glittergoods: no, really, this time I mean it

Ok, September 1. Man, remember back in the early summer, when I was writing regularly & I -- along with lots of other people -- was struggling with the whole family/work/craft balance? Talking about how hard it is? Oh, & then, remember a month ago, when I thought I was ready to get back into the blog swing? Yeah, well, my balancing act hasn't been so hot lately, obviously. My kid, though, the one who's about to start kindergarten in less than a week, has been having a pretty good end-of-summer, so I guess sometimes "balance" is less important than "happy little boy."

At any rate. Speaking of trying to get back on the balanced-life train, last weekend was my first show in a while, Swank -- oh! first, I have to say that a significant part of the inspiration to pick up the blogging, um, keyboard, again is that a blog reader stopped by & let me know that she made a trip to the show specifically to see me. So flattering & cool, & I totally failed to get your name, but, thanks! I loved that you stopped by!

So, Swank is a great show, by which I mean that it's in a really nice space (a big room in the lower building of the Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Center, locals may know what I'm talking about), & the mix of vendors is a really high-quality & interesting one (if I say so myself, ha). This was my second time at the show, & the foot traffic wasn't quite what it should have been either time, but the show is also new to the space, & I think that there's a lot of potential there, once people figure out where it is. There might be an Eastside show coming up in November (if the organizers can find a good location), & then the next Phinney show will be on December 16. I won't be there (I'll be down in LA at Bazaar Bizarre again), but I hear that the Swank holiday show is fantastic & if you're in the area, you should think about checking it out.

I am trying to remember to take pictures of my booth/table whenever I do a show, though I only manage it about half the time. When you've got as many products as I do, cramming everything into a 6-foot display is fairly tricky, & every time I'm trying to do it, I end up thinking that I really need to pare down the amount of stuff that I actually haul to shows with me (or, ultimately, the amount of stuff I actually make). But, you know, it's hard: do I leave out the shirts? The cards? The bracelets? The sparkly little bobby pins? Oh, decisions, decisions.

Luckily, I brought my latest embroidery project along to distract me from such weighty issues. It's my second Stitchette -- I'm doing a series of three to hang on my daughter's wall -- & wow did that pattern get a lot of compliments over the course of the day. It was especially fun to see how many of the other vendors already knew about Wee Wonderfuls (since I meet a surprising number of crafters offline who don't know about the amazing online craft world).

I suppose I shouldn't be talking about my second Stitchette without showing my first one, which I finished a few weeks ago. I had a great time personalizing the pattern, though I think it will be a while before I decide to do a whole head of hair in French knots again. I just love how portable embroidery is, compared to most other work I do, &, given how little time I'm finding to devote to craft lately, I especially love how small these girls are, particularly compared to this gigantic vintage embroidery kit (seriously, I had to buy a set of 18" x 34" stretcher strips for it) that I really want to stitch up except it kind of scares me, since it's going to be almost as big as the smaller of my children, & it's taken three years to get her to this size .

Comments

Oh I understand you so well :) Time goes by too fast and we don't have enough of it LOL !! I'm happy to read you're fine and I love love love your embroiseries ! I wish you a wonderful weekend ! Smooches from Belgium :)

Posted by: Sandrine (alias Didine ♥ ) | September 02, 2006 at 04:56 AM