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Showing posts with label festivals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label festivals. Show all posts

Friday, November 18, 2011

The season is upon us and Li'l Z.

The holiday season always sneaks up on me.  One minute it's August, the next, it's Halloween, the next Christmas lights are up all around town.  With my preferred six week cure time for my soap, by the time the weather starts feeling wintery, it's mid-November.

I really wanted to do the Avondale Estates Christmas Market this year and fortunately for me, they were full, but somehow found room for me.  So, I will officially be participating in the Holiday Market.  You can find Sudstress on Sunday December 11, from 12-6 p.m. in the clubhouse at Lake Avondale.

Here is a link to the site.

So, needless to say, I've been making soap like crazy as I also need to make a delivery to Young Blood Gallery & Boutique.  Here is some of the soap you'll be seeing at the show:





Yet to be named - smells like holiday spice & Christmas trees.



Pumpkin Spice soap with carrot juice and nutmeg.


Carrot & Shea facial soap with sustainable rosewood, patchouli & carrot seed essential oils.


French Green Clay men's shave soap with lavender, lime & petitgrain.



My favorite so far, Lemongrass - Eucalyptus pumice soap.  
Piece o' Cake - smells like chocolate cake, but yummier.


....and not to go unmentioned, my birthday was a couple of weeks ago and my great gift was a quick trip to see my niece who is now six months old.  I haven't seen her since she was only 5 weeks, and it's been tearing me up.  I finally got to see her in Boulder and I just love Li'l Z.  Her name is Zora and she's such a joy!



Friday, December 11, 2009

last two shows of the season this weekend



Happy Holidays
Enjoy the Season

I have been thoroughly enjoying the twinkling lights scattered among the houses from one neighborhood to the next. From Avondale Estates to Cabbagetown to Virginia Highland; from simple, elegant, single color light displays to gaudy, over the top decorations a-la Clark Griswold, I love them all. I wish there were more opportunities throughout the year to decorate with light.

Coming up this weekend are your last two opportunities to check out Sudstress products in person. This Saturday I am excited to take part in Pink Saturday inside the cute Cabbagetown cottage of miss Talulah B. for Talulah's Annual Holiday Shopping Extravaganza. The first 30 attendees will receive a free gift bag which will each include a sudstress cutie pie slice among other goodies from all the vendors.


Please join us on Saturday, December 12, 2009 from 11 am to 4 pm at the Cabbagetown studio for some serious holiday shopping (for others or for yourself). Festive snacks and beverages will be served and swag bags will be given to the first 30 guests to arrive.

Talulah's Cabbagetown Studio

667 Gaskill Street SE
Atlanta, GA 30316

Akola Bead Project

Concrete Lace

Emily G's - Jams of Love

Fiona Lottamore

Madame Mandala

Sudstress

Sweet Talkin' Lola
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Then on Sunday December 13, 2009 you can find me at the 17th Annual Avondale Holiday Market from noon - 6 pm. Several vendors will be set up in the clubhouse by the lake in the Avondale Estates neighborhood.

59 Lakeshore Drive

Avondale Estates, GA 30002


I hope to see you there!


I wish you a warm holiday season and time spent with loved ones. Happy Holidays from Sudstress!



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Saturday, December 5, 2009

gaH! ...tired

Delirious. I've been up for 15 hours already and it's just after 8 pm. I had a holiday show today and there is always an accompanying lack of sleep. I have one more weekend of shows before the big 2-5. You can swing by on Saturday or Sunday to whichever one floats your boat.

Also, I have resolved to be consistent in my newsletters now that I've joined Mail Chimp to make it easier to keep peeps up to date on new product news and offer subscriber only discounts, sales and special deals.



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Sunday, November 8, 2009

I split my pants and other tales from Cabbagetown.

Yesterday was the annual Chomp & Stomp festival in Cabbagetown. Though I was not a first time attendee, I was a first time vendor. I have to say, this day had a few glitches in the beginning, but it was a fantastic day overall. I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. but managed to get a good 5 hours of sleep and even left the house on time! It's hard for me not to run late early in the morning. I made my way to my friend Erin's place since she was kind enough to follow me with the hand truck that she got me for my birthday (woo!) since I can't fit it in my car with my EZ Up and all of my product. She may have been regretting that around 6:30 Saturday morning...

