Sick

I wish I was not sick, I wish my brain would work (all it seems to tell me for the past 5 days is sleep - when the to-do lists and schedules of my world are getting piled up and disorderly).

I went out of town this last weekend... for my cousin's baby shower. The plan was a long weekend of fun times and visiting with family - I brought two cameras with me and lots of extra memory cards and battery chargers.

And then I caught some damn virus on my outgoing flight. It was a red-eye, I left at 10pm Portland time and got into Cleveland 9am Ohio time. There was a screaming child on my flight, she wasn't even a baby, just a screamer, and judging by her parents I don't blame her... if I had been that child I would have been screaming too. Instead I was the adult a few seats back shooting them nasty looks, cuz I am an ass like that. Yep. No one successfully slept on that flight and I doubt I am the only sick bastard dealing with the aftermath.

So my trip was ridiculous. Within a day I was full-on raging sick and had to be quarantined from the pregnant cousin and my elderly grandmother. I hid out at my mom's house, she took care of me with her magic healing ways, and I thanked her by leaving behind my virus for her to enjoy for the next few days. Wasn't that kind of me. I am sorry Mom, you deserve better :)

So... in the end I didn't take a single picture while I was gone. And it was so beautiful there - fall weather and the colors of the changing leaves. All my beautiful family members and my cousin's cute belly. It pains me that some virus made me so useless that I couldn't even come back with pictures. Ridiculous.

Okay, my whining is done. I just had to share.

My Friends at Splurge

My favorite boutique store in town - Splurge - has had a facelift! Oh my goodness Naomi and Yed (and their friends and family!) have been hard at work for the last week or so. I visited tonight and took some pictures - may I say how amazing my mobiles look against the pale blue wall! I love that, its very eye catching. Makes me think I should do some display with like this sometime for a show.

Oh and check out this saweet soap display. Oh yeah baby - gotta love the ReBuilding Center!
So go check out Splurge and consider some early holiday shopping. They represent a large selection of local artists - and have a great stock of unique one of a kind gift items.

Fall Sale!

click the link above to see all the participating stores!!

And get a little holiday shopping done early: 20% off anything in my shop!!

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Front Row Seats

It was a beautiful day in Portland today. Check out these amazing trees in waterfront park. The colors are stunning.

Today I had front row seats for a great little ragtime duo that go by "Cardboard Songsters". These musicians had a gig on the main stage at the PSM this Sunday, and my booth happens to be right in front of the stage - front row seats baby :)

I enjoyed them so much I had to share here in my bloggy blog!

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Wow it was rainy in Portland today

No big shocker, it rained today. Honestly though, it rained hard! Florida big fat drops (and lots of them) kinda rain, not Pacific NW drizzly stuff... although it drizzled for a good part of the day too... but the dramatic stuff was the dark gray clouds blowing around and occasional drenching down pour. The weird part was the sun came out many times today. It would get bright and sunshiney (a little blinding with everything so wet) and warm. I kept taking off layers, putting them back on, taking them back off... you get the idea :)

So my day at the market was pretty damn wet. Nothing like sitting in a tent in waterfront park as big rain storms blow in and out of the city. Its sorta beautiful listening to the rain, and with all my new weights and seam-sealer (which worked pretty well - would have worked better if I actually had sealed the entire seams, I didn't do the entire length of each seam, I am too short to reach the inside of the top of the peak - so it leaked in the middle, but not around the sides where me and my stuff sits - over all I had 90%less dripping in my booth!) I was well prepared for the weather. However - it was so much rain! It kept accumulating in my canopy top - which is like a waterfall when emptied. I had to empty the top at least every 20 minutes while it was raining. This kept me in my booth! Everyone kept making fun of me that I was actually in my booth all day.

This is a video of what it looked like when I would empty a puddle out of my canopy top:

Fortunately there are always customers at the PSM. So it was a nice day. I think the rain in Portland is pretty. I am completely exhausted now though. Thoroughly tired.

