The great debate in my house is when does spooky season really begin?
For some (like my daughter) it's a year 'round thing. For me, it's "hallow-thank-mas" season. One flows into the next. As I get older though, I'm finding I'm loving the spooky season vibe even more than Christmas!
Halloween has evolved so much since I was a kid. Back then, it might have been a few days -- maybe a party the weekend before, dressing up at school, and trick-or-treating was the end of it. Now, I love that the Halloween shops open in late August, we see skulls, pumpkins and witches out a the craft stores in July. And Luna's Parlour is right there with them. I launched the "spooky tree" line this year with our skull trees. These trees can be left out year 'round too - for those not into spooky season, they sometimes miss there's skulls on these trees (I have to point it out at shows all the time). Those who are into the spookiness see the skulls right away. The skull trees building their own little fan club (I just hope it doesn't go to their heads...lol).
We've also added a line of custom products - coasters, notebooks, bookmarks. We started with the spooky season theme! The camera (no matter how many pictures I took) does not do this green glittery coaster justice (it's says "cheers witches" topped with a witch hat). Yup. We broke down and bought us a Cricut. Boy are we having fun playing with it.
Why more stuff? I've learned a lot at being at so many events this year. One thing I've been searching for is items to supplement my gem trees, and ways to incorporate smaller, seasonal items into my booth. I'm still committed to handcrafted/handmade items. I'm committed to keeping with a nature theme and using new and repurposed items. Our product expansion is still about trees and what they give us for use in our daily lives. Cork and wooden coasters. Wooden bookmarks. Notebooks. Yes, I did add some ceramic coasters because of a special request....but I love printing trees on them (a pastel sample of an ink sublimated coaster to the left)! Right now we're only taking custom orders of 10 or more items for these coasters, notebooks and bookmarks - because I'm making them specially for you, to your custom request. (But if you see me at an event, I always have some of these items made up for sale)
Thanks for joining me on this crazy journey. Spooky season has been a huge inspiration for me to try new things, offer new items, and, most importantly, have fun doing it. I'm sure this time next year I'll have mixed things up again. One thing is for certain: the gem trees are the very heart of what I do and everything else just wraps around it.
Wishing everyone a great "spooky season!" We're at loads of events this fall and hope to see you at one coming up soon.
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