Having a Twitter Fit

I finally had to cancel my Twitter account and get rid of the @DayDreamCrafts profile that I've used for well more than a year.

The account had become so compromised and so corrupted that it was impossible to use. It wouldn't allow me to make updates to the way it looked, change colors, information or images. Some days, it refused to do anything. It just sat there like a sullen child refusing to move. It wouldn't even let me block those nasty porn or teeth-whitening followers.

I had none of these problems with other Twitter accounts that I manage, just this one, my largest, my own.

Sadly, away it went. @DayDreamCrafts was so clogged with technical problems that I couldn't open and print my list of followers. I lost them when I deleted the account. They're gone. Don't ask about Twitter's Customer Support; there isn't any other than a lot of Frequently Asked Questions crap.

So now I'm starting over. I'm newly tweeting as @DayDreamCraft. Craft, singular. No S on the end. Go to www.twitter.com/DayDreamCraft and follow me. Please, do follow me. I had more than 700 followers and close to 500 whom I followed and I miss most of them. We exchanged funny, useful, poignant information about the life and work of artists, quilters, crafters, wine lovers, world travelers.

I'm slowly finding my old Twitter friends and re-following them, hoping they'll do the same with me. But it's a slow process. If you're on Twitter, please let others know where to find me.

Holiday Shopping Season

Here's where you can find me during the Holiday Shopping Season:

Nov. 1-29, 2009: Day Dream Crafts exhibit at the Fraser, Colorado, Library. Open during regular library operating hours. www.gcld.org

Nov. 5, 2009: Reception to launch month-long library exhibit. 6 until 7:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served. Enter a drawing to win one of the products on display.

Nov. 6-7, 2009: Applewood Arts Holiday Fair. Standley Lake High School, Westminster, Colorado. www.applewoodartsandcrafts.com

Nov. 12, 2009: Grapes and Gifts holiday wine tasting and gift boutique. Verso Wines, Cooper Creek Square, Winter Park, Colorado. 4 until 8 p.m. 10% of sales and all tips benefit the Grand County Search and Rescue organization.

Nov. 14, 2009: Santa's Cellar Arts Fair. Broomfield, Colorado, Community Center. 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. http://www.broomfield.org/recreation/special/santacellar.shtml

Nov. 21, 2009: Fraser, Colorado, Holiday Artisans' Fair. Fraser Elementary School. 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Dec. 5, 2009: Winter Farmers' Market and Holiday Gift Show. Boulder County, Colorado, Fairgrounds. 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. www.boulderfarmers.org

Dec. 17y6, 2009: Grapes and Gifts holiday wine tasting and gift boutique.Verso Wines, Cooper Creek Square, Winter Park, Colorado. 4 until 8 p.m. 10% of sales and all tips benefit CASA, the Court-Appointed Special Advocate for Children in Northwestern Colorado.

Living and Loving Local

Every time I think I’ve completely saturated the local area with my pillows, quilts and other textile art products, something comes along to prove me wrong. The lesson in this realization? Local customers and clients are the most important. They need to be encouraged and maintained.

Local exposure, whether through nearby arts and crafts fairs, hometown exhibits or repeat-customer neighbors and friends, leads to greater exposure. I live in a resort town, which means every one of my pillows sitting on a local couch or hanging on a local wall, is seen by visitors from other areas. One sale leads to several more around the country. My products being sold in local outlets are seen by hundreds of people from elsewhere in the state, country and world.

Hometown customers also become partners – they take pride and ownership in a locally made product and their suggestions can lead to new or better work. The Tabernash Tavern, a popular restaurant in the Winter Park Resort area, placed a large order for fabric gift bags using their logos. I had pitched the bags as perfect wrappings for a bottle of wine or pound of their specialty blend coffee. The photo above shows how well they work with wine.

But the Tavern’s chef was the one who pointed out that they also perfectly hold jars of his homemade jams and relishes, and beautifully wrap one of his fresh-baked baguettes, all of which are sold at the restaurant’s front desk. Guess who’s now marketing bread bags? My booth at an upcoming Business-to-Business Expo will have new signs, new brochures and new exhibits showing multiple uses for what had started out as being simple wine gift bags.

That expo is an example of local business or chamber of commerce events that can benefit artists and crafters. I’ll be offering custom gift bags for businesses to use as client, customer or employee gifts this coming holiday season. And I’ll be encouraging realtors and builders to consider my vintage postcard pillows as closing gifts for property-buyers. Each pillow is made with vintage postcards depicting iconic images of the local area and its history – perfect for a new home.

Local library branches aren’t just a source for reading material or movies. Does yours host events or exhibits? Mine does and I’ll have a month-long show of locally themed pillows and quilts in November. There will be a reception, drawings for giveaways and the opportunity to purchase display items with a portion of the proceeds going to the library itself.

A library exhibit brings products to a whole new audience of moms with kids, teens, and adults who may not frequent arts and crafts shows. It also makes the art, and the artist, part of the community so that the next time someone needs a gift, they’ll remember the exhibit and place an order.

