercise will help. Which is ironic because, while exercise may help my health problems, my health problems also tend to prevent me from exercising! It' a vicious cycle. So when I'm strong enough, I try to exercise. I have some stretches the doctor told me I needed to do for my back, and then I also try to go for short walks.

Exercising is great, but it takes a lot of energy ya know? I've been pushing and doing it anyway though! The only problem is that my energy is at a premium right now. I have a bazaar on Saturday that I'm trying to get ready for after all!

I haven't done a bazaar since the beginning of summer, and I've moved since then, so there's a lot of prep work that needs to be done! My stuff for the set up is no longer all in one place, I need to make sure every thing's marked right, and all that other fun stuff. There's a fine balance here too. I have x amount of things that need to get done by Saturday, but if I push myself too hard then I'll make myself too sick to do the bazaar!

So, trying to balance all of this (and other normal life stuff), left me ready to panic last night! Especially because I worked all day yesterday on various business things, and I was exhausted last night! Lying in bed my mind was racing with all the things I still had left to do. Then I realized a couple of important things.

1. It's ok if I don't get all my products photographed before the bazaar. All I have left unphotographed are earrings, and I KNOW I have more earrings than will fill my display, so I don't need to have those earrings for the show on Saturday.

2. I plain old have more stuff than I need for the show. I have at least 150 items (I don't have an exact count) and when I did my bazaar at the beginning of summer my displays were full. I've made quite a few things since then! So, I don't have to worry about getting all my untagged items tagged and ready. If I do, great, but if not? It's not like I don't have enough to sell! I do have a few untagged items that I would like to have out, but it's not a huge deal.

3. Yah, I'd like to do some work to get my displays a little nicer and all that, but until I know that I'm going to be doing more bazaars I really shouldn't spend the money anyway. I am going to go buy a few more velvet necklace displays for my high end items, but I'm going to get that done today, so nothing to stress about there! Those are cheap too :)

Figuring out all that means I'm no longer panicking! Yes, I still have stuff that needs to get done (making some signs, getting all my supplies in one place) but I have the next three days to do it :D And if any of that other stuff (photographs, labeling) gets done, fantastic, if not, no sweat.

My mantra for the week? *Breathe, don't panic, it's all going to work out!*

Need to Get Ready :)

Mom and I get to do a bazaar in a just two weeks! I'm really excited! I haven't done one in a loooong time. I'm hoping it goes well. I have lot to do to get ready for it. It's a relatively new bazaar, so who knows what the sales will be like, but we figured we'd give it a try since they invited us. If we do well sales-wise, then we'll sign up for some more in the next few months.

Things I need to do:

~ Try to excercise a little each day to make sure I'm strong enough for the bazaar.

~ Double check my prices, make some adjustments to my charms prices...

~ Catch up on my photography so I can tag everything to be sold.

~ Reorganize my necklaces so they are easier to pull out to display.

~ Set up my display and figure out what I need to make adjustments on.

~ Buy anything I need for the displays.

I'm so excited and nervous at the same time!

In the mean time...here's some of my latest items promoted from my shop and my Mom's shop! :) Which is your favorite? Tell me and get an extra entry in my top commentators contest!

Bazaar Time!

Yesterday was an exhilarating and frustrating experience. I love the adrenaline of being in a bazaar/fair atmosphere, but I'll admit that my body isn't very happy with me as a result, but more on that later.

My brother (usually referred to as my geek consultant, but yesterday was operating as my jewelry set up slave), asked me yesterday, "Where on earth did the term bazaar come from? Is it because the stuff people sell is so strange?" I thought that was pretty cute, but it also got me curious.  So this is what I found:

"The word bazaar derives from the Persian word bāzār, the etymology of which goes back to the Pahlavi word baha-char (بهاچار) meaning "the place of prices".^[1]
During the time of the Crusades, when Europe and the Middle East had
their first major encounters and cultural dissemination took place, the
word was assimilated into Italian as bazzara, before being transferred to English in its current form, bazaar.^[2] While currently the word is most often used to denote outdoor shopping areas, particularly those of Islamic origins, the word is sometimes used loosely to refer to such places and events as flea markets or swap-meets." ~New World Encyclopedia

