Birthdays, carnivals and supplies -- oh my!

These last 2 weeks have been very busy for me and my family. Preparing and then vending at the Sidewalk Days, then my mom's birthday, followed by my daughter's 3rd birthday (the Z.E.N. in Zen Creations), the local carnival, etc., etc. The only thing I have made in the past week was a ring, but I have plenty of ideas! I placed a couple of orders for supplies, and I just got some gem beads over the weekend that I am really excited about. The rest of my supplies should be trickling in over the next few days,and then I can get started on all these ideas that have been roling around in my head! Until then, I plan on enjoying a night or two of just relaxing and sketching.

Sidewalk Days - Day 2

Day 2 started out even better than day 1! There were a lot more people out and about this morning, and few new vendors. Today we decided to add to the business cards we were putting in our bags, and include an Etsy flyer and a flyer on our next event (Boonsboro Days).

The morning was very busy, and lunchtime was even busier. Around 2:00 it started to die down a little, which was also around the time the wind started picking up. Really picking up. On gust of wind knocked down a corner display and my rotating earring rack, sending everything out into the street. Thankfully, everything was ok, and we were able to get it set up again in a few minutes. After that, we took turns running out to hold things whenever the wind picked up. Sometime around 3:30 a huge gust of wind knocked over one of our table and nearly picked up the tent! We packed it in for the day shortly after that. As much as I would have liked to stay for the last hour and a half, I just couldn't risk having a whole table full of jewelry and display broken.

I guess we need to work out something to help hold the tent down (and the diplays) at outside events. We shouldn't have a problem at Boonsboro, since we will be in the grass, and we should have vendors on either side of us to help block the wind. In the end though, we did very well at this event, and plan on doing it again nect year.

More on Day 1 (Sidewalk Days Sale)

I'm really pleased with how our booth turned out. The mesh sides helped define our space, but allowed a lot of light, which is a must with jewelry. The 2 corner shelves also worked well and helped to showcase certain pieces. The nice part was that we got everything in, it looked great, and we still had enough space for our packaging/checkout stuff, and some room for me to work on new pieces during the slow periods. We only had 1 person use the coupon we put in the local paper, but we did hear a few people mention seeing our ad. Overall, I would say day 1 went really well.

This is our first year vending both days, so tomorrow will be interesting. The other vendors told us today that Saturday gets an even better turnout. Can't wait to see!

Sidewalk Days - Day 1

First day of Sidewalk Days. Turnout was much better than expected, especially for a friday. There was a steady amount of traffic throughout the morning, lunchtime was busy, and then I was very, very slow in the afternoon, which was to be expected for a weekday. Much better than last year, although, we have a much better space this year, in a fairly high traffic area. Here is one picture of our booth, taken on my phone this morning:

Sometimes I feel like a complete idiot.

Nothing like backing into a truck while out running last minute errands!

Getting ready for Sidewalk Days

Tomorrow is the Greencastle-Antrim Sidewalk Days. I got my space assignment last night, and it is much, much, MUCH better than last year. Being stuck on a street where the only other vendor is an ice cream truck, that blocks everyone's view of your booth was not very good. This year we will be in the square, near the First National Bank, across from ELM Dept. store. Hopefully this spot will work out much better.

Last night I made 8 more pairs of earrings, mostly smaller, less expensive pairs, which are always good to have! I had to send Lance out Tuesday night to pick up 2 more plastic coated wire shelves for me to hang earrings on. They were not easy to bend, especially with a playful kitten around who just wanted to pounce on it! I think I should just invest in another rotating rack for the next show.

My trip to Marshall's the other nut proved to be very fruitful. I found a great red, rectangular dish that will work well for rings and bangle bracelets. My table cloths are blue, so the red should really pop out. I still haven't gotten a chance to finish the little Zen Creations sign that I was painting for the booth. Maybe tonight I will get a chance after I get the car packed up. Right now I'm just worried that I will forget something important!

Bad girl! Bad, bad girl!

This morning I got up, and one of the first things I thought, was, "hmmm, I don't think I've blogged in quite a while." That was the understatement of the year! I logged in this morning, and the last time I posted was over a year ago! Bad girl! Bad, bad girl!

So.... what have I been up to since the last time I posted? Lots of things!

First, I went back to work part-time, then gradually moved into full time. While the $$ is great, and allows me to invest more $$ into Zen Creations, it leaves me with only a small amount of time to actually create, photograph, list, promote, etc, you know, all those things necessary to run a business. At least I can take care of a few things at work while I'm eating lunch!

I revived my geocities page (thanks in part to the Etsy mini tool! -- love it!), sold off most of my pieces over the holidays, created a ton of new pieces + some old favorites, added a store on Ecrater (which still only has a few items on it) and added a few local events to my calendar.


First up, is the Greencastle-Antrim Sidewalk Days, July 13 and 14th, in and around the square in Greencastle, PA. I don't have my space assignment yet, and probably won't until thursday, but I am hopefull that I will have a decent spot this year. Last year I was only able to sell on one of the two days, and I'm glad that I have the stock and open schedule to add the second day.


I have been churning out the jewelry lately, trying to get a wide selection of pieces for this event. I'm really excited about the cubic zirconia pieces that I made last night. The colors are gorgeous, and they really reflect the light beautifully. Making my own earwires has also been a lot of fun, and has give me more options for earrings.