Sunday, October 24, 2010

Juggling plates...

I am juggling creative time with my day job and and trying to get some rest.  This time of year is so busy at work with parent/teacher conferences, paperwork, lesson plans, after school activities. At the same time, I want to work on my own art and creative projects. My body is telling me to slow down or crash...so I am choosing to slow down for a bit.  I will be working on my creative projects though. Those are the ones that heal my mind and body the most.  But I have to force myself to get rest.  I can't sit still very long and would stay up late at night if I could, but I know that I need more sleep!


Here are a couple of fall paintings that I have worked on this year. I love the colors of fall. These paintings will be in my Etsy shop soon.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Art Festival Booth Changes

Norcross ~ October 2010
I have TWO whole art festivals under my belt now! And I have made progress! After the festival that I went to on Mother's Day weekend, last spring, it was suggested to me to work on my booth appearance.  I took that great advice, and worked hard to create my new booth look.  I knew that it wasn't the most professional looking booth to begin with, but it was the best that we could do for the first show.  We really didn't know what to expect or what we were doing. Starting from scratch was hard. But I think it paid off at our second art festival in Norcross.  I needed a white tent to lighten up the display and a better way to display my mini houses. So I designed some shelves and asked my talented Dad to build them for me and he really came through and did a great job.  I asked my mother to sew some table skirts for the new taller tables that we created from saw horses and boards. She is a very talented seamstress.  I think it turned out pretty nice.  We will continue to make changes to improve on what we have now.   In the 3rd photo, you can see a window behind my booth. Inside that window is a little paper cut out of a house (bottom photo). When we were unpacking our booth the first day at the festival, we saw that house in the window and knew that it was a sign that we were meant to be there that weekend! The house even has a little heart on it...just like my little houses do.
Booth before

My next business goal is to find art shows that are closer to home. The 8 hour drive is really hard to do. So I will be looking for some shows in Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Missouri. If you know of any good ones, I'm open to suggestions!

I would love to hear what you think about my booth and if you have any other ideas. I'm still working on making it cuter and easier to pack.
~Beth



 
Booth After Makeover...
Display table with new shelves and table skirt.





Little House in the Window
(behind my booth)


My Kiln

My Little Kiln She is small but mighty. She gets the job done.  The size of my kiln does limit what I can create, but I get a lot of use o...