Had fun at the craft show this weekend. :)

I suppose I should blog a bit about my craft show that ran all weekend, huh? It was pretty fun- I talked to a lot of the artists and they were all really nice and extremely talented. There was such a wide assortment of crafts there!

Unfortunately the mall was a ghost town most of the weekend (that place is definitely going downhill rapidly), so I'm hoping the next show I do will be busier- I did make back the cost of the spot, I think, but I haven't figured out yet how much I actually made (everyone was saying how slow sales were...). But hey, at least the mall has free wifi, so I was able to use the internet on my laptop (that made taking credit cards much easier than calling them in). And, like I said, the company was good and I also got to spend the weekend with my fiancé and some friends (and even family stopped by!). :)

I'm wishing I got a picture of my tables on the last day- by then I had things arranged much more orderly. My neighbor on the right didn't show up on Sunday, so that gave me slightly more room to spread out, so I was able to put up a clothing rack to hang my scarves and crochet things like that off of, making more room on the tables.

Here's what my area looked like on the second day of the show:

I love that my friends are mostly hidden behind the boards- they should have waved to the camera or something. lol! And isn't my banner neat? That was designed by my friend Smiss and the drawing of my art muse on there was done by my friend Niere (you can't really see it, but that's a black kitty on the bottom left of the banner).

My jewelry table was really the only one I kept the same all weekend:


Well, I moved the elf ears on the second day, but once again forgot to get later pictures.

For the next show I do around Halloween (next year), I'm going to get a second mannequin head because this one was too covered in accessories. I'm also going to make animal ears next year- people were looking for those, but I'd already sold online the few pairs of cat ears I'd had made.

For the shows next month, I want to make more chainmaille (who knew people would like that so much!) and more cell phone charms/keychains (those seemed to do fairly well because they're inexpensive, so even the young preteens can afford them), and I'd like to put more chainmaille up on my websites this week (haven't had a chance to do that yet). I also need to tag the cartilage earrings with what they are- there's a sign in from of the smaller purple mesh board, but that one was hard to see, so I had to keep explaining what they were (and pointing to the one I was wearing). I think I would have sold more (I mean, it was a mall- gothy people abound) if they'd known what they were to start. Ah well, lesson learned.

Overall, it was a good experience and I'm looking forward to doing more shows next month. There are three I'm going to look into, but I have to decide which ones to go with.

Silly me forgot to get a business card from the nice lady who was my show neighbor (I think my fiancé did, though- I'll edit this post later if he finds it), but I'll give a shout-out to the people I did remember to get cards from: Surfer Girl Hanging 10, The Heart Room, mattcatglass.com, and Noble Lion Leather. Everyone should go check out those links. ;)

Random Magic Halloween Musical Blog Hop

Music is a strong theme in Random Magic -- so strong, in fact, that one of the celestial characters Winnie and Henry meet is Efterpe, the Muse of music.

In celebration of music, Halloween and all things spooky, here’s a fun blog hop to check out. You’ll find tidbits about creepy characters from the book -- and some great music picks.

Come enjoy a musical Halloween blog hop with us, we’ve got tunes for ghouls…

You are here: #2 of 8 (Elbit Blog – Meri Greenleaf)
Songs for: Shapeshifters or Ghostly Riders



Across The Sky – Emilie Autumn

Random Magic excerpt: “With a last flap of dark wings, the raven alighted on the balcony. It scanned the room with sharp black eyes, decided all was well, then hopped down…” (More)

Random Magic excerpt: “The ghostly rider suddenly burst into view. She was clad in gleaming black from head to toe, and carried a nine-headed whip make of snakes. Venom oozed from their mouths, the fangs dead-white against the night fog.” (More)

Check out music stop #3 of 8: Take me there


(If you enjoy a particular music pick, please consider buying the track to help support the person or group that created it for everyone’s enjoyment. Across The Sky is the unofficial soundtrack for the Random Magic Halloween Tour (2010). Happy listening – and Happy Halloween!)


