Of Shows, Shopping - and a Holiday Bargain. ;)

I believe it was Thomas Wolfe who said "You can't go home again"...

A quote I came to consider and appreciate this past weekend, after schlepping 160 welcome signs (two trips in the little Beetle) down to Fairfax, VA, for the annual - and usually well attended - Holiday Craft Show.

It had been a long while since I done an old fashioned craft show, but I remember them as being somewhat of a shopping frenzy. Husbands were generally left home, as groups of women spent the day holiday shopping with friends - and doing some serious buying. It was the ideal way to pick up unusual, hand made gifts and decor - items made with love and care rather than mass produced in China. Eight or ten years ago, if you wanted something hand crafted by the artist, you attended a show.

But the internet has changed all that. Hand crafted items can easily be purchased online now, and with so many folk art marketplaces, worldwide selling sites like Etsy and eBay, and the explosion of blogging and social media sites like facebook, there's no need to venture far from home in search of hand made treasures.

I'm not complaining, mind you - to the contrary, I make my living on the internet, and not a day goes by I don't bless the fact that this is so. ;)

But as such, you'd think I'd see the trend. Not that craft shows aren't fun - but I should have allowed for somewhat of a decline in attendance, and perhaps taken a bit less product. Live and learn, eh? ;)

The upshot of all this is that I have quite a few original, hand painted welcome signs left. If you click on the photo above, you'll see the designs available - I believe there are several of each, with the exception of the snowman with the bright red buttons. I think there are just a few of these left, with "Winter Welcome" painted at the top. Oh, and it's a bit tricky to see in the photo, but the banner held by the woodland snowman (snow-lady?) says "Joy" in gold. :)

Most of the designs are seasonal, but can be left up throughout the winter, and a couple of them - the teapot birdhouse (my own favorite) and other birdhouse - are year-round designs. All of them are protected with an exterior varnish, so are fine for hanging outdoors. Oh, and if you scroll down to the previous blog post, you'll see a close-up of several.

As you can see in the photo, the price at the Fairfax show was $35 (considerably less than the usual eBay price, even a couple of years ago). But since they need to find homes for the holidays (and there are no fees involved here on blog, hehe) I'm letting them go for $29.95.

Multiple purchases are fine, and I can combine shipping on two signs in the same box ($8 for east coast, $11 for midwest and south, and $14 for the western states.)

These are available on a first come basis, and when they're gone, they're gone. I won't be accepting any orders.

To purchase one - or several for holiday gift giving - just shoot me an email at carolee@kingofmice.com with "Signs" in the subject line. Let me know which you'd like, and how you'd like the personalization to read, and I'll get back to you confirming availability, get them lettered this week, and shipped next week (after Thanksgiving). ♥

In the meantime, I'm off to double check the inventory, so I can keep track of what's still up for grabs, hehe...

Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Holidays!
♥ Carolee