09.29.08
Posted in News at 6:19 pm by Deb
Well, a bit of uplifting news today–Mistress Ruby sold to the same buyer who bought the Road King. This is cool–do I have a "following" now? Again, a sale through the cdhm.org gallery. I really need to update that stuff.
It's becoming obvious that the miniatures market is the place for my work. I'm kind of worrying that FaerieCon is going to be another wash, but I already paid for the table, so might as well give it a try. The only other shows I have coming up are IGMA in February and Chicago in April. I'm going to do the club show in March too, but I'm sharing the table with Robin, since she's never done one before. I only sold one doll there last year, but then nobody'd ever heard of me then either. Martha Puff is featuring Vespa in a UK miniatures mag in February.
So, perhaps I shouldn't let a couple of bad shows get me down. Things are tough right now. I seriously need to update my website and online galleries, since they seem to be the ones working for me.
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09.28.08
Posted in Work in Progress at 6:04 pm by Deb
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Posted in General at 8:03 am by Deb
Who'd have thunk it–Cecil county yard sale hunters are true die-hards. In spite of the rain, we were swamped with early birds at 7 am and we hadn't even put everything out yet. We sold a mess of stuff, even my nasty old fishtank that's been out in the barn for the past 8 years. People will buy damn near ANYTHING. I had one lady miffed at me because she drove "all the way from Chester" just for those canning jars. Well, sorry, she got beat out by someone who didn't mind paying 5 bucks for a box of dusty spaghetti sauce jars with spiders in them! By noon, we were all but cleaned out. I guess I should have spent more time rounding up stuff to sell–I didn't even get to the stuff in the trailer.
We did have one theft that I know of, a young punk-looking couple with their whiny kid made off with a miniature violin Read the rest of this entry »
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09.25.08
Posted in Rants & Laments at 2:52 pm by Deb
Well, the great big yard/barn sale is looking like it's going to be a great big waste of time. It's supposed to rain like hell all weekend long. I had advertised we'd have it in the barn if it rained, but Jim doesn't want people going back there, so it's now moved to the porch. I suppose he's right, the barn doors obviously don't lock, and with hay at $6.50 a bale already, I'd hate to come home someday and find we'd been cleaned out.
A couple of people have called about the harness and the go-kart, but I'll be really surprised if anyone actually shows up in the rain. I hate to continue working to price stuff knowing it's probably a waste of time, but then if some die-hards show up and we don't have anything out…well who cares, the worst that could happen is we still have all our junk.
Seems like I just keep hitting brick walls here trying to sell stuff.
Nancy says we should just do a combo Bonfire Party/Barn Sale and sell stuff there. Right now, I'm ready to just throw what I've priced so far in my truck and take it to the Goodwill. It just ain't worth it. I should be in my studio sculpting instead of screwing around with this junk.
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09.24.08
Posted in General at 2:01 pm by Deb
Yesterday's walk did me a world of good. One of the things on my list to do while I'm not working the 9-5 has been to go explore "my town." The only time I've ever really been there is to go to the courthouse, or Union Hospital. The rest of the time, I've just blown past the edge of town on 213 headed for the Acme or Walmart.
So, I got in the truck and drove around for a while. I discovered a bunch of really cool things that were right under my nose all these years. Elkton is one of those small towns that gets a lot of ribbing from the folks "up north." I remember playing a wedding at a posh restaurant in north Wilmington, DE, and the one bartender said to the other while they were setting up: "don't bother bringing out the good stuff, these people are from Elkton. All they drink is Bud Lite in a can!" The "land of the inbred" jokes continued, until the Porsches and Jaguars started pulling in, and those boys straightened their ties in a hurry. I let them know that the classy looking harpist in black velvet (me) was an Elktonite, but they could fetch me a glass of Chardonnay right quick too.
The first place I stopped was Howard's Pond, a nice little piece of water with a picnic pavilion. Took some nice pictures, then drove around a Read the rest of this entry »
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09.23.08
Posted in General at 11:07 am by Deb
Guess I have some catching up to do. It amazes me how fast the days can get away from me even when I'm not working full time. And it's starting to get me down.
The little kitties went to the SPCA about a week after the last post. It killed me to do it, but I've already got 12 to think about. I just pray they got the care they needed and maybe even got adopted. I've spotted two of the other three in the neighbor's yard–she's got a carrier out there with food in it. That's fine–let it be someone else's turn.
Rusty had his ear surgery on the 9th, and is back in today to get his stitches out. His ear tumor wasn't malignant, thank the Gods. I sold my music pad, digital camera and keyboard to pay his $1400 vet bill.
Last week I had an interview at a local non-profit org for a job–basically the same thing I was doing at the museum, mostly web, some print work. As I suspected, it only pays $29-33k. What I didn't expect was that they'd want someone who can not only use the entire design suite, Read the rest of this entry »
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09.03.08
Posted in General at 9:20 am by Deb
I found her little brother yesterday morning. Dusty had him pinned against the dog fence and was trying to stomp him while the dogs snapped and barked at him from the other side. The little orange guy had pretty much prepared to meet his maker. When I shoved the marauding donkey away and picked him up, he didn't struggle. He just went limp. I was sure Dusty had dealt him a death blow, but when I got him down to the trailer and set him in front of the food and water, he wobbled over to the bowls and chowed down. Then he set to purring and washing himself between sneezes (he's sick too).
Today, he seems better, he's still sneezing, but his eyes are clear and he's not wobbling anymore. He's not as obnoxious as his sister, but he's got a yowl on him.
I fessed up to Jim yesterday after he spent a half hour in the neighbor's sticker bushes trying to catch a third one, with no luck. We ended up just leaving a can of food there for any of the other three that might still be there. "I hate to see them starve," Jim said. But he told me not to spend any money on them, to just take them to the SPCA.
I already made an appointment for the first one for tomorrow morning to go to the vet, but then I add up how much it's going to cost, and what little money we have now with me being out of work…you can't save them all, he says. Add to that the fact that Rusty's ear surgery is going to cost around $1300. I've already decided to sell my MusicPad and keyboard to help pay for that.
But I don't know if I can just dump them off at the SPCA. I've never taken an animal there before. Never. I've always vowed that if they come to me, I will take care of them.
I'm losing the battle against cursing the assholes who dumped them here. May they all die of horrible uncurable diseases, and then rot in hell for eternity.
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09.01.08
Posted in General at 9:41 am by Deb
Well, I spent 12 hours on Saturday learning that in addition to snooty Doll Shows, craft fairs are not the place for my work either. I sold two Brandywine Harps cds, and that was it. I thought I'd at least sell a mess of those, if not my dolls and creatures. Two lousy cds. Total sales: $30. Didn't even cover the $42 table fee.
The vendors all around me seemed to be doing real well, selling prints of original art and photos, one even sold an original painting. The two across from me were selling jewelry and making a killing.
I've come to the conclusion that Joe Public just doesn't "get" my work.
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