Bazaar Time!

Yesterday was an exhilarating and frustrating experience. I love the adrenaline of being in a bazaar/fair atmosphere, but I'll admit that my body isn't very happy with me as a result, but more on that later.

My brother (usually referred to as my geek consultant, but yesterday was operating as my jewelry set up slave), asked me yesterday, "Where on earth did the term bazaar come from? Is it because the stuff people sell is so strange?" I thought that was pretty cute, but it also got me curious.  So this is what I found:

"The word bazaar derives from the Persian word bāzār, the etymology of which goes back to the Pahlavi word baha-char (بهاچار) meaning "the place of prices".^[1]
During the time of the Crusades, when Europe and the Middle East had
their first major encounters and cultural dissemination took place, the
word was assimilated into Italian as bazzara, before being transferred to English in its current form, bazaar.^[2] While currently the word is most often used to denote outdoor shopping areas, particularly those of Islamic origins, the word is sometimes used loosely to refer to such places and events as flea markets or swap-meets." ~New World Encyclopedia

My wonderful Mom took that picture of me and my table yesterday! if I get healthier again, and I'm able to do more fairs and such, I have a lot of work I want to do on my displays.  This works for now though! I did get some ideas from another jewelry vendor on some cheap ways to create displays :) 

I didn't make very much money yesterday - but I did make some - so that makes me happy! My mother-in-law and I had a lot of fun chatting and working together.  We purposely had our tables next to each other so she could watch mine if I needed it and I could watch hers.  Part of that was because I left for about an hour to make an appearance at a family Christmas party, but an unspoken part of that was the concern that I might not make it through the whole day, and that my asthma would flair.  Fortunately it didn't! Not while I was there at least >_>

One of the amusing things about yesterday was a play on names.  My mother-in-law and I, for those who don't know, are both named Ruth.  So that got a little confusing at times! Usually people call her Ruth and me Ruthie, but some people call her Ruthie as well, and either way hearing "Ruth" called across the room would get both of us turning to respond!

The other really amusing thing was our "shop names."  Ruth doesn't sell as a business, she does it for charity, and she's been doing it since before we met.  I had my shop name in mind long before I opened it, and long before she told me hers.  So yesterday we had "Ma Rose" and "Rose Works Jewelry" right next to each other, and the two "Roses" run by two Ruth's was totally not planned! Well, I mean, we did plan to be next to each other, but the name thing wasn't! People were talking about it all day :P She's "Ma Rose" because, when she was a missionary to the Philippines, they called her Ma Rose because they were unable to pronounce the "th" in Ruth.  I've just always loved the name Rose and loved Roses :)

Now here's the set-back from yesterday.  My asthma has been getting much better, I'm still really weak and all, but I had high hopes for the future.  I still have high hopes, but yesterday showed me I'm not doing quite as well as I thought I was.  I've been having a lot of asthma problems and massive headaches since last night.  While I am getting better as the day goes on - I was pretty non-functional all morning. So, while I was hoping to maybe research and see if there were any winter fairs I could participate in, I'm currently thinking I'll need to wait until spring.  Which is frustrating, but it all balances out!

There have been a lot of good things going on in my business life that I can focus on instead of getting frustrated about not being strong enough to do fairs right now. As I believe I mentioned in a previous post, I'm going to be starting the process this week to set up a consignment account at a local bead store, I'm super-excited about that!  Then I got an e-mail from my mother-in-law today, apparently one of the gals from church who was at the bazaar wants to show some of my jewelry where she works! I have no idea where she works or what this might end up looking like, but that's exciting none-the-less! 

The other two things that I'm super-excited about it are Blockhead Radio and Pluggers United!  As you know if you follow this blog, last Thursday was the premier of my new show on Blockhead Radio co-hosted with the fabulous Lily of Tulips Treasure Box! We've gotten excellent feed-back on the show (Thanks guys!) and it looks like we'll be moving to a prime time slot as a result!

Pluggers United is a new etsy team forming as a result of Blockhead Radio. Rod, the King Plugger Lugger and producer of Blockhead Radio, has always had a focus on "plugging" other artisans.  Thus his title :) That's what the radio station is all about! Helping and supporting artisans.  Now his wife, Annette of Huckleberry Arts, the often unrecognized motivator behind Rod's work, has started this new team to help band together the Blockhead fans and to help organzing the work we love to do!  Here's the info about the new team:

"We are artisans for artisans....working together we can gain more exposure for team members and their shops. This is done through the radio shows, blogs, advertising, guerrilla marketing, entrecard generator, website, etc. We will be doing charity events also.

Only requirements for members:

1. Join the Yahoo Group and add your info to the databases. This is needed for team guerrilla marketing.

2. Place the Pluggers United badge on your blog.

3. Blog about one of your team members at least once a month. You pick them. This is done on the honor system and you do not have to
report it.

4. Try and sell on of your team members item during the month. Blog post, twitter, etc. One item specifically......honor system here too.

We will not allow any calling out, blasting sites, etc. This WILL be a fun and friendly team. We are here to support each other."

So come join the fun!