www.FiberArtFest.com

Last night, I had a wonderful conversation with our first confirmed instructor.  This person appears to have everything together and ready to go for teaching new and the experienced fiber artist.  The barn / granary we are going where we will host our classes is currently being used for a haunted house.  I’m hoping to get in there in the next few weeks to make sure we have enough room for multiple classes.  Certainly from the outside, it looks plenty big enough to have 2 or 3 classrooms plus our Art Quilt Exhibit.  There is a large porch of sorts on the front where we will have our sheep-to-shawl demonstration.  For the first year of our October show, I think it is going to be best for us to do beginner to intermediate classes and make-and-take type of things.

In front of the barn, we will have our sheep shearing demonstration and probably our farm booth.  Since it will probably be our sheep being sheared, it will just be easier to keep them all close together.

I think it is going to be great being able to work indoors for the classes.  Also, compared to fairgrounds where other large festivals are being held, customers will be able to have something more then a burger and soda with heated, indoor restrooms.  I know these things seem rather trivial to some, but after being to as many festivals and fiber events as we have, these type of amenities are truly valued.

At this point, I think the blog is pretty much set as far as looks and such.  I don’t think I’m going to be changing it too much.  Over the next week or so, I’ll add it officially to the website.  We’ll see how it goes.

I have been tossing around the idea of either using a custom store front or using a free service that ties us into particular customizable products.  I like the idea of being able to sell our own products like our up-and-coming workshops.  However, I like the idea of not having any inventory laying around the house to be ruined or lost.  I’m probably going to end up with a blend.

Stay warm.  It’s been frosty out there in the mornings.

We walked through the Fiber Expo today in Ann Arbor.  They had two large barns at the fairgrounds full of wonderful fiber people.  It was great talking with everyone.  By the end of the day, my feet were sore and was ready to scoot.

Throughout the day, I was able to talk to quite a few vendors about FAAF.  If the interest was genuine, I think we will see some new faces in 2009.

We stopped at a wonderful mediterranean restaurant in Ann Arbor.  We had a sampler for two but ended up taking home over half of it.  It was so huge!  Lamb, chicken, rice and all the yummy hummus we could eat.  Now we need to find a place for it in the fridge!

I continue to work on the setup of the blog and Internet store front.  PHP is proving to be not too hard of a language to figure out quickly.  So, I guess I’m a little lucky there.  It’s not a lot of fun being frustrated through the process of developing something.

I’ve been looknig for and at other Fiber Art blogs.  Who knew there were so many out there?  It’s been a blast reading about other folk’s stories with quilts, alpacas, knitting, etc.

The leaves are falling which means old man winter is just around the corner.  I’m ready for summer now…

There’s been a lot of activity on the farm and our festival.  Over the last year, we have expanded the festival to include a second site within the Marshall, Michigan area.  We now have several large demonstration projects starting.  Right now we have an Art Quilt Exhibit, Sheep-to-shawl demonstration and a sheep shearing demonstration planned for the October festival.  For me, this is very exciting to see.  It’s hard to believe the festivals are so far away but coming up so fast at the same time.

I have talked to many of the June 2008 exhibitors and many are planning to attend both shows in 2009. 

I’ve been looking at other festival sites and seeing what is working and, more importantly, what is not working.  As I read and learn more about HTML, PHP and Java Script, I am sure to update the site more efficiently.

This blog will probably go through many face lifts over the next few weeks and months.

At this point, we are planning on updating our blog from the festivals we promote and attend!  We’re looknig at getting an air card for our laptop and then off we will go!