For the impatient, here are all the blogs on the hop:

Well-Read Reviews
http://wellreadreviews.com/

Elbit Blog
http://merigreenleaf.blogspot.com/

Cerebrate’s Contemplations
http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate

A Reader’s Adventure
http://mariah-readingadventure.blogspot.com/

La Femme Readers
http://lafemmereaders.blogspot.com/

StoryWings
http://storywings.blogspot.com/

Diary of a Bookworm
http://www.thediaryofabookworm.com/

What Book Is That?
http://www.whatbookisthat.com/

Random Magic Halloween Tour Oct. 24th – Nov. 2nd Schedule

I'm extremely busy with my craft show this weekend (will share Monday!) but I'm joining in a fun blog tour (much like I did last year) for Random Magic. Hey, I loved the book, so it gets love from me even when I'm busy. ;)



Random Magic Halloween Tour
Oct. 24 – Nov. 2, 2010

About: Random Magic
Tour organization: Lyrika Publicis
Tour prizes coordinator: @LaFemmeReaders
Contact the tour: @RandomMagicTour

Win something wicked:
Gift-wrapped first edition, Random Magic
Cute wicked witch rag doll (Mme. Alexander collectible)


Oct. 24
Halloween Musical Blog Hop!

Come along for a fun, musical blog hop,
featuring creepy characters and tunes for ghouls:

#1 of 8: Well-Read Reviews
http://wellreadreviews.com/
@wellreadreviews (http://twitter.com/wellreadreviews)
Songs for: Vampires

#2 of 8: Elbit Blog
http://merigreenleaf.blogspot.com/
@MeriGreenleaf (http://twitter.com/merigreenleaf)
Songs for: Shapeshifters

#3 of 8: Cerebrate’s Contemplations
http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/
@cerebrate (http://twitter.com/cerebrate)
Songs for: Edgar Allan Poe

#4 of 8: A Reader’s Adventure
http://mariah-readingadventure.blogspot.com/
Twitter: n/a
Songs for: Werewolves

#5 of 8: La Femme Readers
http://lafemmereaders.blogspot.com/
@LaFemmeReaders (http://twitter.com/lafemmereaders)
Songs for: Zombies

#6 of 8: StoryWings
http://storywings.blogspot.com/
@storywings (http://twitter.com/storywings)
Songs for: Ghosts

#7 of 8: Diary of a Bookworm
http://www.thediaryofabookworm.com/
Twitter: n/a
Songs for: Spiders

#8 of 8: What Book Is That?
http://www.whatbookisthat.com/
@heynocupcake (http://twitter.com/heynocupcake)
Songs for: Witches

Oct. 25
Diary of a Bookworm
http://www.thediaryofabookworm.com/
Twitter: N/A
Review
Feature (incl. excerpt): ‘Crafty Dames: Famous Witches’

Oct. 26
Daisy Chain Book Reviews
http://daisychainbookreviews.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @daisychainbooks (http://twitter.com/daisychainbooks)
Feature (incl. excerpt): ‘Haunting Places: Ireland’s Spookiest Castles’

Oct. 27
Escape Between the Pages
http://escapebetweenthepages.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @LoriAtEBTP (http://twitter.com/LoriAtEBTP)
Review
Feature (incl. excerpt): ‘Bell, Book and Candle: A Modern Witch’s Toolkit’

Oct. 28
La Femme Readers
http://lafemmereaders.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @LaFemmeReaders (http://twitter.com/lafemmereaders)
Feature (incl. pix gallery): ‘Casting Random Magic’

Tour treasures: Win something wicked!
Gift-wrapped first edition, Random Magic (http://tinyurl.com/yfqkmy7)
Cute wicked witch rag doll (Mme. Alexander collectible) (http://tinyurl.com/yfqkmy7

Oct. 29
Spellbound by Books
http://www.spellboundbybooks.com/
Twitter: @Meeka_21 (http://twitter.com/Meeka_21)
Review
Related event: Spellbound by Books’ Spookfest (‘Here Be Vampires,’ incl. excerpt)
Related event: WORD for Teens’ Book Spooks (‘Haunted Places,’ incl. excerpt)

Oct. 30
Bewitched Bookworms
http://www.bewitchedbookworms.com/
Twitter: @BwitchedBkworms (http://twitter.com/BwitchedBkworms)
Review (dual review): 'Chatting Over The Cauldron: Random Magic'

