I Feel Like Pamela Anderson After Her Last Surgery.

Deflated. I was all geared up for my first outside fair and it snowed. SNOWED. Record-breaking snow. If I believed in omens I'd chuck my wire and pliers and find a call center to drain my soul into while I make a dollar. Good thing I'm a skeptic.

Still, I'm disappointed and a little depressed. Which means I'm not working much. Especially since Hubby is home. If he stays home from work, I stay home from work too. It's not anything he does or says, I just don't do anything when he's home. Not even write in my blog. Except for this entry to say that I'm not making any entries.


Oh wait, some good jewelry making news. Those big bling earrings I was making on commission-- I put them in a fancy box I made (but didn't get a picture of the box-- dang it) and presented it as the most expensive thing I ever sold. Which is not saying much, since I've been told repeatedly that I sell too cheap. Reason number 1328128 of why I'm a terrible salesperson: I am uncomfortable charging people money.

I asked for $30 and felt sure that she wouldn't pay that much. Who'd wanna pay thirty bucks for what I make (See? I am getting better. I didn't say 'for the crap I make')? The client (feels weird calling her that but that's what she is) said, "Oh, I get to keep the box?! These are perfect for my niece to wear to the black and white. Now make me another pair for me. Even MORE bling!"

The extra bling earrings were started on on Friday. And then Saturday came and popped my balloon and I haven't done a thing since. And things gotta be done, believe you me! I've got a whole 'nother crop of boxes and trinkets to take pictures of, a repair job that's languishing, that dresser isn't going to chop itself down and the earrings are not going to list themselves on my Etsy and neither will the boxes and trinkets on Artfire.

What I should be doing is jumping right back on that horse and looking for another big fair. There are big ones in November. After that things get very quiet until the end of March.


Right now I'm feeling like jewelry is stupid. Stupid, stupid jewelry. You know how I know jewelry is stupid? Because I have pictures to prove it.

That last pair? I'll be making those for clients soon, I'm sure.

It Is Freaking Snowing!

The tent didn't come yesterday so when me and the Hubby woke up to heavy rain, we decided the Rockville Centre Fall Festival was a no-go. And now it's snowing. Hard. And it's sticking. The tent came at about noon. I had such high hopes for this event.

Oh well. Here's a shot of the latest boxes with a peek at a herringbone ring instead. If you look at the back corner, you can see the snow sticking on my porch roof.

The Etsy and the Artfire studio are open rain, snow or shine.

The More They Change, The More They Stay The Same

Prospects for the Fall Festival are looking even worst than they were yesterday. Predictions are now 100% chance of rain and highs in the low 40s. Even if the tent gets delivered today, it isn't built to withstand rain. I'm afraid I may have wasted my time and money. Sigh.

Project Doom is a bit stalled. I'm down to one box (yay!) but it's the box with books. The idea I had was to remove the non-working drawers in the dresser, cut away the drawer supports and store the books there. There are two problems with that plan: 1) Where am I gonna store the drawers? At least the face of them. I'm not throwing out perfectly good wood. To prove I'm not a hoarder, I'll throw away the cardboard bottoms but the face-- come on, that's good stuff! 2) I am just a little hesitant about taking the chainsaw to the dresser. I don't know why. It seems so destructive and wrong.

Another thing holding up Project Doom is the table. This would be the biggest woodworking project I've ever attempted and would love the help of the chop saw. But I am hesitant to ask The Boy. Oh, he'll probably balk but screw him, he'll bring the saw upstairs or live to regret it. What is really bothering me is-- this is inside the house. I would never, ever think of doing this inside an apartment, the landlord would have a fit. Now that I'm my own landlord, I feel like a part of me is having a fit. "You can't have all these dangerous cutting tools inside! You'll lose your deposit!"

Must also remember, if cutting the shelves for the storage closet was any indication, I'm gonna need earplugs.






And now for something totally different: I took it into my head to make ear cuffs. What do you think?

I think the silver cuff is too small. I did shaped it around a pen but the flanges were too short(I like that word 'flanges'. I'm sure it's not the word that fits here but, hey, "flanges"). The gold ones aren't shaped around anything. I just curled them at the corners but it had much longer flanges. Experimentation is needed before I can sell ear cuffs.

