popcorn festival recap

for those of you who couldn't make it today - here's a look at our set-up. we had someone selling scrubs on one side of us & a fried vegetable stand on the other. the fried vegetable stand, as a side note, had the best fried cheese i've had a festival/fair. it was nicely melted, not overcooked, and was a good size hunk o' cheese. but about us ...




views of our three tables. we had to set up pretty early. we were unloading the cars at 5 a.m. sales officially started at 7:30 a.m. we were all pleased with how our booth looked. it felt inviting and thought out, without being so professional it was stuffy. i think we need something better for the jewelry ... i wish it wasn't all just laying out. but it worked well. and it encouraged people to try on the bracelets, which was good.


we got several compliments on the screened frames for our earrings. we ended up with two earring frames - kathy, april & i all made earrings. they weren't our best seller ... but we probably sold a dozen pairs. (side note on this picture - isn't the green fabric we used for a tablecloth fabulous? i'm totally torn on whether to hem it up & keep it as a table cloth or just add it to my quilting stash.)


our magnets were one of the best sellers. they were some of the first things to go - especially the ones made of old pop caps. they were also our cheapest item, at a quarter a piece. i think that had a lot to do with their popularity. we'll definitely be making more of those for the next show.

we're thinking we want to do a Christmas show. we were a little disappointed at our sales today, but surrounding vendors said their own sales were down, too. so i don't think it was necessarily our prices or our products - it was just a smaller crowd than usual and they weren't buying as much as they did in previous years. that's the word of the more experienced vendors, at least. :) so we're definitely willing to give it another try. and we figure an indoor holiday craft show sounds good. people will be coming solely to by stuff ... and we're all willing to drop some extra cash around the holidays for that perfect present.

we're getting together on monday to go through the sales receipts & divy up the cash ... so then we'll have a better idea of what sold. you could definitely see the difference in inventory when we packed up compared to when we unpacked. so that's good. and several people took our business cards & signed up to receive e-mails about future shows. so that's promising, right?

and we had fun. we had fun creating the items to sell, and we had fun experiencing the festival today. a huge thank you to everyone who was able to make it today to support us. you guys are great. and hopefully you didn't just buy things because you felt obligated, but rather because you found things you really liked. and bethany, you're a great dancer - it didn't rain a single drop until we were totally packed up & on our way out of town. :)

finding us

if you haven't been to the popcorn festival before you may be surprised at how many people are there. i was surprised the year i went. it's basically huge. and so here's a map showing you where the monday night designs booth will be. we're northeast of the courthouse on the east side of franklin.

my screen is currently drying for screen printing the t-shirts. i'm more freaked out about trying to screen print for the first time than i am about selling at a craft show for the first time. humorous, no?

my mantra for today was "okay, so you don't like it ... now what are you going to do about it?" my goal was to keep a positive focus to my energy. dwelling on my dislike for something isn't active enough to fix the situation. and if i'm not actively working to fix the situation i'm just prolonging it. and that's like hitting yourself in the eye with a rubberband ... it's just stupid.

57.5 hours 'til we start selling. current forecast: 74 degrees with isolated thunderstorms. eek!

new jewelry!

so sunday was our practice set-up ... and i came home & made more jewelry. i love making jewelry. it's fun for me.


two necklaces.



and a bunch of earrings.

i thought i came up with a fairly clever way to photograph the earrings, but the photos still aren't the best. better than i was getting before, but it needs some tweaking. the lighting isn't quite right or something. the colors look pretty consistent on my monitor - the pink swirls aren't quite as prominent in person, but the rest are good representations.

i printed our business cards tonight. got my sales tax certificate. got our banner.

80 hours 'til we start selling!

activity ... and photographs to prove it

tomorrow we're doing a practice set-up for the popcorn festival. we need to see how we can best work the layout, where to place all the items, what could we use more of, etc. so that means i had to collect all my stuff for the booth.


i gotta say i'm a little concerned that all my goodies can fit into one shoe box and two wilco bags. but a lot of it's jewelry, and that packages up pretty small.


here's our logo stamp. it's a little hard to see, so ...


here's one of our bags stamped with the logo. i got half of the bags stamped tonight while i was watching the third harry potter movie. i'll accomplish the other half tomorrow night or monday night.

