Another end-of-busy-summer update

Wow, if summer 2022 Kate thought she was busy, she'd have to sit down before hearing about what summer 2023 had in store for her!

For starters: my husband Mark and I bought our first house! We closed the very weekend of Opa Fest, and moved in the following weekend. Yes - while crocheting up a storm in preparation for my first two markets ever, I was also in the process of packing and decluttering. To say it was a stressful time would be a pretty massive understatement!

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stock clipart image used rather than a photo because I don't want to get doxxed with a photo of my real house ;)

When we bought the house, it seemed like it was in great shape and we were looking forward to replacing carpets, painting rooms - the fun decorating parts of homeownership. Instead, we found out that the basement was in need of waterproofing, which led to all kinds of plumbing and electrical projects. And while we thought the roof had about 5 years left on it, when we got a few small patches we learned that no, really it needs to be replaced in the next 1-2 years. Turns out, owning a 63-year-old house is a LOT of work and a lot more expensive than the down payment, mortgage, utilities, and taxes (as if all of those combined weren't expensive enough!!).

Alaska is absolutely beautiful!

Between all of the house stuff, we went on family vacation the week after we moved in and we both wound up with covid when we got home. Thankfully we both had pretty mild cases, since we're both quadruple-vaccinated and we wore masks on the plane, but boy was it a slog trying to unpack and settle in while sick! Thankfully, we were both healthy in time for my scheduled market events in July: Farmington Founder's Day Festival and the Berkley Farmer's Market/ Hippie Fest.

Earlier this year, I thought I was going to be taking August off from the crochet business in order to work on set of an independent movie, One Reckless Weekend. Unfortunately, the SAG-AFRTA strike in Hollywood has affected this production and we haven't been able to film yet. It's a very small, low-budget indie film with no distribution contracts as of yet so if we were to film it would not be undermining the strike; however, several of our lead actors are in SAG and so we have to get approval for them to work. As you can imagine, this is a pretty slow process with the union being on strike. Filming was initially pushed back to September, but the paperwork didn't get approved in time so now it has been pushed to October. 

By the time I found out about the delay in production, it was too late to schedule any August events. I can probably squeeze in one or two events for September, so be on the lookout for updates! In case you missed my Instagram post, my fall calendar looks like this:

So you will have PLENTY of opportunities to shop with me in person before the holidays! Stay tuned on Facebook, Instagram, and here on the blog to find out if I add in any September events.

It is likely that I won't, however - I've got a LOT of inventory to make before all of those fall markets! I've also been busy doing a lot of behind the scenes work to boost my business. I'm working through a holiday prep course in order to prepare and strengthen my Etsy shop for the holidays, learning how to use Pinterest for business, starting to build an email subscription list, and reorganizing my yarn inventory into some gorgeous vintage cabinets given to me by a friend. (Okay, that part may be a little more for me than for my business - but if I can feel better about my organization strategy, then I can work my business better!)

So, long story short: it's been a WAY busy summer, and the fall is not going to settle down very much! I'm really excited for everything this fall is going to offer (including my first wedding anniversary!). What do you have in store for the fall? Will you be able to attend any of the events I'll be at? Let me know in the comments!

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