War Eagle Fair 2014

I survived my first year selling at War Eagle Fair!  Part I

And I had a great time! I am exhausted! And I plan to do it again next year. Glutton for punishment, yes, I guess I am!  It was a lot of work getting ready for this show.  Most of the vendors have done this show for many years and they prepare all year for this show.  I started preparing in June! Yes, I already had some of my little houses made, but I knew that I needed much more inventory. So I created as much as I physically could. I do have to have some sleep.  So now that it is over, I have to plan for next year's show.

But I will do some things differently.  Since it was my first time, ever, to even go to War Eagle, I really didn't know what to expect.  I knew that the show had good crowd attendance.  But I had no idea what kinds of things sell to this type of crowd, at this type of show. I learned a lot.

What I learned:

1.  War Eagle has a dedicated crowd of customers. They return every year. They come to buy. I was pleased that so many of them decided to buy some of my creations, even though I was the newbie!

2.  A four day show requires A LOT of product to sell. If you don't have much to sell, you will not have much to offer the customers.

3.  Have a variety of items with a variety of price points for everyone.  From $4.00 magnets to $150 paintings...or higher! You never know what someone is looking for! Many of the attendees are shopping for Christmas gifts or decorations.

4.  Talk to other vendors and ask lots of questions! Many are very helpful and willing to offer tips and advice!  It is great to make new friends with similar interests too.

5.  Price to sell, but do not undersell. I would not feel good about my work if I marked it so low that I didn't make money! The reason for doing a show like this, is to make money.  Why would I work my tail off all year and not make money?  Another good reason for #3.  Have something to sell that can be priced low and make some money. $10 - $50 is a good price range for many people. Have a lot of stock in that range.

6. Have a booth that draws the customer in. Next week I will blog about my booth and how we set up.
Update: Part 2 More About My Booth Display

War Eagle Mill is a beautiful place. I took many pictures of the scenery around the mill. I plan to go back soon for fall foliage photos. The leaves are looking very pretty this week. Shown in the photos is the War Eagle Mill and the one lane bridge over the river, the week of the Fair.  Isn't it beautiful?

Beth♥

Trip to Crystal Bridges

Now that I am in Northwest Arkansas, I am within a 20 minute drive of the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Before moving here, I had visited the museum twice before.  But since moving here 3 months ago, I had not been there. Thursday I finally took the afternoon to go for a visit.  I met up with some hometown classmates to have lunch there, so that was the perfect time to take in the current exhibit.

I love the scenery around the museum as much as I enjoy seeing the exhibits. Here are a few of the scenes from my walk around the museum.

From the Silver Tree outside the museum to the gold heart hanging over the restaurant in the museum.


I did take some photos of the art on exhibit, but I will leave that for another post. It was a beautiful day for a stroll through the exhibit and the grounds.

For more information on this destination, click on here:
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Edit: For more photos of the actual exhibit click here:
William S. Paley Collection at Crystal Bridges

Beth♥

On THE Move

Putting the Sign in the Yard!

I've been talking about wanting to sell our house and move closer to my family for several years now. Although I've been wanting to move for awhile, the timing wasn't quite right...until now! We put our house up for sale in January, in the middle of a rough winter, for us anyway, thinking that I would have several months to get ready for THE Move.

Packing the art supplies! 

At first, things were slow and I thought it may not happen now either. But after one month of being on the market, the right people came along and wanted to buy our house! Yay! Great, but they had to sell their house first. Okay, that gives us a little more time to get ready, start planning and packing. But less than 2 weeks later, they had sold their house and were wanting to close on ours by the end of March! Oh my! That was fast! So...fast forward to the end of March...we have moved across the State, to Northwest Arkansas, and closed on our home of 18 years. It has been a hectic month! We have been unpacking for over a week now and still have a lot of boxes to go through, but it is beginning to look and feel more like home everyday. So, I feel like this was one of those life changes that happened when it was supposed to happen. So I'm looking forward to seeing where this Chapter in our lives takes us.

My goal this week is to unpack and organize the rest of my studio.

Packing the truck!

Unpacking the art supplies!

Grand Opening Saturday!

Second Saturday Studio

Opening Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Searcy, Arkansas

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I took some of my art and clay houses to Searcy last weekend to sell in a new shoppe, Second Saturday Studio, that is opening up today. I will not get to go this month because it is a two hour drive from here. Since I was just there last weekend to take my work and get all signed up to participate, it is just too much to go two weekends in a row. I really wish that I lived closer to central Arkansas, where my parents are, but that is another goal that I would like to pursue in the future! Anyway, the paintings shown above are some of the ones that are available in the new shoppe. Both photos show a set of 2 paintings, which can be purchased together or separately. I also have lots of little houses that are shown in the photos on the SSS Blog. They are hanging in bags below the paintings.

Sunday they started featuring the artists who will have their work in the shoppe. And on Monday, they featured me here: Introducing Beth S. Macre!

So I am excited to find out how the Grand Opening goes today! For now the shoppe is only going to be open once a month, but if you want to go in there to look around at another time, all you have to do is call one of the owners, Kelly Van Hook or Micah Holden. Check out the Facebook Fan page here: Second Saturday Studio Fanpage You will find all of the contact information and addresses that you may need if you are interested in visiting the shoppe. There will be a very interesting variety of items that will be for sale in the shop! So, if you are in central Arkansas on the second Saturday of each month, please stop by and see what artistic goodies you will find!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Beth

I've been out of town this weekend, visiting family and delivering artwork to a new gallery/art boutique that will be opening soon. The grand opening is this Saturday. I am pretty excited about this. So watch for updates soon about the Second Saturday Studio. I will post some photos of the paintings that will be for sale. If you follow the link to the blog, you can read more about it now.

Stay tuned for more to come! ;-)

~Beth

Busy Week!

Set of 3 Heart Homes in Clay
♥Beth S. Macre © 2009♥

Yesterday I listed several new things in my new Etsy shop, so I hope you will stop by and check them out. This set of 3 Heart Homes is one of the new listings. I also got a message from an Etsy seller named Dandie today, telling me that my shop was being featured on her(their) blog, Dandie's Etsy Finds. Thanks to Daneel and Mandie for featuring my shop!

This week is going to be a very busy week, both at home and school! I'm in the process of adding new items to my new Etsy shop, finishing items to put into my Etsy shop, grading papers that have been waiting patiently for me (I hate to grade papers, btw!), and the Governor of Arkansas is visiting our school Wednesday! So of course there are lots of preparations going on at school...and since I am the ART teacher (who must not have anything else to do), I was asked to paint a sign for his arrival...which I have one day to start and finish! Gee, I'm getting exhausted just thinking about all that I have to do before Thursday. Also, I am going to visit my daughter this weekend, so I have packing to do!

...all I want to do is paint and play with some clay!

Give away...

Here is a list of people who commented over the last 2 weeks. If your name is on this list, please email me at: bethsmacre [!at] gmail.com . I need your full name and mailing address. Of those addresses that I get, I will draw names for the winner of a clay tile! Everyone will receive a free gift. I will post pictures of these items in a few days.

Teresa M

Lea S

Genie

Timbo

Cindy H

Jeanette

Lene

Diana E

Sarah L

Dors

Fannie

Sanghi

Genie

Debbie

Thanks so much to all of you who come to visit and leave your nice comments!

I appreciate all of you!

~Beth