Let's Not Forget Facebook (posted July 6, 2012)

Like just about every other small business owner and artist I know, I also have a Facebook page. It is Kay Foley & Ampersand Cards. You'll find lots of photos from shows as well as scans and photos of new work, inspiring quotations by others, news, updates and reminders about upcoming shows and events. I try to post something uplifting or energizing every day and I'm hoping to reach new people all the time.

If you are on Facebook, please go to my page, Like it, and Share the posts that you particularly like. Let me know, too, what you like best and would like to see more of. I would love to have my posts traveling all over the globe!

Finally! I'm Blogging (posted April 16, 2012)

In December 2010 I began writing a poem a day. My plan was to write them for 49 days, in honor of my poet friend Pam McClure, who had died the previous July of pancreatic cancer at the age of 49. A poem a day for 49 days. A stretch for me, as I have considered myself maybe a wordsmith but not really a poet. As it turned out, I never stopped. I reached one year of poems on December 14, 2011 and kept right on going. It has been a wonderful opening up and welcome writing discipline for me.

In July of 2011 I decided to start posting them on a blog, along with other things. Well, the other things haven't quite formulated themselves in my brain yet, but I am posting the poems. I offer them very humbly as Daily Poems, all untitled, and think of them partly as journal entries. Anyway, I'd love to see what you think of them.

I am also putting together a book with some of those earlier poems explicating the year following all the losses I sustained--my mother, a month later my two dogs, and seven months after that, my friend Pam--the year that I extricated myself from grief. The book is still in progress and so is the blog, in some ways. It has been enough so far to be posting the poems and not have missed a single day (although some get posted late if I'm out of town, etc.).

Anyway, please have a look and follow along with me, if that appeals. The link is below.

Lots of NEW Items at Cafepress!! (posted April 16, 2012)

I have just added a bunch of wonderful new designs to my Cafepress pages, where they are printed on T-shirts, magnets, water bottles, keychains and even baby stuff! Some are irreverent and some inspirational (as usual and as usual). (I have always claimed, after all, that I'm well-rounded.) Please take a look and let me know what you think--or even better, place an order! You can do that by clicking on the tab for T-SHIRTS or by using the link below.

If you like what you see, tell your friends, post it on Facebook, Pinterest, everywhere! And if you don't, well, let's keep that our little secret. But please have a look. I hope you'll find something you can't live without.

2011 Show Photos! (posted belatedly)

Paula St. James won the purchase award.

New Work on Wood

My Booth (showing new work on wood on left)

Oh, Salina! (posted June 21, 2010)

As usual, I return home from Salina KS with a fondness for the Smoky Hill River Festival, the artists, the staff, and the warm, welcoming patrons. I always say it is one of the friendliest shows I do. Miserable heat and humidity or pouring rain, the people come out and take in the entire event. I love the fact that people come into the booth just to say hi, how was your year, I'm so glad you're here, hope to see you next year, etc., etc. And many stop in each day of the River Festival or bring friends in or drop by on Sunday to say goodbye. I really do no other show like that.

I love, too, that the whole park is filled with art--not just in our booths but installed on fences and railings, on the grass, and even in the middle of the lake. There's a great spirit to this show, a real love of the arts, and it shows in everything that makes up the River Festival. The diverse music and performances, too, are like nothing you'd find anywhere else. I'm always trying to get my friends from Columbia to road trip over to Salina for this weekend. Many people who have moved away from Salina go back every year for it. I hope to, too!

Here are some photos that give you a flavor of the show.

Arts Fest on Walnut Street (posted May 9, 2010)

The weather held out for this show in Springfield MO, where spring weather is always a little tricky. Rain is usual, and tornado warnings and actual tornadoes are not out of the question. But we were lucky this year, with only a small amount of rain each day and lots of sun on Saturday.

Arts Fest patrons pour out for this show when the weather's nice, many of them with their dogs! It's a feast for dog lovers.

