Sunday, September 13, 2009
Street fairs are fun but in the heat and humidity of South Florida's rainy season, they're brutal as well. Cat and I attended the Third Second on Second Thursdays block party, pub crawl, art fair last Thursday. This is a relatively new event that 7 restaurant/pub owners in Downtown Himmarshee (Second Street) in Ft. Lauderdale thought up to try to bring more business to the area in this time of economic recession. We were even featured on the local news and you can see my partner on TV at CBS4. What a hoot!
Besides ourselves, there were a group of marine photographers with some really neat photos, a really great Zen artist and another jeweler who does lost wax casting and a 
lot of lapidary work making knives out of obsidian, etc. Rolling Rock beer and New Times sponsored the event and were there also. The event benefited the Riverwalk Trust.
While a small event, I managed to make some contacts and even sold two of my pieces. Cat managed to make quite a bit doing Tarot readings and being her usual bubbly self. We definitely plan on being there next month though I will hope and pray that it's a little cooler. We managed to avoid the rain up until the last 15 minutes.
We had everything packed into the carriers and had just gotten ready to fold up the tables and get the car when the heavens opened up and we not only got rain, we
got a downpour that had me soaked to the skin in less than 2 minutes. Let me tell you, it's not fun being hot to the point of being soaked in your own sweat. Add a torrential downpour and while it's cooling, it's quite, quite uncomfortable. Remind me to avoid outdoor September events next year. I'm not even sure October is going to be any better. After all, it is our rainy season but I don't ever want to do this again in this kind of weather. ACK!
I have to say I enjoy going to craft fairs and events though setting up and breaking down are hard on my back. We've also got to work more on setting up the right type of display. we're still working on that. As you can see, we bought a couple of folding, adjustable tables from Sam's Club. (Thanks Yahoo Groups!) Cat found some inexpensive black tablecloths and the pretty gold scarf cloths for the tables online. I've been collecting display pieces and think a lot about how to show everything. But it's not easy. We'll be getting a banner made and perhaps next time I'll remember the bracelet display. [sigh]
But hey, I sold some jewelry, made some contacts and had a fun time. Isn't that what it's all about?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
I've started a web ring at WebRing® for Chainmaille Artisans. Anyone who has a current and active website or blog is welcome to join. Doesn't matter if you're a professional or hobbyist, Web rings help us promote each other, share interesting new sites related to this passion and keeps the Internet turning. LOL
To join, simple go over to WebRing® or copy and paste http://www.webring.com/hub?ring=chainmailleartis into your browser. Then click on Join This Community in the upper right. Log in, follow directions for placing the navbar on your website or blog and approval should be forthcoming within 24 hours. Don't forget, you must place the navbar code into your website or blog or you won't be approved.
I hope to see many people joining me. And I promise to maintain this ring by making sure everyone keeps their site up and the navbar properly listed. I hate it when a web ring stalls. :)
Miki
07-02-09 Update: After promising to maintain this ring by making sure everyone keeps their navbar up and properly listed, here I go and screw it up during the makeover. I'm temporarily suspended myself from the ring and hope it'll be back up and running this weekend. Apparently, though, the page spewing forth validation errors because of the WebRing code.
