Craft Fair Wrap-Up and Arctic Life

Well! The craft fair is done for another year. If I wouldn't have ordered prints and cards (it was a last minute decision to do it) it would've been a raging success this year. But because of that up-front cost... Not so much. I just barely broke even which is pretty disappointing especially because I have to find somewhere in my tiny place to store 14 canvas photos (I didn't sell a single one) and I need to make about 150 friends to send Christmas cards to.
My ornaments however, HUGE hit. That's pretty much all I sold. I counted up my totals and I sold 49 items - one table top snowman, 4 baby sweaters, 3 or 4 packs of cards a pair of mittens and the rest was ornaments.

Small rant and one example of the few rude people I had this weekend:
I had a lady come by about 4 times looking at one of the little sweaters I had - I had 4 different sizes - the largest one was $50 and the one smaller than that was $40 (I also had two smaller ones for $30 and an even smaller one for $20). She was looking at the two and then rudely commented "$50?! What's the difference!?" so I explained to her what the difference was (size and different yarn) and she walked away. She came back a few other times to look at it and once brought her husband by to look at it. She came back today to look at it AGAIN and then was pissed off that I hadn't lowered my price on the last day (I'm not desperate to sell everything so I didn't lower my prices today - and plus I feel like it rips off the people that buy stuff the first day). Then she came back again and looked at it and was asking me about it (etc) and then starts to take out her money. Once she paid for it she still bitched about how expensive it was! Like I'd twisted her arm to buy it or something... sheesh...
Also - I still can't get over the people that will stand at your table and talk about your stuff (negatively) when you're sitting RIGHT THERE... I can hear youuuuuuu!

And now for a segment on Arctic Life... Or at least Inuvik Life and what happens when the road is open (kind of - I think it's still only light traffic) and the stores haven't lowered their prices.

Exhibit A: Bananas

Exhibit B: Beef Jerky

This looks like pretty tasty beef jerky - I hope someone looks at the price before they buy it... Get ready for a shock!

Yikes!!!!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!


Temperature: -14C
Sunrise: 12:46pm
Sunset: 2:39pm

The Backdrop Hasn't Fallen Over Yet!

Well! The first night is finished! It was pretty busy (as it usually is on the first night) one minute there were only a few people milling about and then there were people EVERYWHERE!
Here's my table:

So I've done pretty good for the first day (about half of what I made the first year total - so that's good) hopefully things will pick up tomorrow and Sunday and some prints will sell.


Temperature: -14C
Sunrise: 12:26pm
Sunset: 2:57pm

Last Minute Preparation!

Well! The craft fair is tomorrow and I hate to jinx it but I think I'm ready!
I ended up building the cursed backdrop myself. I sucked it up and went to the hardware store and explained what I wanted - thankfully a nice person was working and didn't laugh at me and was even able to suggest the thickness of plywood to use. My main piece is 4"x6½" and then I have two side panels that are 2"x6½" (that way I only needed two pieces of plywood because they come in 4"x8" sheets). I got it painted and hinged together and I think it should be pretty good! (we're going to ignore the HILARIOUS story about me painting it first THEN hinging it and the hinges being on the wrong side and me having to repaint it - I wasn't about to move the hinges!) . I'm just waiting for Glen to get up so we can go downstairs and take the pins out of the hinges so we can move it easier tomorrow (because if we didn't I could bet money that the damn thing would bust).

I sewed up another bear -no pictures yet- he's blue with yellow accents (inside of ears, paws, back of head, bow). I still like my first one better and I seemed to have more trouble with the second one. We did an appliqué tea towel project at quilting on Monday - my first appliqué - no pictures of that either. It turned out pretty cute I think (I put three stars on a white towel).

I got my first goal in hockey on Tuesday! Glen just happened to come that night to take pictures for me and even managed to get a picture of me scoring! woo!

Maybe now that the first goal is out of the way I'll get more ;-)

Today is my last day of work under the old contract. If I didn't get my position back it would be my last day at the group home - weird!! I have the next three days off because of the craft fair so when I go back on Wednesday I'll be working for my old boss. There's been "goodbye" notes at the end of reports all week now... WEIRD!

Cross your fingers that the craft fair goes well and my backdrop doesn't fall and crush me mid-way through!!!


Temperature: -18C
Sunrise: 12:20pm
Sunset: 3:02pm

Sewing

I finished a cute little Christmas print bear tonight. He would've been finished yesterday but I forgot a piece and had to take the head apart (the head was turning out narrow and duck-like and I was getting disappointed - no kidding! I forgot the piece that goes on the back of the head - ugh - and btw - having to photocopy and enlarge pieces is a giant pain).

I think he turned out pretty cute. He was a bit fiddly to do and isn't perfect but it was a great start and I'm sure the next one will go a bit better (and the picture isn't great since it's almost 4am).

