restating the obvious

(Internet research reveals that "tasty cheese" may be an actual cheese in Australia and New Zealand, perhaps similar to cheddar?! Can any Aussie/Kiwi readers clear this up for me?)

guilty pleasures

I keep staring at this photo I took of the donuts from Duck Donuts while we were in the Outer Banks last month. It got me thinking about guilty pleasures...

Most of my guilty pleasures fall into two categories: Food That Is Bad For Me and Things That Waste My Time. I guess a third category would be Things I Do That Are Mildly Embarrassing To Admit.

DONUTS. This is my #1 guilty pleasure of all time. I admit it, I freaking love donuts. Especially the original glazed Krispy Kremes and the Boston Cream Donuts at Dunkin Donuts. I feel like admitting that you love donuts is akin to confessing you shoot heroin. Don't you hate it when your snobby and athletic co-workers roll their eyes and proclaim "I don't eat donuts." ? Whatever. They're delicious and yes, I was the person who ate the last donut in the box that was sitting on the lunch table all morning.

CHEESECAKE. Dieters among your dinner party may scoff at this sinfully delicious dessert, but I dig in and then have seconds. I think I might choose cheesecake as my last meal (with a side of donuts, of course).

BUTTER. Give me real butter and not that crap in a plastic tub. Go all the way or go home. If you go to the trouble to bake bread, it deserves to be paired with real, delicious, full-fat, melty butter. Larry puts Country Crock on it. Blasphemy.

CREAM. Fact: If a recipe has heavy cream in it, it is going to be delicious.

CHICK-FIL-A. I really don't like fast food. No McD's, no BK, it just doesn't do it for me. The exception is Chick-Fil-A. I had never even had Chick-Fil-A before Larry and I were dating, now I'll take a Meal #1 - Chicken Sandwich with Waffle Fries and a Lemonade any time we pass by one. My guilt over patronizing this place has increased a hundred fold this year since I completely disagree with their politics. I try to boycott them as much as possible now. Damn you bigots, and your deliciously greasy food!

FRUITY DRINKS. Don't get me wrong, I love a glass of wine or a good beer, and only sometimes feel guilty about consuming them. But the fruity drink gets a bad rap. They're usually consumed by silly girls in tube tops who giggle too much and can't hold their liquor. This is not me. Regardless, I love some coconut rum, especially when paired with pineapple juice.

ALL FOOD, PARTICULARLY SWEETS.* This list is getting ridiculous with me listing all the delicious and naughty things that I love to eat. Other guilty pleasures: soft serve ice cream (not that yogurt crap), good chocolate (not American chocolate, the European kind), fried food, and sugar cookies. Suffice it to say, I just love food and I have a huge sweet tooth. Ever since I became interested in cooking, I just can't help myself. I was much skinnier back in the day when I didn't like food.

STAYING UP LATE. I've been a night owl since childhood. I know I should go to bed earlier, but I can't. Also, ever notice how the night owls always get a bad rap and the early birds get...the worm? (Go ahead and take your worms, Early Risers, they're slimy and gross!) But seriously, the early birds who get to work at 6 am (why?!) - namely my bosses of the past - always get the pat on the back. These early bird bosses were never fans of mine - despite the fact that I would work until 2 am if something needed to get done.

SLEEPING IN. This may be a consequence of staying up late, but I would sleep until noon every day if I could.

LONG HOT SHOWERS. You know, the kind of loooong showers where everyone else gets pissed off at you for using up all the hot water? Good stuff.

READING BLOGS. Such a time suck, yet I could do this all day.

THE INTERNET. Imagine how productive I the human race could be if I we didn't waste my our days surfing the internet. Nah, I'm sure I'd we'd just find something else to fritter away my our time on.

Specifically, INTERNET SHOPPING. So easy to spend my money! Can buy things while wearing pajamas! Awesome!

MUSIC. I tend to think I have good taste in music. And when I'm at home, I listen to this good music on CD or my iPhone. However, when I'm driving all bets are off, and I listen to the radio and sing along to Pink and other cheesy pop music. Larry asked me what my #1 guilty pleasure song was the other day, and I couldn't come up with one, but I think cheesy eighties music falls into that category. We recently were discussing that Hall & Oates is going to be at Wolf Trap later this month and I confessed that I'd totally be up for going. Private eyes, they're watching yooouuuuu...

READING. Reading should not be a guilty pleasure - it's an educational way to pass the time. But I always do it when I should be doing something else and consequently, I have a love/hate relationship with reading. It's really just a method of procrastinating, so I feel guilty when I get lost in a good book and I know I should be doing the dishes.

PAJAMA PANTS. I would wear these all day every day if I could.

LISTENING TO SONGS ON REPEAT. My favorite song of the moment? I can listen to it on repeat for hours. (I try not to do this when anyone else is around.) Come to think of it, this habit may be a sign of some sort of mental disorder, not just a guilty pleasure. P.S. I just listened to Private Eyes sixty-four times in a row.

