Tag Archive for 'na-da farm'

Good Things Come in Threes

Published
by
robayre
on March 12, 2013
in Coverage, General Update and life
. 2 Comments

One

3.12.12 Hus & Hem
Recently I was thrilled to see I sold one of my alphabet posters. Glancing at my stats I noticed views up on that poster. I did a bit of sleuthing and discovered that my poster was featured on the blog for Swedish magazine Hus & Hem! I’ve been thinking that I should make some more pieces like these, maybe one with numbers and some with phrases. You might remember this piece stemmed from the series of Polaroid Pogo prints I did in 2009. I can’t wait for spring to arrive so I can scout out some moss and get going on more posters.

Two

About a third of my #artomat collection

I love Art-o-mat. It’s no secret. I’m thrilled to announce that my collection of Art-o-mat artwork (pieces that I have purchased by other artists at various Art-o-mat machines) will be on display at Kishwaukee College. Once I get them out to the school, they will be in a display case in the brand new Student Center through the end of the semester, near Kish’s Art-0-mat machine. Once they are at the school I hope to get some pictures and will share them here.  I also hope that this display may spark an interest in art collectors from the community to visit this very special diamond that we are so lucky to have nearby. Who knows, maybe this post will inspire you to check and see where your nearest Art-o-mat is and visit it. Did I mention that it is also a great time to be a contributing Art-o-mat artist? Artwork to fill the machines is in high demand!

Three

5.21 booth Nada farm
Dacia at the na-da farm barn sale yoyos and chalkboard sign

I will be selling again at the Na-Da Farm Spring Sale this year. I’m especially excited this year, having one year under my belt and knowing a bit more of what to expect. I’m also REALLY excited because my friends Courtney of She Always Loved Larking (Etsy) and Ann of A Beautiful Party (Etsy) will also be selling at the event. We are going to have so much fun! If you like fun (and who doesn’t?) then you should come to the event as well.

The Sale

Published
by
robayre
on May 21, 2012
in General Update
. 0 Comments

5.21 booth 5.21 booth inside
This past weekend was the Na-Da Farm Barn Sale, my first official solo booth. Going into it, I was getting more and more nervous and stressed. Last minute, my sister-in-law was sick and couldn’t make it, but fortunately Matt was able to come in her place. During set up, I started getting so overwhelmed that if my sister and Matt hadn’t been there I might have just laid down in the grass and started crying. Emotional much? Instead I had to keep chugging along. The tent I was supposed to borrow didn’t work out, so I bought a new one. The buckets of sand we brought to anchor the tent down were worthless and the high winds across the farm fields caused, not only my tent to try and take flight, but also all my products inside. Fortunately Anne Marie’s son brought by two large cinder blocks to keep me anchored. My weather fears going into the sale were mostly rain related. The plan for my framed pieces had to be altered, and instead of each piece standing up on display they had to lay flat on the shelves. Believe it or not, by the end of the first day we all had wind burn and chapped lips.

But it was only a rough start, I promise. The rest of the sale was great. This sale was unlike any sale I’ve done before. Get this: both days before the show began there was a long line of people waiting to get in and get first dibs on everything as soon as the gates opened. I know… what?! What a difference a well promoted show makes!
Nada farm
This show was so refreshing. A beautiful property, elegant booths, and kind customers. The back of my booth was facing the entrance and the back wall of my booth had my yoyo quilt hanging from it. There was a pretty steady stream of people approaching from behind marveling at the quilt and a few people explained to us that it was the first thing people see when they were coming in. Lots of people had questions about it, what is it, did you make it, how did you make it, etc., etc. It’s a yoyo quilt. Yes, I made it, starting when I was 15 years old, and my mother is a quilter and provided lots of the scrap fabric for me. And finally, you sew a seam around a circle of fabric, pull the thread tight, then squash the fabric flat, then sew the individual pieces together, much like my framed pieces inside the booth.

Dacia at the na-da farm barn sale

It was a great show! Not only did I recover the cost of the booth, but the cost of the new vendor tent AND MORE! Last year when we went to the sale, I felt like there were a lot more handmade items. This year, I think I was one of only a couple of booths that were entirely handmade and not vintage or repurposed/revamped vintage. Still, I did really well. The jewelry, art reproduction/prints, and paper products were very popular.

Lots of baby birds being saved this weekend. First Matt freed one from our window well and then there was this one at Na-Da Farm.

I was able to snap a few instagram pictures, but because I was manning my booth, I didn’t have many opportunities to take pictures of the rest of the event. Fortunately, there is a lovely slideshow here at the Na-Da Farm blog. It was a great show and I’ll hopefully start listing the remaining product on etsy soon.