Where would I put them? In the Etsy with all the earrings or in a box on Artfire?

An Orgy of Ring and Box Making

Preparing for the Rockville Centre Fall Festival (Sunrise Highway & N. Long Beach Rd, Rockville Centre, Long Island --at the LIRR station-- for you folks checking in from Australia) by making beaucoup boxes and trinkets. And worrying.

I don't think my tent is going to make it. Original estimated date of arrival was the 27th which, if I'm not mistaken, and I could be since I don't get out much, is today. But FedEx traking shows that it took them 7 days to pick up the package. Today's ETA: the 29th. Right after the nick of time. Also worrying me: Saturday's forecast calls for a high of 49 degrees with a 50% chance of rain. Sunday's is 52 for a high and sunny. Guess which day we picked (we being Hubby and I. I always ask him since he's the one who's gotta get me there. And keep me company.)

But that's O.K., at least I have my creative triumphs to keep me warm. Like anytime I make a box and it looks like a cake. I love that. Like this box made with Rosewood stain, teeny tiny sea shells and caramel.

Also filling me with hubris is this Epic Ring. I call it epic because it didn't start out this big, nor this elaborate, nor as time consuming as it ended up. It's so big that it doesn't fit into a pill box. It's gotta go into a trinket box.

That's it. Gotta run. Sparkly box is waiting for its beading. Meanwhile get boxes and trinkets here and while you're at it get earrings here.

Today is Necklaces.

I know that I have at least one reader who likes tutorials. So here are some easy necklaces.

1. 
   Make a necklace using a bobby pin, ingenious!
   
2. 
   Chunky simplicity.
   
3. 
   I could not make this one as it involves a sewing machine. I hem my pants with tape.
   
4. 
   No wire but no sewing machine either, plus decoupage!
   
5. This woman is also a photographer, so her pictures are beautiful.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

There were a few tutorials that I didn't post because they used glue. Now, I'm no purist and if people wanna glue their wire wrapped stuff together, more power to them. I think that if I make something it should hold itself together and using glue would be a cheat. This is, however, my own foible. Perhaps I'll get over it one day when a slipknot just won't stay put.

Outdoors Here I Come!

So I sent an application to one of those big name fair promoters. The kind where you have to send a picture of your set up and be reviewed. The ones that cost three times as much as the smaller, not so heavily promoted, church and/or civic group type fairs. Oh and,it's outdoors. Why I was sure I was not going to pass jury review, I don't know.

Now, I've been trying to make money selling jewelry and, so far, I've not really. All the money I've made selling stuff has been put right back into this "business". Or, in the case of Astoria Market, put right back into beer and food. So for this fair I was determined NOT to plow any more money into it. I'd pay for my table and that's it!

Jury reviewed meant that I had to send a picture of my set up along with the application. Good, I'd actually get to use the table I bought ($56 on sale at Home Desperate) and never used. Me and hubby did up the table in the backyard. We've never set up outside before. This'll be a learning experience.

It was a lovely day. Partly cloudy with a nice breeze. Hubby mowed after he carried all the heavy things out and set up the very sturdy and easy to manipulate table. The Display Thingee is perfect. Just heavy enough to sit rock solid on the table but not so heavy it's impossible for one person to carry. And once the earrings are hooked up into the mesh, they ain't going no where. But everything else? Blown away by moderate wind gusts.

Another reason why I thought the review would go bad was because I took the picture without all the cute doodads and whatnots on my table. I had to be quick and snap pics in between gusts since they blew my ring pill boxes around like, well, like something lightweight in a gust of wind.

I'm sorta glad this happened. It showed me that I could not get away with not having a tent in an outdoor fair. The problem was, I could not afford a damned tent. You're talking $280 for a canopy and side walls-- and that's cheap! I searched and I searched and I finally found the cheapest tent in all of the interwebs. This portable beach tent. Came out to a total of $150. That's a hunnert fiddy I do not have. And, since I purchased this tent with the sole qualification that is was the cheapest one I could find, I'm sure it'll be a piece of crap that won't stand.

