Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Cotton District Arts Festival




People out shopping at the Cotton District Arts Festival


Finally, an update on the festival! Saturday I attended the Cotton District Arts Festival in Starkville, MS. The Cotton District Festival has grown by leaps and bounds every year and this year was the largest festival with over a 100 vendors. Everything has to be handmade, the do not allow any mass produced items which I think is absolutely wonderful. I didn't get to walk around as much this year being a vendor but in years past there are painting, drawings, ceramics, jewlery, photography, clothing, wood crafts, and many more things. I was excited to be accepted and terrified at the same time. It was my very first festival and I was so scared that I wouldn't sell anything, that and it rained the first two hours we were there didn't help my spirits any!

We got there around 6:00 a.m., my mom and I, and just got the tent set up when it started raining. I quickly set up the tables, laid out my jewelry, and kind of waited on putting out my photos until it stopped raining. Around 8:30, 9:00ish it stopped raining and the people started coming out
My first festival booth!




I was really pleased with the reaction to my jewelry and my photography. I had a lot of people who really spent time in the booth looking at prints and saying how much they like them and actually sold several! I had some photographers, graphic designers, and architects stop by and gave me some great feedback and I couldn't be more thrilled with what they said. I even made a 10 year graphic designer look twice with my new photoshoped work and she couldn't tell if it was a straight photograph or if it was photoshoped. That made the entire day worthwhile. :) I also got lots of good feedback on the jewelry. I had several people say it was the most unique they had seen, the beads were very different, and best of all they bought it! Fifty four pairs were sold to be exact. I've been wearing my own stuff for years but who would have thought that other people would like it too! I sold just about every piece that I took, I think I had something like 6 or 8 pairs left. It just about totally cleaned out my etsy shop so I'm having to make new stock for that as we speak. Overall it was a great experience and me and mom had a ball. My booth neighbors were wonderful and really made the day very enjoyable. I'm already planning my next festival for in the fall and I can't wait. This one was a great learning experience and I have a lot of ideas for the next one. I hope all of you are having a great week!

Later Darlings!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Last day of work for the week!



Today is my last day of work for the week! WOOT! I'm taking off tomorrow as planned to work on last minute things for my booth. I will be a matt cutting fool as of this time tomorrow. I hope I can sneak in a little riding and enjoy the beautiful weather we are having. They are still calling for rain Saturday but I'm hoping that it will clear off and we can continue having beautiful sunshine like we have had the past two days or as least it will hold off until after 3:00 p.m.

The image above is one of the ones that I will have for sale Saturday. I'm trying some different things with textures in Photoshop and still don't know exactly how I feel about it. That was one thing about art school, you had a critique every week and you always knew for the good or the bad what people thought of your work. I haven't had that in, good gosh, four years! It seems almost a lifetime ago. About this time in 2005 I was recovering from the hell that preparing for senior thesis was and contemplating running away to Oklahoma and going to work for a horse trainer I knew out there. :) My entire senior year of art school was hellish and I was just glad it was over.

But anyway, back to the artwork. Please come by my booth Saturday if you're in Starkville and you want some free, fun entertainment. You don't even have to buy anything! Just stop by say hello and help me celebrate my first public display of art in four years. It's been way too long and I'm ready I think to get back in the exhibition scene. I even have a couple of shows I'm planning on entering. Have a wonderful day my darlings and if I don't post anymore until Monday have a wonderful weekend as well!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009




This is me and the other lady I work with the past two days. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I work at an insurance agency and some days you just want to throw up your hands in frustration, lock the doors, and go home. Nothing you do is right, nothing corporate does is right, and even the boss man can't help you. From the moment we walked in the door the phone has rang, the e-mails, have rolled in, and we finally got to catch our breath at about 11:00 a.m.

Yesterday was just as bad if not worse.

Thank goodness I only have to work 4 days this week.

