Lilac Festival 2010

I spent a lovely Sunday at Rochester’s Lilac Festival at Highland Park. The weather was perfect – not too hot, not too cold. Due to the nice weather every single person living in the Rochester metro area was also in attendance at the Lilac Fest on Sunday, too. It was the most crowded I’ve ever seen Highland Park! This giant 10-day festival kicks off the local summer season of outdoor festivals and art and craft shows.

The aisles down the craft show rows were shoulder to shoulder with people. It was kind of hard to see all the great arts and crafts! Plus I dislike crowds so I was having a mini-panic attack. We attempted to make our way to the food tent. The path was just a river of moving bodies inching forward ever so slowly. When we got to the food tent there simply was not room to get inside. So we got out of there (much to my relief!) and went elsewhere for some garbage plates.

I was surprised to see how few local artists I recognized from doing shows here for the past two seasons. My friends Amanda Preske from Beadwork By Amanda, Jennifer Born from PS Enjoy Your Life, and Stefani Tadio from Pine Tree Designs were there with their arts and crafts. And that was it. Most of the business cards I picked up are artists from Pennsylvania, Arizona, or Buffalo. Very few locals. And I picked up a lot of business cards!

Stefani and I have formed a really cool friendship, email a lot, and sometimes do projects together. This was her first big outdoor show with the whole tent-setting-up business and leaving things out overnight. Her tent and set up looked great! And she did really well, too! I’m so happy for her! Plus now I get to pick her brain for when I finally get up the nerve to buy a tent and do outdoor shows.

Here are some pictures of her awesome booth:

Small notecards and adorable hand stitched paper pins

Hand stitched greeting cards and paper magnets

I love Stefani's Sticky Notes Holders!!

My plan for 2011 includes doing outdoor shows like this one. I have no idea how much inventory I would need. Maybe I better shut off the computer and Twitter and get crafting!

Craft Show News

The Holiday Arts & Crafts Show went well for a Thursday show. I’m thinking it maybe just was not my crowd. I need to find shows that cater to a younger group. But the people were super friendly. The organization was great. The scenery was to die for. And the altered domino Christmas ornaments were a hit. (Pictures coming soon.)

Casa Large Winery is one of the highest points in Monroe County. The view was fabulous of the splendid fall colors.



I had met Stephanie Tadio of Pinetree Designs online a few weeks ago. So it was a blast getting to meet her in person. I love meeting “online” friends in the real world. She was so kind and friendly, and I hope we see more of each other. Her work is great! I love people who do things with tiny pieces of paper!

Very funny story for this show: It was my first with these organizers. I’ll admit I am short and look young for my age, very young, like teenager young. The organizer came over and told me how wonderful my table display and artwork was, and that folks had been telling her how impressed they were by the “very young woman” at my booth. I confessed to being 33 years old. I thought she was going to fall down. People thought that I was maybe 17, tops.

Was it my lack of make up, my Converse sneakers, or that both my parents were there and they don’t look their age either? I don’t know, but this keeps happening and it’s sort of freaking me out at this point. Should I ask my hairdresser sister to make my gray streak bigger? Should I make myself a pendant that says “33 year old” in it and wear that at shows? My mother used to get this all the time, too, as she never looked her age. At 40 she was accosted by my 7th grade vice-principal for having her sunglasses on in the school building, a no-no at the time. The vice-principal thought she was no more than an 8th grader!

The next show I’m doing is on Saturday, November 29th at the Irondequoit High School at 260 Cooper Road from 10 am to 4 pm. Hope to see you there!!

The Wedding Gift

OK, I’m going to bear a little shame publicly today. My best friend of over 20 years, Joolie, got married this year in March. I could not decide what to get her or what to make her. So I waited until my brain gave me an answer to take care of this. But it never did and months have passed. But do not worry for our friendship. We’re the types who get around to sending Christmas gifts in May with no hard feelings. It’s becoming comical at this point.

