Show season is winding down.

At least summer show season, anyway. A couple weekends ago I participated in Art Off Pike in Covington, KY's arts district. This was my third year as an artist/vendor there. My lack of sales there last year made me reluctant to try it again, but after the success I had at the Mason Arts Festival last month, I guess I was feeling good and lucky. I actually missed the juried entry deadline. And the extended deadline.

I'm the first to admit that I'm a procrastinator. Jewelry is such a tough category at some shows and I honestly figured it was way too late to try. I sent off an email to the nice lady coordinating the event anyway, and she got right back to me and told me to send in my photos and application. I was accepted and I'm glad I gave it another shot! (My point is, it never hurts to ask, even if you're late on a deadline!)

The morning got off to a chilly start, but with promise of highs in the low 80s, I ran out the door with shorts on and a sweater over my short sleeved shirt. Boy, was I freezing. There were a few volunteers who practically unloaded my car for me, and while I parked my car, they set up my tent. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived back at my booth space. I do hate the tent setting up part! And it's always tricky to do it yourself. I've heard it can be done, but I've never successfully done it myself. I was just so thankful the volunteers were there!

Okay, tent up, jewelry out... still freezing! The day went on with a decent amount of people wandering from booth to booth. It did eventually warm up. To the 80s. It was so HOT! lol I couldn't believe it. If I remember correctly, the high was 86º. Honestly, I'm not complaining, but I was surprised.

The lovely sunny, warm weather kept a steady stream of visitors and people were actually buying this year! It was a pretty drastic difference from last year's show. I didn't get a chance to walk around, but I did not see a bunch of jewelry artists there this year – another pleasant surprise. The couple I could see from my booth were very much different from what I was offering, so that was a definite plus.

I'm not really sure if it's the economy starting to bounce back, the weather or the change in style of my merchandise, but the show had a better energy than previously. Probably a combination of all of those things. I imagine I will try to make the deadline for entry next year!

Here is my booth set-up from this time around. I decided to add some 11"x11" color prints of a few of my pieces. I printed them at work on the nice color printer and mounted them on foamcore. I punched holes in them and hung them from large binder rings. Economical and eye-catching. I had a few comments from passersby that they had drawn them in. One lady actually said they made her buy the earrings, so they did the trick there! I think it's an idea that could work for most types of booths.

View to the right of me.
The Arcade is a passageway that led to the other street with vendors. They had various local musical groups and a duo throughout the day. This one was my personal favorite.
The view to the left of my booth.

My second show of the year came late in the season.

I haven't done a lot of shows this year. Last year I tried to get into every show I could find, it seems like. This time around, I decided to try to stick with the juried art show variety, which seems to be working better for me. Jewelry is generally a very saturated category (I've even had customers mention how many jewelry booths there are at 'this show', and so on). Even in juried shows, there is never a shortage of jewelry booths, but since they are purposefully selecting the artists, they tend to have a better variety. Which works out better for everyone.

For my most recent, the Mason Arts Festival last Sunday, I decided to sort of try to work myself into a niche. I got together a decent amount of new PMC pieces and had far fewer strung bead necklaces. The majority of my pieces were earrings, then quite a few necklaces and three or four bracelets. Overall, it turned out to be a really good day for me sales-wise, and the weather, although starting out with a chance of rain and kind of cool, ended up being warm (okay, hot) and sunny. There was a nice breeze all day, so that was nice!

I have to say, the Mason-Deerfield Arts Alliance did a fantastic job of organizing this festival. It was their 5th year and my first as a participant. Their volunteers were around all day to help with set-up, transporting vendors back and forth to their cars, watching booths for breaks, bringing waters, etc. It was very helpful and I felt very welcome there. You could tell it was well-publicized too. We had a steady stream of shoppers all day long. I really hope to become a yearly participant at this one.

This is my booth set-up this time around.

A couple views of the shoppers from my booth.

This is the bag of freshly popped kettle corn from the booth behind mine. I could smell it all day and finally caved. (How could I not?) It was fantastic. This is the small bag!

