Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The good, the bad, and the uber excellent

Yesterday was the bazaar. I've been mulling it over in my head for the past 24 hours - thinking about what went well, what didn't go according to my hopes and expectations. My thoughts are jumbled. Overall it was a success. We had 14 ladies participating this time and my living, dining and Japanese rooms were packed with a huge variety of handmade goods.

By opening time, we had a line of about 70 to 100 ladies outside my garden gate. They filed in slowly taking their time to look around. I stood by my table full of watch bands and necklaces trying to explain what they are. I had several display sample watches and even a little explanation card written in Japanese, but still the ladies seemed confused as to what they were looking at. So I stood there, trying to show. I felt like one of those product spokesmen you see on infomercials selling their wares. (It slices, it dices. You need this!)

Did I mention that the elementary school in my neighborhood is (numbers wise) the largest one is all of Tokyo? .... you may be wondering where this is going. That means there are a lot of other mothers just like me who are stay at home moms but whose kids don't need their constant attention. That gives us all plenty of time to make handmade goods if that is our cup of tea. And plenty of time to go to craft bazaars to buy these things as well.

Getting to the point now. There are two other craft bazaars in my immediate neighborhood this week - one today and another one tomorrow. So that means just within a 1 mile square area there are three craft bazaars in three days. Tis the season... We were the first one yesterday. I am thinking that we didn't sell as many of our things as we would have hoped because at least some of our guests were going to one or both of the other local bazaars this week and were holding on to their money. Okay, so I may be rationalizing, but indulge me.

As for me personally, I learned some valuable lessons, both good and bad, and had one very uber excellent experience.

Good - yesterday was the bazaar
Bad - we didn't sell as much as we hoped
Good - we sold a lot
Bad - we have a lot left over
Good - many of the left over items can still be sold or given as gifts to our friends and neighbors

Good - I sold 12 Scarlet Lime watches yesterday
Bad -  I made 35 Scarlet Lime watches
Good - I have an incredible stock of beautiful Scarlet Lime watches. I will still sell them either at the spring bazaar or in a local consignment shop. Or maybe.... I'll keep one or two.

Good - I almost broke even - sales and expenses
Bad - I didn't make any profit
Good - I don't have debt because of unsold items
Bad - I won't be able to buy the Silhouette cutter I've had my eye on quite yet
Good - I can always buy it later

Good - I bought a few extremely cute items from my friends
Bad - There is nothing bad about this















And finally the Uber Excellent.
Good - One of the ladies who I do the bazaar with is good friends with Maiko Kosugi, a 2011 Prima Flower Girl. I am a huge admirer of Maiko's pages and projects. I briefly met her last April when she stopped by our spring bazaar to pick up a preserved flower arrangement she had ordered from my friend. At the time I was starstruck - truly.
Excellent - Maiko came to the bazaar again yesterday. For our second meeting I wasn't quite such a spaz.
Uber Excellent - Maiko brought along her project that she had made last week at a class she took from Irene Tan - another incredible and famous scrapper. She brought along her project just to show me! Little old me. How cool is that!


Overall it was a positive, learning experience for all of us. I think we had fun and now we can look forward to December, Christmas and New Years and all the joys of the holiday season.

Thank you so much for stopping by my little corner of the web. Please come again.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Busy Bee

No, not the templates made by Sasha of Busy Bee Designs. Although I love them too, but that's not what this one is about. This is just to say Hello and sorry for being absent. Been a busy bee.

Tuesday is our winter craft bazaar and I've been going a bit crazy making stuff, or just trying to get the stuff that I started weeks ago done. Think I finally managed most of it.

A very wonderful part of this weekend has been that my daughter owes me $10. I never let my kids pay me back in money, they always get the opportunity to work off their debt. Call it my little lessons in reality. So today, right when I needed help the most, my daughter was there for me and washed our living room, dining room and tatami room windows - inside and out. They needed it. Badly. And considering I have probably near to 100 ladies coming into those rooms on Tuesday for the bazaar the timing was perfect. While she was doing that, I was busy hanging a little garland, putting out my Nativity set and trying to clean up my crafting mess. Thank you my darlin' daughter. And not to be outdone, my dear son cooked dinner for us. Pancakes, eggs and ham. Love my babes!

Well, instead of rambling on any longer, I have some photos for you of what I've been up to these past several weeks. All the finishing details will have to be done tomorrow, or not at all. Wish me luck!

