April is slipping away…
BIG NEWS!! We have our first show at the end of this month. It’s super exciting! And at the same time, a bit daunting.
The show is called Junkstock, and is located on the western edge of Omaha, Nebraska; a huge festival of music, food, vintage & handcrafted items. I’ll be sharing a booth with my sister, Carrie, and her amazing leather goods! (pst… you can find her cool stuff at Open Range Life.) It will be a booth full of boho western vibes and laughter!
I’m so excited to be a part of this event, to get out and meet new people, and show off so much of our hard work.
But I’m also feelinging a little overwhelmed.
Part of the fun of making handcrafted wood art is… well, working with your hands. It’s a creative process that is limited by your own physical ability. There’s no pushing a start button and walking away while the machine does the work. No clicking online to order more and going on with life while waiting for it to arrive on your doorstep. This is one of the things I love about what we make. But it can also be a bit tricky to balance when coming up on an event like this.
The whole family has been chipping in to help prepare us for this event. But our time is still restricted by things in our lives that have to get done. We have to do laundry, we have to make food and do dishes, we have school and church ministries that take our time. We’re working hard, we’re getting stuff made, but it’s still a slow process.
I’m so proud of the beautiful things we’re taking! Each has been made with love and sweat, a collaborative effort by me, my husband, and the boys. There just might not be quite as much there as we had hoped.
The second daunting thing I’m praying over is our booth.
Let’s be honest, trying to find information about how to build a simple yet sturdy booth for craft fairs is… painful. I’m not sure why.
So, after much zooming in on pictures and talking it through with my handy husband, I figured out a design that I’m hoping will straddle that precarious line of…
easy to put up/take down/fit in my truck/store in the shop
&
sturdy enough to hold a hundred pounds of wood art and not blow over in the Nebraska winds.
Let me tell you, the process of building this thing has been a bit of trial and error. Plus, when you’re sharing tools with your husband who needs them for your livelihood, it adds a whole new complication (lol!).
Once this thing is done, I will share lots of pictures and close ups for those who are looking for ideas on how to build their own booth, even it’s imperfections and short comings.
So, we’re bathing this upcoming show in prayer, asking for wisdom in time management, safety for working power tools, clear direction in the steps we take, and continual joy & peace in attitudes. I know God will use this for His glory and my good.
Random side note #1: When you let your 4 year old nephew play with your phone camera at lunch, you will end up with 100 blurry photos of hands, french fries, cups, ceiling lights, toy trucks, and the floor. But you will also have a handful of photos that make you unreasonably happy. See above for example of said happiness.
Random side note #2: The hubs made me a new zero clearance insert for the miter saw. I also purchased a new blade (with almost double the teeth of the previous). And let me tell you, it’s like running a whole new machine!
And yes, that is masking tape holding the shop vac hose onto the saw. Cuz it turns out that a “2 1/2 inch hose to hose adaptor” is not for connecting 2 1/2 inch hoses, but is 2 1/2 inches itself, making all of the pieces the exact same size. oof! Thus, the tape solution.
April is slipping away so quickly. I never want to be one of those people who wishes that time would slow down because, frankly, I want to get to Jesus’ return as quickly as possible. But I do want to take full advantage of the time He’s given us, here and now.
I want to work hard and push when we need to, while still being mindful to take time for the important, not just the pressing.
I want to be mindful of hearts and attitudes, and giving our bodies the rest they need in order to make managing those hearts and attitudes a bit easier.
I want my boys to remember the smiles and laughter, yes, but more than that, I want them to see and remember Mom and Dad trusting God in the stressful moments. I want to be remembered for always falling back onto the Rock when I start to feel shaken.
And when I stop and pray about these things, they become a whole lot more simple. Maybe not easy, But straight forward and simple. Just one step at a time, straight toward my Savior.