Oct. 31
StoryWings
http://storywings.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @storywings (http://twitter.com/storywings)
Review
Feature: A love spell!
Related event: vvb32’s Trix-‘n’Treatz
(‘Vamps!,’ incl. excerpt, feature film)

Nov. 2 (All Souls’ Day)
Electrifying Reviews
http://www.electrifyingreviews.com/
Twitter: @ABennettBooks (http://twitter.com/ABennettBooks)
Review (vlog): Video review of Random Magic
Feature: November's Unearthly Rites: Day of the Dead
Related content: Electrifying Reviews' video channel

Craft show this weekend! :D

I just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be doing a craft show all weekend, so if any of you guys live anywhere near Media, Pennsylvania (suburb of Philly), stop by the Granite Run Mall to support me and the other artists and crafters. :) And even if you don't live nearby, please spread word. Handmade is better than store-bought!

This is my first real craft show (I did a flea market a few weeks ago), so I'm all sorts of excited! Since it's almost Halloween I'll have all my costume-y items out (horns, elf ears, dreadfalls, bracers, hair feathers...), but I also have gothic and fantasy chainmaille made up, cartilage earrings, art dolls, geeky keychains and charms (as well as normal ones, too!), and more.

Would it be weird to wear one of my renfaire-type outfits? That would get attention, right? Of course I'll be wearing some dragon horns and a cartilage earring, too. Wee, fun times ahead! I'll try to remember to get pictures and blog about all this Monday. :)

Trove Thursday - The Colors of Autumn Leaves

Eeep, almost forgot about this blogfire theme and that it was Thursday today. Add in the fact that I'm having internet issues right now means I went with my old standby and just made a Collection filled with the Artfire Plurkies. ;)

The Colors of Autumn Leaves

Curated By: merigreenleaf

ArtFire.com

Just click the art to be taken to the Collection page, then you can click it again to go to the listing. And no one is surprised that I picked leaves as a theme. ;)

I'm assuming everyone on here are still members; I searched for the guild tag to make this. On the other hand I know a lot of plurkies aren't in the guild, so I may have gotten some of them, too. Whatever, it's all good. :)

Ramblings about my first craft show

I know I said I'd be taking a vacation from blogging, but I wanted to post about the show I did this weekend and ideas I have for my displays for later this month. I did this outdoor show with a friend (thanks, Mary!) so I was able to be under a tent and have more tables than just the ones I brought- which was good because now I know my stuff will take up about four and still leave me needing a clothes rack or something to hang my bags and scarves off of.

Here's our booth/tent area thing:

Hi, Care! Anyway, everything was mine except the one table on the close right with the pretty jewelry and busts- those shinies were Mary's. :)

And looking at the photo, there's something I need to make sure I can hang up- my dreadfalls (the purple things above Care). I'm going to make a couple more pairs of these since I only have two finished and put them up high somewhere in my spot. Not really sure how, though, since my next show is indoors so there won't be a tent to hang them off of. Hmm...

Next up, my jewelry table:

I ordered a fancy 4'x 2' banner that I'll hopefully get in time for my next show and it'll go on the back table, not the side like where I put this one. (I also have another leaf garland [in green] to use that I didn't put out.)

Here's closeups:


I'm loving the tree branches- that was an idea one of my Plurk friends had, but I can't remember who had it. Thanks, whoever it was! :D Josh notched the ones in the vases so my hemp stuff doesn't slide off of them, and I'm using a thick branch to hold my stretchy maille bracelets. I need to make one more (or so) of those black displays, though, since I'll have a few more pieces of maille made for my next show and I've run out of room on those boards.


For my next show, assuming that I get more geek stuff done (need more dice drilled), I'm going to have a table (or most of a table) devoted to geek crafts with a sign saying something like "Geeky dice jewelry and keychains" attached to it. Some of the cell phone charms in these photos will be moved to that table, making more room for my hemp jewelry so it's not all bunched on the branches like that.

I also ordered more ear cuffs so more of my cartilage earrings will have cuffs on them instead of pierced posts (I do have a sign there saying I can switch them to cuffs, though).