It is supposed to be here today or tomorrow. Hubby is prepared to set the table and the tent up in the backyard when it gets here. For practice. Oh and we're fucked if it rains. Man, I so wanted to turn a real profit at this fair. What fair? you ask. Why the Rockville Centre Fall Festival. I'll be there on Saturday, October 29th.

---

In other news, I just made these earrings on commission. The person is going to a black and white ball in November and her only stipulation was that, "I want people to know I got my own personal jewelry designer!" She loves gigantor earrings-- she's West Indian and them girls love themselves some big-assed bling-- and I'm worried she's not going to like them because they're just not BLING!! enough.

Sunday is Funday

So let's have some fun. Lets. . .

make no-carve pumpkins,


and amazing Litchtenstein comic costumes,


with a couple of spooky decorations,


and finish the day with some yummy treats.

You'll Need Exactly Three Fun Sized Candy Bars to Make This Halloween Costume

Not too long ago I sent an entry to Craftfail and, low and behold, my failure was made public. Today I was searching Youtube for craft ring failures because 1) I find it very instructive to see where things went wrong. It's helps me with fixing my failures and 2) it's freaking hilarious.

What I found was this lovely little video from Heather who runs Dollarstorecraft and the Craftfail blog.



Who knew she and her family were so adorable?

Such a Misnomer, Project Doom

Things are going swimmingly with Project Doom. Here's photographic proof!

Look how nice and neat that is. The middle guy hold mosaic glass. These were originally held in plastic shopping bags tied closed. Now they're loose in these little plastic drawers where-- and this is important -- I can see them. Sea glass, glass sheets and tiles. So lovely and almost forgotten in their plastic bag prisons.

Now, this may sound a little crazy but, you see that dresser? the bottom three drawers do not close properly at all and the cheap bottoms have bowed and cracked. My plan for the dresser is to remove the bottom drawers, cut away the supports for them and leave an open space. I need that open space because. . .

. . . I have two boxes of stuff that still needs to be put away and that bottom box is nothing but books. There's a lot of books in there. Some have a hole drilled through the middle. These are to become a lamp one day. One far off day. Way in the future. But most of the books are to remain books and not turned into planters or light-sabers or whatever. These can be arranged nicely in the hole formed by removing the drawers from the dresser. Whaddaya think of that?

This is the Untable. It is a big, heavy piece of particle board resting on cheap discount store plastic shelves. It is not very stable. If you put any pressure on it it wobbles from side to side. It is also too tall to sit at comfortably and work. To tall for me, anyways. If I was 6'3" it would probably be perfect but seeing has how I'm about a foot shorter than that. . . well, when I sit in front of it, the work surface is chest high. I still work at it. In fact there are 3 different projects going on in that picture. Handy tip: beer bottles are perfect little box holders when spray painting.

The good news is: I've got the lumber to make this a proper table that I could actually sit at. And hammer stuff without fear of collapse. That's the next phase of Project Doom. The bad news: It's gonna have to be built inside the room. There's no way I could carry the fully made table into the room. It would not fit on the stairs.

Finally there's this. The sad, sad evidence of my crafting addiction. Except for the big brown wooden set of drawers, I made everything on top of the dresser. Boxes and mosaics up the wazoo. And this is only the stuff I couldn't find a use for or give away. Waitaminit-- that's not entirely true. The hat box holds long forgotten pictures. Which Hubby has informed me I must put in a photo album since "you do that kind of thing". Well no, I don't do scrapbooks but, yeah, I'll see if I can't think of something better for the photos than being forgotten in a hat box.

If I can find plate holders I'd put some of those flat decorative mosaics on the decorative wall shelves that flank the window.

And there you have it folks. Project Doom as it stands today. Two more boxes to empty and phase one is done. Plus, the lumber for phase two should be bought upstairs. Oh, and, let's not forget to take a chainsaw to the dresser. That oughta be fun!


Don't forget! Projects done on The Untable can be found both in my Artfire studio and also at my Etsy shop.

No Time For A Real Post. Here are Six Novelish Ways To Kill.

And by "novelish" I mean in a novel, not new.

1. Exsanguinate
2. Garrote
3. Bludgeon
4. Defenestrate
5. Saponify
6. Disarticulate

Don't try any of this at home, kids.

