Craft fair chronocide

While today wasn't a complete bust -- I made a sale and got a commission -- it was largely customer-free. Much like the Little Shop of Horrors in the fall, the LoudSpeaker Festival Market lacked promotion but it also ran up against a beautiful day and a half dozen other events, including the torch's return to Victoria ahead of the Paralympic Games and the annual Be A Tourist in Your Own Town promotion.

On the other hand, it was as good a place as any to focus on creative things so I whipped up the felt "Hello" badge that I've been meaning to for a long while -- I will likely start selling these as custom items on Etsy:

I also set myself a goal of writing 100 haiku while I was there. I got to 38 and, while they are not all keepers, there were a few good ones and a few more that could benefit with some polishing. I'm back tomorrow (come visit me at the Victoria Event Centre on Broad St!) and suspect I will get to 100; I'll share more tomorrow.

On a side note, look at these wonderfully-creepy "Beaster Bunnies" from another member of the Monster Etsy Street Team!

Craft Market next weekend!

So, I took the plunge and signed up for the LoudSpeaker Festival Market on both Saturday and Sunday -- I am hoping it will be busy. It's free so if you're downtown next weekend (which is also Be a Tourist in your own Hometown), please come visit me at the Victoria Event Centre on Broad St. Saturday 1-6 pm, Sunday 1-5 pm.

The available table is smallish (only 30 inches in diameter) and round, so I set up a test table to see how much stuff I could get into that space. I think I will be fine, thanks to the carousel I picked up (where, I can't remember, but I didn't pay much for it). I am working through a short to-do list in order to get everything ready -- worst case, I will do the last prep on Friday as I am off work.

One of the things I need to pick up is more small bags for things that need to fit on the carousel like the catnip mice -- in small bags, I can get three or four in each side; in larger bags, just two. I also want to pick up some more sleeves for my art cards (ACEOs) -- I know I bought a package of 100 but do you think I can find them..? Sigh. Actually, I was pretty impressed that I pulled together enough stock for this show in a very short time. After the show, a lot of what doesn't sell will go up on Zibbet as my start over there.

Little Shop of Horrors Market

Hubby and I are off to the Little Shop of Horrors from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. -- we have a table at the Zombie/Halloween Market being held at Logan's Pub, 1821 Cook Street...


I'll be taking Creative Miscellany monsters, a few other odds and ends plus the Special Zombie edition of Bümfmag.

Drop by if you can -- say you saw it on Flotsam & Jetsam and I'll give you $2 off a minimum $10 purchase.

Zombies, zombies everywhere....

Victoria used to be known, jokingly, as the home of the newly wed and nearly dead but I am starting to think it may be the home of the newly dead and nearly wed.

This year, the zombie walk has tried to go "legit" -- complete with permits and sponsors. They also chose to move the officially-blessed walk to Halloween day; in part to coordinate with the Comic Convention that is one of the primary sponsors (those in costume get in for reduced rate. woo). Unfortunately, this move pissed off those who think a zombie walk should be closer to a flash mob than a parade so they have organized a separate walk on a different day -- I am currently getting event invites for both on Facebook.

On top of that, there is a little thing called the Olympics. The torch relay starts here on October 30th and there will be plenty of protests to go along with it including, you guessed it, another zombie walk -- this one "in memoriam" for missing women, residential school survivors, those who have died at the hand of police, and so on.

Oh, and did I mention, a zombie craft fair, too? (it was supposed to follow the official zombie walk, hence the other date) Hubby and I will be participating in the craft fair; Kiddo and I are working on a special Zombie edition of Bümfmag for the occasion. I tried to make some plush zombie stuff... but so far it has been a "pit of fail"... but I will at least be there to keep him company and hawk his wares.

I think after October ends, though, I'm going to need some zombie-free time.

One fewer thing on the To Do list

Phew.

After I'd gotten home, eaten dinner and sat for a moment, Hubby looked at me and said, "You look beat down and grumpy."

I looked at him and said, "I just worked six and a half hours retail. What do you expect?" And truthfully, I worked that without all the breaks I am used to either. I ate at my booth and only managed to get one brief bathroom break in the morning.

