It's the third day of Fall, and here in NW Oregon, the rain has just arrived. We had a very hot, dry summer, so it feels like everything is taking a deep breath now. I baked some muffins this morning and put on a flannel shirt. Finally, working with wool all day makes sense. :)
Fall is such a paradoxical season: a fresh start and a winding-down, a time to gather cozily in and a time to gear up for the holidays! I love this part of the year; for me and House of Moss, this season is the busiest and most vibrant time of the whole year.
I've been working hard making busy-season inventory for my shops across the country, as well as making sure my online shop is well-stocked! We've also been spending lots of evenings at local parks, collecting acorn caps from the oak trees there.
One thing that feels quite different this year is that I have not been dealing with the holiday craft show hassle as much! Normally I would be applying to 6-9 weekend shows for November-December. This year, I'm taking a different approach to holiday sales: My wholesale and online sales have been picking up, and this way I get to stock the shelves of shops across the country while managing to keep some weekends open for family time & holiday celebrations.
There is a certain part of me that dearly loves the weekend excitement of waking up early in the morning, packing up my shop, driving to a venue, setting it all up, and talking with my customers all day. But it's also incredibly time-consuming, and Erik and I definitely overdid it last year, with full work-weeks bookended by weekend-long shows– we were nonstop for 2 months, and we were too busy and exhausted to enjoy the holidays!
So this year, I'm doing one show only: my favorite, the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale, on December 12th + 13th (with a special ticket-only pre-show event on Friday evening if you're hardcore like that or want to avoid the weekend crowds!).
But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves! Fall is here, and there is a certain sweetness to the early Fall that quickly gets eclipsed by the holidays as soon as Halloween approaches. Happy Autumn, friends!
This place is absolutely gorgeous, beautiful and stunning. Even though a few halls are equally appealing and fascinating in their decor, food and aesthetics, I'm tempted to still give venues in Los Angeles some slight edge.
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