And a few things that I think are other people's guilty pleasures that I'm totally not into: celebrity gossip (don't care), television (I watch a few shows, but never aimlessly channel surf), fast food (with the exception of Chick-Fil-A, see above), soda/coffee (I don't drink a drop of either - just don't like them) and vampires (I don't understand this one at all).

Anyone else care to confess? What are your guilty pleasures?

*Just so you don't think I'm going to have to be forklifted out of my house some day, I do love plenty of healthy foods, too - like vegetables! And lentils!

ballston arts & crafts market - june recap

I know it's been all I've been writing about lately, but I wanted to post my thoughts on Saturday's art market before I forget. This was my first tented fair (I did a really small art fair last fall in which we were only allowed to display on 6' tables - no tents), so obviously there was a significant cost for equipment for this fair, along with a significant learning curve in setting up my display.

The Ballston Arts & Crafts Market is a mid-sized market (35 vendors at each market) and is located in an urban square in Arlington, Virginia - in an area with a lot of condo buildings, and restaurants and shopping within walking distance. It was the perfect size for me. I think it's the kind of market that people who live nearby enjoy strolling through on Saturday morning as opposed to being a destination that people mark on their calendars and drive great distances to attend. It was never packed with people, but there was definitely enough traffic and sales to make it worth my while!

We arrived an hour before the market to set up - and I am so grateful for Larry and a friend who stopped by to do the heavy lifting and assist with the tent set-up. My spot was located between Holland Cox and Jenny Wren Jewelry. They seemed to be experienced in the art market circuit and I'm sure anyone who walked by was amused by the comedy of errors that occurred as we attempted to set up - it was obvious we were new at this! But once we figured out how to hang my banner right-side-up (oops!) and with bungees instead of rope, I was in business!


Despite the heat, it was an enjoyable day. All my local friends, and of course my mother, stopped by to check out my booth and offer support and encouragement! (And yes, my own mother insisted on buying something from me!) And I had a great time chatting with some of the other vendors - especially Kate from Udacha and Amy from Interlaken Soak Company.

I was really pleased with my display, which is a relief considering how unsure I was feeling about it before the market. I had decided to use pegboards for my vertical display because I don't like the look of those metal grid walls (and they are expensive!) and the mesh walls, while attractive, cost hundreds of dollars. I ended up loving the fact that the pegboards created a white "wall" behind the art which really made it stand out, and I also liked the industrial look.

But most importantly, I made sales! In fact, it was the second most profitable day in terms of gross sales in the history of my little shop.  With any art market, you need to cover the booth fee, but in my case, since this was my first fair, I also wanted to cover the cost of all my equipment - the tent, display system, weights, etc - and I came pretty close. I also found it interesting that while my smaller, cheaper pieces are by far my best sellers in my online Etsy shop, the exact opposite occurred at the fair - my larger, more expensive pieces were the most popular and my cheaper pieces did not sell well. It was great to make more money by selling fewer items - and I think it's a good sign that my new 11x14 prints were the most popular items. We'll see what happens when I list them in my Etsy shop later this week.


Lessons Learned and Other Thoughts:
1. Bungee cords! Bring lots of bungee cords! These work much better than rope or velcro.
2. Bring a battery operated personal fan. It was HOT!
3. The cash box is a pain in the ass. Use a money belt instead.
4. Hanging up all my pieces on the pegboard took much longer than expected. I was sweating trying to get everything up as the fair was starting.
5. The tent sites might not be on level ground and adjustments have to be made to get things to hang straight.
6. Bring a few bags - a few customers asked for them to carry their purchases.
7. Several customers wanted to pay by credit card. I still don't think I want to complicate things and accept credit cards and it didn't end up costing me any sales (the customers went to a nearby ATM), but it's something to think about. If I do a bigger market, I'll definitely have to figure out how to accept credit cards.
8. Bring a book for when business is slow.


You'll recall that I had quite a To Do List before the market. Here's an update on how I did:

DISPLAY TO DO:

• Buy a 10x10 tent/canopy. (Done. I got a Quest tent from Dick's Sporting Goods.)
• Buy another folding table. (Done. bought it at Home Depot. Oddly enough, they're located next to the rolls of carpet padding.)
• Build a display system. (Done. I used pegboard which was hung from the tent structure with zip ties. I used S-hooks and binder clips to hang my art from the pegboard.)
• Make tent weights. (Done. Larry helped me build these with lengths of PVC pipe filled with sand and capped off.)
• Make a garland to decorate my tent. (Done. In a stroke of genius, I sewed neodymium magnets - aka super magnets - into the end pieces which made it super easy to attach the garland to the tent.)
• Figure out how to hang my shop banner. (Done. Bungees are the answer.)
• Make tablecloths to cover the tables. (I ended up borrowing tablecloths from Mom at the last minute - they weren't perfect, but did the trick. Also, I don't know why I thought sewing tablecloths would be a good use of my time. Instead, I'm going to buy fitted banquet table tablecloths for the next fair.)
• Boxes to display small pieces/business cards. (I laid the small pieces flat on the table. Biz cards went in a mesh cup.)
• Test run of display and set-up. (Sort of - but we figured out a lot of things on the fly as we set up at the market.)
• Figure out how all this crap is going to fit in my car. (Amazingly, it did. Go Mazda!)