Add to that the fact that when I arrived, there was no table for me (a snafu with my cheque not making it from the school office to the PAC). Thankfully, the coordinator worked hard to find me a space. Unfortunately, that left me with 20 minutes to set up instead of the hour I'd been counting on. That meant I just started unpacking and hoped for the best. It also meant I didn't get a lot of things staged the way I wanted, although I did come up with the bright idea of tipping a wicker laundry basket on its side.

There was a lot of traffic, and I made more than the cost of my table, but not a lot more. However, some tables didn't even do that well, so I feel OK about the day.

The week of insanity continues....

Hubby has been busy tackling some of the little details around the house (staining the railing and handrail, installing trim, planning how to put in a new floor in the attic) while I've been getting ready for the Cloverdale Traditional School Craft Fair on Saturday.

Tomorrow after work I will head to my Mom's to finish stitching up the finger puppets I've made since my sewing machine is still not fit for use. That'll be the last of the stock for this show.

The UPack pod will be delivered late this week, to be unpacked Friday (hooray! The rest of our furniture! And STUFF! Christmas stuff even! And DVDs! And .... STUFFF!!!!). Should be a fun test to see how much more we can cram into this place....

Meanwhile at work, we've (finally) started the next digitization project -- a collection of personal documents (diaries, artwork, official documents, artifacts and photos) including details of an internment camp, local history, and Georgian royalty. I'll share more details when we're ready to launch.

Oh, and Kiddo brings home her first report card from the new school this Friday! Here's hoping we won't need a *long* talk with the teacher next week.

Another packed weekend.

Friday: Renos and parental-based errands, lunch at 1550s, more renos.

Saturday: Renos continue. Paint purchased and applied (one tin of mis-tint in a tan/coffee shade for the office and spare bedroom and one tin of Behr "Pot of Cream" -- off-white -- for the kitchen and stairs). Kiddo got to escape reno-land for a while; she went out with her Nana to see the Santa Parade.

Sunday: Finished the damned renos. (OK, not completely finished, there's still details to work out, but finished enough for a big, bold Mission Accomplished banner as suggested by Hubby.) Sewed some finger puppets (more to sew later this week) and out for an afternoon of live theatre (Brilliant! at the Belfry -- totally worth the ticket price) then food with friends at Fifth Street Bar & Grill. This evening, I've been trying to inventory all my crafts in preparation for next weekend's craft fair.

Which reminds me:

If you are in Victoria, stop by the Cloverdale Traditional School Craft Fair (Quadra at Cloverdale) this Saturday November 29th from 10-4. Admission is by donation. Say you read it about it on my blog and get a free gift!

I will also have a table at the little craft fair at work on December 3rd.

E is for Exhausted.

After being sick most of last week, we still took Kiddo out trick-or-treating. It was actually really nice to do a fairly quick route around the neighbourhood, meet some of our neighbours, and then sit around while Kiddo answered the door for the dozen or so trick-or-treaters who showed up here. Oh, and she looked great in her costume... as Sarah Palin.

(Yes, she chose that costume and I think she will actually be sad if the McCain-Palin ticket fails to get to the Whitehouse. Sigh.)

I also think her trick-or-treating years may be numbered; it already seemed like she wasn't interested and yet she had heaps of fun working the door and handing out candy to other kids.

Saturday we popped up to Nanaimo and got a wardrobe for the bedroom plus a nice electric lawnmower that was being cleared out at the end of the season. I still have to put together the lawnmower, but there's no rush until the rain lets up enough to dry out the lawn a little.

Today we finished putting together the wardrobe (we started last night... it's a bit of a beast even as flat-pack furniture goes, but it looks good in place) and did some shuffling downstairs. Hubby took a load of construction debris out of the basement to the dump then we cleaned and moved boxes while he framed in a closet.

Anyway, I am still tired but determined to go back to work this week, even if my mind keeps drifting to thoughts of preparation for the craft fair at Kiddo's school at the end of the month -- I've committed to a table and the organizer from the PAC was very excited to hear that I would be bringing plush toys and finger puppets.