A Crafting Weekend

It was a weekend with time to craft. So nice. Yesterday I set up at a small local ladies' show. You know, the kind that mixes commercial vendors with handmade vendors, but all geared to women's interests. Weather was wintery, crowd was minimal, but it was a pleasant day. My card cases were a big hit and many people who know me in this tiny community didn't realize I do beadweaving so I guess, in a way, I managed to get my name out there. For a change, there seemed to be a lot more interest in my handcrafted work than in the two commercial jewelry party vendors also in attendance.

We made it home in plenty of time to catch the NCAA basketball games on television that I wanted to watch. (Yes, I admit it. I am a college basketball junkie.) This year my team is doing well and I have enjoyed the game even more than usual. While I first watched a huge, exciting upset game and then a second game, which my team won, I finished my item for the Etsy Beadweavers Spring Swap. Amazingly, I didn't even spill any beads, because I can become extremely, shall we say, animated during ballgames!

Today it's still a bit snowy outside so I headed to my basement floral workroom and focused on building floral arrangements for the Spring craft show I do in April. I created four table and one wall arrangement before the fingers and back called for a break. It was a nice change of pace to work with my florals and I think I came up with some very pretty designs. My favorite of todays is one I put in an old rusty metal scoop I picked up at a yard sale.

I photographed all the florals as well as the Spring Swap beadwork (which will be revealed at a later date) and there's still some good crafting hours left in the day. Hmmm, florals or

beadwork?

That Other Thing I Do

If you are familiar with my blog and my Etsy shop, you may have wondered why it's "beads" and "blooms". Most of my blogging is about my beadweaving and my Etsy shop currently only features jewelry. But before I discovered this wonderful cyber world, I sold my creations primarily at craft shows. Floral design was actually my original moneymaker and the jewelry kind of just happened. And the more I made of each, the more I knew I didn't really want to give either one up. So, I became Beads and Blooms.
Being a very small - as in one woman - business, I've found that selling floral arrangements and wreaths on the internet is really more than I want to handle. I did sell a wreath on Etsy shortly after I started my shop, but because I wasn't prepared to buy in quantity, finding suitable packaging that didn't cost an arm and a leg was a nightmare. What was I thinking? How was I going to pack and ship something more fragile? So I decided to just sell my jewelry creations on line and sell both at craft fairs.
My first craft show of 2009 is this weekend and I have been busy making up wreaths and arrangements as well as adding to my jewelry inventory. Spring shows are always a bit iffy. One never knows what the weather is going to be like or whether fair goers are going to be in a buying mood. Traditionally, I do better in the fall when folks have gift-giving on their minds. In fact, the only reason I still do this particular show is because I can set up in a huge tent which helps with the weather worries and it attracts a large crowd over a two day period. Some years I sell the heck out of jewelry and some years the florals move better, but it does seem that people buy at this show. This year, the weather is not sounding too promising for sunshine and the economy could certainly be better, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, and these things aren't going to sell hanging in my basement!