Spotting My Work In The Wild

Hi!  Remember me?  I know it's been a dog's age since I last posted....

For the past two weekends, this has been my home, doing two art fairs.  Both fairs went well -- great crowds, good sales, and good weather (none of the predicted rain on the first weekend, and a good 10 degrees cooler each day the second weekend than it was at the same show last year -- seriously, last year you could see people's brains melting as they trudged through the show grounds....).  All but one of the pieces I blogged about in advance of the first show went to new homes -- hooray!

You better believe I was extra cautious as I passed by the Killer Cicada Tree this year. I managed not to drop food on my clothes.  I did perform a spontaneous interpretive dance otherwise known as the "YEOW, I Put My Glasses On Top Of My Head And Now They're Completely Tangled Up There" jig, closely followed by the "Now My Hair Looks Like A Scary Witch" boogaloo.  In terms of my typical show kerfuffles, both weekends were relatively calm.

I did spot a surprising number of people wearing pieces they'd bought from me at previous shows.  What a cool feeling!  It was kind of like spotting your favorite kind of bird perched in a tree outside your window.

Another cool result from the past two weekends was two new galleries interested in carrying my work, a new show that I might do next month, and a connection with a local company that could lead to some really exciting things. I have a few weeks' break before the next round of shows, but with everything else going on, I'll be spending every waking hour in the bead room.  I know, getting up and saying "I HAVE to make some earrings today" is an incredibly fortunate position to be in.  Excuse me while I go do a happy dance!

Wherein Good Fortune Freaks Me Out And I Go On A Challenge Hiatus

Have you ever heard the expression, "be careful what you wish for"?  Because I will be the walking, talking embodiment of it for the next four months.

This is going to sound like the stupidest, "shut up until you have something real to worry about" post in the world, but y'all, I looked at my calendar the other day and nearly panicked.

And yes-I-know-I'm-an-idiot thing about it is that IT'S ALL GOOD STUFF.  But I'm still in low grade panic mode.

See, I applied to a bunch of shows this fall, and I got into most of them.  Fabulous, right?  Yes!  I'm thrilled! Especially since three of them are new for me.


(This is last year's poster - oops - but here's the info)



A great little show just a few miles up the road from me

They call this "Indiana's Nicest Day" - who could resist?

An indoor show, which is nice in November!

 

Of all of these fabulous opportunities, the one I'm truly, utterly, speechlessly excited about is the final one shown above, the Kentuck Festival.  It's in a town I lived in for fourteen years, it's a show I loved as a patron, and it's a show I've been applying to for years.  Seriously, YEARS.  It got to the point that everytime I'd send off my application I'd tell the kids "Mommy's just had her annual exercise in futility."  So you can imagine how excited I was to get the notice of acceptance!  (Actually, I scared the crap out of my poor husband, who thought something horrible had happened when I opened the email and screamed...)

So with all of this happening on top of my busiest time of year at my job, the next few months are going to be, um, interesting!

And as many exciting challenges are out there (I'm looking at you, Saturday Sequins, ArtBead Scene, etc...), once my reveal in the third part of the Bead Soup Challenge is over, I'm putting myself on a strict no-challenge diet!