So I finally figured out what to send when I saw Patricia Hecker’s TattooDreams shop on Etsy. Her work fits my friends’ artistic aesthetics very well. The boxes seem so personal and yet so “made for anyone” at the same time. They talk to you and allow you to have your own dialogue with them. Plus Patricia’s eye for composition and layout is impeccable. I’ll let her pictures speak for themselves.

(images © Patricia Hecker)

More about Patricia: “I've made art since I was a child. I know I was born to be one! Making art has provided me with a career for the last 21 years, but it's more than that. It's what makes me complete. I travel the country with my husband of 23 years selling my work at juried fine art shows.

I've been selling on Etsy less than a year and am beginning to see repeat collectors buying my work. I find this exciting as the holidays approach. I've met wonderful people here on Etsy and really love having this marketplace to sell my TattooDreams body of work. The work I show here on Etsy is not what has funded my life, but a separate body of work that lets me play and explore. Both necessary ingredients to any artist.

I believe the imagery I use in my Tattoo Dream work to be translations from our dream state. The lasting visuals and fragments of thoughts and images are facets of our everyday life. These resonate into what we dream and they frolic in our subconscious. They are then born into the sharp contrast of black on wood.

To surround oneself with objects that are handmade is to surround oneself with the energy of the artist who made them.”

She also has a fine art line of work that she has done for the last 24 years, which can be found on her website: http://www.heckerdesign.com. You should also check out her blog.

Here is the card I made for Joolie and Eric.

(image and design © In My Head Studios)

If you are interested in a card, I can customize it with any color to match the wedding colors of your bride and groom! They’re just $5.00 plus shipping.

So since my gift was about six months late it also served as a six-month anniversary gift, too! Double bonus!

Thank you to Paticia Hecker for allowing me to reproduce her copyrighted material and to promote her shop.

Pranking

My best friend Joolie always leaves me notes all over my house when she comes to visit. I mean everywhere. Inside books, behind pictures, in my knitting bag… sometimes I don’t find them for years. It makes my day to find one, too, as it reminds me of why I love her so much.

I was never able to get her back because I was never alone at her house when I visit her. But I had the chance in March when she got married. I innocently begged out on a trip to the local bar. I brought my own Post-It note pad too. And I went to town on her new house. She is still finding notes!

My sister recently asked us to baby-sit so they could go see “Batman: The Dark Knight”. My hunny and I took the opportunity to leave her notes all over. We left them in food boxes, under things, in bowls, on stamps, in books, in nooks, and in boxes they won’t open until Christmas. My favorite was the note in a plastic baggie we hid halfway down the big oatmeal container. She makes oatmeal for her kids everyday. We had to dump out half the oatmeal to do it, and we spilled it all over her floor. We had to do a bit of cleaning to hide the evidence. I also put one right out in the open that read, “I wonder how long it will take you to find this.” It didn’t take her long. Now she calls me when she finds more notes. And we both laugh! So much fun over a few Post-It notes!

My sister and her family are currently away camping and I once again have full run of her house as I am checking her mail for her. I’m desperate for another prank, but cannot think of a good one. Do you have one?

Monkey Pants!!

photo by Anna M. of www.ImogensGarden.etsy.com

I was poking around in the Etsy forums a few weeks ago, as usual, and stumbled across ImogensGarden’s shop run by Anna M. She has the most adorable classic children's clothing with a contemporary flair. Immediately I fell in love with the sock monkey pants. Alas, she only had kid sizes! Mind you, I am not even five feet tall so I figured I could fit into a kid size. I sent her a message on Etsy to ask if she would be interested in a trade: monkey pants for a custom pendant. Never have I asked for a trade, so I was a bit hesitant to even put it out there. She said, “Yes!”

