Blogger Trouble - is this Friday the 13th or April Fool's?

It looks like my last 2 posts have been eaten by Blogger's latest fiasco - hopefully they will pop back up here - AARGH!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone- I will be at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia for Art Star - stop by Booth 119 if you are in town!

xo all

Meditation - week 2 practice

After a week of the consistent practice of stilling your body - you should/may be able to sit still without twitching or itching for 15-30 minutes.

(if you can't do this yet my old teacher would have recommended another week of the week 1 practice shown HERE)

This week the practice is somewhat similar but with the added work of stilling our thoughts.

Our subconscious mind is what we are using when we do all those rote things that our conscious mind isn't thinking about - it never sleeps, it never rests - everything from our heart beating to our breathing to playing the piano and operating a typewriter are all subconscious processes. Our subconscious inspires us and warns us and pulls names and facts and pictures from our memory. You can see how there is great value in being able to work with your body's subconscious processes by working with your conscious ones (thoughts).

The conscious mind decides what is true for us - the subconsious just accepts - it is instinctive and the result of past reasoning and it connects us to everything - so by controlling the conscious mind - our own thoughts - we can work on controlling

(and 'control' is the wrong word here, but I am going blank on the right word - I think my subconscious memory storehouse doors are getting rusty these days - another reason I am meditating again)

our subconscious processes.

The following is the week 2 practice and I should say this part comes from an old paper I got from the YMCA camp - it has no authorship and is just a photocopy that I somehow managed to hang onto all these years.

Maybe your local YMCA has a class with a similar course, maybe not, the instructor was way out there in outer space and totally amazing. She was the only person at our Y I connected with at the time.

(I was once about to sign my daughter up for their daycare summer program when a cute little boy came up to the woman showing me around and asked him a question - I don't remember if she answered him or not - but I do remember her announcing loudly to me and the rest of the class, "his father is a lawyer that's why he asks alot of questions" -

my mind flashed ahead to my daughter's summer where this same woman would be announcing to the group - "her father is a truck mechanic that's why she has dirty fingernails".

We found another daycamp).

Week 2 Practice : select a room where you can be alone and a time when you will not be disturbed, sit erect, be comfortable but not too comfortable, sit perfectly still - start with 15 minutes and work up to a half hour (do this everyday at the same time) - clear your mind and just breathe - when a thought comes up, see it, but don't give it your focus, just let it float away from you and separate from you - work up to 30 minutes of being able to sit still and breathe without intruding thoughts (next week's exercise gets more interesting, but you have to master this one first - I shouldn't say master because of course, this is a process, but the YMCA says 'master' and I like the idea of mastering something with this practice, so we'll leave the word in here).

xo

*calm waters print by elgarbo Art

Brimfield Flea Market 2011 - overwhelm, blisters, mac & cheese and morris

Brimfield Flea Market in Brimfield, MA is one of the largest fleas in the U.S. with over 5000 dealers (is that possible?). Kella & I decided at the last minute to drive the 200 miles to be there for Tuesday's opening day. We are both busy this week and only had one day to spare so tried to make the most of it.

(I would definitely recommend two days; more if you are a serious flea market shopper)

We -

(I should say she - thank you Kella for driving through our GPS nightmare - we heard RECALCULATING at least 50 times over the two days ..)

wandered the grounds from 7am to around 3pm. Brimfield has about a dozen, I think, different fields of sellers (not all were open on Tuesday).

PLUSES - what we liked - the Mac & Cheese food truck - super yummy, Morris the metalworker (more on him later), lots of industrial vintage, a guy carrying a 6 foot dragonfly around the fields all day - not sure what to make of that, easy cheap parking (maybe we got lucky), crowds but not super squishy annoying crowds, lots of stuff for sale, no pushy salespeople

MINUSES - hardly anything was priced - at least 90% of the stuff had no prices (we hate that), the sellers basically ignored us - which we are usually ok with, but without prices it was annoying to not be able to find the seller or get their attention, the size of the show meant that we ended up so far from our car that even with a cart and little red wagon it definitely discouraged us from buying heavy stuff and everything we liked was heavy stuff, very little clothing, very few vintage linens, too much of everything else - it was kind of just too much - like when Ebay came along and I realized I could get every Trixie Belden book I ever wanted if I was willing to pay for it - it took some of the fun out of it.

OUR FAVORITE - Our vote for best seller at Brimfield was 13 year old metalworker Morris from Cleveland who works in his dad's studio and created these amazing peace signs (we bought two) from his dad's scrap pieces.

(they are super awesome and very heavy duty - I have the sore shoulders to prove it - they will last forever)

He was one of the only sellers who approached us, he cut us a deal on the price (yay), he was super-friendly and went out of his way for us - I am certain he sold out and we will all know his name one day - you read about him here first, folks - have you heard of Etsy, Morris - you need your own shop!

Now, I am back in the studio getting ready for Art Star in Phillie this weekend (and Kella is shooting a wedding on Long Island) - both of us are crossing our fingers for sunny skies!

xo

TGIF - Have a Wonderful Weekend!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend - I am getting things made and together for Art Star in Philadelphia May 14th and 15th!

The first 100 people in my booth will get a free cork wine stopper with Olive's little kisser on it this year!

xo all

Cause Related Marketing - merging our passion with our profit by volunteering (and other acts of bravery)

I would rather do business with a company that stands for more than just profits - I think everyone would.

If you have a crafty business - aligning yourself with a charity or cause that you passionately believe in can become a corner stone of your marketing plan.

There are many ways to create the type of partnerships that can get your company name out there and generate goodwill (plus good karma) for your biz.

It used to be when I would register as a volunteer I would use my name (beach clean ups, etc), but this year I have been registering as my company.

(yes, I sometimes have to drag Olive along or some of my human family posing as my "staff")

I made some great connections, would probably be doing the things anyway and who knows who might see my company name on the registry and look me up later.

I think it is important to be authentic with this and work with causes you believe in - people will sense your passion and see that you care - and they'll realize you will probably care just as much about your work.

When you fill out your name on those cardboard pink ribbons and shamrocks and hearts at the local store when donating your dollars - sign your company name instead of your own -

maybe a buyer from Anthropologie will be chowing down on her Happy Baconalia at Denny's

(yes, I just googled them and this week they have a Happy Baconalia breakfast pretty much guaranteed to send someone to the emergency room)

and see your little donation ribbon with your company name over her head and pull out her blackberry or ipad or smartphone or whatever techno doodad buyers from Anthropologie are carrying these days and check out your shop, get uber-excited over your awesome offerings, run out of the Denny's

(you probably just saved her life which I'm sure will be taken into consideration when she writes her order, another plus)

screaming your business name and call you the same day.

... or maybe your little donation ribbon will be taped up in such a haphazard manner that it will fall to the floor within minutes, be trampled by a gaggle of girl scouts (I forget what you call groups of them) and only be seen by the cleaning woman ...

... who will happen to be moonlighting from her real job as a reporter for People magazine where you will find your little gizmo next Christmas in the holiday gift guide ...

you can't go wrong with this stuff ... really.

xo

*small acts transform the world print by Fresh Words Market