Here's a lesson I learned- you need heavier displays for outdoors. The foam boards covered in black fabric will work great indoors, but I had to take them down for the outdoor show when they kept blowing over. Even the bottle of tea in that last picture couldn't hold the display up in the wind.

Moving on, here's Care again (hi, again!) and my ears/horns/dreadfalls section:

I'd like to make another pair of ears or two and some more different shaped horns to fill out the table more, and I'm also going to be getting at least one more mannequin head. (Later that day I put one of the pairs of red horns on the mannequin as well as the ears.)

Now my crocheted stuff:


Can you say jumbled mess? Yeah, this is why I want to get the scarves and bags (well, at least the two large purses) off the table and onto a rack.

And my dolls... Death stayed up for a bit but the wind kept knocking him off his pole. My goal for my dolls is to make stands for them out of thick wire so they can stand on their own and make plexiglass boxes to display the ones that aren't for sale (the ones I've made myself and friends). I figure displaying my other dolls will give people a good idea of the types I can make for custom orders and keeping them apart in a large box (or several smaller boxes) would show that they aren't for sale.

The problem is that this will be very expensive to build (and even more expensive to buy- some of my dolls are a foot tall), so I think for my next show I may just have to settle for putting the six I have for sale on stands so they're standing and print out photos of the other ones I've made and glue them to one of those large poster boards that stand up. This won't be nearly as eye-catching but at least it'll give people an idea that hey, I can do custom orders for my dolls.

I'd also like to make a small plexiglass box to house my runestones under because otherwise I have no idea how I'm going to display those without some of the little runes getting knocked off the table or lost. Luckily I don't need anything large for this one so it would be cheaper to make/buy.

To summarize:
The show was basically a bust (I sold all of two things), so I don't know if I'll do flea market shows again; people go there looking for deals, and my stuff is really too high-end for that (or, rather, takes too long to make so I can't charge a pittance). But hey, I got to spend time with friends on a beautiful day and now I know what I want to do with my table for future shows.

Now I just have to finish more maille, ears and some horns, and maybe another dragon scarf. Oh, and all that geeky stuff I want to sell. Yup, I'm going to be busy. ;)

I'll be in stealth mode for a bit

Blog stealth mode, anyway; I'll still be on Plurk every day. Updates here will be a bit scarce for a while- I'm crazy super majorly busy this month preparing for my first craft shows and trying to build up enough stock for them. I have my very first show Sunday- I'll be sharing a booth with a friend at a park near her house, so it's a small show. Then at the end of the month (22nd, 23rd, 24th), I'll be doing a show at the local mall, assuming that my check is cashed and isn't lost in the mail (going to call about that tomorrow). So I definitely need enough stock for four full days worth of shows this month.

First panic attack of the day: the site I'm trying to sign up with to accept credit cards won't verify my identity. Look, I'm me, you silly site, and why would anyone else want to be me? I'm a broke artist paying off student loans; surely no one wants my identity. *headdesk* My fiancé is going to help me fill out an exception form thing tomorrow and hopefully that'll go through in time for my shows later this month. Fingers crossed no one is using any of my info for themselves because I'm not up to fighting horrible people right now.

Second panic attack of the day: crud, I'm almost out of jump rings and I need a lot more chainmaille done for my tables! And the site I normally buy from is out of stock on exactly the things I need. *computerwindow---* but wait! One of my Plurk friends knows someone who sells jump rings! Oh, thank goodness! And she can ship them much quicker than the site I would have bought them from, so this works better. Hurrah! Seriously, my AF and Plurk (since they're pretty much the same people) friends have come to my aid so many times that I'm forever indebted to them.

I have a feeling panic attack #3 will show up tomorrow and Saturday as I try to figure out what the heck I'm going to do about displays. I know I have to still buy tablecloths, go scavenging outside for branches (yes, branches- I'll be using them to hold jewelry, if the idea works), and put together the foam boards I'm using to hold up earrings and maille. I'm milking the Greenleaf thing for my displays; I already bought some fake leaves and I'm planning on using green tablecloths and stuff like that.


Panic attack #4 will be next week if my fiancé doesn't have time to drill me the dice I need him to drill before then. I'm planning on having an entire small table of geeky jewelry and keychains, and right now I have all of about 8 items for it.