The Island of Misfit Trinkets

Once I was very into mosaic. I made a shitload of mosaic boxes. Each of my children has a large one with their initials tiled in. Hubby has a purely decorative box he keeps his electric nose-hair clipper on. And, when and if the craft room ever gets finished, you'll see all the mosaic'ed things I have laying about. I had to stop making them. I didn't know what to do with them.

At the center of this heart-shaped box lies all the misfit jewelry. Pieces that, for one very good reason or another not so very good reason, are misfits. They sit here and wait for Santa to come by and give meaning to their misfit lives.

Take these blue post earrings. Aren't they lovely to look at? They think they're lovely too and would love to jump onto any appreciative girl's (or boy's-- I don't judge) ears. But look closely. Look at how short those posts are. Perhaps I have really fat earlobes but I could not wear them. Neither could anybody who'd be interested in buying them. Unless there is that one person who has searched and searched the whole wide world looking for post earrings that would fit their emaciated ears.

Big, thick guy doesn't know why he's stuck on the Island of Misfit Trinkets. Nothing wrong with him, he'd argue. Except that he's too busy and tarnished. Hanging out all those years at the bookcase so full of himself and all his beads, stones, doodads, wires and whatnot has turned him and turned him bad. I suppose I could try to rehabilitate him. Polish him up a bit and find him a home. But nah. He's too busy for that.

This guy is an experiment in square nickel and, honestly, I just don't like him. He's flimsier than he should be and not as symmetrical as I prefer. He's just plain ugly. Sorry, Nickel Squared.

She is the first of the real misfits. She did not fit into the box intended for her. I do not have a box that she will fit in. I don't even have one on order. I think she's lovely in her unbalanced way. Maybe I'll find someplace to stick her. Until then she lives with the rest of the misfits.

This doll pissed me off. She was not the design I was trying to make. How dare she not turn out the way I planned? The nerve! She'll probably end up in a pill box once I get more but, until then, she lives with the misfits for being wrong.

Another misfit misfit. Did not fit in the box he was made for. Which angered me because he was not so easy to make. Not that all the other things I make are super simple and easy. Well, some are. But most take some time and effort. But this guy-- he took far too much time and an undue amount of effort. I do have in my possession a box that he will fit in. It is being done up as we speak-- so to speak.

A simple band. Too simple. In fact, if you look closely, you can see the tiny ring that once had something attached to it. The attachment did not work out well at all and had to be removed. It was successfully placed on another ring. Now this ring sits all alone and unadorned in the Isle of the Misfits.

Ah ha! That's where the attachment went! And went quite well, if I can say so myself. This lovely lady is not happy in the heart-shaped box of misfits. She doesn't belong here and she knows it. However, until such a time that my order of boxes shows up, she'll have to cool her heels here since she does not fit anywhere else.






You'll probably see some of these in Pinkslinkie's Artfire Studio. You will most likely not find the earrings at Pinkslinkie's Etsy shop.

---

Project Doom report: one box down, four to go!

Project Doom Proceeds at a Pace Heretofore Unimaginable

Maybe third time really is the charm. Or it could be the not working thing. Whatever the reason, I am not throwing up my hands in frustration but am actually making progress. If I remember correctly (and I don't. I had to look back in the blog for what I wrote less than a week ago) I gave myself three weeks to throw away garbage, put up shelves and empty the boxes.

I have thrown away the garbage and finished the shelves in less than a week. I hate to jinx things but, damn, things are moving along nicely. I must confess, however, that the 'throw away garbage' part isn't really done. This is because, in the end, whatever doesn't fit in the ample storage in this room must go.



Right side before.

Right side today.



















I'm thinking of giving up seedling growing. It takes up space that I don't really have and, honestly, my success rate is less than 50% for a from seed to winter plant. We'll see when February comes and I'm struck with When Will This Friggin Winter End! disease.




Left side number one before.

Left side Behind the Music.

Left side today.

















You can see the former wardrobe now storage cabinet in the corner. There is no more behind-the-dresser pics because the dresser is against the wall and not standing in the middle of the room to make it easy for people to throw things behind it without a care in the world-- I'm looking at you, mirror.

Now the fun part-- putting stuff away.

You Know I Can't Keep Things From You, Baby.

