Soasa Summer Calendar 2011!

June 12
Beacon Strawberry Festival, Beacon, NY

June 18-19
Clearwater Music Festival, Croton-on-Hudson, NY

June 24-26
Oldsongs Festival of Music and Dance, Altamont, NY

July 2-3
Great American Weekend, Goshen, NY

July 9-10
Shaker Heritage Craft Fair, Albany, NY

July 21-24
GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, Trumansburg, NY

July 30-31
Newport Folk Festival, Newport, RI

August 6-7
Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, RI

More events to come! Please feel free to contact me for more information, or join the mailing list to stay up to date!

I think I pissed blogger off...

It's been so long since I wrote a proper post that I think Blogger is mad at me. I wrote up a nice one for your guys, but then everything possible went wrong with formating and stuff just broke.

Here's the gist of it. I took a break, and then I had too much news to share, but none of it seemed worthy of a big "I'm back!" kind of post. So I didn't blog for about 8 months.

So here's a little photo representation of my life since January:

I graduated! (With highest honors. I am a nerd. Thanks for listening. I'm done bragging now.)

I started spinning again. Sort of.

I grew my first solo garden!

I processed a total of 7.5lbs of basil into pesto for my freezer.

I had a blast at Mountain Jam, Oldsongs, and GrassRoots music festivals!

I got a "new" van! A '93 Dodge Caravan! I pimped it out so that I can sleep in it when I have far away events. It is totally dope. That's a Buzz Lightyear air mattress, by the way.

Most of all, I've cooked and eaten lots of delicious food in my HUGE kitchen in my new apartment.

I also went to Cape Cod a couple times, I've been traveling all over the place selling jewelry, I'm working on a new website, I build an awesome hookah for a final project, I did some nice ceramics work, I've been hula hooping again, and I have some beautiful new designs up on Etsy!

Hi! If you made it to the end, thanks for looking! I promise that my upcoming posts won't be this nutty.

Fall Calendar!

I swear I will get back to actually blogging sometime soon. Here's why I never have time:

September 19 Van Houten Avenue Street Fair, Clifton, NJ
September 21-23 Fall Northeast Art & Craft Show, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY
September 26 Haverstraw Street Festival, Haverstraw, NY
October 2 Hudson High School Craft and Home Expo, Hudson, NY
October 3 Warwick AppleFest, Warwick, NY
October 9-10 Warren Fall Festival, Warren, CT (one of my favorites!)
October 23-24 Connecticut Renaissance Faire, Hebron, CT
October 26-27 Thanksgiving Northeast Art & Craft Show, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY

I have some new and beautiful designs on Etsy, if you are interested! (SoasaDesigns)

Also, stay tuned because my new website should be up and running sometime in the next week or two!!

ANOTHER Updated Calendar!

This should be final, but of course, you never know!

June 25-27 Oldsongs Festival of Music and Dance, Altamont, NY
July 18 Nyack Street Fair, Nyack, NY
July 23-25 GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, Trumansburg, NY
August 5-8 WOOL, Lake George, NY
August 28-29 Old Bethpage Village Craft and Gift Show, Old Bethpage, LI, NY
September 4-5 Eisenhower Park Craft and Gift Show, East Meadow, LI, NY
September 11-12 Bayville Waterside Craft and Gift Show, Bayville, LI, NY
September 25-26 Merrick Annual Fall Festival, Merrick, LI, NY

Some changes to the schedule...

Unfortunately I had to drop the two shows on Long Island in June. One was canceled and the other is the weekend of my brother's high school graduation! I could not miss that! I have added an event in Rockland County in July, and I am looking at a few others as well. I am also looking at a market in Middletown, NY, and I will probably make an appearance or two at the Hillsdale Farmers Market.

This is the schedule as of now, but I am unsure of whether I will be at Falcon Ridge or GrassRoots this year. I will let you know as soon as I do!

June 25-27 Oldsongs Festival of Music and Dance, Altamont, NY
July 18 Nyack Street Fair, Nyack, NY
July 23-25 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Hillsdale, NY
August 5-8 WOOL, Lake George, NY


Sorry for any confusion, I will try and keep everyone in the loop!

