Things are picking up

Well, our busy season seems to be kicking in faster than usual this year!

This whole past year has been an odd one for us.  Some things dropped off entirely, such as our park days and Youngest's singing lessons.  Others are new, such as her guitar lessons, while still others just aren't what they were, such as our library days.  Those have gone from regular one-day-a-week things to perhaps none one week to 3 or 4 visits the next!  The kids are as likely to go without me these days - or even without each other.

Of course, having Raider King living with us for a while changed our habits, but that's to be expected.  Now that he's got his own place, things just haven't gone back the way they were, really.  Though I suppose I never really expected them to.

This weekend is a double whammy for us.  Our co-op is doing another garage/craft/bake sale.  I don't know why I bother signing up for a table.  Only the very first one I did was any success - and I was one of the few that made any money!  The others have been utterly dead.  I really ought to set up in actual craft sales, rather than our co-op sales, but the craft sales that are around are pretty huge and require a substantial amount of money to book a spot.  For one of them, there was a group of my fellow crafters that considered getting a spot together, but at a cost of $400, it was just too much.  The crazy thing is that, even though they have so many people booking spaces (for some local crafters, these two sales a year are all they do!) at such a high cost, the place still charges an admission from customers just to walk in the door!

Anyhow.

So I've got the sale on both Saturday and Sunday.  Meanwhile, the art festival Eldest is booked for in the summer is having an advance "block party" sale to promote the event.  It's very small, with space for only a handful of artists to set up, so it was great that Eldest could get a spot at all.  It's just for the one day, and the hours are the same as for my sale!  Which means Dh is going to have to do the driving to get Eldest and her supplies out there.  She's been busy choosing and preparing which paintings she will include for this small sale, with some framed pieces while others are without.  For those, she picked up some special plastic bags to protect them.  Though Dh will have to drive her, he won't be able to help her set up.  His back went nasty on him a few days ago.  He ended up missing three days of work and is walking with a cane again.  He's banned from lifting anything right now.  Even driving will be uncomfortable for him, but the alternative is for him to sit with my stuff at the sale, and that won't be any easier on his back than driving.  It'll be okay, though.  Eldest needs to figure out how to set up in the spot she's been allocated (and a good spot, it is!), and it'll be easier for her to figure it out on her own, anyhow.  Hopefully, he'll be able to swing by later on, though, and take over at least long enough for her to have a bathroom break!  That's the down side of these events.  Unless you've got someone with you to help out, you're stuck watching over your own merchandise for the entire time.  Granted, the artists tend to keep an eye out for each other, and are known to watch their neighbours' stuff so they have a chance to get something to eat or answer the call of nature.

Youngest might be joining me off an on over the weekend.  She's got a few of her own pieces in the sale, too.  Of course, anything of hers that sells, I'll keep the money separate for her.  Like my stuff, however, hers really should be in a different sort of sale.  She's got a lovely triangle shawl in the sale that was made with a really neat yarn that has a metallic thread running through it for a bit of sparkle.  It has to be priced to at least cover the cost of the yarn, and that stuff wasn't cheap.  Garage sale goers, on the other hand, do tend to be cheap - after all, bargains are what people are going to garage sales for.  That this is also a craft and baking sale doesn't change that much.  People still aren't likely to care that something was hand made with high quality materials, excellent workmanship, and is an original design.  That's boutique stuff.  Well, I hope at least her little child-size hats sell.  They're adorable.

On top of all this, I have a new job, of sorts.  I've been hired by a major craft store franchise to be their crochet instructor and, if things go well, may even start teaching other crafts as well.  The reason I say "of sorts" is because I won't have any sort of regular hours and get to make my own schedule, to a certain extent.  The classes are a new thing for the store, so there are none actually booked.  Until then, I will be doing the occasional demo.  That part gets paid by the hour at minimum wage.  For the classes themselves, I'll be paid a very generous percentage of the registration fees.  Meanwhile, I'll also be taking a distance certification course at home through them.  I only need to do the first two levels to get the instructor certification, but if I can do the third level as well, I will get to include the word "professional" in there, too.  That part of the course requires, among other things, designing a garment - something I've already done, so it's no big deal for me.  The main part for me is that my name gets into a database for North American instructors, which opens me up to other possible contracts.  Looking over the course descriptions, there's nothing in them I can't already do.  Of course, the group that runs the course gets to determine if I'm actually doing them well enough to be certified.

I'm not too concerned about that. *L*

Dang it.  Just looked at the time.  I need to get up early to get a start on the sale tomorrow.  What am I doing still up at 2 am?  Time to go to bed!

Have a good night, all!