Although I was accosted by an angry artist during setup for the show, the end result was that I had loads of help all weekend from the always friendly and helpful staff. My high school friend Lyn McKenzie came on Saturday and gave me a break so I could roam around and look at all the wonderful art--one of my favorite things about doing shows. I wish I'd taken photos of booths and artists to show you, but I failed there. Anyway, I got away with two gorgeous pairs of earrings from jewelers Marguerite & Bob Vonesh and Suzette Nesbitt--and two beautiful angels by Tina Willis to hang on my walls. Lots more of my favorite artist friends were there--Bari Precious, DeeDee DiFabio-Lake, Jeff Walker, Patti Zieche, Al & Kris Clement, Laurie Mellenbruch, Rick Canham, Bradley Bauer and many more--and new artists whose work I loved, as well.

This is always a fun show, with lots for patrons to see and do. And I had a great Saturday evening with my friends Lyn and Spike, and Lyn pulled out a big box of memorabilia from our high school days--yearbooks, photos, and books and booklets I had made her back then. Always the writer and artist (though the art teacher at my Catholic all girls high school didn't seem to think so). We were full of dreams of New York and Paris! I guess some things never change . . .

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

My booth with my new wordless pieces

Another shot of the booth

Flags made by the kids

Kids' flags were strung across the entrance to the show

Mariachi Femenil Nuevo Tecalitlan

Spike and Lyn in my booth

Patrons could take rickshaw rides through the show

Two gals, two Titano accordions, and two port-o-potties

Brooklyn the Pink Poodle

Award of Mastery in 2-D Art at Queeny! (posted April 13, 2010)

This year three awards of excellence and three awards of mastery were presented in 2-D and 3-D art, along with a Best of Show and a couple of Honorable Mentions. I'm very pleased to have been chosen from among this great group of two-dimensional artists for this award. Klaus Kuntscher received Best of Show this year.

The show was indoors at the Greensfelder Complex at Queeny Park in Manchester MO. Unfortunately for us, it was a GORGEOUS weekend--perfect for an outdoor show but probably not the most conducive for indoor activities. But great jazz filled the air most of the weekend and it's always great to be back in St. Louis, where I grew up.

I had a great weekend with artist friends, faithful customers, and a bit of family time, too, with my brother, sister-in-law, and great niece.

Here are some photos from the show.

Me in My Booth With My Big Red Ribbon!!

Congrats from Bari

Maggie McCarthy Won the ArtMart Award

Two Jewelers--Nancy Koehler & Kathy Craddock

Bari Precious and Art Discovery for the Kids

DeeDee DiFabio in Her Fabulous Booth

NEW Facebook Fan Page for Kay Foley & Ampersand Cards (posted March 19, 2010)

Just finished creating a Fan Page for my work on Facebook and I am now feverishly counting the number of fans (35 last time I looked). I hope that if you are on Facebook, you'll become a fan and suggest the page to all your friends who are on Facebook! I'm posting photos of work that you have not seen here, as well as event photos and random thoughts (not too many of those). I hope you will take a look and if you do, I hope you enjoy it.

I'll be blogging soon, too, at www.kayfoley.com. I am trying desperately to come into the 21st century with all of this social networking. And really, it is fun.

So search for me under Kay Foley & Ampersand Cards on Facebook and let me know what you think!

Fall Shows & People (posted belatedly March 3, 2010)

Here it is March, with shows just around the corner and I'm just now getting around to posting photos from my fall shows. Life got in the way of doing a lot of things that I intended to do last fall, so here goes . . .

MOsaics in St. Charles MO

Here I am with ceramicist Sharon Jackson, my booth neighbor

Sharon with David Haight

Me and photographer Todd Shaak

St. James Court Art Show - Louisville KY

Customers in and out of my booth

Admiring customer in my booth

My booth neighbor William Greenwood, Jeweler

Winterfest - Springfield MO

One of many helpful Runners!

My childhood friend Lyn McKenzie

A young customer in my booth

Bari Precious and Mom about to go off cruising!

