​It’s been a while since I posted a blog about my fairy business. It’s been a little bit since I’ve worked production on my business, and if everything goes according to plan, it will only be a little bit longer until I can fully start up work with the fairies once more. In the mean time, though, I’ve been dreaming. And there are bigger and better things coming to Acorn Tops.

​We rung in the New Year by sweeping all the dust from 2015 out the door. This means getting rid of the negativity and doubt that came from within and outside. And, allowing me to dream and get excited again. As well as looking into some bigger venues and creating plans to save up for these bigger venues, I’m rethinking my displays and booth.

​Since the start of 2014, my booth has been the equivalent of a store front. It allows you to see and examine the fairy doors and fairy houses easily. But, I don’t want you to merely  see, I want you to experience.

I want you to walk into my booth and feel transported into Fairyland, a garden paradise.

How will I accomplish such a feat? By having displays that compliment my product. Garlands and fairy lights, a potter’s bench and ladder, little wicker table and chair… sounds like a whole other world, doesn’t it? So, while my paints and clay and carving tools are all packed away, Pinterest and antique stores have become my best friend.
​
I’m looking forward to this new year! Keep an eye out for more goals and photos, and possibly a drawing of my dream booth!

Why is believing in the fantastical so bad? Why, when we get older, must we lose the magic? Things like fairies or Santa aren’t lies. They are believing  in something bigger than yourself, concepts we should embody in the everyday. And, as children, when we are allowed to believe in the extraordinary, we come to find the extraordinary in the everyday as adults.

With the holidays just around the corner, when I think of the embodiment of Christmas it is no longer the large man with a white beard and red hat. It’s my mother in his place. It’s the incredible lengths she went to so my brother and I could believe. And, now, it’s also myself I see in that place, with my large sack of gifts (most of which are already wrapped).
​
Was it a lie? For her to ask “what did Santa bring you?” To have us believe in magic and possibility and hope? There are those who would say it was, that there was a seed of dishonesty. But, it was never about what was wrapped under the tree. It’s what it meant. Like, what it meant if mom could still cook the turkey every Thanksgiving. We might not have had milk in our fridge. Mom might have been sick. But, we had Christmas.
When we later came to the realization on our own that Santa wasn’t real, the magic was still there, if not more so, to discover everything my mother did to make sure we could still believe. And, from the time my brother and I were old enough to know mom was Santa, we were also old enough to know we were, too. Everyone has a little bit of Santa in them.

There is magic in the world if we know where to look. Children know where to look. We just forget when we’re older. Buttercups telling us who loves butter and who doesn’t. Butterflies and fireflies are fairies in disguise. The sun setting and the moon rising. A wish on a dandelion. Leafs changing and snow falling. That such a big sunflower can come from such as tiny seed.
​
Every day is a miracle. Fairies and Santa Clause are the embodiment of them. And just because I’m older doesn’t mean I don’t still believe and doesn’t mean the magic has disappeared. It’s only become stronger.

Acorn Tops will be away with the fairies for a little while. I will have little to no online presence and my Etsy store will be on vacation until further notice! I will be taking no custom orders during this time! I apologize for the inconvenience!

However, I will be still attending the local craft fairs/ boutiques/ events that can be found on my website's 'upcoming events' page! There are plenty of fairy doors, fairy houses, and other fairy products to enchant your world that can be found in stock at the Pagan Prides, A.C.E. and HMSB's Holiday Boutique!

I will keep you updated when I can! I wish you all the fairy best!

The box of my books finally arrived! (Can you hear the squealing from there?) And, let me tell you, it is like all the best Christmases all rolled up into one (I might have stolen that line from my mother)! For a profession that relies so heavily on words, it’s ironic that there are no words for moments like these. It is truly indescribable. I mean, I wrote that. This is my story, my baby.

It’s important to understand, though, I did not accomplish this alone. Yes, I wrote a story, but to get it into a form I can hold and open (and caress the cover and sniff) was the support and work and patience of many individuals. What makes these moments even more special is having these people I love stand beside me and support me on this incredible journey, like my boyfriend and the people I mention in the acknowledgements, such as my editor, my brother, one of my best friends.