The boxes that I think are adorable:

Each of them contains a pretty trinket. For example, here's the space box (that's what I call the silver one with the purple bumps):

I cut the shelves and inserted them in the wardrobe but I did not paint them. Not worth the extra effort and time, especially since I'm going to store paint, grout, glue and all manner of messy crap on them. They'll soon be covered in splatters and stains, I'm sure. Plus, I couldn't think of what would go with the wooden ducklings and bunnies on the wardrobe anyways.

Busy! Busy! Busy!

I'd love to show off all my new boxes, rings and pendants. I'd also love to show off the Project Doom progress. I'd like to brag about the home made chicken fingers and 2 dipping sauces I made last night along with a carrot cake and the garam marsala I am, at this very moment, toasting for grinding for tonight's Meatless Monday potato samosas. But I can't. I'm too busy.

P.S., the boxes are soooo adorable!

If I Stop It Won't Get Done. A Project Doom Bonus.

A quick look at Weather Underground informed me that we are going to get rain on and off until at least Wednesday. I cannot abide.

Here is some hard won knowledge for you-- a circular saw makes a whole hell of a lot of noise inside. My ears are still ringing. They also kick up a lot of sawdust. Now, I knew that sawing produces sawdust-- durr-- but outside, the air just sorta makes it disappear. Inside I suggest you do not forgo protective eye ware.

The selves are cut. Now I need to go to the hardware store and get the self holder thingies that I thought I had but an extensive search of all my nuts and bolts turns up bupkiss.

Sleep Is Overrated Anyway

There was a box explosion up in here about a week ago. Six boxes were started (and all were fininshed-- eventually), most with a piece of jewelry all ready to be nestled all comfy inside, except for the black and white box. I had an idea for an antique-y look and made it, figuring I could come up with something black and white no problem.

Last night I was being normal and lay my head down to sleep at about 11pm. I was so sleepy I couldn't keep my eyes focused on the Rolling Stone article on the guitarist for Rage Against The Machine (who thinks he could have been Obama, just so you know) and closed my eyes expecting another super fun dream.

But no, no dream. Instead there was the black and white box and the ring that would look good in it. Over and over in my head I bent the wire around the ring mandrel. I shaped it, found the shape slightly lacking, shaped it again. Attached the porcelain bead one way than the other.

In my rememberings and head plannings the beads were half black and half white and a bit bigger and flatter. After I made the ring in my head for the thousandth time and realized that I was not going to get any sleep until I made the damn ring for real, I saw that the beads were not exactly the shape and coloration I thought they were. A teeny adjustment in the design that I'd gone over in my head a gazillion times instead of sleeping and, by 2:30 in the morning, I had this:

Project Doom is now waiting. I've got shelves all marked up and ready for the circular saw only it's raining. It's been raining for three days already and it needs to stop. I may run out there in between downpours and crank up the circular saw because it is killing me that I cannot get this done. I'ma go measure one more time because, well, measure twice -- cut once.


P.S. The Ying Yangy ring and box are already up in my Artfire Studio. There is no Ying or Yang at in my Etsy Shop.

Project Doom: Day Two

The plan was:
1} Throw away all junk.
2) Put shelves in closet.
3) Empty boxes onto shelves and storage.

Only it seems when it comes to crafting junk, I am a hoarder. Just like the ones on A&E. Throw away the broken dish and cup? No, I can use that in a mosaic! That roll of protective paper we bought when we were painting? Certainly that would come in handy in a paper project! Pine cones? Christmas! Foam? Come on! It's foam!

And so it goes. I did toss three (!) large garbage bags, so there's that. This is what it looks like now:

This may not look like a very large improvement over yesterday. In fact, if you look closely, you'll see that there are even more boxes stacked against that left hand wall. How can there be more boxes after removing 3 large garbage bags full of junk, you may ask yourself. What a big, fat liar Pinkie is! You'll interject.

But I'm not a liar, just a cheat. You see, when I took the pictures yesterday, the right side one had a large dresser right in the middle. What I didn't show you was that behind the dresser were more boxes and more. . . stuff. Here is that space sans boxes but still packing a lot of stuff:

Today I start making the shelves for the retarded looking closet. After that everything in those boxes gets put either in the closet, the plastic storage drawers or the dresser. Whatever doesn't fit-- goes!