Temperature: -20C (feels like: -28C)
Sunrise: 11:56am
Sunset: 3:23pm

Getting down to the wire...

Craft fair knitting has definitely slowed to a crawl... I've been getting some sewing done though. I wanted to make some fabric baskets to hold things on my table so I made a few of those. I also thought I'd make some for presents so I made a few extra (and once I get more cording I'll probably do a bunch more). A co-worker's husband is hopefully coming by tonight to look at my plans for a backdrop thingy. In exactly one week I'll be hauling my stuff over to the rec. centre to set up!

I've been cutting out blocks for a quilt too (I have one on the go that is driving me insane so I've started cutting out stuff for a new one just to give me a mental break from it). No pictures of it yet but I'm pretty excited about both of them (my first attempts at triangle pieces). I don't have enough fabric for the first one so I bought some extra and it *kind of* matches --- That's what happens when you buy fabric 7 years ago and only get around to finish sewing stuff together now. So I'm hoping it will work out afterall...

It has gotten outrageously cold here - or it was outrageously cold yesterday anyway. -38C with the windchill - wtf? I got into the truck yesterday and it said -29C (no windchill) brrrr! It's not supposed to be this cold yet!!! I've been waiting to pull out my parka and my warm mitts but I think I might be doing it sooner than planned. It's also super dark out now (doesn't help that it's been overcast). Not enjoying that much either... blehhh!


Temperature: -18C (winchill: -28C)
Sunrise: 11:45am
Sunset: 3:33pm

Whoops! Scolded Again!

Not much is happening really... I'm trying to finish up craft fair stuff - I've gotten everything priced now and everything I ordered has arrived (finally!) and now the only thing left is to build some sort of background/backdrop thing... I've made a few calls around town but no one has gotten back to me yet so I might have to suck it up and build it myself (and then have it fall and crush me during the craft fair!). bleh! I really wish I had some carpentry experience (y'know besides nailing pre-fab stuff together!!).

Work is pretty much the same.

I did a photoshoot with a friend on Tuesday which was pretty fun. I haven't gotten around to looking at the pictures yet but I think we got a few good ones (we were basically going for standard portrait kind of photos).

I know things have been getting kind of boring around here - no photos even! I've pretty much been doing the same things every day and my days off are getting eaten up by quilting and hockey - feels like I have no time off! So not very inspiring stuff to blog about...

Temperature: -14C (feels like -20C - brrrrrr!)
Sunrise: 11:14am
Sunset: 4:01pm

I've been scolded!

Sorry for the long silence it's been a long and confusing two weeks.
I don't really have any news so that's the main reason I've been waiting to update. I've been offered my regular position back but haven't signed any papers. I don't think I'll get screwed over but I wouldn't be surprised if something random happened. Things at work are really confusing because there are some staff members that aren't getting their job back and they are WAY disgruntled (don't blame them really) BUT they're making everyone else's life difficult. So much so that a few of us aren't telling that we've been offered positions. Yikes... It also means all the things I wasn't going to have to do (like putting together Christmas lists for 5 people) I'm going to do. So I brought all the latest Sears catalogues home with me tonight to hopefully compile some lists on my days off.

My days off lately have been rather unproductive due to me deciding to get a life. I've been faithfully going to quilting every Monday (not really getting a lot done though... hmmm) and then hockey on Tuesdays. Hockey is SO.MUCH.FUN. I'm having a blast. I hurt myself pretty bad last week but I should be good to go by Tuesday again - thank goodness for pads and a helmet!!! My head bounced off the ice (I don't even know how I fell but I lost my balance, my feet came out from under me and I landed on my back) so I've been recovering from what I imagine is ice whiplash :-P And a lot of soreness. But, totally worth it.

Knitting wise, I haven't gotten a lot of big things done but many, many small mittens. I'm embellishing them (and some mini sweaters) with felt cut-outs (Christmas trees, presents, stockings, snowmen, hearts etc). I spent my evening yesterday tracing out, cutting and embelishing little felt things. I'm really pleased with how they're turning out. I'm seriously going to make an effort to unpack everything and take a picture of it!
Speaking of the craft fair, I got my big box of "table stuff" on Thursday (table cloth, cash box, gift bags etc) the only major thing I have left to do is figure out a backdrop thing for my photos. I'll either borrow one or build one (yikes!). Only a few more weeks!

So there ya go! I think that's a pretty decent update --- Oh! And if there are people reading that I owe letters to I'm going to try super hard to get them written this week! Sorry I'm such a terrible penpal! ugh! :-(


Temperature: -12C (feels like -18C)
Sunrise: 10:19am
Sunset: 4:54pm
(stupid time change! Only a month of daylight left!)