i picked up more beads at jo-anns today when i bought the fabric for the tablecloths. so hopefully during our set-up we decide we have space for more jewelry. :) i need to really look at the inspiration earrings julie sent me so i can try those, too. i really like the set that has the double loop of beads - with the top loop shorter than the bottom loop.

it seems there's something more i should be saying here. but since i can't figure it out ...

needing laziness

i want to do as little as possible today. i want to sit at my computer. i want to take a nap. i want to soak in a cool bath. there is very little that would make me want to be active today. i'm hoping this isn't a sign that i'm getting sick.

we got our logo stamp. it works famously. now i need to spread out all our bags & stamp them. that, of course, requires activity ... so i'm updating my blog instead.

i picked up the fabric today for our table clothes. some brown, some green. i'm not sure yet how i'm going to put them together ... but i think i can kick those out one evening after work, so i'm not concerned with them today.

i got something else for the booth this week, too. but it's a surprise for april ... so of course i can't tell you about it yet. aren't you glad i brought it up?

i need to make t-shirts for the us to wear. i don't have the t-shirts yet. i was going to stop at walmart today, but i just couldn't take walmart on a saturday afternoon. walmart is crazy anyway ... but a saturday afternoon? no thanks. i'll make a run there during lunch one day this week. surely it'll be less crazy then.

the popcorn festival is less than a week away. one week from today we will be a mere three hours from closing the booth. i'm not freaked out by this. not yet at least. i'm excited, though it seems more surreal than anything else. putting one's self out there isn't an easy thing to do. i must continue to remind myself that not everyone will like our stuff. a lot of people will probably walk through without buying anything. i've never been known for dealing well with not being good enough. we'll see if i can separate people judging my work from people judging me. perhaps i really just need to decide that i don't care. regardless, this could be a very interesting experience for me.

i'm adding some sites to the recommended list. obviously i think you should visit them.

preparing for the festival

i just finished the registration book for the booth. well, it's actually not quite finished yet. the cover will be stamped with the logo once we have the logo stamp. and i sent the logo to the logo-stamp company today ... so it's in the work.s

i'm going to make a sign to go next to the book saying something like "thanks for visiting with us! please sign up to receive e-mails about future shows". i'm asking for their city/state just because i'm curious where all of our hardcore fans will be from. :)

preparing for the festival

tonight i stretched the screen for our earring display. we'll have to keep tabs on how many sets of earrings we make - we may need another frame. my goal, however, is to finish everything i currently have started before i start anything new. i don't have a lot that's in progress ... four calendars need covers & binding and then all the preparation stuff (making tablecloths, business cards, researching sales tax, painting a mirror, pricing items ...). once all of that is finished/collected/ready to walk out the door - THEN i'll make more earrings and bracelets. otherwise i know i'll keep making jewelry & then the night before we do our dry run, i'll be going crazy trying to get it all together. and there's just no need for that. :)



these are the five photos i'll have at the booth. i have two boxes of these 8.5" square frames - free of charge. so i figured i'd use those for the booth ... but cropping photos down to squares isn't as easy as i thought it would be. so i found these five flower photos & stopped there.

and yes, julie, i'd be happy to take some inspiration from your favorite earrings. :)

monday night designs

in the end we agreed that the logo with the most votes would be the one we used. and the final logo choice is ...



thank you to everyone who voted. we all really appreciate your insight & help. the voting was very close. for those of you who still have copies sitting around: 15 (above, my design) have 24 votes, 5 (kathy's design) had 20 votes, 19 (april's design) had 17 votes, and 10 (becca's design) had 12 votes. so in the top four each of us designers was represented. it was pretty neat to see what four designers would come up with. very different styles. very different perspectives.

so, next to design business cards. and get the etsy shop up & running. and get a logo stamp ordered. and ... and ... and ... and this thing is only 18 days away!

more photos will be posted soon. but i got a comment that people were just dying to know who won. and who am i to not answer when my fans ask for something? :)

craft-a-thon, day 3

i spent a good chunk of today working on my t-shirt quilt. i'm pretty sure i'll be making another trip to jo-ann to get more fusible interfacing & sashing fabric ... but i gotta say that cutting up t-shirts is pretty fun. i've got three done so far, twelve more to go.


kathy & april came over tonight to craft. i worked up a set of marble magnets. i wasn't planning to make any of these for the festival, but then i found all the supplies i'd need to make 'em ... so i figured i might as well. i've decided that super glue works better than everything else i've tried on these.