Spring and Summer 2010!

I'm sorry I've been off the map for so long. It's been a hectic few months. I can't believe it's already time to get back into it! I'm graduating in just 4 weeks and I can't wait to really dig into this year of events! This list isn't final, but it's what I have so far.

April 24 Clermont Sheep and Wool Festival, Clermont, NY
May 1 Beltane Festival, New Paltz, NY
June 5-6 Bayville Waterside Festival, Bayville, Long Island, NY
June 12-13 Old Bethpage Village, Old Bethpage, Long Island, NY
June 25-27 Oldsongs Festival of Music and Dance, Altamont, NY
July 23-25 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Hillsdale, NY
August 5-8 WOOL, Lake George, NY

There will be more events beginning in September.

Holiday Preparations...

Just thought I'd let y'all know that there's free shipping in my Etsy shop until midnight tonight! It's my little way of helping your holiday season easier. I also have the perfect gift wrap available! For just $2.00 you will get a sweet, handcrafted pillow box with tissue and a coordinating tie. Really, how much easier does it get?



I also want to remind everyone that my last two events of the year are this Friday and Saturday! I will be at Bard College on Friday and Hawthorne Valley School on Saturday. Come see me!

I know I've mentioned this before, but you can find out about these deals and other news before their almost over by signing up for my mailing list! You can join up by visiting ::this link::

Fall Craft Fair Schedule!

Don't get too excited...my computer is still in the shop. I can't say I have anything nice to say about the Geek Squad at Best Buy...so I'm not going to say anything!

I'm not quite as busy this fall because it was difficult to organize everything from abroad, but here's the plan! I hope some of you can stop by! There may be additional dates, so this list might grow a bit...

Sep. 19 Pawling Arts & Crafts Fest, Pawling, NY
Oct. 3 Hudson High School Craft Fair, Hudson, NY
Oct. 10-11 Warren Fall Festival, Warren, CT

Oct. 17 Hillsdale Farmer’s Market

As always, if you've got any questions or need directions don't hesitate to ask!

RobinMarie [at] Soasadesigns [dot] com

Ravelry Meet-up, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Ravelry Meet-up, Buenos Aires, Argentina, originally uploaded by Soasa Designs.

Yesterday I finally made it to the new Buenos Aires monthly Ravelry meetup! This started in March because a few of us out-of-towners wanted to meet the local knitters, but I was never able to make it as it always fell on the weekend of my Birds class. Ravelry has a strong fanbase here in BsAs. There must have been 18 of 20 of us, knitting together in the food court at the big shopping center, Abasto. There was one particular security guard who was very curious about what we were doing, and he kept walking around us, but every time I said hello he scurried away. We had a blast:)

This photo isn't even of all of us! I didn't realize I had my camera with me until a bunch of folks had left. What fun we had! So many people from so many places! Canada, Portugal, Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, USA, and I'm sure I'm missing some! Ravelry is amazing!

Where I'll be for the next couple months

The holiday season is here!

Nov. 21-22 Housatonic Valley Waldorf School Holiday Fair, Newtown, CT
Nov. 29 Jewelry Sale at Off The Beaded Path, Great Barrington, MA
Dec. 5 Bard Craft Fair, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Dec. 6 Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School Yultide Fair, Harlemville, NY
Dec. 13 Sheffield Market, Sheffield, MA
Dec. 20 Sheffield Market, Sheffield, MA

If you've got any questions or need directions don't hesitate to ask!

Fall Schedule!

Come find me this Fall, I'm going to be all over the place!

Sep. 6+20, Oct. 4+18 Hillsdale Farmer’s Market
Sep. 14 Mountain Music Festival, Bethel, NY
Sep. 20 Pawling Arts & Crafts Fest, Pawling, NY
Sep. 21 Earth Day Festival, Bethel, NY
Oct. 4-5 Hudson High School Craft Fair, Hudson, NY
Oct. 11-12 Warren Fall Festival, Warren, CT
Oct. 18 Green Meadow Fall Fair, Chestnut Ridge, NY

As you can see there are a few dates that are doubled. In those cases my Mom will be working the Farmer's Market for me, so you should really go keep her company!

