thinking ornaments in october

i'm peeking my head out from under a huuuuuge pile of craft show preparations! it's getting very close to crunch time (november 10th) and i refuse to replicate the madness that was the crafter's flea market, the last show i did (sometime last year, i think it was). at about midnight the night before the show, as i finished up the last piece i was making, i realized that i had not yet started pricing anything. and of course, knowing me, i couldn't just slap a price tag on everything. oh no. they had to each be hand-tea-dyed, hand-stamped with the prices, and have hand-written explanations of the type of stones used (i was making only jewelry at the time). oh, and add in there that they also had to be hand-dried with my blow dryer when they weren't dry fast enough to do the stamping and writing... long story short... i went to bed at 3 am the night before the show and had to be there at about 8am to get it set up. i am also incredibly not a morning person. i'd like to also take this chance to thank my husband again for not killing me, as he stayed up with me and even did most of the blow-drying.

generally, not the best plan.

it's also my goal to be much more organized and official this time around in the sense that i'm getting a full inventory done in time so i can keep up with things like, oh i don't know, which items sold and how much i sold them for (details, details). i'm also trying to make the packaging, display, etc a little more cohesive and professional looking as well.

you can expect to see lots of ornaments (including my favorite beaded stars) and others, lots of new notecards, sundress totes, and quite a bit of jewelry, including a big batch of petite treasure necklaces that i'm currently taking a break from putting the finishing touches on. check out an old post from my launch party to see a general idea of what my booth will look like! i'm in the process of getting a test run all set up in my dining room to see exactly what else i need to get done.

in the meantime, i've discovered the gorgeous and inspiring work of the lovely flea market studio! she has some of the coolest ideas i've seen in a long time... adorable birthday party boxes (she even lets you peek at the contents), beautiful and simple french-inspired packaging, and an ingenious use for an unexpected item. not to mention, of course, an etsy shop! it's so great to find new inspiration from crafters who seem to have it all together just when i'm working on re-focusing my overly abundant array of creative ideas.

back to the ornament making...