some updatage

Hi, blogpeople. Long time, no see. My international correspondent in Portugal tells me that the European audience is clamoring for updates, so I thought I'd better summarize what's been going on.

There has actually been a LOT going on, but my brain is absolutely full because all I can think about is

The Bloomington Handmade Market




It is totally consuming my life!!!

Sally, Mia and I have been going crazy getting ready for this thing, but we're really excited and can't wait to meet all the artists and get this thing going! It's been a lot of work, a lot of learning and a few mistakes on the way, but overall I think we're all pretty pleased with how it's been coming along. One adventure I had to navigate was YARD SIGNS.

We'd heard from another local art fair organizer that yard signs were a really useful promotional tool, so we figured we'd better get some. However, a few days of internet searching and calling local sign shop revealed that, unless you're buying a HUGE quantity of signs, they're very expensive. Our budget was, well, small. So I ended up having to get a little creative and came up with these:



I thought I was quite clever with this little trick. I even put a rigid cardstock core in the center to make the signs stronger. We saved a ton of money and the signs really do look rather good. However, what I didn't take into account was WEATHER. Of course it started raining mere hours after I put a bunch of signs up. Many of them are still standing, but rather wavy. (and yeah, I work in a paper conservation lab. I know.) They're legible though, so I think it's ok. Still, I feel cheated that my lovely signs look wonky now through no fault of my own. Well, next time here's hoping we have a little bit larger budget.

I can't wait for Saturday. I feel so proud and excited to be involved in this event.

I want to talk more about some other projects and in particular, the navigation of collaborative experiences, but I just don't have room in my brain right now. Maybe after Saturday!