My wonderful Mom took that picture of me and my table yesterday! if I get healthier again, and I'm able to do more fairs and such, I have a lot of work I want to do on my displays.  This works for now though! I did get some ideas from another jewelry vendor on some cheap ways to create displays :) 

I didn't make very much money yesterday - but I did make some - so that makes me happy! My mother-in-law and I had a lot of fun chatting and working together.  We purposely had our tables next to each other so she could watch mine if I needed it and I could watch hers.  Part of that was because I left for about an hour to make an appearance at a family Christmas party, but an unspoken part of that was the concern that I might not make it through the whole day, and that my asthma would flair.  Fortunately it didn't! Not while I was there at least >_>

One of the amusing things about yesterday was a play on names.  My mother-in-law and I, for those who don't know, are both named Ruth.  So that got a little confusing at times! Usually people call her Ruth and me Ruthie, but some people call her Ruthie as well, and either way hearing "Ruth" called across the room would get both of us turning to respond!

The other really amusing thing was our "shop names."  Ruth doesn't sell as a business, she does it for charity, and she's been doing it since before we met.  I had my shop name in mind long before I opened it, and long before she told me hers.  So yesterday we had "Ma Rose" and "Rose Works Jewelry" right next to each other, and the two "Roses" run by two Ruth's was totally not planned! Well, I mean, we did plan to be next to each other, but the name thing wasn't! People were talking about it all day :P She's "Ma Rose" because, when she was a missionary to the Philippines, they called her Ma Rose because they were unable to pronounce the "th" in Ruth.  I've just always loved the name Rose and loved Roses :)

Now here's the set-back from yesterday.  My asthma has been getting much better, I'm still really weak and all, but I had high hopes for the future.  I still have high hopes, but yesterday showed me I'm not doing quite as well as I thought I was.  I've been having a lot of asthma problems and massive headaches since last night.  While I am getting better as the day goes on - I was pretty non-functional all morning. So, while I was hoping to maybe research and see if there were any winter fairs I could participate in, I'm currently thinking I'll need to wait until spring.  Which is frustrating, but it all balances out!

There have been a lot of good things going on in my business life that I can focus on instead of getting frustrated about not being strong enough to do fairs right now. As I believe I mentioned in a previous post, I'm going to be starting the process this week to set up a consignment account at a local bead store, I'm super-excited about that!  Then I got an e-mail from my mother-in-law today, apparently one of the gals from church who was at the bazaar wants to show some of my jewelry where she works! I have no idea where she works or what this might end up looking like, but that's exciting none-the-less! 

The other two things that I'm super-excited about it are Blockhead Radio and Pluggers United!  As you know if you follow this blog, last Thursday was the premier of my new show on Blockhead Radio co-hosted with the fabulous Lily of Tulips Treasure Box! We've gotten excellent feed-back on the show (Thanks guys!) and it looks like we'll be moving to a prime time slot as a result!

Pluggers United is a new etsy team forming as a result of Blockhead Radio. Rod, the King Plugger Lugger and producer of Blockhead Radio, has always had a focus on "plugging" other artisans.  Thus his title :) That's what the radio station is all about! Helping and supporting artisans.  Now his wife, Annette of Huckleberry Arts, the often unrecognized motivator behind Rod's work, has started this new team to help band together the Blockhead fans and to help organzing the work we love to do!  Here's the info about the new team:

"We are artisans for artisans....working together we can gain more exposure for team members and their shops. This is done through the radio shows, blogs, advertising, guerrilla marketing, entrecard generator, website, etc. We will be doing charity events also.

Only requirements for members:

1. Join the Yahoo Group and add your info to the databases. This is needed for team guerrilla marketing.

2. Place the Pluggers United badge on your blog.

3. Blog about one of your team members at least once a month. You pick them. This is done on the honor system and you do not have to
report it.

4. Try and sell on of your team members item during the month. Blog post, twitter, etc. One item specifically......honor system here too.

We will not allow any calling out, blasting sites, etc. This WILL be a fun and friendly team. We are here to support each other."

So come join the fun!