Me on Tv

If you click the image above you will get to see the TV segment that aired today. I couldn't find a way to embed the video on my blog... hm... Fox is tricky like that. I can twit it, but I can't embed. Go figure. Its a good segment - take a look!

Making Weights for My Booth

Its windy out, fall in Portland, and I have no excuse to not have proper weights for my vending booth. A trip to the hardware store for some pvc and concrete... and a few metal bolts and oh I have to remember to stop at Harbor Freight tomorrow for more bungee cords... and VOILA I will have weights for my booth this coming weekend. Above is a picture of the concrete poured into the tubes... it looks wet and messy... I'll show pictures tomorrow with it all clean and pretty. Next after the concrete sets we installing hanging fixtures (bolts) across the tops of the tubes.

The kitty was out there with us trying to help, or just trying to get attention.

Better Portland and Me!

Tomorrow at 1pm on FOX channel 12 here in Portland I will be on TV. Or that is, sometime between 1 and 2pm. I filmed with the crew from Better Portland a few weeks ago... we talked about my business at the Portland Saturday Market and they filmed a little glass torchworking. I made the host Brooke a ring.

The segment will air tomorrow... I'll try and catch some video of it... maybe they'll put it on their website

Hello Fall

Pictures from my day... local apples and pears at the Portland Nursery, and the changing colors of fall at the Japanese Garden. Its a rainbow of fall goodness.

A Bit of Shopping at the Portland Saturday Market

Sunday I did a bit of shopping at the Portland Saturday Market :)

First of all I must admit that I cannot resist the chocolates treats from Wildsweets Chocolate Factory. This booth sits right across from Erin and Naomi's booths... its a constant temptation. I purchased some dark chocolate with hazelnuts and also penuche fudge. Yum yum yummy. No picture. Tim polished it all off. I helped. It was gone very quickly.
I bought some Mug Mugs for Tim and his dad... they are big fans of face mugs and there was a returning 2nd generation artist at the market with a great selection of mugs and plant pots (pot heads). 2 for $25 - I will have to go back for more this holiday season!

Arm warmers for myself that I've been wearing ever since - so many of my shirts are 3/4 length... cute, but my wrists get cold. Not anymore! I got these from Tease Recyclewear. My brother went back and bought himself a pair, he was jealous :) They cost only $15 and each pair is unique, they all have thumb holes, but different patterns (recycled tees) and different shapes and sizes for all types of arms.

Then I found these awesome crayons that I purchased for my cousin's baby shower that I'm going to next week. They come all packaged in a little egg carton thing... oooh I simply swooned at their cuteness and bought a set. KittyBabyLove

Apple Floating in the Sky

On Friday last week I saw this apple floating in the sky as I was driving home. I called Tim and said "wanna meet me at Portland Nursery? the apple festival is on!" and next thing I knew I was parked in a sea of kids with painted pumpkins and adults carrying heavy sacks of apples. Tim pulled up on his bike and we proceeded to fill our bellies with apple tastings and fresh pressed cider. I did manage to hit right when school had let out for the weekend. So there were 2 zillion little kids around the nursery. I know, I have great timing. It may have been a little crazy, but it was fun :)

I didn't have extra camerage on me and my little canon ran out of batteries, so I am going back this week to take more pictures...

Saturday and Sunday I was at the market again as usual. The weather was sorta peppy, a little breezy, but not bad. My booth stayed sunny and nice. I always love decent weather down at the market, nice customers and friendly times.

Sunday was sorta cold in the morning, I had a most wonderful bowl of soup for breakfast. Its made by the nice lady behind the Thai Food booth at the Portland Saturday Market. I love her soup on cold mornings. Its the best breakfast ever.

It was the Portland 2009 AIDS walk on Sunday morning, very moving to see so many people walking together for this cause.