Jeweler Extraordinaire Pat Zieche

Hey, I Won Another Prize! (posted September 10, 2009)

I exhibited at the Art Fair at Queeny Park in St. Louis last weekend and was awarded a second place ribbon in 2-dimensional art. The show was going along a little slowly for me on Saturday, and juror John Dyess stopped by to chat with me about my work, introduced his wife Carolyn, a graphic designer, and I appreciated the care they took to talk with all of the 2-D artists. On Sunday morning I walked over to my booth to see a big beautiful red ribbon hanging there! Too wonderful! It came with a cash prize and then Sunday turned out to be a great sales day, so all in all I was very happy with the show. I drove home that night with the ribbon on my passenger side visor.

I also received the gift of a sweet little "lucky" necklace from jeweler DeeDee DiFabio, just because, and made some wonderful trades with jeweler Marguerite Vonesh and Best of Show winner Jerry Brown. As usual I enjoyed catching up with many artist friends and made some new ones. Shows always seem to fill me up with positive energy--from artists as well as customers--and this one was no exception.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, chatted, bought stuff . . . All of that is SO appreciated!

My Books on Amazon! (posted August 16, 2009)

I have finally taken the step of posting my books on Amazon.com. Woo-hoo!! I suppose I still had some weird nervousness about doing that, but I'm all over it now, and I am pleased to report that I'm putting my books way out into the great big world at last.

While I'm very happy to sell my books directly to you and others, I am hoping that some of you who already have either or both of the books might take a few minutes to write a glowing customer review for Amazon. It would really be great and it would help me out a lot to have some fabulous rave reviews posted right there. You can do this by going to the page for the book and scrolling down to a button that says Create Your Own Review. (Unfortunately, I have found that there is another Kay Foley out there who's writing books! AND there is a toy company called Merrythoughts! So you should search for the books by title AND author, if you want to find them quickly. OR you can just follow the links below.)

Thanks so much and thanks for giving me the confidence to do this!

Shows, shows, shows (posted June 22, 2009)

Still coming off of the high of two wonderful shows--Arts Fest in Iowa City and the Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina Kansas. Iowa City is one of my favorite, hip and groovy places to go, and my great friend Patti Z, the nearly famous quilt artist lives there, so I have many reasons to go back. Patti is one of the people who helped me through the recovery period after my car wreck in 2007, and I had not seen her since then. She was so great about telling all her friends about me that many of them came up to me asking how I was feeling since the wreck, etc. So there's a great homey feeling to going there.

And then last weekend, Salina . . . Well, there MIGHT be a warmer, more welcoming town someplace, but I don't know where it is. That show is put on by the greatest bunch of people, with loads of friendly volunteers, and the customers are wonderful, coming back each day to say hello, take another look, or just to tell me, "I read your book last night and I just wanted to say thank you" or just to say, "Thank you SO MUCH for coming and I hope you come back next year!" Boy. A gal could get spoiled. And the artists who are chosen to be in that show are truly among the best and nicest I ever run into on the show circuit. It was a magical weekend.

BOTH weekends the weather forecast was dire and BOTH weekends the bad weather and rain skirted around us, or only happened at night. I was fervently asking God/the Universe/Mother Nature to please please please make the rain wait until Monday and sure enough . . . we were so very lucky! THANK YOU and thank you to all the great people I met and talked to.

Here are some photos from those two WONDERFUL shows! The first two are of my booth in Iowa City. That next nice photo of me was taken by Rodney May, from Florida, who took some great photos of the whole festival in Salina. Next is my friend Bari Precious, potter extraordinaire of Marshfield MO, then Heinrich Leonhard, gifted ceramicist from right here in Columbia MO, joking around with Al Clement, another great potter from Springfield MO. And finally, Tracine Saulters and crew, the best positive energy bunch of people in the world. Tracine is a jeweler and I am wearing one of her gorgeous necklaces!