So I sent her my measurements (note to self: lose 10 pounds!). We began discussing her custom pendant. She told me she had lost both of her grandmothers in February of this year (along with two aunts and a tornado hit her house). She wanted a pendant to honor her grandmothers. One of her grandmothers had a glass bluebird of happiness on her windowsill for as long as Anna could remember. My grandmother had one too! Then I had a strong gut feeling that they were the same bluebirds. I had taken photos of my grandmother’s house shortly after she died so I would always remember some things I loved. The bluebirds were one of those images. I emailed the picture to Anna and sure enough they were the exact same ones her grandmother had! Small world. So we decided to use the photo as part of her pendant to remember her grandmothers. The back of the pendant has an owl on it to symbolize her other very wise grandmother.




The pants she made me are great! I love them! They fit just right and feel good too. The construction and serged edges really impressed me.

But what really got to my heart about all this was the lovely feedback she gave me on Etsy. She wrote, ”Absolutely the most beautiful, meaningful piece of jewelry I own. This means the world to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

I love how art has the power to touch us so deeply and across many miles. I’m very grateful for the new friend I made. Thanks, Anna!

To Greener Pastures

My (second) best friend is moving to Texas today. Boo hoo! I’m very sad about this. She is such a wonderful and beautiful woman, mother, and friend. I met her at my old job helping people with mental illnesses. She has the biggest heart for helping people. We just really clicked as friends at a dark time when I thought any new friends were never going to happen for me. It feels like I have known her all my life. Yes, we are that kind of friends. I’m so lucky.

They are packing the truck as I write this. She called earlier today to ask if we wanted a couch and loveseat because they cannot fit them in the truck. I said “sure” without thinking about how I could get them to my house. The last hour was spent wrangling people and trucks to get this furniture so my friend does not have to worry about one more thing today. She sounded a bit frazzled on the phone.

Now I’m going to have a couch and loveseat that will remind me of her everyday. It is probably going to make me miss her more and more but the constant reminder of her will be good for me. I’m more likely to keep in constant touch with her this way. It might be painful at first, but I know she is going to be happier where she is moving to and away from these cold, endless winters.

Good luck, my dear good friend! I miss you already! Sniff.

There and Back Again

My trip to Texas was so much fun that I want to return immediately. It was so good to see my best friend of 21 years and all her friends and family. Thank you, Joolie and Eric, for a splendid week I really needed.

Joolie and I met in middle school in Plano, TX. Then my family moved in 1989 because of my father’s job. We stay in touch constantly. Both of us travel to visit each other at least every 2 years. To travel to be there for her wedding was divine. She has married a wonderful guy named Eric. We both have “Erik/Erics”! Joolie is the most talented writer I know and is funnier than 10 comedians put together. She is also an artist who likes to make lino prints too. We sometimes get the chance to do that together. But not this trip. This was The Wedding Trip.

We ran wedding errands, ate Mexican food, drank margaritas, and ate more food. We like fun and food. This was interspersed with family arriving from in and out of state, laughing so much my face still hurts, and hanging out with friends. Austin is a fantastic place to live, although I am afraid to drive there. But I want to move there. Texas still feels like home to me. Joolie’s friends and family feel like my own.

click me for more pictures!!

The wedding was sublime. I am socially awkward and I had fun so there is something to that. I was a bridesmaid. Since the ceremony lasted all of five minutes I did not get a chance to cry. Tears welled up but had no time to fall. We were all up and back in seven minutes. Make no delay for partying!

Small world coincidence: one of Joolie’s family friends from Plano has ties to where I live in Rochester, NY. She keeps in touch with our news so we commiserated about the downfall of the Ferry and jobs in general. Then she asked our last names. Mine rang no bell, but my sister’s married name did. Valerie is a Schaubroeck, of the world-famous House of Guitars (to which I would include a link but they are too cool to even have a website). This woman knows that family well and named off a bunch of my sister’s in-laws! We laughed so much about it. Very cool!

And now I am home, and it is cold and snowy. Ho-hum. But I have more stories and pictures to show and tell over the next few days. Stay tuned.