Poking Things With Sticks

78704 Market; Selling in the real world

Tangerinepiggy — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:49:03 +0000

Well I have finally recovered enough from sitting in the hot hot sun to let y’all know how it went. I had a 5′X5′ booth space at the 78704 Market for yesterday. I set up right along the sidewalk in front of a food trailer that sold vegan tamales. I will have to go back and try them some time. The day was pretty slow but it was also too hot for anyone in their right mind to be hanging out outside. I still made back my booth fee however. What will follow is a list of thoughts about the market and some pictures. If you are interested click on.

Lessons Learned: I can sit outside in the 100°+ heat with very little negative repercussions, I need an umbrella/to get that tent I took out of the dumpster fixed, it is possible to tan while slathered in SPF 50 sunscreen even if you reapply it every 3 hours, my work brings smiles to almost everybody even if they don’t stop to buy anything, it can get so hot in the direct sun that the adhesive on masking tape will melt and adhere equally to everything.

Dumbest Statement Made By a Passer By:“Damn I thought you were selling pills I got all excited” She was serious.

Awesome Moments:A dad bought a set of flat pack robots and said, “my kid will never figure this out.” 30 minutes later he came by with his two kids and showed them my built robots and said this is what you will be building and the kids eyes lit up and they got all excited.
Any time a kid looked at my work and their eyes lit up. It happened a lot.
At the end of the night just as I was about to pack up a couple walking past gave me a cupcake from Hey Cupcake for no reason I offered a sticker in trade and it turned into my biggest sale of the night.
The sun setting.(you have no idea how happy that made me.)

Most popular Item:Flat Pack Anti-Boredom Robots

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Purple outsides green insides

Tangerinepiggy — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:46:39 +0000

Well it turns out I missed a bean in all my snacking yesterday. So here is a picture showing the green insides. It was still warm from the sun when I ate it. Mmmmm purple green beans. I hope you enjoy the picture as much I enjoyed eating it.

Storm and tasty garden Surprises.

Tangerinepiggy — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:19:42 +0000

We had a big rain storm come through the past two days here. The tomato plant bent it’s wire tower and is now leaning over along with the corn. I will need to get some steaks to give these guys some needed extra support. The Tomatoes are proving so far to be the most prolific producers. There are at least eight tomatoes growing bigger everyday. While I was looking at the corn and tomato plants I noticed my purple green beans had five beans that were ready to harvest. The weird thing about the purple green beans is they are green inside. I had eaten them all by the time I realized this would make a good picture sorry. My edamame plants have pods I am not sure how to tell when they are ripe I think the leaves are supposed to turn a bit yellow. Any tips on telling when edamame is ready please send them my way. Other than that the potato towers seem to be doing well. They are tall enough for another tire so I will have to swing by the tire store this weekend before I head off on vacation. Well I have rambled long enough here are some pictures.

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Mr. Tramps Homeless Art Show

Tangerinepiggy — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:46:48 +0000

Well this past weekend I went to my first craft show as a vendor. In preparation for this I built a few neat display stands. I will be posting more about how I made these stands later. For now I will focus on the craft show. It was the first craft show at Mr.Tramps and I am pretty sure it was not publicized well as only 3 people showed up to buy things. That was a little disappointing on the other hand I sold two post cards and a button which puts me at a 100% conversion rate. Woot! Mostly I went to Mr.Tramps expecting very low foot traffic and as a way to get a table set up with out much pressure. In that sense it was a very successful event. Here are some pictures of my table set up.

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Victory Garden Update

Tangerinepiggy — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:05:29 +0000

Well the weather is getting warmer and I thought it was time I post another update of my garden. There is good news and bad news with this update. I thought I would start with the bad news. The first sad note is that my parsley seedlings who looked so promising in their self watering bucket were all lost as some creature’s midnight snack. Eaten just as they were beginning to grow their first real leaves. My Swiss chard just never even tried. So it is with sadness in my heart that I morn the veggies I will not get to eat. On the bright side I have planted some watermelon seeds where my other plants once were and the rest of the garden seems to be thriving. Read on for more info and pictures.

There are some new additions to the garden since my last post. New to the garden are two different types of roasting potatoes. I will be hilling them soon and in another month expect to place the second story on their tire homes. Also the soy and purple beans have sprouted and are doing quite well. Well enough that they are quickly outpacing the corn they were meant to grow on. So I will be investing in some trellising for them. The Tomato plant is doing well and looks like it will produce at least three tomatoes. It’s neighbor the pepper plant has become home to a cleaver spider who has been having quite the feast lately. With out further ado here are some pictures.

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Victory Garden Update

Tangerinepiggy — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:22:09 +0000

We have achieved seedlings! this morning I went out to take a look at the garden and was greeted by some corn and Swiss chard seedlings. YAY! so far so good.

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The 13th Step

Tangerinepiggy — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:45:36 +0000

I all started a few months back when I was out at the Texas Thrift store and I saw staring up at me form the used book shelves two AA Books. It was a pure moment…a purely evil moment that is. My oh that’s so wrong giggle slipped out and before I knew it I was starting down the path towards the 13th step. Here you will find pictures of this piece of art. Made by hollowing out the book. I think it needs some gesso to white wash the containing pages but here are my wicked thoughts made real. I hope you enjoy.

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Lazy Day

Tangerinepiggy — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:56:12 +0000

Well now that SXSW is over I decided to take a lazy day and catch up on chores.
However in my laziness I decided I wanted a tasty snack that’s when I decided to make cheese filled jalapenos.
It was easy I cut off the top, cleaned out the insides, stuffed them with Monterrey Jack, and stuck them in a 350°f oven till tender (about 35-40 min). What better to wash down my tasty peppers than sun tea. Hope you all had a more productive day than I did.

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Laser Cut Jewelry

Tangerinepiggy — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:44:13 +0000

Well when I was last in the bay area I went bead shopping with my mom and saw laser cut jewelry. I was inspired and scheduled some quality laser time at the Tech Shop Menlo Park. Using inkscape I doodled up some bobble and got to cutting.

Now I am back in Austin and been trying to relax in between the crazy SXSW schedule. I am posting them day by day to my etsy store Check out the gallery below for a sample of what I have made so far.

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Victory Garden

Tangerinepiggy — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:29:03 +0000

For a long time now I have wanted a small vegetable garden. Having finally gotten a day off I decided to make a go at it. The day stared at the store where I bought wood that was too big for my car with the intention of ratchet strapping it to my roof only to find I left my straps at home… an interesting eight blocks latter I was home and fortunately so was my lumber.

The concept behind a raised bed is simple. Build a box with no top or bottom put it on the ground and fill with dirt. It is really that simple. I build my box out of three 2″x10″x8′ to form a 8′x4′ box. I put cardboard down to kill the weeds under the garden, it will break down eventually, and filled it with dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. Tori took lots of pictures of the process and there is a gallery if you want to check them out. I will update as things start to grow and those things that should be growing are, corn, tomatoes, jalapenos, Swiss chard, black berries, mint, and basil. Once the corn gets to be about 3 inches tall I am going to plant two different types of bean to grow up the corn stock followed by summer squash. This is what the Hopi Indians called the three sisters. I hope it works out. Thanks again for taking a look.

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