Bead Soup Goodies and a Giveaway!!

As I mentioned previously, Anne of Gardanne Beads is my Bead Soup Party partner, and I received my much anticipated package from her a few days ago.  After staring at the package for some time and imagining the possibilities, I finally decided to tear it open!

Two boxes!  Oh boy, I could hardly contain myself!

 

Look at that beady goodness!  Copper and turquoise, my favorite colors and materials.  Ironically, we sent each other very similar color schemes.

Here is a closeup of the beads she made just for my Bead Soup...lampwork glass with enamel and silver foil.  Aren't they scrumptious?!

Backsides

And, speaking of Anne of Gardanne Beads, there just happens to be a giveaway going on on her blog at this very moment!  In honor of reaching 300 sales in her bead shop, she is going to giveaway 3 different bead goodies!  Just look at what you could win:

Drool........oh, sorry!  So what are you waiting for?  Hop over there and leave a comment by Friday, May 28th!

Gardanne Beads Giveaway

And, lastly, if you haven't heard already, I am going to be meeting Lorelei and Layney Dasher in Orlando tomorrow to hang out, shop and have dinner!  I can't wait, I know it is going to be so much fun! 

Ups and Downs

Well, I made it through my first craft fair weekend!  It was rough and hot, but a great experience.  I had to go back to work Monday, so I've just now found time to sit down and blog.  I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before the show because I was up trying to get everything priced and ready, then the morning of the show, my "used" craft tent from Craigslist broke :(  Mark and I had set it up in the driveway no problem the night before, but apparently the joints were weak and it didn't take much for it to break as we tried to set it up again.  Once that happened the structure was compromised, and all the supports started breaking.  Then the one leg wouldn't go up...it was quite a mess!  We set up our tables anyways, but quickly realized it was going to be way too hot to go without a tent.  Luckily, my knight in shining armor (Mark, for those still wondering) sped over to BJ's, got a membership and saved the day with a BRAND NEW tent!  My hero :)  

Saturday was a bit slow, and I believe it was because there were graduations going on all around.  Sunday was better, but the regular vendors said it was much slower than usual.  I'm not sure why they didn't schedule this show before Mother's Day, it would have been much more helpful for sales.  Still, I thought my sales were decent considering it was my first show.  I found the feedback from visitors to be invaluable.  I observed what pieces people were drawn to and listened to what people said.  Several people took my business cards, so that was good too.  Unfortunately, none of my photos of our booth came out great, but I'll share them anyways.  In the future, I will probably put a rug down to give our booth a homier feeling and hide the disgusting road! 

Julie's designs, Maddie Kay Handbags (with a booth selling purses right next to us, lol)

  

Because there was a small breeze, we kept the walls rolled up, but the displays show up much nicer against the white background.

We are looking forward to doing more shows in the future, though probably not until the fall...unless it is in an air conditioned building!  Have a great weekend!

Two More Days!!

Until my very first craft show!!  Woohoo!!  But things are a bit hectic...too many things to do yet!  I guess you probably never feel like you've got enough inventory...at least I don't.  I have tons of stuff I want to blog about, but it will have to wait until after this weekend.  I will be sure to take photos of our booth and post them though.

Here is a bracelet I just made:

It features lampwork beads from the talented Anne of Gardanne Beads, who happens to be my Bead Soup Party partner!!  Sometimes, I think I am the luckiest girl alive!

Wish me luck this weekend :)

The Art of Sand Festival

Last Friday, Mark and I went to the Art of Sand Festival in Cape Canaveral, FL.  This festival lasted all month and featured sand sculpting competitions for local amateurs as well as international master sculptors.  It was pretty amazing to see these 10 to 15 foot sand sculptures and imagine the sculptors working in the Florida heat for days to create these temporary works of art.  Here are some photos from our day:

One side of the winning local amateur sculpture

Other side of amateur winning sculpture.  The rest of the photos are sculptures by the Master sculptors.

Closeup of Marilyn from above sculpture

Mark in front of his favorite sand sculpture

The 3D-ness (new word!) of the people was really amazing

This one was built slanted making it a 3D optical illusion

One side

Other side of above sculpture

This was my favorite one

Me!

Hope you enjoyed the photos...makes ya want to go to the beach, doesn't it?!

Weekend...

This weekend flew by, as usual!  I didn't have any races for once, which turned out to be a good thing since I was sick.  I thought it was allergies, but it turned out to be a nasty head cold.  I think I'm through the worst of it though.  Mark and I went to a Sand Art Festival this last Friday, and I have lots of photos to share, but I ran out of time to go through them all and crop/edit.  Hopefully I will get them uploaded in the next day or so.  I also got into the studio and got a bunch of stuff made for my upcoming craft show.  One advantage of being sick, lol!  Since it's a work night, I'm off to bed, but here is proof that I was in the studio this weekend...just ask Cooper!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!