I was asked to be one of the artists interviewed by WKYT for the Waveland Art Fair.  Many thanks to Charla, who runs the show!  You can see the full tv interview here. 

This past weekend, I got to participate in the Winter Wizarding Waltz.  It was put on by Lexpecto Patronum- The Lexington Harry Potter Alliance.  It was Harry Potter themed with attire focused on the 1920's (thanks to Fantastic Beasts).  I enjoyed creating some speciality items for this show including wizard pouches complete with a scroll, quill, and potion bottle.  Between the music and dancing and costumes and food, it truly was a magical evening.

*Thanks to Jennifer Miller for the last two photos

 

Thanks to everyone who came out for all the holiday shows!  November and December was full of shows and Christmas gift orders.  Thanks to each of you!

Thank you to everyone who has come out to the past couple months of art shows! I appreciate your support and smiles and friendliness. Lately, I feel like more and more people have made a point to let me know who they gave a journal to and the impact it had. Thank you for your intention and for sharing. I am so grateful.

Ky Crafted: The Market is such a fun show and tends to kick off my festival season each year.  I love being able to share new designs and get feedback.  Because we've just finished up the winter, its a great place to see everyone again and meet new folks as well.  The first day is always for wholesale, and I met some new buyers this year as well as saw ones that I've been working with for awhile.  You can view the stores that my work is available in under "retailers".  Saturday and Sunday is retail.  There were around 200 artists, KY Proud food, and a stage with music.  If you missed it this year, mark your calendar for next year.  Thanks to everyone who came out!!

These girls were so excited to each have their own journal.  They were delightful!

This little one is a daughter of a regular customer who has quite a collection of journals, including one that his wife had me make him for their anniversary.  His daughter seem to take notice for the first time and was pretty enchanted with them all.

My tent in the morning before other artists had shown upThis past weekend started off early Friday morning with 30% chance of rain all day.  The plan was to drive to Midway, KY to set-up for Francisco’s Farm Art Festival.  The show was moved back to Midway College’s campus this year, which is where it was held originally.  This was going to be my first year participating, and while I was excited, there are also so many unknowns when setting up at a show for the first time.  I was one of the first artists to arrive and was warmly welcomed.  I set-up quite quickly, and the rain held off.  By noon, I was enjoying a nice lunch at one of the local places on Main Street.  That was when the day shifted.  I got a call from a friend who is also an artist and was informed that a “freakish gust of wind” came and blew my tent and weights and everything with it.  I quickly paid and made my way back to campus, which was thankfully only a half mile away.  By the time I showed up, volunteers and other artists had collected all my display and things and piled it all under my tent roof, which was no longer part of my tent, to keep it all dry from the now lightly falling rain.  I calmly checked everything underneath the canvas-my product was safe and only one piece of display was destroyed.  My tent poles were another story.  Two corner poles were completely bent so that the tent would not work.  One of the volunteers called in a campus maintenance man.  This guy was incredible!  He took my poles down to the college tool shop.  He and a bunch of other guys tried bending the pole back using a vice.  When it broke, he still refused to give up.  “Oh, we can probably just rebuild it…we are use to finding ways to fixing all these old buildings here.  For example, the boiler downstairs is older than me, and I’m 68,” he said with a big smile.  He was right-they were able to rebuild my poles and make it so that my tent could stand again.  I was so appreciative and told him that they were magicians who had magically made my tent work.  He laughed and said they were engineers.  They are magicians to me.  Of all the places for wind to mess up my poles, it happened on a college campus where there were willing guys and tools to fix it.  I kept thinking how lucky it all was considering what had happened.  Throughout all of it, the volunteers were attentive and helpful, making sure I was ok on all levels.  I was incredibly taken care of.  Once the tent was standing upright with walls and a roof once again, I began re-doing my display.  I hung the curtains with a whisper in the back of my mind “begin again.”  This is a phrase that I’ve heard from a local yoga teacher.  As I slowly and carefully re-did everything that I had just done that morning, it was like a mantra in my mind—“begin again”.  I recalled how when I first showed up one of the volunteers commented, “Props to you for not being stressed out by this…”  I have learned that stressing out and being upset is not particularly helpful.  To be honest, I was too focused on trying to think of a solution to get stressed out.  It was more in the aftermath of it as I reflected on how my day had shifted completely out of my control that I thought “just begin again”.  There was no need for upset or frustration…just be gentle with yourself in the midst of the shifting and the re-doing…just begin again.  