I'm anticipating having my Etsy back online by the end of the month so keep an eye on Soasadesigns.com for updates!

And the award for most neglegent blogger goes to....

I think that'd be me. Sorry.

I know I should have blogged about the fantastic trip I had up to Ithaca with my booth. I know I should have fabulous photos to prove that Grassroots was a fabulous festival! I know I should have blogged about the huge, terrifying storm that hit Falcon Ridge early Sunday afternoon, effectively shutting down the festival. I don't have photos of that either, so check out that link to see a video, check out this one to see another, and someday I'll wrangle some photos away from My dear friend and savior Amanda when I'm sure she's more settled in her new home! She's got photos of my pasty white legs standing in a river of muddy water running higher than my ankles through my booth. It took four of us hanging on the EZ-Up to keep it from lifting off, but I am very proud to say that my meticulous weather disaster plan was 100% effective! Nary an earring was lost, and the paper goods all survived as well!

My lack of blogging energy hasn't been helped by the fact that until this week I hadn't read an entire book all month (the horror!) and I've been on strict knitting probation thanks to my lovely OT who's trying to fix up my elbow. In other news, I've started hula hooping pretty much obsessively, and I'm cleaning and sorting and packing in preparation to head back to school next week! I can't believe my break is so close to ending.

Boo.

Soasa Calendar!

Late Summer & Early Fall 2010

September 19 Van Houten Avenue Street Fair, Clifton, NJ
September 21-23 Fall Northeast Art & Craft Show, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY
September 26 Haverstraw Street Festival, Haverstraw, NY
October 2 Hudson High School Craft and Home Expo, Hudson, NY
October 3 Warwick AppleFest, Warwick, NY
October 9-10 Warren Fall Festival, Warren, CT (one of my favorites!)
October 23-24 Connecticut Renaissance Faire, Hebron, CT
October 26-27 Thanksgiving Northeast Art & Craft Show, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spring and Summer 2010


Edit 6/24/10:

This should be it. For real. See you there!

June 25-27 Oldsongs Festival of Music and Dance, Altamont, NY
July 18 Nyack Street Fair, Nyack, NY
July 23-25 GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, Trumansburg, NY
August 5-8 WOOL, Lake George, NY
August 28-29 Old Bethpage Village Craft and Gift Show, Old Bethpage, LI, NY
September 4-5 Eisenhower Park Craft and Gift Show, East Meadow, LI, NY
September 11-12 Bayville Waterside Craft and Gift Show, Bayville, LI, NY
September 18 Pawling Art and Craft Fair, Pawling, NY


There will be more events for October - December!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Winter 2009

Nov. 21st Valley Central School, Montgomery, NY
Dec. 4th Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Dec. 5th Hawthorne Valley School, Harlemville, NY

If you decide to stop by don't forget to print out this coupon and save 15% off your entire purchase!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fall 2009

I'm not quite as busy this fall because it was difficult to organize everything from abroad, but here's the plan! I hope some of you can stop by! There may be additional dates, so check back around the end of the month.

Sep. 19 Pawling Arts & Crafts Fest, Pawling, NY
Oct. 3 Hudson High School Craft Fair, Hudson, NY
Oct. 10-11 Warren Fall Festival, Warren, CT

Oct. 17 Hillsdale Farmer’s Market

As always, if you've got any questions or need directions don't hesitate to ask!

RobinMarie [at] Soasadesigns [dot] com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Summer 2009

I'm currently in Buenos Aires, Argentina on study abroad. I will be back in the states on August 2nd, and hopefully geared up for a good fall season! I have jewelry available on my Etsy site RobinMarie.Etsy.com that my mom has kindly agreed to ship out for me!

Have a happy and healthy summer!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The holiday season is here!

Nov. 21-22 Housatonic Valley Waldorf School Holiday Fair, Newtown, CT
Nov. 29 Jewelry Sale at Off The Beaded Path, Great Barrington, MA
Dec. 5 Bard Craft Fair, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Dec. 6 Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School Yultide Fair, Harlemville, NY
Dec. 13 Sheffield Market, Sheffield, MA
Dec. 20 Sheffield Market, Sheffield, MA

If you've got any questions or need directions don't hesitate to ask!
RobinMarie [at] Soasadesigns [dot] com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Come find me this Fall, I'm going to be all over the place!