Another person I mention is my other best friend and cover artist, Jessica Johnson. She deserves more recognition than I could possibly give. Her talent alone is award winning. But the reason why my books are so beautiful, part of the excitement when opening the box, is the masterpiece she made for my cover.

 I know I’ve been saying that a lot on social media, but there is no other word that could possibly fit. The details alone are outstanding, like that on the bricks or the wood (or the whole thing, really). But it’s also the attention to detail in the way it fits the story so perfectly - The shoes and wooden porch and the brick steps and the dandelion. And everything about the design came from her. She was one of my first readers and there could be no better book cover for my story.

This attention to detail is not unique in the beautiful book cover she illustrated for me. You can find it in all of her work, from her Cherry On Top or Pokémon Pinups to her newest goddess art print. Be sure to check out her work. Because trust me, whether you order her work online or buy it from her in person at one of her events, you will be as excited as I am!

Check out more of work:

• Website
  
• Etsy
  
• BigCartel
  
• Redbubble
  
• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Instagram

If you are anything like me, you have done many pretend author interviews in the bathroom mirror since you were about eight. Yes, indeed, I am a pro of this type of Q&A. We’ll see if that carries over to my interview with Dot Cannon from Noelophile blog at the Mystic Dragon Book Festival on August 15th.

Throughout all of those pretend interviews, as well as the millions (no, I’m pretty sure this is not an exaggeration) of author interviews I have watched online thanks to youtube, and that one time I saw Diana Gabaldon live, one of the most commonly asked question is when did you become a writer? When did you start writing?

When is a very different question then the why (which most, I have found, answer much like Descartes- “I write, therefore I am”). Writing is a state of being, how we got to that state, though, is as diverse as the people who write.

For me, personally, it is something I have always been doing. I don’t mean this as a simple answer or a cop-out. It is the truth and I owe it to the most powerful inspiration in my life, my mother.

I grew up to the sound of her fingers dancing across the keyboards, making new worlds to explore and new characters to meet and fall in love with. And those were some of my purely happy childhood memories. I still remember the first story she wrote. It was about a small acorn I found walking back from dropping my brother off at the bus stop.

We had a deal. She would let me stay up past my bedtime to get to listen to what more she wrote that day as long as I brushed her hair. And I learned a lot in those nights. I learned tricks for editing (reading aloud). I learned research and the lengths one could go and the different resources available. I learned spelling and grammar (and that even the best sometimes flub in that area). Most importantly, though, I learned the power of storytelling, the power of writing, the power of words. It ignited a spark.

I remember my countless sketchbooks filled with what most would call scribbles on the front, and on the back would be a corresponding very short story. My mom tells me on the way to ballet, I would tell stories from the moment the key in the ignition turned to the moment the car would park. I grew up writing and telling stories, and I owe much of that to my mother.

I was fortunate to not only grow up with a mom who was passionate about reading and who shared that passion with me, but to grow up at my mother’s keyboard as well as her bookshelves. And what is even more exciting, as I follow in her footsteps and publish my own stories, is getting to experience the stories and characters I grew up with being shared with the whole world, too. Mouse and Shadow; and Emma and John; and Ellie and Alex were my earliest and oldest friends and playmates. And to see them become a book I can hold and open and revisit any time, is indescribable.

So when did I become a writer? When did it all start? It started with the first word my mother typed.

Check out my mom’s blog/website: http://www.keyboardmusings.com/
Her Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Lieberman/e/B00NHI7PT6/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Her Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8442199.Barbara_Lieberman

When you are a child, you are handed down a lot of different things from your family. You have your name. Some idiosyncrasies you pick up along the way. You have the physical gifts and keepsakes. You also are given references, and by that I don’t necessarily mean what you would put on a job application. I mean, culture, whether it is the classics or more modern day pop culture. I mean, things they loved that they shared with you that you now have grown to love.