I get to Cabbagetown Park and as I'm unloading my car, my jeans decided they'd been pushed around by my hindquarters one too many times and just couldn't hold it together any longer. So, they decided to part ways; each side of my pants that is, and I was left with a big, long rip in my jeans nearly the length of my whole butt cheek. The second the cold morning air rushed on in and my right cheek felt a slight chill, so did my spirit. You may not have been able to tell by looking at me, but I did not remain calm.

Erin & I moved our cars out of the load in area and onto a side street where I shared this lovely news with her and proceeded to get more and more stressed out thinking about the next 12 hours with a tear in my ass that had great potential of migrating down the back of my leg, leaving me with half ass-less chaps. She offered to go to my place, grab another pair of jeans and bring them back to me, which filled me with relief. While waiting for my whole pants, I leaned over and to my chagrin, the red bull I had in my front shirt pocket fell out, landed on and broke the top tier of my favorite display piece. Oh well. I felt much better once I changed into my in tact pants in the back of Erin's car before I released her back to the slumber she missed out on while helping me.

Feeling whole again, I continued to set up with the company of some nice neighbors including the lovely Sam of talulah B whose color scheme was nearly the same as mine and a very complimentary neighbor. We bartered; soap for a cool cameo cocktail ring! The weather was perfect, several of my friends visited and at times I had a line of people waiting to make their purchase as I swiped the ol' knuckle buster over people's credit cards.

Three apples and a red bull later, the sun was setting and my inventory was dwindling. While packing up in the dark, I took the opportunity to run across the park to introduce myself to my favorite local author, Hollis Gillespie, who had been swamped (as was I) with people in her booth all day. I'm sure I came off as a fast talking, hyperactive crazy person, but it was fun to meet her just the same. I had actually meant to make her a cutie pie slice stamped with "Bleachy Haired Honky Bitch" after one of her books which I love, but of course forgot to do the night before. Oh well. After a not-so-smooth-but-could've-been-a-lot-worse load out, I was home by 8 and in bed at 10:30 after an hour long nap on the couch. This morning, I am happy to report that all of my credit card entries were accepted and approved!

I have had a pretty rough few days, so I'm very thankful to have had a day filled with productivity, sales and distraction. I will probably share the emotional distress I've been filled with the last few days in a separate post. For now, I'd like to revel in the wonderful success of a mostly beautiful day and not think about the rest.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

festival, sorta...


My dear Atlantans. It's been a big week. I quit my job. I could write paragraph after paragraph after paragraph about how, why, etc., but I feel like doing that would just create negative emotion and anxiety over such things that I quit to move forward from in the first place. It was a long time coming and I'm excited to move on to what's next and I'll leave it at that.

Oh! The reason I started out with my dear Atlantans is that I'll be on the periphery of a festival this weekend. Memorial Day weekend marks the annual Decatur Arts Festival. Like a few other festivals, this one caters solely to the "fine arts" and those who create consumables, i.e. soap, are ineligible for participation.   H o w e v e r . . . one store that carries my soaps - Melrose on Ponce - rents out space in front of their shop, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I paid slightly less than a festival this size would cost in order to set up, which is a bit of a risk as I don't know how it will work out not being legitimately associated with the festival. There is never any way to predict the results when officially part of a festival either, so, really it's no different. I will still benefit from the foot traffic in the neighborhood and possibly more because I know there will likely be no other bath & body vendors around the festival. Also, Melrose on Ponce is such a great store and I like that it's a mutually beneficial deal. Last but not least, it's more exposure even if I don't sell much, my soap will still be in the hands of that many more people, and I will have more names on my mailing list. This is particularly a good thing because when Comcast made the switch a few months ago, I lost my entire contact list.  *shaking fists at comcast*  Fortunately I still have the notebooks I used to collect people's emails and am rebuilding it slowly but surely.

In any event, look for something like this  -  I'll be set up Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday.



