Old Door Becomes a Display Table

My  stitches came out yesterday and though my thumb looks pretty bad it’s more functional now.

The return of opposable  thumbs is great because I’m in full-court prep for the big Patchwork Santa Ana show that happens this Sunday!

Portable Wall for Craft Show Display

As I returned home from loading in for Unique LA last Friday I found myself happily thinking “wow – it’s all loaded in!  Booth looks good, most of my work is done AND I haven’t hit my head on anything like I usually do before a big show!

Published!

I’m back from Ohio and my dad’s 91^st Birthday celebration.  I had a great time and  I was given more embarrassing pictures from my childhood!

And now it’s back to work.

Craft Booth Set Up For the Little French Market

Interesting.

I left the corporate world for the bucolic life of a crafter.

So how is that I am currently sitting in an airport with my laptop desperately trying to catch up on work during a layover?

I have to confess what I imagined life would be like as my own boss is very different from the reality.  There are times when I think my boss is out to get me.

Another Easy DIY Craft Show Display

I woke up late and tired yesterday because all my dreams had been about not being able to fall asleep.  Does dreaming about not falling asleep qualify as ironic?  (Alanis Morrisette has screwed me up on how to actually use that word).

However, often in that not awake/not asleep state I get good ideas for projects and even though I couldn’t tell what was true or not I did have a brainstorm about making a display.

Captain Frazzled’s Holiday Checklist

It has been an amazing, wonderful and incredibly hectic Holiday Season for me and Cheltenham Road.  I’ve been overwhelmed by good fortune, great friends, terrific customers and shop owners and I’m very sincerely grateful.

On the flip side I, Captain Frazzle, have done everything in my power to make life as complicated, slow and crazy as possible.

I’ve learned many, many valuable lessons for next year!

But I wanted to share  Captain Frazzled’s Checklist for a Stressful Holiday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karma?

Is it because I sold my niece into white slavery?  Or perhaps because I toyed with the idea of trying to trick my 90 year old father into making more lazy susans for me to sell?

Whatever the reason I seem to be experiencing some negative karma.

Or perhaps Car-ma.

I took the trusty Fit to Honda for it’s checkup where it passed with flying colors!

Until a few weeks later whe it dumped all it’s oil out.

While it was being driven…..

Turns out the shop had failed to properly reinstall the plug.

So, that fixed I went on my merry way.

Then last week I had a show.

An outdoor show here in sunny southern California!  Where the weather has been in the 80s and 90s.

It rained.  Hard.  All day.My friend Nicki who had lured poor, innocent, me into participating in this waterworld charming market assured me that they had never had rain before so naturally, she felt the inclement weather was my fault.  Surprisingly this made me like her more as it seemed like something I would say.

And finally, just before a big show this weekend, the faithful Fit fritzed.  Again.  I was driving when suddenly the DANGER WILL ROBINSON!! lights went on and it ceased to move forward.  On a freeway.  On Thanksgiving.

The cause is still unknown and she sits in the shop as I type.

On the flip side though I must be doing something right because I’m terribly lucky.

The first car failure happened after a show and this last one happened before I was on the road to the show.

And I’m supremely lucky to be surrounded by such good people.  Cars were offered and borrowed, rides were given.  Karla came and cut coasters out.  The awesome Suzanne showed up (post rain storm- she’s not a fool) and helped pack up all my damp supplies.  And people bought things despite the deluge.

And, all this not-running-around gave me time to work on a new Mod Podge Rocks project.  I wanted to come up with a semi-permanent wreath using blown up version of some terrific vintage Christmas cards.

The tutorial hasn’t posted yet but I’ll keep you up to date.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Unique LA is next for me!

Let the Holidays Begin!

Thank you all for being so positive and supportive of Maggie’s guest post! It’s such a nice, warm little crowd we’ve created here.

And have I mentioned how pleased I am that she got more comments than anything I’ve posted all year?

I didn’t?

Well, I am really, really pleased.

Suuuuper pleased.

Just, beyond pleased.

Tragically, Maggie will not be able to return.  Something about being kidnapped and sold into white slavery – I’m unclear on the details.

Anyhoo……

I’ve been doing a bit of a scramble to both get ready for the holidays and come up with new ideas for coasters – just to mix things up a bit.

It occurred to me that I was ignoring the more scientifically inclined folks out there and I became very intrigued with the possibilities in the Periodic Table of the Elements.  So I came up with these Cheers! Coasters

I also thought that I should make some coasters to go along with the postcard tray design that I came up with a while ago.I’m kinda proud of the scalloped stamp-like edge!