Growing up, if my family wasn’t randomly breaking out into song (because, yes, my life is and has always been a musical), we were tossing references back and forth. Close to every sentence has at least one reference, some so obscure those eavesdropping would have thought we were speaking a foreign language. This is probably why my newest book, Society’s Foundlings, is riddled with random references.

In the acknowledgements of my book I thank and tip my hat to a few of the people who have given me the building blocks of my reference palace, including by brother, Ben, my mother, Barb, and one of my best friends, Alyse. Someone who I failed to mention, though, was my Grandmother. And she is someone who deserves mentioning.

Anyone who knows about my Acorn Tops business knows well about my Grandmom’s influence and inspiration. One of the gifts she gave me, a picture, is now my logo and how I got the idea to carve fairy doors. She has also inspired products from my business, such as my collaboration with Seeds of Inspiration, the Seeds of Remembrance Rosemary Scented Fairy Pillows!

Though, she passed away when I was very young, she has given me a lot. She has added to my love of reading. I have her Anne of Green Gables books, the ones with her name written in them. I have her Anne of Green Gables doll. I order Eggs Benedict whenever I can for breakfast and orange cream ice cream at the boardwalk and the beach, just like she did. I share a name with her and am named after the same strong and incredible woman, she is named for. And, most relevant to this post, I share a love of Harvey, the movie about the 6ft 3.5in tall pooka. I even dressed up one year for Halloween as El Wood P. Dowd, with a hat that had slots cut in it for rabbit ears and business cards with one number crossed out (call me at this number, not at this number).

In Society’s Foundlings, the reference appears when three of the characters are gathered around the television. One, sitting upside down on the couch, offers non-stop commentary while they watch and another is showing off his knowledge of every movie ever made. It’s a very minuscule part, one that could easily be missed and would not even be worth mentioning, if not for the personal significance, and not necessarily my own.

A book, a movie, a song, a television show- they have memories tied to them. You see them, you hear them, and they make you pause for a moment with a small nostalgic smile. Because you remember that person it reminds you of, who first showed it to you, who watched it, read it, sang it with you. You remember that moment it’s associated with, like a photo album you don’t have to pull out of the top shelf of a closet. And you remember how it made you feel. The way it spoke to you.

John Green (yes I am referencing him once more), did a whole vlog about Harvey. As he says, “All I know is I woke up the morning after watching Harvey feeling a little bit better and in all the years since, I have never felt quite as hopeless as I did before I watched Harvey.”

If you haven’t watched Harvey, I suggest you do. It’s a life changer for sure. And maybe when you’re reading Society’s Foundlings and you come to the part where they are watching it, you will pause for a moment and smile.

As artists, we make a specific something with a specific purpose or reason in mind. We try to convey our own meanings.

Every time a customer walks into the booth, I give my well rehearsed spiel. "These are fairy doors. They are hand carved and hand painted. You stick them at the base of a tree or on a bookshelf, anywhere you want to invite the fairies." 

My main goal and purpose is to offer products that will draw the fairies into your world and enchant it. While accomplishing that goal, I have also sought out ways to appeal to a wide audience and remain unique.

Despite my intentions as the creator, the customers will find different ways to use my product and different meanings behind it. Take, for instance, Seeds of Inspiration's Ouch Pouch Line. This is an aromatherapy product that can be used in the freezer or microwave as an ice pack or heating pad. It's scented with lavender and chamomile and can be used for anything from bumps and bruises to ear aches and migraines. A friend and constant customer, Jess, used her personal ouch pouch on her bottle fed puppy. The poor little guy was the only one of his litter to survive and the ouch pouch neck wrap helped offer the comfort and warmth he normally would have found from his litter mates.

My customers tend to first have their interested piqued by recognizable, or even not so recognizable, designs. Then the door itself. Sometimes the purchase is for nostalgia, sharing the interest, or a different meaning behind the same message. A Dalmatian fairy door is now used to memorialize a beloved pet who has crossed the rainbow bridge. My TFIOS door becomes a reminder to a loved one that everything will always be okay. Or, most recently, a custom ordered 82nd Airborne fairy door will bring comfort to a little kid every time he gets scared at night.

