Etsy Team Craft Night

A local etsy team that I belong to (Owl & Elephant) had a team crafting night at Igloo Letterpress in Worthington last night.  We are a very casual team - we connect mostly using a google group and once in a while we see each other out and about town! 

One of our members Grace Hester (GraceHesterDesigns and GraceHesterPapers) set up this great craft night for us.

We started out our evening with everyone introducing themselves, talking about their etsy shop or craft, and what their alter-ego day job was!

Allison then talked about her business, explaining the presses, and process to us.  Each person then got to select something and print it.

I thought the spider was a little creepy, but how great it this for Halloween?

Other team members and their shops who were at the event:

ArtsiBitsi (home of the
BeckySeymourDesigns
Tsurubride (currently on sabbatical)
DaisyMaeDesigns
Cram
AdoreJules

I know I missed a couple, at my age, I'm lucky to remember anything!

Susan

Change

For anyone who does art / craft shows, you know that all kinds of things can effect how well you do - meaning how much you sell. Weather, economic situation, type of show, etc., all impact the bottom line.

But have you ever thought about change? I mean money change.

I always try to make sure that I have enough change when I go to a show.  At my show in July, however, it was a big bill day for some reason.  I was close to running out of $1 bills a couple of times, and sent Jamie out to get some - luckily there was a water vendor who seemed to be collecting more than I was handing out!  I think I came home with six $1 bills.

So, heading to my show last weekend, I made sure I had lots of $1 in case it turned into the same kind of day.  Strangely enough, most people had change, so I came home with more $1 than I'd taken. 

Just saves me from getting more change for my next show.

Susan

End of Vacation

The last segment of our vacation, before the drive home (I won't even go there!) was to finally visit the area where my husband went to camp growing up - the actual purpose of the trip!

We left the Portland area, and I decided it was at last time to visit a quilt shop! So looking at the route we were headed, we ended up going to the Calico Basket Quilt Shop in Windham. I found a few fabrics to purchase!

We traveled on to Weld, where we were staying at the Kawanhee Inn. We were a little early for checkin, so we drove around the area a little - Jamie trying to remember where things were. We found a little bakery to get a sandwich and pastry and headed to a picnic area and had a lovely view of Center Hill. I sat and relaxed after our lunch, while Jamie took the hike up the hill.

Below are some pictures from the inn.

We checked in, relaxed with our books down by the lake, then took a canoe trip down to the end of the lake in hopes of catching a moose - no such luck!

We had a drink on the porch watching the sunset, headed in for our dinner time, and ran into some folks that Jamie knew from his days at camp.

The next day, we headed over to the camp - they had made several changes since Jamie was there (ok, he admits it was too long). One of the items he found was this plaque with the names of all the campers who had passed the Junior Maine Guide program. Yes, his name is on there!

Our second night there, we had the 'New England Boiled Dinner' - lovingly called corned beef by the rest of us, and spent a great evening with Jamie's old friends that were also there.

The next day we started our trek home - just in time to avoid Hurricane Irene, which was headed in that direction.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip - now it will be back to business!

Susan

Continuing the Vacation

On the next part of our trip we headed back down Maine to Portland. Since this was our 'anniversary' trip, we splurged and stayed at the Black Point Inn in Scarborough for just one night.


Our arrival there started with some drama. We checked in, got our keys and the porter was taking our bags when they stopped us and said they'd put us in the wrong room - and updated everything and gave us new keys. So we get up to the room, open the door and start to get stuff set up, when we realize there was already someone in this room! Glad they weren't in the room at the time - it could have been very embarrassing all the way around! So the original room was the right one.

We got there just in time for cocktails by the pool - free wine (well, maybe not free exactly!) and cheese and crackers. A quick stroll down to the water, then some relaxation in the Adirondack chairs until people with wound up kids joined us.


We dressed up a little for dinner (it was included in our package also) - since we were celebrating early! Breakfast the next morning was included too, and then we headed off to check out some of Portland.

We headed to Old Port, checked out some of the shops, which were many and varied - some of your typical tourist type of shops, and then some really nice art shops.

We headed out to the Portland Head Light,then headed back to Scarborough to check in at the Higgins Beach Inn for our last night on the coast.

We headed to the beach, it was late enough in the afternoon that I wasn't too concerned about getting a sunburn, and spent a little time there relaxing, reading our books, and watching the waves.

Dinner and breakfast there are the inn were both great, too!

Stayed tuned for part 4 - this will be the best part!

Susan