Trick or Treat!

Send your kids - and yourself - out in style this Halloween with these oh so spooky cute fabric gift bags.

They're perfect for adults going to Halloween parties and looking for a festive way to carry a bottle of wine or other beverage. The bags also beautifully hold a pound of coffee or other small gifts for the party hosts. But they also make great trick-or-treat bags, holding an ample amount of treats in easy-to-carry retro style.

Kids and adults will love the fabric reproductions of vintage Halloween cards that embellish each bag -- pumpkins and black cats and witches, oh my! Each bag is made of durable cotton seasonally themed fabric and fully lined. A ribbon is securely attached to the back with a button and acts as a tie at the top or, knotted into a loop, a way for little ones to carry the bag on their trick-or-treat outings.

Each bag is unique, combining various vintage cards with orange, black and Halloween-print fabrics.

These bags, as well as Thanksgiving and Christmas-themed fabric gift bags, are available for $10 each with no additional shipping costs. To see photos of others or to purchase yours now, post a comment here or email JDayQuilts@msn.com. A few bags also are available at Artfire.com - you can reach that site by clicking on the Artfire icon at the left of this page.

When Good Shows Go Bad

Arts shows aren’t much different from people – each has its own personality And, sometimes, a good one goes bad.

Such is the case with my most recent show. I won’t name it and open myself up to problems from organizers, but if you really want to know, just ask me.

The show attracted nearly 100 vendors, is located in a lovely wooded space in a mountain resort town and attracted plenty of tourists, locals and second-home owners looking for souvenirs or décor items. In years past, it was a show worth participating in.

My, how things have changed.

There was, frankly, a lot of crap being sold: store-bought kitchen towels with newly crocheted borders; store-bought flip flops decorated with yarn and a glue gun; mass-produced laser-cut metal things that twirl in the wind; large metal road signs with sayings like “Daschund Crossing” and “Parking for Irish Only;” unframed pencil drawings of Elvis or Jesus.

There were some diamonds among the rough, including gorgeous metal-wrapped and painted gourd pots, amusing decorative clay masks and creative “found art” items, but overall the quality of the show was pretty low.

And this was supposed to be a juried show.

Equally annoying was the seemingly thoughtless way the show was set up. Of 95 vendors, about 60 were selling some type of jewelry and many of them were assigned spaces next to each other. Soap-makers were located across from each other. Photographers were side-by-side.
Fortunately, no one had anything even close to being similar to my products, and my repeat customers sought me out. My sales ended up being fine. But the overall quality of the experience for customers and vendors was such that this is on show I won’t return to.

Christmas in ... well...August!

Am I really working with Christmas fabrics in early August? Oh yeah. Santas, elves, holly, snowflakes, reindeer, menorahs and champagne flutes for New Year’s Eve adorn the pile of fabric I’m cutting into gift bag-sized pieces. Pretty soon, probably long before Halloween, I'll be sick of red and green and gold and glittery.

All of which reminds me that holiday orders need to be made by Labor Day. After that, I can’t guarantee that I’ll get your order done by Dec. 25.

Want a pillow made with vintage images of your hometown? Let me know the place and the colors. How about a pillow made using your own postcards or family photos? Send me a .jpg version.

Having a holiday party? Wouldn’t a dozen customized gift bags be nice for family, friends or employees?

Looking for something unique and inexpensive to tie up a package? What about wine cork key-chains adorned with charms, beads and embellishments? Remember, they float!

So send me an email (JDayQuilts@msn.com) with orders, special requests or questions.

Corked

Oh man, did these things turn out cute! An experiment one evening brought on by being bored and by being embarrassed at the number of wine corks I've accumulated (all bottles opened by me at home) has turned into my best-selling product at the moment: wine cork key chains.

A cork, a couple sturdy long screws, charms, beads, glue and imagination led me to create dozens of these fun key chains. Many different wineries, many different charms.

I drive an old red truck, have a goofy Chocolate Labrador Retriever and I love to travel, so the key chain I made for myself was from a cork pulled out of a bottle of the Cline Red Truck Red wine, a charm with the word "journey" and a Labrador Retriever charm.

There are key chains with a typewriter charm for the writers among us, horses for the pony crowd, knife and fork charms for foodies, grapes for oenophiles, high-heeled shoes for fasionistas, old typewriter keys, paint pallets, stars, hearts and on and on and on. The key chain pictured here features a lobster trap charm.

And best of all, the key chains float! Great for boaters, beach dwellers or anyone who's around water. I've tested it in the sink with three or four keys and the cork still bobs along on the surface. I'm seeing a new marketing campaign!

Find my keychains at http://www.artfire.com/ or just click on the icon on the left side of this page to go right to my ArtFire studio. Have a request? Leave me a note here or send an email to JDayQuilts@msn.com. Keychains are now available at the introductory price of $6 each or two for $10, plus postage.