Another example is my fairy bottles. They normally feature miniature scenes in tiny glass bottles. People have used them as ornaments to hang on their tree. They use it as attachments to key chains. Just a few months ago, at the steampunk convention it was used as part of a cosplay outfit.

John Green said books belong to their readers. The same goes for art. When that door leaves my booth, it opens to something more. It becomes more than I could ever dream.

About a month ago, my awesome friend and equally fantastic local artist, Jessica from Jessie J Inspiration's invited me to include some of my items in her booth at Her Royal Majesty Steampunk Expo at the Queen Mary. It was a three day event and from that experience we learned a few tricks and tips.

This weekend she and I are booth buddies once more at Whiskey Flat Days in Kernville (and there really is no better person to share with than Jess) While this is not exactly an Expo, it is a multi-day event with a clear theme, so many of these tips and tricks apply. Two weeks following, her and I will be at the Long Beach Comic Expo, and maybe I'll blog about a few more things we learn along the way.

But for now, here is what we learned and will be applying to our upcoming events:

1. Dress the Part
   This is essential! Most expos have a theme, as do many events, and it helps when selling to dress to that theme. If you are selling at a Steampunk Expo, it helps to dress Steampunk. At Whiskey Flat Days Jess, Barb from Seeds of Inspiration, Dean from DPR Collectibles, and I are all wearing cowboy hats. Jess and I are going to be decked out in comic-themed T-shirts at the Comic Expo. Just as you would wear a suit and tie or a nice dress to a business interview or a fancy dinner, you want to wear the appropriate outfit for the circumstance. This means playing dress up. You and your customers get more out of the event and your booth and it makes you more approachable. The customers are there for the whole sha-bang and would you want to buy from someone at the Ren Fair who looks like they belong in a modern day cubicle?
2. Mix it up
   There are many events and expos that last more than one day. When attending these events you'll find there are a lot of repeat customers. You'll find yourself saying "Howdy" or "Good Morrow" to the same people. You want to keep it interesting for them (and yourself). You want to give them a reason to come back to your booth after the second and third day. And the way to do this is to mix up your inventory. There are two way to do this.
   The first is by putting out new inventory each day. If you are someone like Seeds of Inspiration or DPR Collectibles with their crazy amount of inventory, this will be no problem for you. If you have just enough of an inventory to fill your 10x10 or the space looks better if you just have everything out at once, like with Jess and I, the second method would be best for you.
   This second method is simply rearranging your inventory each day. By doing this, the repeat customers will hopefully see something they didn't notice before. Something new will catch their eye. It could be something you had out since the beginning, but because you put it in a new place they have noticed it for the first time on the last day. And, as I said before, it keeps things interesting.
3. Match the theme
   This is a lot like dressing the part. If people are coming to an event like Whiskey Flat Days or a Comic Expo, they are going there to see that specific theme. They want to see and want to buy things that match this theme. It is why they are there. At the Steampunk Expo, Jess and I made the mistake of not having enough Steampunk products. Learn from our mistake and prepare ahead of time to have the desired inventory that will interest the specific group of customers you can predict will be at your event. Whiskey Flat Days will be mostly focused on Cowboys and the Old West (and because Kernville and Lake Isabella is known for it's fishing I threw some of that in there to). I already have a large pile of Superhero themed fairy doors for the Comic Exo. Stick with the theme. You won't be sorry.
4. Play the Part
   Again, a lot like dressing part and matching the theme. People who go to Expos or theme-specific events and Expos are there for the experience and the atmosphere as much as the shopping. Anyone whose been to the Ren Faire or a theme/amusement park knows and understands this. Chances are, if you are at an Expo or themed event, there will be some type of actors or characters walking around. At the Steampunk Expo there was one BlueBird who went around between shows playing the part of a pirate. Even customers came up to the booth with Victorian-age mannerism and slang or acting like robots. At the Comic Expo, Jess and I fully expect cosplayers. Play the part. It's part of the fun and it helps in not only drawing in customers but making the sale.