On a side note, today is a big day for me since I dropped Neko off at Lifeline for an affordable way to get his nuggets clipped and update his shots. I'll admit I shed a few tears. His little beanbags are the last connection I have to Fat Head who is the last connection to Phoebe.   Plus, it's lonely without that little furrball terrorizing the place. Lilly seems to be enjoying the peace and quiet and has not left my lap for a moment at any time when I've been sitting down today.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

quickie

I've had so many different topics that I'd like to write about, thinking about them during quiet moments while jogging or driving in silence.  Alas, I have not had much chance.  I have a lot that I need to get done today and not the time nor the brain power to write something intelligible at the moment, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to post my big fat marshmallow looking first attempt at bath bombs.  One looks close to as it should only with cracks while the rest are a sad display.

attack of the stay puff bath bomb
domes instead of spheres
lopsided growth
sad
almost but not quite

Also, the Inman Park Festival was a great success, thanks to a huge crowd and great weather and awesome neighbors who gave me this awesome wiener shirt and my favorite of their posters - Neko Case of course.










On a side note, am I the only one that thinks the "open heart collection" from kay jewelers looks more like a half assed attempt at boobs, balls and/or butts?  The ad does not have me convinced that she spent more than ten minutes coming up with that stupid painting.  Way to get 'er done in a hurry, though.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Another Year, Another Dollar.



Year two as a vendor in the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival has taken place and was another success. I had some repeat business from previous festivals, got great feedback on my new packaging, heard "it smells so good over here" about a million times, met some really cool people, had wonderful neighboring artists and sold a load of soap.  I felt like the people traffic was slower and I don't know if it was because I was on the opposite (and hotter) side of the park as last year or (more likely) because it was Labor Day weekend and there were several other festivals going on and I'm sure it was difficult for people to decide which one to go to.  I was disappointed that another year has gone by where I missed the Dragon-Con parade.  Talk about good people watching...  I'd rather be selling soap, so it's not too much of a shame, but it's on my to do list before leaving Atlanta.  My sales weren't any lower than last year though, so I'm happy knowing that it just seemed slower.   

A visual snack from the festival:



Part of my display:
Lavender & Green Tea facial scrub and masque.  Doesn't look pretty, sure feels pretty:

New packaging:
More of my display:

Lots of great food vendors.
I opted for the frozen banana over the hot nuts:

Oops.. when I looked in my rearview mirror, I noticed some chocolate on my face:

Then I went home and passed out at 10:30.

The end.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Grant Park Summer Shade Festival.

This is my second year doing the Grant Park festival. Last year it was my best outdoor festival and I hope this year is even better. I learned a thing or two after the tent leak debacle of the Inman Festival Day 2... I will not give up. If I have to pack and unpack my soap repeatedly, I will not be defeated. I will, however, bring a book in case I need to whether the weather for a spell. I think the forecast calls for isolated thunder showers. That's better than steady, all day rain.

My booth will be in the juried section, which is on Savannah Circle in space #69, just three tents away from beer. If you are in Atlanta, I highly recommend this festival. The people who attend are laid back and nice which creates a great atmosphere and it's still a young festival, so it's not completely overcrowded. If you can't attend, be assured I will remember my camera this time (90% assured anyway) and will provide visual coverage of my experience this weekend.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

I Forgot My Camera.

Last Saturday, I got up at 7:30 a.m. feeling increasingly frustrated and ill-prepared like I do for pretty much every festival, which always gives way to feeling accomplished and validated at festival's end.  On the highway out to Dahlonega, where I set up a table at the Fool's Gold 100/50 Mile Mountain Bike Race & Festival thanks to an invite from Namrita O'Dea, I had a weird highway "missed connection" of sorts.  I was pretty much in the left lane most of the way there, thanks to my stomach ache induced late start, where I noticed a mustache clad douchebag in a big ass Tacoma weaving in and out of lanes and driving fairly aggressively.  I don't like to keep stride with drivers like this and will adjust my speed/distance/lane to avoid them.  As I pass a car on the left, he passes it on the right and then ends up in the lane next to mine, pacing me.  I thought maybe it was just a coincidence, so I slowed..  he slowed.  I sped up..   he sped up.  I got the distinct feeling that this was intentional and when I looked over at the truck, I saw the driver staring at me with a creepy smile beneath his creepy mustache with a wide eyed "hey baby, wanna give me a li'l show?" gross, creepy look on his face.  I strayed from my usual policies and flipped him the bird to make sure there was no confusion as to whether I was into it or not.  Fortunately for me, he dropped way back after that and I exited for a beverage just to ensure that we would not meet again.  Blech.  That left me slightly on edge, but I calmed down once I made it to the beautiful curvy road that would take me to Camp Wahsega and the start/finish line for the race.  Here is where I would normally illustrate this story with some digital images, however, I forgot my camera in the morning rush.

