Want to ramp up your crafting skills? Then join the folks in Etsy.com's virtual labs for over 25 live craft tutorials during the month of July. Etsy will be posting videos, podcasts, and accompanying articles for most of the workshops. You can see the schedule for the entire month here and an overview (which includes supply lists and links) of Week 1 here. Don't wait - Print Gocco is today at 5 pm!
First, let me apologize for not doing what I said I was going to do: posting about all the crafting I was to do in preparation for my June craft shows. The crafting never really happened. I did finish up more tissue holders and a few more notebooks, but that's about it. Alas, one day I will get my crafting mojo back and have a craft business instead of frontin'...which is what I feel as though I've been doing lately.
Last month while at a global conference for the day job in Boston, MA I received a phone call from Venus Zine. The editor had stumbled across my one line bio and got the humor of it. She mentioned wanting to run it and I just assumed it would be online. Now look! I'm in the actual print zine!
Now if I could only get my work in there...
Whew. I'm tired. I spent ALL day cleaning one room of my house. I know telling you this is tricky. On the one hand you could think that me and my DH are complete slobs in live in filth. Really, that's not true. However, if you saw my utility room this morning, you would think it so. I'm thinking I haven't given that room a good cleaning since before my mystery medical illness of 2006. 2006 - crazy, I know! This was the for real deal cleaning: throwing out expired food stuffs on the panty wall, wiping down the pantry shelves, washing the rugs in the room, wiping down the utility shelving, macro and micro reorganizing tools and other items on the shelving, cleaning the washing machine and dryer including behind them, cleaning the dryer vent, sweeping, swiffering, and moping the floors twice... Now do you see why I'm beat?
But, I must bring you this tidbit of info from BizWorks. From their website:
Marketing on a Shoestring Budget: We all know we need to market our business. But how do you do that when your budget is tight? Learn 10 strategies that will increase your marketplace visibility and ultimately your profits for little to no money. Presented by Laura Sims, with Business Advisors International and Gus Iurillo with The Entrepreneur’s Source.
When: Wednesday, May 21st from 4:30 pm-6:00 pm
Where: BizWorks Enterprise Center, 2545 Bellwood Road, Richmond VA 23237
Cost: $20.00
You can register for this event via their website. Leave me a comment to let me know if you plan on attending!
Wow... almost a month since I posted last. How'd that happen? The time has been spent recovering from the best Spring Bada-bing ever, traveling to Boston and Chicago for the day job, and births, funerals and weddings of good friends.
The plan is to be very productive with my crafting over the next several weeks and I will document that on this blog for you to see. The Richmond Craft Mafia will be hitting the craft show circuit hard during the month of June attending some of the biggest shows on the indie scene. I want to get my stuff seen by folks outside of Richmond and will be busting my butt to get stuff made to go to these shows. You can see the show schedule over in the right side bar of this blog (Come see me! section). If you live in or near any of these cities or have family or friends there please pass along the word about the shows!
Whew! I'm still recovering from Spring Bada-bing but had to pass along this bit of info.
BizWorks, a local business incubator, is hosting a QuickBooks seminar on Thursday April 24th from 4:30 - 6:30 pm. From their website:
This course covers the basics of financial management for small business
owners -non-profit and for-profit. There will be extra time for specific
questions and examples. Discussion and definition of financial management,
setting up a correct chart of accounts, basic reporting for the IRS and
business reports needed to make management decisions in your business.
Presenter: Kelly Garrett from Wildes, Stevens & Company.
The cost is only $20. Visit their website at www.bizworkscenter.org for more information and to register.
It's that time of year again boys and girls: the Richmond Craft Mafia's Spring Bada-bing! Richmond's largest indie craft show will be held on Sunday April 20th from 11:00 am - 4:00 pm at Plant Zero Art Center. As always, admission is free so you can spend, spend, spend your money on tons of cool stuff!
This year we are hosting a Wholesale and Press preview hour before the show is open to the public. If you are a shop owner looking to carry wonderful handmade goods or if you are part of the traditional or indy media and want access, please shoot me an email and I'll get you a pass.
Feel free to share this info with any crafty peeps or lovers of handmade goodness that you know. For more info check the website - http://www.springbadabing.com
See you Sunday!
Here's a few production photos (which aren't shown enough on this blog) from a huge order I received last month.
Every Fall, I try to come up with a different holiday ornament idea to use up leftover stuffs I've collected throughout the year. This past fall, I realized I had a surplus of Scrabble tile holders so I decided to do an ornament that used those. They sold very well and I've decided to continue to make them and carry them in my shop.
In March, I got a request from Kate to make a bunch of these ornaments for HOPE in Oklahoma, a non-profit that supports folks fighting gynecological cancers. Naturally, we went with the word HOPE. The ornaments are a small way to offer hope to survivors attending a retreat in April sponsored by the organization. I even changed up the ribbon color (from red to teal) to coordinate with the cancer awareness color for ovarian cancer.
I never thought of the ornaments being used as encouragement to survivors. I'm glad to know a little something I've made is more than just a 9-point word.
We made our statement. We do what we can.
For more on Earth Hour and ways that you can help the environment, check out http://www.earthhourus.org.
TV star and author Mark Montano was in town yesterday promoting his new book The Big Ass Book of Crafts. I always love when I meet someone famous and they turn out to be a regular person! Mark was relaxed, funny and personable chatting up all the folks who came out to see and support him. He shared stories about his family, his background and of course, the real stories about the craft projects in his book. One of the highlights of the day was a long time customer showing up in an outfit Mark designed for her 10 years ago; Mark's reaction was priceless!
If you are looking for a good book to spark some creative home decor ideas, check out The Big Ass Book of Crafts. With over 150 crafting ideas, you will have no excuse not to get crafting!
Click here to see more photos from the event.