Sep. 6+20, Oct. 4+18 Hillsdale Farmer’s Market
Sep. 14 Mountain Music Festival, Bethel, NY
Sep. 20 Pawling Arts & Crafts Fest, Pawling, NY
Sep. 21 Earth Day Festival, Bethel, NY
Oct. 4-5 Hudson High School Craft Fair, Hudson, NY
Oct. 11-12 Warren Fall Festival, Warren, CT
Oct. 18 Green Meadow Fall Fair, Chestnut Ridge, NY

As you can see there are a few dates that are doubled. In those cases my Mom will be working the Farmer's Market for me, so you should really go keep her company!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's going to be a busy one! I'm incredibly excited about how much everything has progressed in the last three years, and this summer is just a whole new level.

Every 1st and 3rd Saturday from June - October I'll be at the Hillsdale Farmer's Market in Hillsdale, NY
June 26-29: Old Songs Festival of Music and Dance in Altamont, NY
July 17-20: Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in Trumansburg, NY
July 24-27: Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale, NY
August 23: Blueberry Festival in Ellenville, NY

I've also got quite a few events booked for the fall, but I'll let y'all know about those as the dates get closer.

My apologies, I have been remiss

But I have excuses!

Actually, just one really. I haven't posted in nearly a month because that's how long it's been since Musefest. Every time I think "I want to blog about this" I realize that I have not yet addressed Musefest, and as it was a big event for me I can't simply neglect it. But oh how I wish I would. In order to continue blogging I must simply clench my teeth and bear the pain for the moments it takes to write this.


Musefest. Absolutely disastrous, in my worst nightmares it couldn't have gone much worse. It started out fine, we arrived way earlier than necessary on Thursday, had the booth set up by about 5pm, and a ton of time to kill. No biggy, I made a ton of jewelry and the kids went exploring. The people were pleasant, the site was nice, and the rain we'd seen on our way in cleared away. I had high hopes, and we all went to bed with pleasant anticipation for what was to come.

We awoke to find that the electricity still wasn't hooked up, and we would be eating chips and salsa for breakfast. We were assured that the food vendors we were so counting on (as it turned out the site was much, much further from town than expected) would be electrically wired and cooking by 10. No problem. 2pm rolled around, no food, tummy's grumbling, and no fest folk had arrived. Music wouldn't be starting until 5pm, and everyone on site was hungry and grouchy. 5pm rolled around, the band went up, not so hot, and a few people trickled in. Drunk people.

After a long slow evening I began to realize my mistake. This was not a family fun festival as I'd been lead to believe, this was a chance for all the druggy kids of Ithaca to network, get high, and act like morons. There was no money to be made, and no ATM on site to facilitate spending. I resigned myself to a really slow weekend, hoping for $500 to cover my expenses and maybe enough profit to put towards another booth fee somewhere else. It was not to be. We stuck it out as long as we could Friday night, then went to sleep, arising relatively late in the morning to find there were still very few people around, and even less with any money. We were reassured that Saturday night would be a great night for vending because there would be more people, more families.

This too was not to be. It had been off and on cloudy and scorchingly hot all weekend, and around 8:30 that evening the clouds rolled in in earnest. The sky turned black, and beyond it was a pink glow I initially believed was the sunset, as the clouds were moving incredibly fast and I thought perhaps they were blowing right over. As that pink expanded and began to turn a muddy brown I reconsidered. Instantly the wind came up and I grabbed my tent, trying desperately to zip up the walls, screaming my head off for the kids. the rain hit like an anvil, coupled with the wind, ripping the walls from my hands. The kids ran up to help and we got three sides zipped, but couldn't see enough through the buckets of rain in our eyes to get the forth. I clung desperately, trying to hold the sides together as the sky turned a brilliant chartreuse green, and wind whipped through the tent, knocking all my carefully laid out displays to the muddy ground. Somehow in the hubbub my thumb had been sliced open, and as I fought with the wind, soaked to the bone, bleeding all over my nice white tent, all I could do was hope to got that a tornado didn't come ripping through. I didn't know what I'd do if the kids got hurt.