New Project Doomed To Failure

The craft/plant nursery/storage room. It needs to be functional. I've got to get the bulk of my "studio" off of my bed. The thing is, I've tried this before and failed miserably. It's too big, too daunting. I start, work my ass off (which is why I have a wide-screen butt instead of a table top butt), get nowhere, get frustrated, kick my children and beat the cats, become overwhelmed and give up.

This time I think I'll break it down into hopefully doable parts. And then break those parts into parts I can finish in a week, so I feel as if I'm making progress.

Phase One: Unjunk.

1. Throw away the garbage.
   This is the hardest part. There's so much junk in there-- so many boxes and drawers and stuff. But this has got to get done before anything else can get started.
2. Put shelves in closet.
   I believe I have enough scrap wood and MDF to accomplish this. This part involves power tools. I'm 50/50 with the power tools. No, that's not true. I'm pretty good with the power tools, it's the measuring I screw up.
3. Empty all the boxes.
   With the shelves up, my many plastic storage drawers, bookcase and leftover dresser I'm sure I can store my crafting stuff better than stuffing them in moving boxes.
   

After that I'll take stock and see what I can do about a workspace and seating. Lemme show you what I'm up against.


The room right side:

Left side:

I'm going in. I hope I come out alive.






Oh yeah, my Etsy and Artfire.

Bonus Entry- A Good Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

I have said it before but I cannot emphasize it enough: a good picture is essential, a bad picture is worse than no picture at all. Remember that Murano glass pin I posted a few days ago? I had said that the picture had to be re-taken because the selling point of the pin-- the glass-- was terribly portrayed.


Here's that picture:

I figured if I hung it in the light the glass will show it's beauty. What do you think?:

Five Techniques That Show The World What An Amateur I Am

Wire wrapping is my thing as it is with most home-type jewelry makers. The reason is simple: No expensive equipment. But there are techniques out there that I am dying to try. I've already gushed over metal clay. Metal clay is more like a new technology than an old technique. This list right here are time-tested jewelry techniques that I'll get around to once I'm rich and can afford a kiln.

1. 
   
   Repousse (make like there's an accent over the last 'e'): Imprinting a slightly raised design on the back of a metal piece. This technique is within the poor jewelry designer's reach. Investment in sheet metal and hammers and/or chisel required. A person can get really crazy and use hot power tools to work very thick pieces of metal. A person can even make the Statue of Liberty using Repousse.
2. 
   
   Basse-taile: Firing enamel over slightly raised metal. For this you need a kiln. And enamel. If I ever get a kiln, I'll learn everything I need to about enamel.
3. 
   
   Champleve (again with the accents. Over the last 'e'.): Kinda the opposite of basse-taile in that the enamel is put into the stamped metal depressions.
4. 
   
   Cloisonne (the accent. . . oh screw it!): is champleve's much more complicated cousin. Instead a stamped design, cloisonne uses a metal frame-- like stained glass-- into which layers and layers of enamel are set.

Taille d'epargne: Sort of reverse Champleve in which the outline of a design is dug out of the metal and an opaque (usually dark, like black or blue) enamil is fired into these channels.
5. 
   
   
   
   Granulation: Little balls of metal used to create texture on a piece. Shot Ball is the same except with bigger balls.

I'm all cold connection. Perhaps I should start with a butane torch. As soon as I can move my "studio" off of my bed. None of these techniques are used making the handmade earrings at my Etsy Shop nor are any of the trinkets at my Artfire Studio.

I Don't Have To Come To Grips With The Fact That Nobody Wants My Wares.

Sold enough earrings to cover all the beer and food (no free samples for us) but not enough to cover that plus the table. So people want my wares, but I still have to say goodbye to Astoria Market.

Astoria Market did show me the fickle finger of success. The same vendor as last time was to my right. Last market she made table and a little extra while I sold nothing. This week, we sorta switched places. The poor dear didn't sell a thing. On my left were new people. They sold sockpuppets made with real socks. They were the most adorable things ever. Very eye-catching, which meant the few people who passed by did stop. The puppetmasters complained that Astoria was not their type of market. They usually sold on the streets on the upper west side of Manhattan where no one batted an eyelash at having to pay $35 for a puppet. They were not used to people balking when they found out the price.

