ACL Music Festival

Big news! Ornamental Things will be part of the Art Market at this year's ACL Festival in my very own booth. I attended last year and had a magical experience. I am so thrilled to be a part of such an amazing hometown show. I've got lots of planning to do!

Denver in Photos

I went to Denver for a show last week and it was a really nice trip. It's amazing what you can see and accomplish in 24 hours. Loved getting to stay in a hotel. I always do something to get a 3 star hotel for cheaper like travelocity or hotwire. You could tell it was a business hotel too because the tv had all these free tv views about building networks and so forth. It's amazing what a good job some hotels do of catering to their clients. Their service was top notch, right down to giving me change for my cash till right before the show. Hats off to you Denver Airport Marriott!

While in Denver I did another Shecky's show. It's kind of hard to pack displays for a show out of town. Everything has to fit in my suitcase.



The next day I saw lots of neat things from my rental car.



Ate some really yummy pizza on S. Broadway.



And visited two really cute stores, Decade and Details, who are now carrying my jewelry:

San Antonio

It's been a San Antonio kind of week. On Tuesday I drove down to visit two stores there: Adelante and Spats. I had a wonderful lunch at Liberty Bar where the sandwiches are a little impractical but totally delicious. The buttermilk pie I had for dessert rocked my socks.



This Saturday I will be down there again for King William Fair. Man, I love this show. I did it for the first time last year. It is in the King William neighborhood which boasts big old beautiful houses along tree lined streets. It occurs during the week of Fiesta in San Antonio and so everyone is in a party mood. They have a parade to start the day and you cannot believe how entertaining it is (I took all the above pictures last year). Plus, my booth is right next to my good friend Liz, so you know it's going to be a fun day.

I love San Antonio. I always think of it as a romantic city because James and I have taken quite a few weekend getaways there. I also have memories of walking along the riverwalk as a kid with my parents. On one visit, it must have been prom season because there were lots of young women walking around in lovely formal dresses. I found it rather enchanting. I also took Forest there once when he was a little kid to see the Alamo and the Tower of Americas. It was a fun mom and son trip. Check out this completely adorable picture of him on top of the tower:


If you are in San Antonio or the surrounding area, please be sure to visit Spats or Adelante or come and say hi to me at the show!

Market Recap

Market was awesome. I am happy to say I will be adding new stores to the list of those who carry my jewelry. I really look forward to going back in the Spring when it is busier.

I am so glad to have taken this step for my business! It was definitely the learning experience I hoped for. I made lots of notes in my little book. For me a good concrete experience of something always helps clear up its mystery. Loading in for the first time was an adventure. And, I was beginning to feel a little uncertain when the first two days were slow. That just gave me a chance to talk with other vendors and learn more about how market works. On Saturday everything picked up and I met some really awesome women store owners from Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. My mom and my cousin, Michelle, were total troopers, helping me out!

I really enjoyed getting to stay in a hotel for four days. I never got around to booking a hotel before I left Austin so after setup one of the sales reps on the floor advised me to try hotwire.com - I got a three star hotel for $49 per night. The hotel even had sleep number beds. It was pretty sweet.

Today I am back home and I am pretty worn out. This morning I realized that I have been working straight through the last 21 days. Today I needed to recharge my batteries so I played with Zaphod, surfed blogs and got caught up on The Wire! (The new season is really good.) It is hard to take this mandatory resting day though with all these new ideas and experiences in my head. I think market just got me more excited about making jewelry.

Holidays, Forest's Birthday and Cherrywood

Wow, this is such a crazy time of year. I really thought I would be more calm this year because I had a lot of work ready for shows and felt pretty caught up but in the end I just ended up worrying over other stuff like that there is something I forgot to do. Maybe there is just no way to escape a little stress in December. Or maybe it's contagious because everyone else is so worried! Anyway, the only thing I can do is just make a list to make sure I have everything covered. I think I am starting to feel a little more calm now that I am just about done with shows for the season. Cherrywood was last weekend and now I only have Blue Genie for the next couple of weeks. I have had a record number of orders on the website this year which is exciting!

My son turned 17 on Friday. It blows me away! People always express astonishment that I have a teenager. He was born when I was 18, plus I look about 10 years younger than I am so when we are together in public folks assume he is my little brother. Even his new doctor verified recently that I am, in fact, his mother. Forest is excited about being 17. I think he is enjoying his teenage years. We had a nice evening. His girlfriend, Jessica, came over and we watched the video of our Greece trip when Forest was 10 which contains some pretty hilarious dance sequences by Forest. Then we decorated the Christmas tree. It was a nice evening! He wanted new clothes for his birthday so we gave him a gift card to the mall. The boy loves shoes! He bought himself two new pairs of shoes and a few other things.



Cherrywood Art Fair was great this year. There were more attendees than ever before. It was my fourth year to do this show. It is held in an elementary school where Forest attended 2nd - 4th grade. The show has such a great community feeling to it and it is nice to see so many friends from the old neighborhood as well as other artists. This year there was an article in the paper ranking Cherrywood as one of the top three shows in Austin along with Blue Genie and Armadillo. Pretty exciting to be a part of that.

I am really looking forward to our road trip!

Spree Dallas Show

Just got back from doing the Spree Dallas show and it was awesome! The new venue was amazing. It's called The Apartment and the interior is really posh with white and silver decor. I posted a bunch of pictures on flickr. My friend Victoria also did the show and we had fun driving up together. Thought I would have laryngitis by the time we got there from all the great conversation!

The show was terrific. Saw a bunch of customers from previous years and met a lot of new ones who seriously depleted my stock of jewelry. That always makes me happy.

This week I am getting ready for Cherrywood over the weekend and Blue Genie which goes all month. Blue Genie is also in a new location this year. Turns out it is in the exact location of a movie theater where I worked in the early nineties. Is that crazy or what? In fact, it's the same place where I met my husband, he was a manager there! So funny to be back in that same building, brings back a lot of memories. Back then I was just starting to make jewelry as a hobby. I could have never imagined that 15 years later I would be selling my work! Of course I always hoped...

For more info on upcoming shows see the Upcoming Events page.

Stitch Follow Up

I had so much fun at Stitch on Saturday! The music was great, the fashion show was the best yet and I got to see so many friends. The two grant winners were Chia and House of Dang - both incredibly deserving and talented.

I was happy with the way my booth came out. This year, instead of doing a table across the front, I made it a walk in so I was able to space out my work a little more. I debuted my shiny new banner with my logo on it. I also enjoyed seeing all my friend's booths. I love the creativity that goes into setting up a tiny, temporary shop. There are pictures on flickr.

Met lots of new folks including my fun and adorable neighbor, Nicole of Queen Puff Puff and her husband, Vince. Her purses and headbands are so cute! They were visiting from San Francisco. I enjoyed getting to talk to her all night and hope to meet up with her at other shows in the future!

Julie was a huge help to me in my booth which was mobbed! There were so many people in it that sometimes it was hard to get in and out. I couldn't believe it! We sold a lot of jewelry so the website will be looking a little sparse now. Don't worry though, I will get busy and make more stuff. One customer in my booth was the Austin store, Adelante, so you can now find my jewelry there!

I was so worn out that I just rested all day on Sunday. My parents were here so we had lunch at Hills Cafe and played 42 (a domino game). James and I won this round, woot woot! Today I am feeling energized and ready to get back into the studio and work!

Thanks to anyone reading this who came by my booth. It was lovely to meet so many new friends and get such amazing feedback on my work. I have posted pictures from Stitch on flickr. My only regret is that I didn't take more!