Ballston Arts & Crafts Market May 14th!

We are happy to announce that we will once again be participating in the 2011 Ballston Arts & Crafts Market on May 14 from 10:00am to 4:00pm! It is held every Second Saturday from April through October, and is Arlington’s premier 100% handmade indie art market.

We will be vending along with many other amazing DC-area crafters (many of whom are Etsians), including: Bette’s Bags, BoxBoy Demented Decoupage, Brighter Day Beads,Fuzzy Ink, Grumpy Haters, Jen-A-Fusion Fashion Accessories, lolojane, Mary Ellen Larkins, Melissa Lew, The BumbleBee Studio, Warped & Morewarped and Yinibini Baby.

The kind folks at ArlingtonVirginia.com, Arlington’s Social Media Community, will be handing out FREE eco-friendly tote bags for the first 50 visitors. An from 12:00 – 2:00 pm, there will be live music by J-Guden and FREE yoga classes for the whole family will be offered in the square. Donations will be accepted to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training.

The market is super-conveniently located in Welburn Square (between North Stuart and North 9th Streets) across the street from the Ballston Metro.

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Adams Morgan Very Cherry Pop Up Shop

From March 27 to April 16, you can visit the temporary art and retail spot, the Adams Morgan Very Cherry Popup Shop, featuring the work of several DC-area artisans, including Herban Lifestyle and my new alter ego brand, Snarkyama. Located at 2421 18th Street in the very fun and funky Adams Morgan neighborhood, the store will also have a variety of music, demos and other events.

image copyright Adams Morgan Main Street

The opening of the store was scheduled to coincide with the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.  As a community event Cherry Blossom partner, the Pop Up Shop brings together a diversity of artistic styles including original art, photography, ‘green’ artisans, jewelry, sculpture, pottery and accessories.

The Pop Up Shop is open Sunday through Thursday, from noon to 9:00pm, and Friday and Saturday, 11:00am to 10:00pm.

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Getting Organized

I have set many goals for Herban Lifestyle for 2011, and I just checked a big one off of my list. Get organized! As my company has grown, so has my need for large quantities of herbs, oils, packaging and more. And these items had grown unruly in the 10 x 15 space I have designated for these supplies. So, in January, I hired a friend’s husband to create built-in shelves at one end of my space, and it has made all the difference in the world.

Once the shelves were up and painted, I set out to find containers that would allow me to easily see and access my herbs and other items. Previously, they had been stored in the plastic bags they had come in, which were in turn stored in cardboard boxes. I wasted a lot of time going trying to find what I needed. Now it’s all is plain sight.

Good old Mason jars (which I use for making tinctures and infusions) along with Anchor’s square Frontier jars provide the perfect sizes and shape to maximize the space and highlight the natural beauty of my botanicals. And a series of baskets serve as tidy-looking mini drawers to hold tags, labels, ribbon, bags and myriad other small supplies.

Huge Anchor Montana jars hold large quantities of my most-used herbs, and translucent portable filing boxes keep my wool (hand-dyed by various Etsy crafters) safe and dry, as well as easily seen and accessed.

There is still some extra room for various display pieces and packaging. I am sure that this will get filled up before long. In the meantime, I am enjoying the “white space.”

In a less visible area of the space I have room to store my equipment, more packaging, more display pieces, and shipping materials.

An additional free-standing small white shelf holds miscellaneous glass and metal containers, along with a few pink-colored botanicals and other items.

While it took me a few weeks to find the right containers, then a couple of days to sort and transfer the contents from the aforementioned bags and boxes into the containers, I will net a huge savings of time from now on. Having these previously packed-in, hard-to-see, hard to access items at my fingertips, and easily viewed has saved me so much time. And now I will have time to check off the remaining items from the 2011 To Do List…

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Team EcoEtsy’s Handmade for Earth Day Auction!

The details have been announced for Team EcoEtsy’s Handmade for Earth Day Silent Auction. The auction, which runs from April 19th to May 3rd, will feature t-shirt bags filled with eco-goodies that the talented Team EcoEtsy members have donated. There are six bags up for auction, each filled with over $100 worth of eco-goodies, representing the following themes: Baby, Health and Beauty, Home, Paper Goods, Fashion and Jewelry.

The proceeds from the auction will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund. For a full list of the items being auctioned and auction details, please visit the Team EcoEtsy website.

The auction will begin on Monday, April 19, 2010 and end on Monday, May 2, 2010. Winners will be announced on Monday, May 3, 2010.

Craftland!

Beginning this Friday, my products will be available at Craftland, “an annual holiday sale in downtown Providence, RI that celebrates all kinds of sparkly handmade objects and the people who make them.”

An amazing 170 crafters will have their unique handmade wares on display. The colorful handcrafted displays will be filled with jewelry, plushies, ceramics, soaps, and various other fun, quirky and beautiful objets d’art.

This year’s Craftland runs from December 4 through December 31. They are open seven days a week from 10am – 6pm, except Thursdays and Saturdays, when they are open from 10am – 8pm. The Craftland store is located at 235 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903.

For more information, you can visit the Craftland website, call 401.272.4285 or email info@craftlandshow.com.

Exterior view of Craftland, copyright @Craftland

I’ve Been Made

Recently, I was recruited to the DC Craft Mafia, along with two other local crafters. We officially became members at the end of February. The DC Craft Mafia a chapter of the Craft Mafia, an organization of independent business owners who represent multiple creative disciplines in fashion, jewelry, handmade goods, fine art, writing and craft design. 

There’s a lot of energy in the DC Craft Mafia, and I’m looking forward to being part of this dynamic group of talented artisans. Plans are underway for craft shows and community events. Stay tuned!