Do more craft fairs, more more more!

Well, at the beginning of the year I was very gung ho about this. I had a billion shows scheduled and my goal of averaging 2 per month seemed ambitious, but doable.

Then, as it tends to, shit happened. Lots of shit.

Now, I’m not as gung ho. I feel like the Universe showed me The Hand and made me back off. And at some point, I accepted that the number of shows I do isn’t necessarily within my control. Painful to admit, but true.

Add into the equation crazy gas prices, some new wholesale accounts, a little more action online… and I’m feeling differently about doing a billion shows. My heart isn’t in it (so to speak lol).

Right now I’m focusing more on my online stores, as I sit for a month between shows. I’m not freaking out about it either. So there.

Welp, I missed a big show when I went into the hospital… I’d hoped to be well enough to attend the show I have scheduled this coming weekend. But, not so. I’m sad to have to admit it… I want to go back to work SO badly. Realistically though, even just driving 5 hours straight is a stretch right now. And all the physical work it takes to set up and run the booth. Sigh. Not gonna happen.

Yeah yeah I know… you just had a heart attack Mermaid, chill out. Still like I said somewhere before, I feel almost better as if I’m getting over a cold. And I’m flat freakin broke.

I just HATE feeling so helpless! Really that’s what it comes down to. I’ve built my life and my business to be independent and in control. For the past few months (esp the past couple weeks) nothing is in my control and it’s killing me.

Whatever. I’ll take a nap instead…

I’ve been redeemed!

I’m still broken hearted about the music festival dissing me after our lovely 7yr relationship. Now they have the ads on the radio and it’s like hearing the voice of the hot boyfriend who dumped me talking about his new girlfriend. Every day. Sigh.

However… I have been accepted to a substitute show I found. It’s not a music festival, but it IS the next best thing… a footy foo fine arts festival in Sonoma. I usually do very well among fancy stuff and fancy folks. So this has some real potential. And maybe a bit of prestige.

So there! A new sexy man is in town and he doesn’t grow weed or play the blues… but he’s respectable and has a fancier car. (how do you type a raspberry anyway? thppppp)

May’s show tally… um, confirmed my screwed up show and 2 more after that. So that’s a running balance of -6.

Oh wait, that should be its own goal maybe. sigh.

Ok so now I’m so far behind on my show schedule and so brokeass broke that I’m looking to do any festival I can find. Even the mother’s day one that was a pain in the butt to do last year. I feel like I just don’t have a choice. Something is better than nothing.

Yeah, the deadline to apply was 2 weeks ago. And I still needed to develop the photos of new activity booth. There were complications… and I had 2 other nicer shows whose aps were due right away. So, I sent those off… then when I got the photos taken care of, I sent the crappy one off too.

And forgot to put the money in it. Sigh.

I even added a little suckup letter, asking them to let me know asap if they had room (the show is in like 10 days and I need to order supplies). But with all the photos and delays and other applicationss… I totally forgot to buy the money order.

Ok, also… I thought I could buy the money order with my credit card. They don’t let you do that. I sent ALL my money in the other two applications. I have $43 to my freakin name. lol.

Secretly I thought… well I don’t really want to do the show anyway… maybe they’ll just laugh at me and throw my ap in the garbage. IF by chance they get it by the weekend and HAPPEN to call me to say you’re in just send us the money, I’ll deal with it then.

Which is exactly what just happened. LOL. I just sent it yesterday… the lady called to say we processed your application but were unable to find the check. Oh, ok. I guess I’ll write a bad check and cross my fingers!

Finally. I’m confirmed for another show. Gawd I thought I’d been blacklisted or something. Now I really feel like I have to do any show I can just to fill in the gaps.

Ok May 17-18 Gold Beach, OR… the Art, Seafood & Wine festival. Never been there, Barney says it’s a nice little foo foo town. And the show lady said there’s no other clothing, so it could be good. Whatever. I have a confirmed show past this month. yay. pff.

But for April… the tally according to my 2/mo quota = -7.

(p.s. the van’s running great)

Ok. Now I know something is afoot. Yesterday I checked my po box and had not 1 but 3 show rejections.

One was from the High Sierra Music Festival… huge-ass awesome music festival that already rejected me last month. Only thing in the envelope were the photos I used to apply. Thanks.

The second was an application I sent off to Gold Beach OR which I guess had the wrong address on it. Return to sender, no mail receptacle at this adds. Perfect.

The third was the big shocker. The mateel arts & music festival rejection letter. Wow, that was a real surprise. My favorite and biggest show all year, consistently my biggest money maker for the past SEVEN years in a row. And the most fun by far.

That, my friends, put me over the edge. Up until that moment… sitting in my car next to the post office, pile of envelopes on my lap… I’d been able to stave off the sinking feeling of everything going to shit. Then I totally lost it. Click, I’m a mess.

I’m sure I’ll become more philosophical about things tomorrow… or the next day. Or something.

I’m not sure what’s going on here… um Universe. But, now I have had to cancel 2 shows due to transportation issues. This has never happened in the 7 years I’ve been doing shows.

So I have not done one show yet. And if I can just take a second to whine about it a little more… I had to forfeit both my booth fees, along with losing the income I would have earned. And this last time, we had to tow the van over 100 miles home.

I hope this is building up my karma for when I actually DO a freakin show. At this rate, I’ll be rich.

(One thing that will hopefully help out in the long run is the addition of my new activity booth. Cross your fingers.)

Finally, my first show of the season… see ya! Off to the Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival to make my fortune (hear that Universe?) and show off my shiny new van. Ha!

I hear there will be another mermaid there to bless the fishing fleet. awesome.

Ok, my goal is to average 2 shows per month. As usual, there were no shows to do for Jan & Feb. That’s 4 behind already.

I had a couple planned for March, but then the stalker van broke. So, not only am I 6 shows down, I might also be out $175 for canceling one show at the last minute. Sigh.

April has 2 shows confirmed. (bal -6)

With no day job, it will be easier to do shows every weekend… so I’m trying to find as many as possible. We’ll see.