And it’s slowly dawning on me that my holiday schedule is going to be a bit…intense.  It is as follows:

November 4^th  Patchwork Culver City

 

Saturday Nov 10^th The Venice Meet

 Nov 17^th & 18^th 

Little French Market (with my friend Nicki)

November 25th

Patchwork Festival Santa Ana

 Dec 1 & 2

Unique LA Holiday Show

Dec8 & 9^th

Renegade Holiday Market

Dec 10^th

Check myself in to the local sanitarium

Happy Holidays!

My Second Rose Bowl Swan Song

I know I keep saying “this is my last time at the Rose Bowl” but, like Cher on a farewell tour, I just can’t help coming  back.

As I mentioned last week, Sunday was my triumphant return thanks to my friend Nicki.

Nicki is a Rose Bowl Selling Champ and I’ve talked about her (and our complicated relationship) before.  So, although I didn’t think I could like Nicki more I discovered I could when she offered to share her prime Rose Bowl real estate with me!

As a vendor you can’t get into the Rose Bowl without a ticket so Nicki mailed me mine.

But she mailed it to the wrong address.  

Surprisingly, this made me like her more because it seemed like the sort of thing I would do.

However, she then informed me that I would need to meet her at 5AM (!) on the day of the Bowl to do the hand off……  which made me like her less.

But the hand-off went smoothly and set up was a breeze (pardon the camera phone pics)

I got my little corner of the world all arranged

I’d even managed to put together a few of my magnetic chalkboards

while Nicki got out her hand stenciled boxes

her converted teapot lamps

cool little bottles

and a ton of beautiful furniture, silver, signs and other things

Unfortunately, set up was the only breezy thing because it was incredibly hot.

Gross hot.

Surface of the sun hot.

And then, just to shake things up a bit it got muggy!*

But I was pleasantly surprised.  Despite the heat people were shopping.  My sales were, if not overwhelming, certainly steady, and MUCH better than at my previous Rose Bowl outing.  Nicki kept telling people she was here “with her friend David” – which made me like her more.

So I was feeling good!  That is until I realized that while I had sold a good number of things Nicki had managed to sell, like, everything she brought with her (including some poor woman who made the mistake of standing still too long and ended up going, for a very reasonable price, to a nice family from Pacoima who said she was “exactly what they were looking for!”)

This realization, of course, made me like Nicki less.

But, as we were packing up, we bonded over admiration of old movies (A Face in the Crowd, To Have and Have Not) and quality furniture.  And when we both, almost simultaneously, quoted our favorite episode of WKRP in Cincinnati (“as God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly!”) I discovered that it would be almost impossible to like anyone more.

 

*I have officially become a wimpy Californian.  Despite growing up in Ohio and living in NYC for 14 years I find now that even a little bit of humidity SAPS MY WILL TO LIVE!  

To Blog or Not to Blog

To Blog or not to blog

That is the question.

OK, I didn’t mean to take a week off from blogging.  It’s just……I just could not come up with anything interesting to say.

The advice you always hear about blogging is that you must be consistent.

Blog regularly and often.

Which all sounds good except…..when you have nothing to say.

I spent my week working on some new, custom HOME signs including Saint Louis!And, I’d been invited to do a kind of exclusive show so it was time for my usual mad prep.  And I just felt silly announcing to the world “I made more coasters!”

So, in that circumstance is it better to keep quiet or should you come up with something/anything to talk about?  What do you think?

But I’m back and had a fun weekend.

The show was at an exclusive club called SoHo House.  There are SoHo houses in NYC and London etc etc and they are quite, quite posh.

I wanted to have a good variety of things to display so I came up with some new designs for my candle blocksYes, I can hear you thinking “New blocks!  David!  Way to really stretch your creativity!

But they are so versatile and fun to work on!

I also got some new magnets in there.My magnets are, basically, tiny versions of my coasters.  I started making them because people kept either A) thinking the coasters were magnets or B) saying “these are great but I don’t need/use coasters.”

When my niece saw these she blurted out, “did you make these?  They look so…real.”

I assured her that they were, in fact, “real” and that I wasn’t sure whether I should be complimented or offended.

She explained that what she meant was that the packaging looked like something you’d find in a “real” store and she was having trouble believing it came from me.

I explained that I still wasn’t sure whether to be complimented or offended.

The show was great though.

The club is in the Penthouse of a high rise in West Hollywood and they set us up in the roof garden with sweeping 360 degree views of the city.  It is just staggeringly beautiful and I confess I felt a little ghetto with my pegboard displays and not-ironed tablecloths.  But, happily, the beautiful people in their beautiful room didn’t seem to mind and it was a terrific afternoon.

I’d show pics but they have strict rules.  No cameras.  You can’t even use your cell phone to make a call!  There was an “official” photographer though so we’ll see what he came up with.

I have projects in mind for this week however so stay tuned for consistent blogging!