I'm slowly but steadily getting things ready for my booth Saturday, but I'm a little worried. It is supposed to rain and storm this weekend, but the weather forecast changes every day so I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope it holds off until the afternoon to rain. That's why I'm off Friday, I'll be gathering up the last of everything, packing, getting change, and all the other things that I haven't thought of yet.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter full of lots of chocolate and family togetherness. :) My baptism went well even though fate conspired against it. There had been work done on the church this winter and unknown to anyone they had broken the waterline for the baptismal. The preacher called me all in a panic and frustrated and asked what did I want to do. We had already talked to my husband's uncle and he said they had ran water hoses in the back door and into the baptismal in the past that. There is a heater for the water so the water would be warm if we could just get it in there. I did not want to postpone it because if I did it would just get put off and put off and I would procrastinate and it wouldn't get done until next Easter so I said let's go ahead. The preacher along with a few other men at the church ran waster hoses in the back door at 11:00 p.m. Saturday night and filled up the baptismal. So, we had warm water, I got dunked, and I am now a certificate holding, fully immersed baptized Baptist and remember of the church. Of course I had brought extra clothes but was sitting in Sunday school and realized that I didn't have any extra underwear. I got my bra and underwear squeezed out as best I could afterwards with a towel but I still high tailed it out of there as quickly as I could so as not to embarrass myself. I know people wanted to congratulate me but I was more worried about my damp underwear showing through my clothes along with my rapidly drying hair that was taking on the appearance of a two day old dead cat.

All in all it wasn't that bad and the preacher was very kind and explained to the congregation that I was saved and had been for a very long time along with having already been baptized by sprinkling in the Presbyterian church and that I was doing this out of respect for the church and that he appreciated my willingness to do so. (Man that was a long grammatically incorrect sentence.) He also Baptized me by my full name (first, maiden, married) which meant a lot to me. Every once in a while it's nice to be acknowledged for yourself and not just as somebody's wife, in the South though that's a loosing battle sometimes.

All in all it was a pretty good weekend and I hope yours was just as good.

Have a wonderful day my lovelies!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Thank goodness it's Friday!



Hello all! I hope your week was wonderful and your weekend full of fun Easter activities. Me, I'm finally joining the church we have been going to. It's the church my husband grew up in, we got married in, and well it's just time. I've already went before the congregation and formally asked to join, but since I grew up in the Presbyterian church I never went through immersion baptism and so I have to be "dunked" to complete my conversion to the Baptist church. This is something that I've given a lot of thought to and have wrestled with for a while. I really wanted to take the time to get to know the church and the people and make sure that we were going to stay in the area. I also have never belonged but to one church for so me to change not only churches but denominations was a very big deal, I think that I am making the right choice so on Easter Sunday in front of all my new friends, family, and neighbors I will be baptized again. Maybe a double dosing will do me good. :)

I'm definitely not happy about having to get wet all over in front of a lot of people but oh well. I guess I shouldn't complain, I could be converting to Catholicism. That's a whole lot more intensive than becoming Baptist.

Have a wonderful weekend my lovelies and we'll see you next week!

P.S. The picture for today has nothing to do with this post at all, just a random pretty that I like.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Lookit Ma, comments!




I was so excited to check my e-mail last night and see my very first comments! Thanks so much for your kind words; it kind of gives a girl steam to keep plugging away after this little blog. I've had some bad internet experiences in the past (some partly my fault) and finally made the decision to have a public journal again. You have made me feel like this is the right decision. Thanks again and please let me know if there is anything you would like to know about me and I'll be sure to plan some posts around your questions. Thanks and have a wonderful day my dears!

Friday, April 3, 2009

It's almost the weekend...



It's almost the weekend, things are winding down here at work and I'm planning what I'm going to be doing. On the top of the list is finishing up some pictures from a 50th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago and taking some more pictures this weekend. It's for a sip and see which is a fancy way of saying, come have some cake and tea and look at my pretty baby. Kind of a baby shower without the presents. :) It's for a family friend's grandchild as well as all the new babies we've had in the church. Some of them are just old enough to be going out in public and this will be a great way for family and friends to get to see them without having to travel all over the place. Plus Miss Libby D makes the best appetizers around.

There will also be lots of working on pictures and display for my booth two weeks from now at the cotton district festival. Gotta buckle down the next two weeks and really get some stuff done on that. Lots of printing and matting and jewelry making to still be done. I don't want to go overboard, but I want to have a good sampling of what my work is.

And hopefully I can finish a dress I started two weeks ago. It's my first one in ages and I think it's going to look really good on me. I hope. *crosses fingers*

I also hope to whittle out some time for the ponies. They need rode and I need some time with them too.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and I'll see you next week.

Happy weekend my lovelies!