Waterfall Mini Albums











Just a few of the beaded ornaments I make. Nothing spectacular, but fun to make.


Door hangers. I had hoped to get more than just two done, but ran out of time and mojo.
Approximately 50 beaded watchbands and necklace dangles made using kits by Scarlet Lime. I'll be sure to take some pictures on the day of the bazaar to show them off more properly.

 And very fortunately - because this was a huge time and effort saver. Since we didn't have a winter bazaar last year, I still have all of the tags I and cards I made last year for various CTs.




And last but not least, the only new CT thing I have to show for the past few weeks. I made this for a dear friend of mine, who has helped me out this past year in so many ways. Using Early Bird by Erica Zane, guest designer at TDC during Nov 2011.


As always, thank you so much for stopping by my little corner of the web. Please come again soon!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Two Too Cool

Just a quick post because its Saturday and I'm home alone! Yipee! Quiet, peaceful alone time. I'm working on a big project and I can't wait to see how it comes out. Going to take some time though. I actually should be getting ready for the craft bazaar but....

First of my Two Too Cool stories. Have a look at this tutorial from the Hybrid Chick - Digi Nails! Is this not the coolest thing. One of these days I must give this a try!


Second Two Too Cool. A page I made for DSD weekend has been featured on Gallery Pretties on One Story Down! I'd never heard of the site before, but when I went to visit it I was thoroughly impressed with all the fun crafty information. You can bet that I added them to my daily blogroll.




made using All Spice by Mari Koegelenberg
misc elements from Emporium and Around the World by TDC Designers
alpha from Sugar Sands Beach by Etc. by Danyale
page template from Solos, Part 3 by Busy Bee Designs

Okay, I'm off to play, or take a nap. Whichever comes first.

Thank you so much for stopping by my little corner of the web. Please come again soon!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

DSD

Six Halloween parties, one CT call welcome, one DSD challenge, one annual hip-hop dance performance, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Crazy couple of weeks around here - mostly happy-busy I think. Halloween is finished, big sigh of relief! Daughter's dance performance is finished, big sigh of relief! Creative Team call brings new challenge chicks (and other chicks as well) to The Digichick, big sigh of relief! The Digichick 2011 Digital Scrapbooking Day - FB Freebies Challenge and FB hop are live, big sigh of relief! Not that I was in charge of them all by any means, but I had to play my little part and its just nice to see the projects being successful.

Speaking of DSD, or Digital Scrapbooking Day... I'll bet my non-scrapping friends didn't even know there was such a thing... come on over to the Digichick for our DSD Challenge. You can actually complete the challenge with all-new, free supplies! You just need your computer and a suitable software program.

The main point of the challenge is to make your page using the FB freebies, and to journal about a secret to your scrapbooking success. Here is the page I came up with.

various TDC and Guest Designers FB Freebies


In other TDC news, a huge welcome to the new Creative Team members at The Digichick:

Amy (anrobe)
Becca (Becca236)
Emilie (stevens89)
Jenna (sweeet)
Jennifer (jennyf92)
Kate (cardinalskate)
Lena (Lena Gardner)
Melanie (melrio)
Michelle (mhreen08)
Ramona (Ramona the Pest)

And because we had so many fantastic applicants,
we'll be having lots of guests over the next couple months:

Jude (Judet) November
Trista (ScrappyT) December
Patricia (scrappyladystudios) December
Chel (Chel) December
jamie (inkspots) December
Heidi (scrappurple) January
Alisa (ayaandjudah) January
tropt (tropt) February
chloe (chloe) February

Many of these talented scrappers have joined the Challenge Chicks team, I'm so excited!

I do have one additional page to show, this one is made with yet another incredible design from the lovely and talented ladies who are ViVa Artistry.

Winter Solstice by ViVa Artistry
Fall Flavors - Cinnamon Spice by Busy Bee Designs


So now that November is upon us you would think I could constantly breathe these huge sighs of relief. Alas, now my frantic preparations for the winter craft bazaar begin. I've made several of the Scarlet Lime watches and necklaces, even a few other crafts as well. But this month will be a crafting and cleaning month for me. Crafting in order to sell the lovely goodies, and cleaning because 26 days from now about 100 women will all be crammed into my house. I hope they will focus their attention on the lovely hand-made crafts before them and not so much on my dirty nooks and crannies.

As always, thank you so much for stopping by my little corner of the web. Please come again soon!