Fortunately, you can go to Andrew Kornylak's website to see pictures of me and all the awesome racers. He's a bad ass photographer.

I ended up arriving around noon, about an hour after I had planned, but it was a pretty casual affair and was still a fine time to set up.  I ran into Namrita pretty much right away and she told me to set up wherever, so I did.  I was a little nervous, since I was by myself at an event where I didn't really know many people.  Fortunately, I did get to see my good friend and hilarious ex-co-worker Crispin and my acquaintance-ish friend who is nice to me despite bearing witness to several acts of drunken inappropriateness; Austin.  They both had just finished the 50 mile.  Crispin left soon after I set up and there I was, all my soap laid out on the table.  Throughout the day, there was not a moment where I wasn't either selling soap, engaged in pleasant (not "pleasant", but actually interesting and enjoyable) conversation with racers, spectators, or other vendors.  Chris Weller from Blue Ridge Outdoors was a constant source of entertainment, was promoting a really cool magazine (click above) AND he bought soap.  In all seriousness, everyone that I interacted with was super nice, laid back and seemed to be genuinely interested in me and my soap.  It was truly a great day.

After the entertaining and gnat infested awards ceremony, I packed up and headed out on the gravel road I thought I came in on.  As I headed down the dusty road in the twilight hour, I noticed that my GPS wasn't picking up a signal.  Ah, well, about a mile to the ranger station, make a right and it'll pick up once I get onto the main road...   except that two miles in, there was no ranger station.  Hmm..   I ended up doing the classic turn around & repeat, constantly second guessing my judgement and in a bit of a panic, noticing that while everything looked the same, nothing looked familiar.  I was alone with no cell phone reception, barely any cell phone battery, no GPS reception and with low blood sugar clouding my judgement and adding to my panic.  I couldn't remember where I'd turned, how to get back to the place where I'd just left hundreds of people with bikes.  At one turn, a truck with two bikes on the back whizzed past me and I pulled out to follow them.  Alas, they were in a big ol' 4 wheel drive truck and I was in my li'l hatchback and eventually they got away from me.  Then, my rational brain slapped my overreacting emotional brain upside the head and I decided to stop turning since I was lost, and just follow the road straight ahead.  It had to lead somewhere, and I had a half tank of gas that said I'd make it.  I passed the parking for Bull Mountain - a ride where Matt and Crispin once almost had to snuggle to preserve their body heat after some technical difficulties since the trail is so isolated and long, which both aggravated my fears and eased them, strangely.  Finally, I made it out to a main road where I regained cell phone service and satellite signal.  The whole ordeal was so unnerving that I maintained a pretty high state of alert all the way home.  

Book-ended between two less than desirable driving experiences was one of the more enjoyable days I've had peddling my wares.  Thank you to Namrita and Eddie O'Dea for putting on a festival for fantastic people and welcoming me to set up in the midst of all of their hard work.  Also, thank you to all of the engaging people I met, most of whom bought soap from me.  You all made my day fantastic.  I hope many of you will make it out to see me at the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival next weekend.  I'll be on Savannah Circle at booth #69, three spots away from a beer tent.  And no, I did not pick my booth number ;)

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Monday, July 14, 2008

Sympathy Ploy

I'm sick.

I don't think I've ever had a cold in the summer, let alone one this bad.  I started feeling it late Friday night.  Saturday, it was all in my nose and throat and felt like I could still function for the most part.  I figured I'd rest all day Sunday and be better by Monday.  Apparently this bug didn't have the same plans as I did and I've been laid up all day and have plans only to rest tomorrow.  