Oh, and minor alarm that hasn't been elevated to #5 yet- I have two custom orders to finish soon. Luckily one is almost done (just need to sew the ears to the headband) and the larger order isn't needed until December, so I have time to work on that. After this chaos involving jewelry, it'll be nice to make some dolls. (Although I still haven't had a chance to finish the doll for my best friend's birthday in August, or the one for my anniversary on the 31st- add those to my queue.)


And on top of this craziness, I have my long story due for this writing challenge at the end of the month and I'm only at about 80% done- and I may need it done sooner than that because someone is going to be drawing something from said story and they may need to, you know, actually know the plot. And the blasted plot keeps escaping me while I write random mischief instead of moving the story along. (Note to self: don't write about tricksters next time.) This has become its own little island of panic controlled by a completely different muse.

Speaking of, pardon me while I go freak out while trying to whip my art and writing muse into giving me some of that inspiration they're supposed to be feeding me. (Hear that, Dragon-Girl and Cyn? Get to work!)

Renfaire adventures with Plurkfish

Yesterday the Plurkfish and I went on another adventure- to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because I felt silly carrying around a fish without my best friend there (she couldn't get off work that day), and my fiancé flat out refused to be in a picture with a fish.

Still, I did get pictures! Josh snapped one of me and Plurkfish outside my favorite shop at the faire- the bead shop. ;)

This is a terrible picture of me, so I resized it small. But hey, that's my elf costume I just finished on Saturday- my very first sewn things (a tunic and cloak). I'm really proud of how well they came out! This is just the first incarnation of the costume, though- I'd like to add bits of leather and fur to it and make a longbow and quiver (saw some patrons at the faire with archery gear and I was jealous!), and eventually get/make some leather armor.

Anyway, onto more pictures! I was so embarrassed to ask "Hey, could I get a picture of you holding my fish?" but luckily Don Juan and Miguel are great guys and went along with it. I tried to explain that the fish is traveling the world, but I was so shy that I'm not sure how clear I was. Heh.

Here's Don Juan with the fish:

I love that Miguel is in the background. LOL!

And speaking of, here's Miguel:


I'm really really hoping I remembered to thank them. I was so embarrassed about asking this that I'm afraid I came off as rude. So consider this a heartfelt thank you in case I did forget- they made this shy elf-girl's day. :D

Those were the only pictures I got of the fish that day, but here are a few more from the faire. The first show we saw that day was the Duo of Woo; I'd seen this show years ago, but I don't think they were at our faire for a few years. We sat too far back to get good pictures, but I did get two:



I found videos on Youtube of what they were doing in those pictures: the first you can watch here and the second was part of their Olympics.

After this show we saw Don Juan and Miguel- I got a lot more pictures of them since we had better seats.
Here's Don Juan having a whip contest with Esmeralda:

(I find it so cool that his daughter is part of their act.)

Here's Don Juan using Miguel as target practice:


Here's Miguel as the queen of Spain:


And a French guy:


And a pirate:


Here's Don Juan and Esmeralda (as a pirate) sword fighting:


I took more pictures, but that's probably enough to share. I love this act!

The last show we saw of the day was the human chess match. I only got two pictures of this, though, and it was before it started. Here's the queen:


And here's a less zoomed in picture of her court presiding over the match:


Me and the Plurkfish had a lot of fun yesterday, to say the least! And Josh bought me some cool things, which made me even happier. ;) Beads/charms:

The bead shop at the faire is expensive, though. But look, I found another fox pendant! That way when the one I wear everyday breaks, I'll have a spare. The rest are going to go on to jewelry I sell.

And I've been asking... okay, bugging him to make me a walking stick/quarterstaff, so he found me one at the faire. :D Now I have one to use for when I go geocaching and for part of the cleric costume I'll be making next year:


And here's a slightly better picture of my tunic that we took when we got home:

It's all wrinkled from wearing it all day and the neck shifted (the sleeves really are even), but I'm proud of it. And I adore those bracers and pouch- I may wear those around randomly. ;) They were made by my friend Cecily of 28 Sides Designs.