when i found the supplies for the marble magnets, i also found some larger magnets. so i made some pop cap magnets, too. i originally bought the pop caps for necklaces & bracelets ... but i haven't found the motivation to do that, yet. so i may use them for magnets instead.


and then i made a quick bracelet while i was watching will & grace. i do love that show. :)

craft-a-thon, day 2

today did not consist of much crafting. instead, i spent the afternoon at the fair with holly & alicia. a very good use of the time! :) we had a lot of fun. and i think i'm now thoroughly convinced that fried fair food is not good for me. no matter how good it sounds/smells/tastes ... after 2 minutes it's just a lump in my stomach. that's a good thing to learn, right?

i did squeak out a couple pieces of jewelery after we got back tonight. but mostly i spent time trying to decide how to make my t-shirt quilt. keep in mind, this quilt has NOTHING to do with the popcorn fest ... but i'm suddenly very intent on making it. it shouldn't take more than two or three evenings to complete, but i probably shouldn't be doing that with the popcorn fest so close. regardless, i've made a shopping list & plan to go out tomorrow to pick up some supplies. first i need to decide if i want to sash the squares (i think i do), if i want all big squares or some small squares as a border (if i border it i can use the sleeves, some of which are pretty cool), what size the squares should be ... you know, all the important stuff. i'll keep you posted if i start hacking things up & sewing 'em together. :)

and check this out: i decided to unplug the router & plug it back in ... i've gotten a great wireless internet signal ever since. crazy, huh?

craft-a-thon, day 1

i'm taking vacation days monday-wednesday of this week and having a craft-a-thon. yesterday becca came over to craft with me. she worked on a set of invitations (she makes beautiful cards) and i made some li'l plush monsters.

the guy on the right was pretty frustrating. his construction is simple, but i kept making stupid mistakes. he does, however, has posable arms - and that's pretty cool. the guy on the left is my favorite. i call him "running bunny".

here's a side shot of them so you can see the backs of their ears & bodies. the bunnies have felt arms/legs - it was the best way to make them small & not have to turn anything that small inside out.

there are some bracelets i did last monday at craft night. i like the one on the left, i think it looks like candy. :)

and these are the pieces i did while i watching "the breakfast club" at 1 o'clock this morning. i was totally set on going to bed when i got home from the fair - but i've never seen "the breakfast club" in its entirety ... so i stayed up & made jewelery. the bracelet on the left looks really nice when it's being worn. it looks a little weird just piled on a table - and trust me, i tried to get a photo of me wearing it - but this is all i could do. you'll just have to stop by the booth & try it on. :)

in other news: my internet connection is still slow & flaky. i'll be at the fair again this afternoon - hopefully it stops raining. i need to take a shower.

the weekend

friday was a beautiful day for a yard sale! we didn't rake in a ton of money ... but we sold the big stuff (sofa, big recliner, desk), which was good. almost everyone who came bought something, traffic was just slow.

saturday was greg's wedding. it was beautiful. the flowers were gorgeous! some were set in a semi-circle at the front of the stage with the flowers standing a good 18 inches tall - so as they stood behind them to say their vows, they looked like they were in an english garden. very cute. and the fellow who officiated the ceremony was obviously invested in greg & kim's relationship - i could tell he really knew them & cared for them. it's not often that the pastor tears up as he's giving the bride words to say during the ceremony. i love weddings. :)

my ten-year high school reunion was also on saturday. i missed the official event, but got back in town to attend a small "after party" of sorts. it was a lot of fun. mostly a group of people i wasn't very close with in high school, but it was a good time.

i spent most of today crafting with the gals for the popcorn fest. we do these day-long crafting marathons, and i always feel like i should have gotten a LOT more accomplished than i did. today i managed to trim down some photos for framing & make the four bracelets in that picture. i don't think the green one on top is actually done - i need to pick up some more jump rings & add a few more beads to fill in. but at least i did something. being crafty is good.

i'm taking a few days off at the beginning of august to craft. if anyone would be interested in joining me, let me know. you can bring along whatever kind of craft it is that you enjoy or just come to socialize. i wouldn't recommend bringing kids since i'll have sharp objects & small pieces all over the place, but adults are more than welcome. :)