I might be insane.

Yes, I might have just lost my tiny little mind...because I agreed to do an art festival next Saturday.  And yes, my son is only just about to be 7 months old this week.  Yeah...I might be crazy.

Back on the show train...

But!  It's a new show, I think this is their first one, and I'm getting in on the ground floor of it, so it's super exciting.  It's called Off 22nd, it's a home/yard show, and it's looking like it's going to be really cool.  They plan to do more, maybe partnering with local businesses to have art shows in front of coffee shops and places like that...so this could be the start of something great!

The usual show prep insanity is a little different with a baby...

A rare two-handed day!

I am gradually coming to terms with the fact that my productivity, art-wise, will just be low for a while.  And that's okay.  Of course, if I get commissions I will still fulfill them in a good amount of time, but in terms of just day-to-day doing art stuff...yeah, I won't be setting any "do two paintings or more a month!  Paint a stone a day!" type goals for a long time.

Except for that magical time called Babysitting Day.  And then I can do anything for a few hours!

These will be coming to Etsy one day...as soon as I get enough time to take pictures of these skull necklaces on some other surface than my desk...

 

I'm really lucky to have a bunch of baby-minders that I trust...mostly family, mostly the grandparents, but one particular non-family friend comes every week or every other week so that I can have a break.  Of course, last week I had to use that break to get my tax papers together (yay...), but this week, and the week before that, I got to use that time for ART.

Starting off strong...

Well, art fans, it's shaping up to be an exciting 2015 already, and we've barely even started!  I don't know what I did, but for some reason the universe has decided, "here, have some sprinkles on your 2015 cake!"  If, y'know, sprinkles were jobs and dollars.  I don't want to jinx it, but there's a project I'm in the running for that would really be a great opportunity...challenging, but that can be fun sometimes.

For another thing, we got our old house rented!

Scotty will miss the Art Shack.  As will I.

And we didn't even have to use a management company, so no management fees!  Of course, this means that I have to add "property management" to my long list of part-time jobs that I do, but I don't mind.  I'm just happy to have the house taken care of and not have to pay two mortgages anymore, let me tell you...

I also got my first Etsy custom order!  This is exciting.

Soon...

Okay guys, this weekend will be my biggest craft show yet!  In fact, shortly after I post this I'll be heading up there to pre-set things.  This is very exciting for me...I've spent all week preparing, packing things up, getting last-minute supplies...and making a couple new things.

Coming soon to an Etsy near you...if they don't sell at the art fair.

And not just new stones, either...

Insert pun about stones here (I've run out of puns!)

Well, I said they were coming...and now they're here!

Painted stones...that you can wear.  Booyah.  And now they're on Etsy too!

Too hot to work.

It's been hard to be productive this week...I blame the heat, at least in part.  Sometimes in the afternoons it really is just too hot to do anything but lie around with a cold drink. 

Or a light lunch...today it was tlayuda on pita bread.

Plus I've been working during the day at my day job almost every day, and when I'm not, well, soccer.  Also have been besieged with car troubles this week, dentist appointments, and dogs going to the vet for shots...it seems like extra challenges always hit you when you're already overloaded with stuff, doesn't it?  Sigh.

But!  There is a little bit of new art news...

This week in art

Well, it's been a big week around here, dudes...I got another craft fair lined up, possibly some gallery show time this summer, another cat portrait commission, and am just up to my eyeballs in DOING STUFF.  It's fun stuff, though.  It's a good thing I get so much sleep, otherwise I would never have the energy to do all the things I do. ;-)

Except when these two menaces to society wake me up at 5 AM.  "Hi mom!  We need food right now!"  Cue cold dog nose in face.

Plus there are occasionally soccer games going on.  That makes it a little hard to be productive sometimes.  Heh.

It's Etsy time!

I have an Etsy shop!

New stone for sale!  You know you want it.

 You know, it's funny...if you look back through the archives of this blog, you can see another similar announcement about five years ago...but this time around Etsy is WAY more user-friendly and so I think it'll be a lot more successful.  Since it won't be so difficult to add new things, I predict that I'll soon be adding tons more new things to the shop!

For instance, now you can COPY LISTINGS!  So I can just make one listing for, say, medium-sized painted stones, and copy it and put in different pictures each time, but the price, shipping profile, and the basic description of the item stays the same, instead of having to enter that stuff each time like how it used to be, which was really tedious.  Soooo much easier.

My shop still needs some work (a banner being the biggest thing right now...that and listings for other things I make), but at least I have one.  Time to order new business cards!

Show prep madness!

As I may have mentioned, I'll be selling my work at Monterey Court here in Tucson this Saturday night...actually, I'm pretty sure I only mentioned it that one time, because ever since it's been finalized I've been in major preparation mode.

A Pile O'Prints!  Plus on the left you can see a package I just shipped - a cat portrait off to Florida.

 I ended up making 17 large prints (like the ones above), 20 smaller prints, and six sets of greeting cards.  So Tuesday was Packaging-fest 2014!

Stop the presses! I have a show!!!

So...I have been in contact with someone at Monterey Court (I've posted about them a few times before), talking to them about the Miracle Marketplace, which is basically a little art flea market/pop-up shop thing.  I asked them when their busiest days would be, so I could come set up a booth there and feed off the crowd, and it turns out there is a big concert coming up there, which they are saying is The Concert Of The Summer for them.

And it's on May 31st.  So...it's in a week.

And I'm going to have a vendor booth there...this was decided this week.

Cue the frenzy!

Some of the stones I'll have for sale - plus many many more

Rolling stones gather no paint.

Okay, it's official: I need an intervention.  I can't stop painting stones.

Actually, don't bother intervening, stone painting is too fun!  So I probably won't stop doing it. :p What's so fun about painting a bunch of river rocks, you ask?  Well...

Craft fair booths: the fun stuff!

So!  Since I posted my last post about craft fair booths, I got what has proved to be the most difficult component to find: the elusive Not-Too-Big Grid Walls.  I did, indeed, buy a grid shelving unit like I talked about in my last post on this subject, and you know what?  It totally works.  With a couple s-hooks to hang art on the walls, I'm good to go!

But those aren't much to look at, so here, check this out instead:

It's a sign! (No, really, it is.)

Parties, painted stones, dog antics, and SPRING!

We had a good weekend, all the denizens of the Art Shack...it was both relaxing and productive, which is the kind of thing I like.  Productivity is good, but it's also good to sit down and have a beer when you're finished being productive, am I right?

We had our "yay, now we're married" party this weekend, which was basically just inviting all our friends over for a big party, since we had a small wedding and we couldn't invite everyone to that.  So I got to bust out our wedding flowers again...

And we did other stuff, too.

Rockin' on with my...uh, paint-covered self?

So I had a wacky idea...of course, that's sometimes the only kind of ideas I have...especially now that I'm in planning/obsessing mode of preparing for upcoming art shows. (Still many months away, but I have big plans!) I was thinking of smaller things to sell, since it's a good idea to have a range of price points, not just huge original pieces that cost three- and four-digit prices.  I'll have prints for sale, of course, and mini-prints for even lower prices, and maybe blank greeting cards with art on the front...what else?

Well, I have a craft inspiration board on Pinterest, accurately titled, "Stuff I'll Get Around to Doing...Someday."  I was trawling through that recently, and I found a bunch of pins I'd posted of painted rocks.

by Elspeth McLean, not me...she's much better at this than I am yet.

 And I thought, "Hey, I can do that!" So, well...someday was today!