The view from the artisan market at Harmony Arts Fest in West Vancouver. Gorgeous!

My table at Harmony Arts Festival. Such a beautiful day!

Harmony Arts Festival kicks off this Friday, July 30th in West Vancouver & I can’t wait! I’ve been up to my eyeballs in resin for the last couple of weeks, so I’m delighted to see the weather forecast is calling for sunshine & hopefully lots of folks out wandering around. If you’ve never been before, it’s a great festival with a big craft market right along the beach at Ambleside Landing, tons of concerts & bands playing (I think 84 performances in total – wow!), group art shows, artist studio tours, a wine garden, children’s programs, cinema in the park…seriously, tons of stuff to do!

The festival runs from July 30th through August 8th. You can check out the full schedule on the Harmony website here.

Want to find me? I’ll be at the:

Delany’s Coffee House Craft Market
Ambleside Landing
Friday, July 30th to Monday, August 2nd

And then back again next weekend too!

Friday, August 6th to Sunday, August 8th

Fridays 4:00pm – 8:00 pm
Saturdays, Sundays and Monday: 10:00am – 8:00 pm

You know how when you have something big to do that you want to make really great, but you have very little time so you keep putting it aside until you have the time to devote your full attention to it? And then that NEVER SEEMS TO HAPPEN? Yeah. That’s where I’ve been lately!

You may have been under the assumption that I’d taken off on a (well deserved) summer holiday, but alas no. I seem to have filled every nook & cranny of my summer with work or school or family stuff, which means I haven’t had much time to sit down & write a full recap of all the things that have been bubbling in my brain. Blog posts currently in draft form because they still need photos to be edited or uploaded: the fabulous time I had at Folk Fest, the odd (but interesting) art projects I’ve been working on in my summer art class & my new favorite reality show – Bravo’s Work of Art. So much to talk about!

I hate blog posts that complain about not having enough time to write blog posts, but that’s exactly how I feel right now. I have a 4 day market starting tomorrow (eep!) & after Folk Fest, the Cagey Bee studio is looking pretty bare. I’ve kicked the locket factory into high gear over the last week or so, which means every flat surface in my house has been commandeered. Fortunately my mister is out of town for a big family reunion, so I’m only driving myself crazy.

If you’ll indulge my craziness for a moment, here’s where I’m at right now:

I’m worried I’m going to run out of…well, everything.
I’m annoyed that I’m still waiting on supplies to arrive in the mail.
I’m exhausted from lack of sleep, the heat & just plain working my tail off.
I’m really craving some days set aside for painting.
And I’m feeling guilty for neglecting my blog.

Phew!

As dull as that probably was to read, the thing that kills me about not having time to blog is how cathartic it can be for me. Just writing out all of the anxiety & stress I’ve been feeling lately immediately makes me feel calmer. Probably not a good business move, I realize, turning one’s blog into an emotional dumping ground, but still. Bear with me people.

Deep breath. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Kits Beach (Photo by Canadian Veggie)

One of my mister’s best friends was just in town for a visit, so I got to play tourist in my own town as we showed him around for the week. His visit was timed perfectly with a crazy heat wave hitting Vancouver, timed perfectly unless you’re part of the Pale Force, that is, like me. I tend to freckle or burn with very minimal tanning in between. I gave up many years ago & am pretty religious about putting on my sunscreen now (about the only anti-aging beauty treatment I do). I cheat a little with the fake tanners, but this year I haven’t been able to find my usual Neutrogena one. Those “build a tan” or “daily glow” creams do absolutely nothing. I guess it might “build” a tan if you never exfoliate your face (& I mean scrub with a washcloth – you don’t even need to get into fancy scrubs or creams), but come on! Who wants built up layers of dead skin that happen to be tanned? Not sexy.

Ruche sundress (sold out in yellow unfortunately)

What’s a pale girl to do in the midst of a heat wave? Wear lots of sundresses (much cooler than shorts), sit on lots of patios & drink lots of beer. Which is precisely what I’ve been doing this week! My office has been sweltering, so the idea of turning on my computer & monitor to add to the heat has been not very appealing. Instead I’ve been ignoring all of my web work in favor of hands on craftiness, most of which I can do while sitting in the shade – making new lockets & trying out a new hair pin design that hopefully will be ready for the Folk Festival next weekend. I’ll be there for all 3 days sharing a tent with the lovely Jennifer Conway. Yay!

The next few days will require lots of coffee (iced) as I turn the house into a mad craft factory. I have no clue what sales will be like at an outdoor festival of the folk variety, but I’m expecting there will be thousands of people passing by our table, so…I need to be prepared for anything. It’s so hard to say though…do I bring my prints? Maybe an original just to show people what it is I actually do? Or should I just focus on small things that people can tuck into a bag – like magnets? eep!