And The Chaos Continues...

October was a very active month, market-wise and otherwise. I don't have as many market appearances planned for November, but I will still be crazy busy, largely because I'll be taking a week out of the hectic early holiday shopping time to go on a cruise!

As many of you know, in my other work life, I am the Music Reviews Editor for Curve Magazine, a position I have held for five years now. (I've been writing professionally since the early 1990s, including lengthy stints at Girlfriends Magazine and The Advocate, as well.) Occasionally, I do other kinds of assignments beyond CD reviews, including music/celebrity interviews and features of all kinds. Heck, two years ago, I even did a crafty DIY tutorial on how to make a recycled CD holiday ornament via stencilling.

So now I've been tapped to cover the inaugural cruise from new lesbian travel company Sweet. You've probably heard of Olivia Cruises for lesbians; Sweet is a new entry in the lesbian travel market, but an interesting one, due to their attention to ecological issues and voluntourism. They also do a really brilliant payment plan, to make taking such a vacation more affordable. And in addition to cruises, they also have planned a Kenyan Safari, a Salmon River Rafting Adventure in Idaho, and Cozumel Palace Resort week.

The cruise Fae and I are going on leaves in 13 days, on November 8th. I've known about it for a few months, but it's just now sinking in that we're really going. Neither of us has ever been on a cruise before, so there's been a learning curve to figuring out how it all works, booking our excursions, figuring out what to pack, etc. Lots of research and reading up has been going on, with more to come, since I'm actually covering it for the magazine. I'll be writing a combination travelog of our week and a profile of the company, based on our first-hand experience. So it's kind of a big deal.

Meanwhile, amidst all this pre-cruise frenzy, I've been stocking up on inventory and trying to start getting together my box of stuff to ship off to Craftland. I've been making, photographing, and posting to Etsy lots of my new bamboo-cotton jersey scarves (like the one pictured to the left). And hopefully soon I'll have a retail outlet in the French Quarter that I can send folks to in order to find some of my recycled LP clocks! And, simultaneously, the holiday custom orders are starting to come in. I'm a little frazzled.

As for my November schedule, the next market I'll be appearing at will be the Freret Market on the 7th of November, right before I leave on the cruise. I'll be on the high seas for a week, and when I return, I'll be at the New Orleans Craft Mafia's encore presentation of the indie craft documentary Handmade Nation, Wednesday, Nov. 18th at the Big Top. More info on that coming soon. Elysian Fleas on the 21st and an unofficial Po-Boy Fest appearance on the 22nd round out my work month before I take off to enjoy Thanksgiving weekend.

So yeah. I guess Holiday Shopping Season 2009 is ON. No sleep til after New Year's!