I just thought I'd share a few pictures from my weekend. I've been busy as usual. Lots of vending, lots of teaching classes, and taking classes! Last Thursday was my first day of class at Mercy Corps NW! Oh and lot and lots of creating. Whew.

I have to give a big shout out to mother nature for a beautiful Portland fall weekend. I'm gonna try and relax a bit today and enjoy.

Green Kitchen

Once again I have to profess my love for my customers - Thanks for sending me pictures!!!

Finding Information and Experience

Yesterday I attended the first ever collective meeting of local crafts guilds. Oregon has many guilds in the arts/crafts - previously there wasn't really an opportunity for guild members to mingle and network with artists from the other guilds. Now PNCA/CCM have sparked the movement to bring together the guilds into one collective.

They also brought Matt of Etsy from Brooklyn NY to discuss the new movement of TEAMS in regard to this collective guild effort.

The meeting was mostly to rally volunteers for various committees... but it really got me thinking about the history of guilds, the lasting legacy and the modern equivalent. Here is my overly brief and hopefully somewhat factual breakdown of the history of guilds :)

Ancient Times AD 300-600 Guilds were associations of craftspersons given funds and connections thru government/royalty/religion

Medieval Times 1100-1500 Guilds evolved into modern day business associations

Fall of the Guilds 1700-1800 Guild system was disbanded and replaced by free trade laws. Industrialization and Modernization.

Currently we live with all sorts of guild activity. Corporations and Associations existing in business and law reflecting a legacy of guilds. In the United States modern guilds exist in just about any field. There is a good article about this guild stuff in Wiki, if you are interested check it out.

Basically long story short - it was an intriguing meeting - got me thinking about all sorts of things. While at the same time it was a puzzling meeting, because it was mostly preaching to the choir. Does that make sense?!

I have been involved with the Oregon Glass Guild on and off for years now. Ever since I first took the plunge to become a full time glass artist I joined the local Guild and started attending meetings and doing demonstrations. It was a good opportunity to advertise my work as a local teacher and meet other local glass artists. I have dropped out of the membership over the years mostly due to boredom. Is that rude of me to say? I should use more finess, but hey, I'm honest! Its just that our local guild is pretty small, when the community of artists is so huge! Very few local full time glass artists belong to the glass guild, or if they do they don't show up to meetings. I adore the people I have met thru this group, but its pretty small and membership struggles. This seems odd to me.

I like the idea of this collective of guilds and bringing more of a spotlight on the local guilds, beefing up the membership would be great!

Because there are perks to being involved with your local guild:

• exhibitions (in PDX the big show in the early summer can be a great opportunity to sell work)
• group purchasing
  
• education ie demonstrations and classes
• networking
• volunteer community outreach
  

PNCA (Pacific Northwest College of Art) is really interested in creating a mentorship program thru this guild collective to offer support and guidance to new artists graduating from school and trying to earn a living with their work. Not only does this support the young artists, it also leads to increasing the membership in the guilds. Currently the guilds seem to lack members in their 20s and 30s. An interesting factor to me about having Etsy present at this meeting was the target audience of Etsy being the exact age-range that the local guilds are not representing.

Also the Etsy TEAMS program is a modern day equivalent to a guild structure and team membership offers a lot of the perks listed above. Matt threw out the statistic: Etsy sellers that are members of teams are 15%-20% more successful than sellers who are not on teams.

One fabulous idea at the meeting was to have parties rather than having more meetings. I think that would be a great improvement, and it would be wonderful networking (more-so than sitting in chairs listening to people preach to the choir) as well as more appealing to a younger crowd to show up and check it out. I think it would work! I am down with more parties :) I think the ladies from the Potters Association brought up this idea - thank you!!

New Mural on the Studio Garage Door

Check it out! The school has a new colorful mural painted on the big garage door. I love it! Feel free to stop by and thank Scott- he was the man behind the plan. Brain Buchanan is the artist.