The foot traffic is far too low and slow. So slow vendors would just get up and leave their tables without fear of neither theft nor losing a sale. It has been said that Astoria picks up in November. We may be back then. We may also be back long before then but that would be to hang out in the Beer Garden and order the mixed grill, not to sell.


Hubby is encouraging me to do the more expensive tables run by the 'big name' fair organizers. The thing is, if I don't make table with one of those guys, I'll be out a bit more money. Plus-- outside. I don't have a tent and I'll have to re-apply for a tax ID number, since you cannot do outdoor craft sales in NYS without one. There's also jury review. My fellow vendors tell my my table is very nice and I don't have to worry about that. Still, I worry about that. I'm going to go for the Rockville Centre 10th Annual Fall Festival Oct 29 & 30th.

Here's hoping the lead up to Christmas will put a little cash in my pocket.

And now for the I-wonder-what-happened-when-they-got-home portion of the blog. A potential customer was at our table with her husband/boyfriend/rich brother. She was enchanted with the Creamsicle box and ring. She cooed over the box, took the ring out, turned the ring over in her hands, put the ring on her finger-- all the while nudging and eyeing her guy. "Look at how cute!" she finally squealed to him, "It's only ten dollars!"

He gave her the stink-eye without even answering. Her change from flirty to stone-cold was instantaneous. "That's one," she intoned as she put the ring back and walked away.

"I hope the couch is comfy," Hubby whispers to me he watches boyfriend follow behind.


Creamsicle Box will be up shortly at my Artfire Studio. All the earrings sold at the Market have been removed from my Etsy Shop, so you missed your chance at them.

I Wasn't Gonna Post Today

But one of the six boxes I'm making is done and it's so freakin' adorable I had to share.

How cute is that? The pill boxes I bought lend themselves to adorable because they're so dainty. Inside this tiny cake is the blue ring glass ring I posted yesterday. I also have a much, much bigger box that I think will turn out pretty nice. The Murano pin'll go in there.

There's An Explosion Up In Here!

Got over the cold, got glasses, got boxes and got busy! There are (one. . . two. . . three. . .) SIX boxes in various stages of being made. Also two rings and one pin to put in them.

Here's one ring:

It was over a year ago that I bought Murano blown glass on sale from Fire Mountain and then didn't know what to do with it. Last night I put it in a pin to show it off:

Now I'm gonna have to find a way to light the pin so that the beautiful blown glass can be seen. I'm thinking I may have to hang it very near a diffuse light source. Or maybe I'll try that scan thing! Yeah, I think I'll do that.

The boxes, rings and things will eventually make their way into my Artfire Studio. Earrings can be found here at my Etsy Shop.

This Is Your Last Chance, Astoria Market.

Hubby has once again O.K.'d another trip to the Astoria Market at Bohemian Hall. Even though we sold only a few trinkets the first time and absolutely none the second, I am not surprised he agreed to this third one. There are a few reasons.

1. This is the only time we get to hang out. Sure it's work but it's also fun. The other vendors are a gas and there's beer, live music and good food. Any local sports game can be watched on the bar's giant screen TV. We have paid far more to be entertained far less.

2. It's the last day of Oktoberfest. Promotions galore, give-aways, free beer tastings and many more live bands. Hopefully this will generate much more of a crowd than the last two times.

3.After some crafty snooping (which involved asking other vendors questions straight out) I learned that Astoria Market is not even a year old yet. The first market day was last November. Everyone looks back fondly on those days, reminiscing about the large crowds and all the money they made. They also talk about how the crowds still came, although a little lessened, all the way until-- you guessed it -- the last two market days. The days that I was there.

I wanna look back fondly on crowds and tons of money too.


4. I either sell something or come to grips with the fact that nobody wants my wares. But really, who wouldn't want a box with a bracelet in it? Nobody wouldn't, that's who! And let me tell ya, I associate with nothing but nobodies!

This box will soon be available at my Artfire Studio where nobody is invited. Except you. If you want earrings without boxes my Etsy Shop will be more to nobody's liking.