A big THANK YOU to all the volunteers who were so awesome all weekend long-- and a really, really big THANK YOU to the magician maintance men of Midway College who helped my tent to stand again :)

Because of the excitement on Friday, I was interviewed and made a brief appearance in this article about the show.

Last weekend, I participated in the Governor's Derby Day Celebration.  I made extra horse and KY journals to contribute to the festivities.  The weather turned out beautifully, and we had the whole spectrum of people come through, including Governor Beshear and his wife.  There were races of all sorts, fancy hats, and lots of families out enjoying the day.  The photos below capture a small bit of it (thanks to Ed Lawrence) and includes a few young boys who stopped by.  They each write and keep notebooks with different things, though it seemed to be a bit of a trend to keep a "fact book".  One of them even showed me their fact book, which was filled with information and mathematical equations and diagrams.  What a fun and interesting day it was!

Spring finally came!!  I feel like we can take a collective sigh of relief that we all survived the long winter.  I don’t mind being a bit of a hermit and going into deep internal work mode for a few solitary months, but I do miss the sunshine and all the bright colors that come with this time of year.  For me, spring means jumping into outdoor art festivals, which I officially kicked off a couple of weeks ago.  It was the most fabulous beginning of the season at Cherokee Triangle Art Fair in Louisville with gorgeous weather and winning an honorable mention award.  There was something incredible redemptive about this for me.  I love that show—the location, the ease, the friendly people.  However, I’ve had a few hard times with it.  A couple of years ago, my tent was literally mangled by a storm that came through, and last year, I wasn’t even able to make it as my car overheated on the way out of town.  I cannot fully express my gratitude as I drove my new, reliable car to the show this year with my sturdy tent in tow.  I do not take these things lightly as you can see I have gone without.  Doing so has deepened my appreciation.   I’m looking forward to several fun shows coming up and a couple of bookbinding workshops this summer.   Hope to see you around!

Beautiful day at an orchard on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Spruce Pine, NC!
Best view ever hands down!!!

My first outside show of the year was at the 4 Bridges Art Festival in Chattanooga, TN.  I fell in love with that place--the people were so friendly, there were local businesses everywhere, and fun art was all over.  I had just enough extra time to fit in some tasty restaurants and check out some cute, new boutiques. I stayed at a hostel, Crashpad, and was able to walk to and from the show.  It was all so fabulous!

Since I was accepted into the KY Crafted program last fall, I was eligible to participate in Ky Crafted: The Market....and I was SO excited!!!  This show features mostly KY artists who are all part of this program.  There is one full day of wholesale and then two days that are open to the public for retail.  While it was a long week leading up to it having just gotten back from Philly, I was so glad to be there.  Wholesale day went really well.  I met buyer's from KY as well as other states and also saw many of my current KY retailers.  Everyone was so congratulatory and excited to see me be a part of the show.  The whole weekend really felt like a celebration.  The retail days were fun, and it felt like most of Lexington came out for the festivities.  The KY Arts Council did an amazing job (as always).  This is one of the shows I will definitely look forward to doing again!

I was delighted and surprised to see one of my journals on the door as you
headed into the convention center!

Amy Hess, from the Local Traveler, and me.
Amy came by to do an interview for an upcoming show...stay tuned for details...

This is almost everything for my booth on one cart!  Welcome to loading in and out...it makes me thankful for a small car that I can't fit too much in :)

I recently traveled with the Kentucky Arts Council to Philadelphia to participate in the Buyer's Market.  It was my first time being at this show as well as my first time in Philly.   I arrived the evening of Valentine's Day and met up with Amelia Stamps, a fellow artist and friend.   She had done the show previously and was able to give me some insight as well as show me some of the Philly sights.  We didn't have too much extra time, but we did manage to enjoy meals in Chinatown most evenings.  We stayed near the convention center where the show was held and were able to walk everywhere, which was really nice.  The show felt like the easiest experience ever!  There were five of us who shared the booth,representing KY Crafted.  The KY Arts Council provided display and signage and were great about organizing everything.  The buyer's were also really great and quite personable.  It was really fun meeting store owners who are interested in supporting handmade products.  I'm grateful that I was able to participate and look forward to doing so again in the future!

It's official!!

The whole booth, featuring five artists

Close-up

This is what I look like writing orders ;)

Me and Amelia

The City

China Town

Little peek at The Market, which was filled to the max with food vendors, veggies, Amish baked goods, coffee, etc....Delicious!