Fortunately, this comes after my wholesale orders were shipped to Nature's Nook and Anne Pliska Parfum.  Anne Pliska is set to open a gallery in the Santiago Art District in Santa Ana, California.  I'm excited about the opportunity for my soap to be exposed to new people and places.  Speaking of which...  I have a couple of shows coming up: 



Now I'm going to take some Nyquil and go back to sleep.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

restoring momentum

Part of taking the amazing three week trip to Alaska meant some sacrifice in two very important areas of my life: exercise and soap.  Pretty much all winter I'd been running 4-5 miles a few times a week to the point that my abilities had surpassed those of my usual running partner.  I'm talking about Matt, a very athletic 26 year old who would go do six gap (pictured left) or take the podium in a mountain bike race earlier in the day and then come run the hilly 5 mile loop and still challenge me.  Granted, he hadn't been running much, but he could still make me look like I was standing still on a bike any day of the week.  I definitely took the chance to brag about "winning" on several occasions.  My favorite celebration was raising my fists to the sky and then making gun noises while jabbing my fingers into thin air.  If even for a couple of weeks before the trip, it felt really good to be a 31 year old female putting a hurtin' on a 26 year old dude while running.     

I had gone full force back to the running and biking immediately upon my return to Atlanta but it was short lived as I promptly got hit with the plague.  So, yesterday I went for my first run since recovering from the black death.  Matt and I went to Stone Mountain Park (pictured here at the top of the mountain during sunset last summer) and ran the entire 5 mile loop, not including warm up and cool down distance.  I'm a bit sore today, which is unfamiliar these days, but I feel better both physically and mentally.  Now that I know that I'm still capable of doing the distance, I can work back up to running it faster and faster.. not to mention that once my lungs are fully recovered from the epidemic that infested Atlanta, I'm sure it won't hurt as bad.  Also, as I build momentum, I'll be paying closer attention to my diet so that my body doesn't feel like lead.  It hurts so much more with poor nutritional choices. 
As for the sudsy life, I had to unlist all of my Etsy items while I was away since I could not ship anything within a reasonable amount of time.  I have not been selling thousands of items like some shops I've seen, but I'd pretty much been in one treasury or another consistently and even had one of my products featured in the everyday gift guide, compiled by the Etsy staff.  I was getting at least one sale per week which allowed me to re-list regularly and remain visible.  It's easy to get buried beneath all of the new listings that are constantly being posted.  This week, I've been in four treasuries and today I finally made my first post-Alaska sale.  Not a bad start considering it took me about five months to figure out how become somewhat visible in order to make some sales.  Also, I'm still a soap vendor for the distribution company I mentioned in my 'Greener Pastures' blog.  In fact, I've just sent them a disc with my product pictures for their website after a phone call from their marketing director.  I'm not sure what will come of this, but there is still plenty of potential.  Of course, with warmer weather comes festival season where I made the majority of my sales last year.  This year, I've been accepted into the Inman Park Festival - which is huge - as well as the Grant Park Festival where I grossed the most sales last year.  I also plan to set up at the Fool's Gold Mountain Bike Race & Festival hosted by Namrita & Eddie O'Dea.

My heartache has eased up a bit as well, or at least it has a different source.  After an emotional conversation somewhat initiated by the events in my previous blog, Peter and I decided that it's not impossible to imagine visiting one another every couple of months.  Time goes by so quickly as an adult and I'd rather not throw away such a strong connection with someone because of geography and the perceived obstacles it creates.  The way I see it, finding ways to remain connected to him and maybe/hopefully grow closer emotionally/geographically is exciting.  Forgive the corniness of my analogy, but it's like a puzzle.  The real adventure is in the process of putting it together, trying different pieces, the excitement of finding one that fits, all the while working towards becoming whole.  I don't mean whole in a ridiculous "you complete me" kind of way (besides the fact that the movie this line comes from makes me want to lose my lunch), I mean that taking a chance, ignoring fear and actually allowing myself to be open emotionally, no matter the outcome, can only result in me becoming more whole as a person.

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