Keep 'em coming!

Wow, so I guess July is my lucky month. This makes the third treasury for me for July. Very exciting stuff! Check out Tango 3.0 here, which includes my carnelian drop earrings aptly named Tango. Thanks to EmporiumGitane on Etsy for including me!

Another treasury!

Well, 2 posts in one day, this is a first for me. I couldn't resist though! I've made it into another beachy treasury. Thank you to bombshellbettiesvint for creating such a cool, vacation-feeling compilation. Here is link to the treasury.

A long overdue trip report.

Well, this one should be an easy read! As I mentioned in a previous post, we were heading off to a family vacation in Las Vegas. (Sounds scary, right?) Well, despite my initial anxiety, a good time was had by all.

Here's the low-down in short form: We arrived Sunday, May 16, checked in to the Flamingo and the Venetian. Rooms were great, so we headed over to Bellagio for the brunch buffet (which I highly recommend). We swung by the Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens afterwards to check out the spring display and then headed downtown to 'old Vegas'.

Bellagio spring display, which, as with all of their displays was comprised mostly of flowers and live plants. It's just amazing every season I've seen it (and free to all who want to spend time there). Definitely a must see if you're in Vegas.

The gang: Mom, me, my husband (the giant), grams, mother-in-law, father-in law, and gram's friend in front.

Monday, we headed out to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which was just breathtaking, even on an overcast day. I'd like to go back there again. I want to say it's 30-40 minutes west of the strip – not a bad drive and well worth the trip.

After Red Rock, it was off to the Hoover Dam. I can see why this place ended up on Modern Marvels on the History Channel. Wow!

I suspect the new bridge they're constructing will end up being on an episode as well. It's being built to divert some of the traffic from the dam.

After the Dam, we headed back and got ready to catch the 9:30 showing of Mystére (Cirque du Soleil). It was my 3rd Cirque show and I enjoyed it so much. Everyone else in the group loved it as well. Again, I would recommend...

Wednesday was Grand Canyon day. We made the 4.5 hour or so drive to the South Rim, which I hear has the best views. I can't say I would disagree! Enjoy!

I made it into a Treasury!

Thank you to fellow Etsian Auramatic for putting one of my bracelets (Seaside) into a lovely, beachy feeling treasury! Very exciting! Check it out here. And be sure to stop by Auramatic's shop too. :)

Gearing up.

It's been over a year since we've made the trip out to my favorite vacation spot – Las Vegas! Well, we're getting ready to head out there for 4 days, but with a twist this time around.

We're taking with us my in-laws, grandma and one of her good friends and my mom. I'm feeling a little anxious about the whole thing. Seven people and trying to coordinate all of the things we want to show them... My father-in-law is out there a few times a year for business but isn't the type to go gambling. My mother-in-law has been there once for work, but didn't get to see much of anything. Grandma was there long ago, when the Mirage was new! I'm not sure about her friend, but I get the impression she has also been there. My mom hasn't ever really been on a real vacation. Well, she's getting thrown right in on this trip!

We have two rooms lined up at the Venetian and one at Flamingo. My in-laws have a rental car reserved – a van, no less – which will be quite handy with all of these people! We've got a decent amount of sight-seeing planned, which is cool for me since I've never seen any of these places! So far on the agenda are Red Rock National Conservation Area, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, Ethel M's Chocolate Factory & Botanical Cactus Garden, possibly Lake Mead and of course all of the cool things right there in Las Vegas. We're going to see Cirque du Soleil's Mystére at Treasure Island and the ladies want to go see one of the Rat Pack tribute shows. Somehow I've got to work in some pool time and my husband and I will likely have a couple late night poker sessions sprinkled in there. I'm sure we'll manage.

Right now I'm trying to get everything done at home... cleaning, packing and trying to get some more pieces listed in my shop. I'm really getting excited about hitting the desert for a few days though! Of course I will bring back many photos and a trip report (be warned, I'm sure it'll be a long read!).