The storm died almost as quickly as it came up, and at 9:20 we stood calm, looking around at what was left of my jewelry. Not much. Earrings lay trampled in the mud, bent, broken, or simply gone. Everything was soaked through and we were all shaking with exhaustion and freezing cold. I have honestly never been more miserable. I called home and told them we were on our way, and we crammed all our stuff into my car, amazed we fit it all, and limped the four hours home, freezing cold and defeated.

Musefest was an incredible loss for me. Literally hundreds of dollars. I missed classes for it, spent all my free time preparing for it, and didn't make back my booth fee. One good thing did come from it and that is that the few things I did sell were designs I'd created specifically for the festival crowed, so at least I know those were spot on. There simply weren't enough people.



That is my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

A profitable weekend, a busy day.

Saturday was crazy. The farmers market was a near disaster, several people lost their tents to the strong wind, and I, forever fearful, took mine down just in time. After three long hours of standing in the freezing wind trying to keep my jewelry on the table, I was ready to give up and move to our second site of the day. I had made all of sixty five dollars, frozen my butt off, and bent a display piece. I was not a happy camper. Then one of those customers came along who
can completely make your day. A customer with great taste, and a flexible budget. I was five minutes from packing up, and frustrated that this man seemed to be looking at everything but not buying, when suddenly he called his wife over. I realized she was the woman who'd been eying my mushroom piece the last three markets. He asked what she wanted and there was no hesitation. Off went my mushrooms! I was sad to see them go, I was close to running over and telling her I wanted them back, that they weren't for sale, or something equally childish, when she came over with a camera and asked to have her picture taken with "the artist". Well, shucks! She was wearing them with her very practical red sweatshirt. I know they won't go in some box in the back of her closet. I'm thrilled.

My mom came ten minutes later and helped me pack up and move two miles down the road to Community Day. It started out slow until the rest of our row was established and then people came:) It was a good afternoon, not really busy, but comfortable. I met a few interesting people and was happy to have time to talk to them. I cut my day short (after a solid 9 hours of standing in the sun) when I was informed that I had a terrible sunburn. Boy oh boy was it bad. I managed my whole beach vacation without a burn, but put me in a field in the freezing cold for 9 hours and I look like a tomato.

It's seriously crunch time for Musefest. We leave Thursday morning, ready or not! Today I visited AAA and got some reliable directions, spent my second to last day at the bead store churning out cell phone charms, and this evening mocking up what I can of my booth in the living room. Barring rain tomorrow I'm going to re-waterproof my tent, (that's a story and a half, that I haven't told you yet) set up in the dark to test out my lighting, finish mocking and mapping and labeling and pricing and packaging, and try and fit everything in my car. That's all after work, mind you. At work I'll be making as much jewelry as I can humanely manage. Wednesday I've reserved for laundry, figuring out lighting if I need more, packing for school (I'm supposed to start classes Thursday, but I'm going to try and be back in time for my Monday classes, don't ask how) and all the other little details I know I'm going to have to deal with. I also have a class that evening. My life is absolutely insane right now, but if all goes as planned this should be worth it.

I know there's more news from these last few days, but I can't quite grasp it right now. Maybe tomorrow.

Inventory check, and why I'm suddenly almost sane

Ahoy!
There are two major breakthroughs that have just occurred and made my life a lot less stressful.

One, strawberry season is over. While this means I won't be making as much money, it also means I can drop down to two or three days a week on the farm, instead of six or seven. Thank the lord, because the weather is heating up, and the farmers market is kicking into gear.

This brings us to two. The first farmers market is on the 7th, and I was sorely afraid I was unprepared. Having since mocked up my booth and taken inventory, as well as spent several long evenings and mornings and free moments churning out pieces, I finally feel that I have more than enough. And I still have more than a week left!

I'm working on a whole bunch of different styles that I've experimented with in the past, and I must say I love wire.

I still have no pictures, but I promise I'll post some as soon as I do! Also, new listings on Etsy will have to wait until after the market. Check out what's still in my shop though, and if there's anything you particularly like grab it now, because I can make no guarantees for what will be left after next weekend.