Craft Show Photos and Tips

Hi yall!

Here are a few pics of my booth set-up from a show I did last weekend.

Bracelets

Necklaces

Earrings and a few bracelets

More necklaces

Flower Necklaces

Gift Boxes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few handy tips I've picked up doing shows and craft fairs:
- Invest in a hand truck/dolly. It will save you time and tiredness
- Tweak your display every time you use it. A clean professional display will draw customers to you. Think of it as your store front.
- Take pictures of your display and use them as reference for future shows.
- Don't take your booth down before the show is over. This show, I make a sale during the last 5 minutes!
- A tasteful giveaway, like the gift boxes above, can set you apart from other vendors and send more sales your way.
- Don't put out a bowl of candy for the kids. I love kids - have 3 of my own - but the candy bowl just causes mess and confusion. I keep lollipops under the table. If a child is having a hard time while the parent is trying to shop, I'll ask if it's OK to give them one.
- Pay the extra few $$ for a corner space. It pays off.
- A great tip another vendor shared with me a couple of years ago: Keep your business supplies in a rolling cart with drawers that you don't have to unpack each time. It's a great time saver.
- Keep a running list of what you bring to a show and what you wish you had. Keep that in your rolling cart as a double check that you've remembered everything.

Brave Girls Club

This is a reprint from the brave girls club daily email. They are fantastic!! Check them out at www.bravegirlsclub.com



Dear Beloved Girl,

Great frustration, hurt and anxiety can come from trying to get our worth and our acceptance from other people or from anything that is outside of our own selves and our own deepest truths.

Many of us want love more than anything in the world. We want love and we want acceptance...we want to be understood. Frustration comes when we do no accept the fact that we simply can not MAKE others love us, or accept us, or even understand us. This is why it is so important to first learn how to love ourselves....

When we can get in tune with our deepest truths....the truths that only come from listening to the very force that created us and placed this knowing inside of us.....we can find peace whenever we need it. When we do the work necessary to learn who we really are in spite of who the world may tell us we are....we can find the love and acceptance we so need...whether we have other people in our lives or not. We simply do not NEED to have constant reassurance from others....because there is a voice of knowing inside of us...a voice that comes from the only place that truly KNOWS who we are and what we are capable of.

Be o.k. with YOU, beautiful friend. Be o.k. with the moments of aloneness that come, and that sometimes stay. Be o.k. with sometimes feeling that no one understands or that no one is giving you exactly what you need.....because the only WHOLENESS of spirit that will come is from your own self and your own deepest truth. Be o.k. with this....this is where you will find peace. You can give your SELF love and acceptance, through listening to your deepest truths that come from your Creator. It will be real, true and authentic. And it will be enough.

It really will. It will be enough.

You are so very very loved.
xoxo




www.mjanedesigns.com

Tis the season!...For Craft Fairs that is!

Just a quick post to share a few pics from last weeks Highlands Ranch Farmer's market. Busy, busy, busy making lots of great stuff for another show this weekend. Come see me at the Highlands Ranch Art and Craft Fair, Saturday and Sunday 9-5. Eastridge Rec Center!

What I learned in 2nd grade

Do you know that book, Everything I Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten? I'm thinking about writing my own version, except changing the title from Kindergarten to 2nd grade. (Just kidding!) I spent a couple of hours last week helping in my daughter's classroom and was so inspired by her wonderful teacher. My experience in the classroom got me thinking; balancing children, work and home responsibilities is a challenge for us all. What if we ran our own lives as successfully as she runs her classroom?

Some of  the things that stuck out in my mind:
- Every kid in the class knew where they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to be doing.

- I heard her say to a student more than once, "You are in charge of yourself. Are you telling yourself to do the right thing?"
- Big projects that weren't completed in time were put in the child's "work in progress" folder.
- Small assignments not completed were put in backpacks for homework.
- The teacher was willing and able to change the plan if needed.
-  Even though there was lots of structure and lots being accomplished, the kids - and the teacher - were still enjoying their work.

The biggest reminder for me was the importance of having a PLAN. It may, or may not, happen, but at least there is a clear direction for what's the most important and what to do first!! To me, that is one of the biggest challenges to working from home. There are so many distractions that you can be busy all day and yet have no idea what you've accomplished.

Keeping with this idea, I'm working with a friend of mine of accountability for the next few weeks. Could be interesting. More to come...

www.mjanedesigns.com

Up Late

I have a show on Saturday and I've been making jewelry like a mad women. Last night I got in the zone with this variation of my flower pendants. Sterling silver with chalcedony quartz nuggets. Love it! Worth the lost zzzzs!!

www.mjanedesigns.com

1000 Cranes

I took my kids to the local library this week and was delighted by a temporary art installation of paper origami cranes. These cranes were in honor of Sadako Sasaki and they were just beautiful. In total there were 4000!! paper cranes.

Here are the cranes hung from the balcony. Looking at them from below.

Here they are from above - looking down at the floor below.

Each crane was made by a library patron. Quite an impact!

www.mjanedesigns.com

Joy

www.mjanedesigns.com