M.I.C.E. at the Market

I'll be at the Ann Arbor Artisan Market this Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is "M.I.C.E. at the Market" Day, so you'll be sure to find some of your local Etsy favorites. Come on down and visit!

To market, to market…

Yesterday was GREAT fun! As I mentioned on Friday, I participated in the Ann Arbor Artisan Market with MICE (Michigan Indie Crafters on Etsy). When I woke up at six in the morning, it was absolutely pouring and I rolled over and went back to sleep. By the time I actually got up, it had stopped raining, though it was still cold and grey. Thankfully, the rains held off all day. Set up went smoothly and I actually felt pretty organized. There was not a ton of traffic, but rather a slow, but steady day and a great intro to the world of craft shows. I met such lovely people among the other Etsy folks and had great neighbors on either sides. Yippee! I can't wait to do more shows.

Craft show prep

Well, I'm busily working away on my setup for Sunday's Ann Arbor Artisan Market. It is officially "MICE @ the Market" day with a number of local Etsy sellers (see the lovely logo below for more details). I've had the table set up in our living room all week and am getting down to the final details. I lucked out with a visit to the Ritz Camera in town that unfortunately went out of business. I picked up some stands that work perfectly for cards and prints. I have put off on making a banner and price signs, but am determined to have it all finished tonight so I can spend the day tomorrow with friends who just got a new sailboat. That seems like a much healthier way to spend the day than frantically running around trying to add more to my setup. I figure, there will always be more I CAN do, but not that I HAVE to. I'm sticking with the — don't let perfect get in the way of good— line of reasoning. Yippee! Wish me luck on Sunday and drop by for a visit if you are in the area.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good…

You know when you've been meaning to do something for a VERY long time and it just kind of lingers in the back of your mind ALL the time. Well, it's been that way for me with business cards. I think I always wanted them to be an absolute perfect representation of me and just couldn't figure out how to do that (imagine that?!?). Anyway, with the upcoming Artisan Market (this Sunday, June 7), I knew that I simply HAD to have a business card. So, at the eleventh hour, as always, I uploaded my design to Overnight Prints. This was last Thursday at 3 p.m. By 9 a.m. the next morning, I had received a confirmation email that my cards had shipped — they don't call themselves Overnight Prints for nothing. It was that easy. The box was waiting for me when I arrived home last night and… drumroll, please… here they are:

I've got 1,000 of these babies and I'm pretty darn pleased. I am now also in love with Overnight Prints. The title of this post is a quote from a post by Martha Retallick over at the Freelance Switch blog that hit home for me and I think you might enjoy it, too, called Just Get Going: The Single Most Effective Marketing Trick.

Brought to you by the letter P

I just can't get enough of peonies and poppies. Both are in bloom right now, along with the rhododendrons, allium, columbine, clematis, wisteria, irises… the neighborhood is just bursting with color and sweet scents.

The Nichols Arboretum in town has a peony garden with 27 beds of glorious peonies that I'm dying to see — I'm just trying to time it perfectly so I don't miss them!

I just can't seem to capture the red of the poppies. They look so orange-y in my photos, but really they are a much softer, more appealing red.

I will be busy this weekend getting ready for MICE at the Ann Arbor Artisan Market next Sunday… and getting out to see the flowers! Have a wonderful weekend!

Computer break…

With the weather turning so nice and warm and sunny this week, I've abandoned the computer for a couple of days — sorry for the silence! This trend is carrying over into my art, too. I've been feeling like it's missing more of my own hand in it — too much reliance on the computer. So I have a few projects planned that will be done by hand start to finish, but they will have to wait a little bit longer… I am busy planning for my first craft show — the Ann Arbor Artisan Market on Sunday, June 7. I was incredibly inspired by Danielle's Storque post over at Etsy on prepping for a show — especially the opening photo from Something's Hiding in Here — gorgeous! I want that display!

In other news, we've got about half of the garden boxes planted and installed along the balcony for our grand apartment garden experiment. I hope I have enough room for some flowers! The plants we already had took up more space than expected. But I am so pleased!

This little fizzy went to market

I've decided to bite the bullet and participate in my first craft show. I recently joined M.I.C.E. — Michigan Indie Crafters of Etsy — and through them was invited by Kate of chicalookate to join a group of Etsy sellers at the Ann Arbor Sunday Artisans Market. Yikes! The lovely image above was created by Marcy of All Things Grow (just found this on chicalookate's blog and had to add it to the post because I love it!) and the ad below was designed by another MICE member — BarrelOfMonkeys. I've been wanting to start doing shows for a while now, but have always worried about how to display everything, having enough inventory, putting myself out there… etc. But I figured, when an opportunity presents itself so handily, I better just dive right in, commit to it and worry about the details later… well, later is now and the show is June 7th. If you're in the area, come on down and say hi! I'll be the one cowering under my table (do I even have a table?!)!