Providence Art Festival Round-Up

my booth in the forefront on westminster street for the providence art festival before the crowds arrive for the day

The festival I've been working up to for the past month arrived this past Saturday and I am feeling pretty good about how it went. It was a long day starting with the hour drive down to Providence early in the morning, but the weather could not have been better and we had a lot of fun being a part of such a well-organized event. I would love to be able to do more of them as I had a great time selling my wares in person although I have yet to find any other ones on this scale that are reasonably priced and am still nervous about plunking down the hundreds of dollars that many fairs require as a vendor fee. I did pretty well with this one, not as well as I would have liked, but enough to cover my vendor fee plus some so a definite success, even if one does have to start small!

Lots of pictures to share so buckle up and hang on:

patterns and pillows all set up

draft stoppers, bunting, and sachets—o my!

embroidery patterns to go

When we first got there, I freaked out a little because we had the one and only completely wet spot on the whole street and so we couldn't set anything down without it getting mud on it. It was a nice little spot on one of the corners but was situated in such a way so that we were at the end of a wind-tunnel and nothing we put out would sit still. o the joys of en plein air right?! haha, well all is well that ends well and my nerves definitely died down with some coffee and my husband helping to set everything up. Seriously, the man is quite the trooper.

the lavender sachets were a big hit!

I felt like such a newbie and since I only had a month to churn out all the product I would need, I wasn't able to put as much time and money into the display as I would have liked but definitely want to make some improvements in that area going forward. It was a bit tricky being able to get around to all the other booths but I got to see enough of them that my head is full of ideas on how to improve my display and "set the scene" in a more streamlined way for my products. You live, you learn I guess and I'm grateful for the opportunity to do so.

 

Big Nazo performance group do their thang at the festival (very cool and pretty funny too!)

And what better place to get some experience under my belt than Providence?!  I'd been to downtown Providence just once before and have really enjoyed myself on both occasions—it is such a cool little area that is very artist friendly with great architecture, local restaurants, shops, and people. The festival was very well run and chock full of a lot of friendly and creative folks.

vintage suitcases for display—brought from home where they serve as coffee and end tables

I'm going to be listing several of the leftover pillows in my etsy shop this week so if any of these strike your fancy, keep those eyes peeled! I'm particularly smitten with how the Liberty of London dresden and patchwork ones turned out and am planning a little blog post to introduce them formally.

In the meantime, I kind of just want to sit down and breathe after this whirwind! I meant to take yesterday off and did manage to stay away from the computer for the whole weekend (quite an accomplishment in and of itself I think) but ended up working my butt off on Sunday to help take care of so many of the things I'd been ignoring around the house. My etsy shop is clamouring for some attention as well and I'm looking forward to replenishing it and myself as soon as possible!

welcome in!

both workspaces and the chair are from IKEA

it's only taken me forever and a half, but i finally have photos of my studio (in a decent state, ahem) to share with you! i've been a cleaning up a storm the last few days in preparation for my sister and her boyfriend coming into town for thanksgiving. this is their first time visiting us here so i knew i wanted to have everything cleaned up for a little tour. and this way you have plenty of eye candy to enjoy as i step away from the blog for a few days to enjoy thanksgiving and their visit.



if we stay in this apartment any longer, i would really like to paint and i am also working out how i might move things around to accomodate a lightbox set-up...we'll see. i know i'm a very lucky girl to have a room like this of my very own so i've got to work with it and not whine about wanting more space!



my inspiration board...ha, what can i say? my interests and inspirations are all over the board....mmm literally and figuratively. i didn't intend to make such an old man joke right there, these things just happen every now and then you know?

well, i better run. today i am making the cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie, rye bread, chocolate hazelnut ice cream, deviled eggs, and marshallows all from scratch to make tomorrow's feast prep a bit easier. by the time my husband gets home from work and our guests pull in the drive-way tonight, i am so going to be ready to collapse! the happy kind of collapsing though where you are surrounded by loved ones and the knowledge that soon you'll be feasting and having a very lovelyquietcozytime, enjoying doing not much of anything, and reflecting on all that we are grateful for.

i hope you have the same and will see you back here in a few!

with a little bit of elbow grease

(my favorite brand of thread is gütermann on the slender spools)

i've made a bit of headway in tidying up my workroom as of late and got this sa-weet thread rack on sale at joann's on my last trip which i finally got hung up...i was a bit of nerd organizing all my spools and bobbins according to color and just looking at them all lined up gives me a little thrill.

i usually have way too many projects going at once so my workroom can get a bit cajumbled but it feels so good to take some time out to make it look nice. it would seem logical, but i can't believe how much easier it is to focus on a project and cross things off my to-do list when i don't have to spend 40 minutes looking for that seam ripper or my best shears. having all my tools and supplies displayed in such a pretty way is certainly inspiring and motivational too!