old town farmers' market at scarecrow festival 2009

The 23rd Annual Scarecrow Festival was held in Ottawa, IL on Saturday, September 26th, and Lonesome Road Studio was takin' it to the streets at the Artist and Artisan Days during the local farmers' market! The weather was great (after a prediction of storms earlier in the week), the crowds were thronging (is that a word?) and it was generally an awesome fall day!

I introduced my newest addition to my show display, my as-of-yet-unnamed mannequin, with an illustrated face by yours truly and beautiful "Desert Flowers" handspun yarn hair by GregoryRoad. One little girl ran up, pointed and screamed "Hannah Montana!!" Not sure I see the resemblance, but oh well, LOL.

In addition to my terrific customers (and a visit from a repeat customer, my first since doing shows, yay!) I had a great time with other vendors. For the most part, this is a community of artisans who are willing to share information and support each other, and this camaraderie is a valued experience.

Although my canopy has been packed away for the season, Lonesome Road Studio will still be around in full force for the holidays. If you happen to be in the Ottawa, Illinois area on Saturday, December 13th, stop by the Holiday Bazaar and Christmas Farmers Market at Jeremiah Joe's Coffee and meet me in person! And, drop me a line at LonesomeRdStudio@aol.com if you'd like to receive a FREE zine/holiday happenings newsletter dishing the latest about Lonesome Road Studio... coming to email inboxes in late October!

baby did a bad bad thing

Well, not that bad.
It's just that I can't always bring myself to spend large sums of money on things like art show displays, etc. I always hope that I will walk into a junk shop or garage sale and *poof*! The mannequin of my dreams will be there, and for only five bucks!
The truth is that you do have to shell out substantial dinero for these things every so often. Which is what I did yesterday. Big online shopping trip. I'm sure it will be worth it though; I've grown so weary of the cheapo black velvet necklace stands I was using (the kind with the easel that doesn't even correctly connect in the back, and they blow over if somebody so much as walks by). I finally decided that, as I told my husband, the time has come for me to go big or go home.
The splurge was also part of a general "re-tooling." I've been working more on branding and have been kind of bored with the status quo as well. I participated in a local festival market recently and during a slow time I took the opportunity to check out other booths. It occurred to me that I kept seeing the same ubiquitous displays, and much like a stroll through the mall, there wasn't much that really drew me in to most of the booths. I would like shopping the Lonesome Road to be an "experience," unforgettable, like the shopper is being irresistibly drawn into another world. Oh, and if someone actually purchased something, that would be cool too, LOL.
So now that I've made a short story long, I'm looking forward to receiving my purchases and using them to make the Lonesome Road more memorable and fun.
In case you're wondering, I bought five new necklace stands in natural tones, a groovy "blue jeans" mannequin style display, and a "chestnut suede" display set in brown, my new black.