You might have seen my recent tweets about how I signed up to do my first juried craft show a couple of days in May with Patchwork Indie Arts, and to say I’m freaking out a bit about it is putting it mildly. After an encouraging conversation with a new Etsy friend, Jeanette of Sweet Perversion paper goods, I jumped right on the horse toward crafty entrepreneurialism. 10-seconds later, the 20 lb. sledge of reality hit me in the face; I have a LOT of work ahead of me. I do not have anywhere close to the right amount of product to sell yet, not to mention I want a little more diversity beyond art prints. I also have almost zero supplies, fixtures and doo-dads necessary to host the most minimal of craft show booths. The following is an abbreviated list of all the crap I need to do or buy before the show.

• Print a bunch of new art prints, notecard, notebooks, postcards or whatever other things I want to sell.
• Buy and put together supplies to package all the things above (bags, boards, business cards and more).
• Figure out what I need to appropriately display my wares (canopy, banners, tables, shelves, racks, etc.).
• Make sure my website and Etsy shop are full operational including getting my email subscription service in check.
• Find/Make/Buy a bazillion little things that may or may not be necessary, but I probably won’t know until the day comes.

Hold on there, Tex. I don’t even know yet if I’m accepted into the show. Being a juried event, they may not pick me to participate, which would suck, but still a remote possibility. The other side of that coin is the first show is about 2 months away, and while I’m waiting to hear back about my status, time is slipping past, giving me less and less time to accomplish the items on the list above—HUGE hurry up and wait factor involved.

Have you ever been so overwhelmed with stuff to do that you end up curling into a fetal position and do nothing instead? That’s the space I’m in at the moment. I want to create new art, but I want to tackle items on the list, but I want to brainstorm my game plan for the show a little more, but I want to look at more tips and tricks on how to run a successful booth, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself because I may not get accepted in the first place. Did I mention I still have a day job, a wife and a 9-month old that I want to spend more time with?

ACK!

Yeah, yeah, I’ll get past it. I’ll have a bunch of people jump in and help out, lend advice and motivate me to push on through, and I’ll be eternally grateful for the help probably resulting in giving away more art. I’ll accomplish all that I need, and what doesn’t get handled, I’ll make due without. In the grand scheme of things, my “plight” is nothing compared to what others are dealing with (Hello! Japan? You self-absorbed ass, Dave.), but it doesn’t mean my own personal universe isn’t in a bit of a disarray.

Knowing is better than not knowing, and I won’t feel better about this until I hear back about my application acceptance or rejection. In the meantime, I’ll be here on the floor, cleaning up my previously exploded brain matter.