Catch-up time

Hi all. Yep. It has been a little silent over here for a week or so. I'm just getting my bearings after being transported away to summer on our vacation. We came back and I walked smack dab into doing an art sale, three looming freelance design projects, and into weather that feels like winter. And my brain? Well, it seems like it might have decided to stay on vacation. I'm sufferin' from a major case of the space-case over here.

Par exemple: A swimwear catalog showed up in the mail yesterday and my subconscious said something like: "Swimsuits? Oh, these must be on sale, because summer is already over". Yep, I got my 10 days of hot sunny weather, which counts as a full summer where I live so my brain just went and checked that off my list. I was both greatly relieved and a little disturbed when I realized that we still have summer to look forward to.

And don't get me wrong, I am super happy to be busy, I just hope my brain will come back from vacation. Brain, I need you on my team this month!

Anyhoodles, A few days after returning from what I have dubbed 'first summer 2010', I was in a little art show and sale at Freshy's Coffee in West Seattle. It was a great time, and a good push for me to work on my packaging, order those business cards I've been meaning to order, and design some cool free schwag to give away. One unexpected bonus was sharing a table with three other Etsy sellers, all at different places along their Etsy journey, all selling extremely wonderful stuff. There was Maribel from Maribel Made who creates amazing bright sock monkeys, London from Such Sweet Tierny who makes candy-bright hand-painted buttons, and adorable jewelry, and Catherine from Modern Little Ones who makes modern hand sewn bibs and embellished onesies. Across the room were the talented duo behind Blackbird Tees who bought one of my prints (thank you!).

All the sellers were completely awesome, and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to each one, sharing tips on selling our wares. It was really empowering and reassuring to meet other like-minded people. Working for myself and selling stuff via the internet can leave me feeling super (Greta Garbo style) "ah-lone". So, meeting other arty, entrepreneurial types in person was fab.

I'm going to be looking at doing other (bigger) art shows in the future. Inasmuch as I love selling on Etsy, I feel like getting out and meeting people (both customers and sellers) is vital to my staying power.