Current mood:

accomplished

Bohemian Street Fair
Henna Tuesday night was a grand success. I had planned to do henna in Howell afternoon, but thunderstorms and hail just aren't good henna weather. Especially not with an hour drive round trip. So, I just went to Top of the Park (besides, they'd definitely pay me to be there whether it was sunny or snowing).

Since they were paying me a flat fee, henna was free to the attendees - so I took out the $20 section. Not to be miserly, but to avoid getting bogged down on a full hand or foot with 40 people in line. It was a smart move because I had a line all evening. I had only planned to be there for a couple hours, but I worked 3.5 hours until my arm seemed like it was permanently cramped in an L-shape and my fingers had lost nearly all coordination. It's been a while since I did that much henna, but I was going non-stop.

I finally had to cut the line off at 9:30 pm. It was starting to get too dark to work, anyway. A lot of people asked if I'd be back on Wednesday and were disappointed to hear I wouldn't be. I did my best to get people to take my brochures since the new ones list when I'll be at Crazy Wisdom. (Unfortunately, this Saturday I won't be there. :/) I really wish the A2 Summer Festival would take me on a regular basis. Bohemian Street Fair or not, it'd be a hit every night. And I'd be willing to stick with the discounted price (they paid me $75 for last night), though I'd probably set a two hour time limit. I don't think they'd be allowed to let me charge for henna, but maybe if I could put out a tip jar, that'd even things out. The exposure is worth it.

The organizers were great to work with. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Tonight I did some final tweaking on my design books. Worked in some things I liked from the HT book. I would really love to have a Moroccan eBook. Some bold, geometric designs would balance out all the organic floral designs.

Coming up, I have a book signing I'm doing henna at on July 8th and About Faces contacted me for a party on July 15th. It's on the west coast of Michigan, so we're discussing drive time, but I think I'll be able to work it out.

Switching up to a PayPal cart and advertising on HT has really paid off. I'm getting about three orders/week (compared to about one/month). But I really need to unload a whole bunch of Yemeni, Moroccan and Indian henna. I forgot that I had a kilo of each stashed away from last summer. It's been frozen all year, so it's not like it's been going bad, I'd just rather get it into circulation and used up. Anybody wanna buy a bunch at half price?