ART TO DO:

• Create 8 new art pieces. (I made 6 new pieces and was happy with that.)
• Design and print a new screenprint. (Nope. I decided to stick with the block prints for this one. Hope to get back into screenprinting this month though.)
• Have giclee reproductions printed. (Nope. Another project for the summer.)
• Print additional Hair, Cheese, Zinnia, Onion, and Blueberry prints. (Done.)
• Cut cardboard backers. (Done. By the way, this might be the worst task in running an art business!)
• Package up art. (Done.)
• Make price tags. (Done. I punched circles in black paper with my circle punch and wrote the prices on with silver ink - really liked the way this looked.)

WHAT NOT TO DO: 

• Freak out. (Yay, I didn't freak out! I did get a bit discouraged a few days before the fair with all that I had to get done, but it all worked out in the end, and I was even packed up and in bed before midnight on the night before the market.)

I'll be at the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market again on October 8th and I'm already thinking about what other markets I might like to try. Perhaps a holiday market? Anyway, it's never too soon to start a To Do List for the next one. So in addition to creating lots of new art pieces, here's what I've got on my list for the next market:

• Buy ratcheting moving straps with S-hooks to hang my weights from the corners. These should work much better (and be quicker to install) than tying rope!
• Buy more orange bungees to secure weights to tent legs.
• Buy a money belt.
• Buy a few paper shopping bags.
• Order a narrow banner to display my shop name at the front/outside of the tent.
• Order two fitted tablecloths. Customize them if necessary.
• Buy a plastic bin for storing tablecloths. (So they don't get covered with dog hair!)
• Make more garlands.
• Clean the purple PVC solvent off the weights.
• Research how to accept credit cards.
• Consider creating a second pegboard wall - if I have enough art to display.
• Other things to sell: original paintings/collage pieces on wood, watercolors/gouache pieces, screenprints, and giclee prints.
• Apply to more markets and fairs!

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday, and to Larry and my friends and family who have been so supportive!

whew!

I did it!

Today was my first go at the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market. I was really pleased with my display, I made sales and my new 11x14 prints were well received (not yet available in my Etsy shop, but I'll post them next week sometime), it didn't rain, my canopy didn't blow away, and nothing broke - success!

After several weeks of working my little tail off, I'm so thrilled that everything came together in the end. Six hours of blazing heat combined with typical sweaty-ass DC humidity and I'm exhausted. However, I have lots to share about the market, what I learned, and the changes I hope to make for the next one (I'll be there again October 8th), but for now I'm going to go celebrate with friends over a cold beer!

ballston arts & crafts market - this saturday

Been busy, busy, busy around here preparing for the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market (I'll be there this Saturday, June 11 from 10am to 4pm) and Larry's upcoming birthday.

Over the weekend, we did a test run setting up my tent and trying to figure out my display system. Oy.
Lots of work to do!

Today I received the vendor map for the market - makes it feel so official. That's me in Booth #3. (Convenient to both Potbelly AND Cosi, so I can stuff my face with sandwiches if business is slow. Yum.)

Also, last week, the Ballston Partnership gave my shop a little shout out on Facebook and on the Ballston Arts & Crafts Market blog:

My nose will be to the grindstone until the weekend. Hope to see you on Saturday!

eight years

Today, Larry and I celebrated eight happy years of unlawful, unwedded bliss. That's 1/4 of my life and 1/5 of his.

We met nine years ago at work. I was fresh out of architecture school and he was an engineer. His first words to me were "you should climb that tree." We became friends and a year later we were out with a group of co-workers to celebrate his upcoming 32nd birthday with drinks at a bar in DC. One by one our friends left, until it was just the two of us - that's when he kissed me. The next week we went on our first official date - to Matchbox.

Eight years later and we've moved into together, bought a house, adopted two dogs, changed jobs multiple times, and traveled to ten national parks together. It's gone by in a flash. I can't wait to see what the next eight years (and beyond) will bring.

I love you, Larry.

"it's a demon bird eating a fruit on a branch above a sasquatch with hairy nipples"

I'm not the only artist in the family. Last week, Larry produced this masterpiece:

Demon Bird Eating a Fruit on a Branch above a Sasquatch with Hairy Nipples

Ink and Colored Pencil on Paper, 4"x6"

Larry Smith . 2011

I told him I'm going to offer it for sale in my shop. The bidding starts at $200. Any takers?

(Also, I'm not sure which is the most disturbing part. I think it's the phallic fruit, but the hairy nipples and the fact that Sasquatch is saying "HELLO SUGAR" are also contenders. Also, I'm not at all making fun of Larry's artistic abilities. In fact, I think this is totally awesome.)