   It can be a bit nerve wracking or uncomfortable, especially at first and especially if you don't know how to reciprocate interactions, but at least try. It will get easier the more you do it. Researching ahead of time about the theme and the event can help. Maybe going to the event as a participant first to get comfortable in the environment and to see how others, whether they are other sellers or characters, do it. Perhaps play it out with some of your friends ahead of time just to get comfortable. This does help and, again, keeps the event fun and interesting for both you and the customer well into the last day.
   Think of it this way, you wouldn't talk to and act around your boss in the office the way you talk to or act around your friends hanging out on the weekends. You fit the way you talk, the way you interact to the circumstance, the same is true for the different places you sell.
5. Have enough inventory
   This is a really big one and can affect everything from making an event worth your time financially and stress level to maintaining the appearance of your booth and everything in between. I've talked a bit before in other blogs about how important inventory is and that it is make or break for your business. If you don't have inventory, you can't sell anything and you have those red days that empty your bank account (because lets face it these bigger theme events and expos are an expensive investment) and put you in the negative. Basic Entrepreneurship 101. You don't make it, you literally don't make it.
   So, it's safe to say we all know why it is important to have inventory, but what constitutes enough? How do you judge that? Off the number of days? Off of what can fill the whole of your booth space? The number of people who are expected to attend? We'd all like to come out of an event becoming millionaires, but if you're like me and you sell items in the price range of $5 or lower to about $35, this is not exactly a realistic goal.
   What constitutes as "enough" is an ongoing discussion we've been having at Handmade in South Bay. Barb often points out you need to take all expenses into consideration. This includes booth fees, gas, food, parking etc. For longer, further away events this might also include a lodging or hotel fee. Jess's idea is once we have all that figured out, to quadruple the cost. This way we make triple what we spend, because you want to get more back than that initial cost for the whole event (the booth fee, gas, food, hotel/lodging, parking, etc.).Once Jess quadrupled the cost, she divided that amount by the number of different categories of items we make. For me that is eight different categories. From there we have an even price point across all the categories and can figure out how many items from each category can meet that price point.
   For example, let's say an entire event (booth, gas, food, lodging, parking, etc.) costs $1,000 and I want to quadruple it. Now we're working toward $4,000. I have eight categories (dolls, doors, bottles, ornaments, houses, miniatures, pillows, and gardens). I divide my goal of $4,000 equally by my eight categories. This comes out to a goal of $500 of product for each category.
   Now I need to know how many items in each category I need to make. My ornaments and bottles are all $8. I divide the goal for that category of $500 by the $8. This tells me I need to make 63 bottles and 63 ornaments rounded up.
   Items like my houses and miniatures have prices that vary. My houses are anywhere between $8-$20 depending on the size and design. My miniatures can be anywhere from $5-$10. Here I take my lowest price point and use that to figure out how many items I need to make in that category. I already know I need at least $500 in each category, so for my houses I divide the $500 by the lowest price, $8, to get 63 houses. I divide the $500 goal by the lowest miniature price of $5 to get 100 of the miniature sets I need to make to meet the goal.
   Once you know how many items you need to make from each category, it also helps to organize and schedule your time.
6. Last but not least for now, have some type of swipe, such as a square.
   Being able to take a credit card can sometimes be the difference between a sale or not. Not everyone carries cash, and at the end of the day or near the end of the entire event some people are out of cash from spending it elsewhere. However, the vast majority of people have a credit card. Some device to take credit cards is a good thing to have at any event, not just multiday, themed ones or expos.
   
   

 These are a few tips I've collected from my experience so far. What are some of your tips and tricks? 

A sign at the start of the garden welcomes all the fairies to 'saddle up!'

A cowboy fairy forgot his hat after it fell off a ride on a buckin' bronc!

An abandoned wagon wheel leans against a succulent, ready for a fairy to reattach to another wagon!

Follow the horseshoes down a path lined with turquoise through the desert...

... to a fence where the cowboy fairy left his rope!

The Saddle Up fairy garden will be available at Whisky Flat Days in Kern, my next upcoming event!

Fairy garden miniature sets to make your own will also be available then!