All That Glitters . . . (posted May 23, 2009)

Well, I suppose the faltering economy has taken a bite out of the National Stationery Show, for it was not quite as busy or as grand as I had expected. The big companies' booths were, of course, quite grand and beautiful (here's a photo of my little booth), and it was amazing to see the work of many wonderful smaller card makers. I can honestly say that I gave this show my absolute best and am only hoping for lots of good things to come. I met some great people and made some very nice contacts, and who knows what may still come of it? Many thanks to all of those who stopped in the booth and appreciated my work. And a million thank yous to my son Cole, without whom I could not have done this at all. Cole lives in Brooklyn and we had wonderful times together, traipsing all over Manhattan. I LOVE New York City and all that it has to offer--the incredible diversity of its people and places, beautiful architecture, amazing food, and gorgeous Central Park. Can't wait to go back!

Another Prize!!! (posted October 20, 2008)

I was given an Award of Recognition at the MOsaics Festival of the Arts. The arts festival took place September 19, 20, and 21 in beautiful downtown St. Charles, Missouri. The show's juror, John Dean, a landscape painter and teacher of painting who is a featured artist at The Foundry Centre for the Arts in St. Charles, was quite enthusiastic about my work. I was thrilled to receive both a certificate and a monetary prize, as well as his wonderful, kind comments. Awards were given at our booths, with lots of clapping and cheering, and a listing of prize winners was handed out at the artist's breakfast on Sunday morning. There were five Awards of Excellence and ten Awards of Recognition.

I am feeling quite validated lately!

2D BEST OF SHOW At Arts Fest on Walnut Street! (posted May, 2008)

On May 3rd, I was thrilled to receive the award for Best of Show in Two-Dimensional Art for my work at Arts Fest on Walnut Street in Springfield, Missouri. My work was compared with that of painters, printmakers, mixed media, and other two-dimensional artists, and I was flat-out flabbergasted to receive the prize! The award came on Saturday afternoon, just as I was hoping to grab a boothsitter to give me a break. Show organizers drove up to my booth in a golf cart, and I assumed they were just in time to offer me a bottle of water or a short food/bathroom break. But no! They were bringing this marvelous award! I hung the sign in my booth and went running around the show to let my artist friends see the groovy plaque. I didn't stop grinning all weekend long.

Judges this year included a watercolorist, mixed media artist, and professor of art history. I am very thankful to the sponsors of the award, Jim Stout, Neanie Squires, Virginia Bussey, and Cliff Cottage Inn, for the monetary prize that came with it.

This prize, on top of gorgeous weather, great sales, a very well-organized show, and a visit with my childhood girlfriend, made for a perfect weekend in Springfield MO. I will definitely be back next year!

(Photo courtesy of Anna Squires)

KAY FOLEY T-SHIRTS & GIFTS

I hope you've noticed that item in the menu bar that reads T-Shirts, Etc. Click on it and you will be taken to Cafepress.com, where you can purchase my designs on T-shirts, mugs, bags, magnets, hoodies, coasters, and even dog shirts and baby's onesies! I've just been working with a few designs so far, but there are more to come. And I'm selling magnets and t-shirts at a few upcoming shows. Hope to see you, but if not, check it out!

Thanks To All! (Posted May 2007)

You may have noticed that I haven't posted many show listings this year. Well, some of you may know that I had a terrible car accident in February, resulting in five broken vertebrae. On February 12th, I was taken to two ERs, where the concensus was that I was extremely lucky to have escaped paralysis. I had a pretty scary looking x-ray. Anyway, I had surgery on February 13th, and was sent home a few days later in a neck brace.

My family and friends really came through for me, and I am forever grateful to all of them. My sister Pat arrived from California the day after the accident, stayed with me in the hospital, and took care of me at home. Then Eileen, from Tucson, flew in and took over. Mary came later, and helped me get my studio into shape. My friend Claire organized a silent auction on my behalf, and many friends donated and/or purchased items. My mom, siblings, and sons pitched in with financial support as well. And our wonderful arts organization here in Missouri, the Best of Missouri Hands, took up donations.

I heard from many artist friends around the country, and received cards, notes, and letters from all over. I have been overwhelmed with gratitude at the kindness and love showered on me by so many.

After twelve weeks in a neck brace, I've just been set free and am back at work! I am one lucky gal to have escaped much worse injury and to have so many wonderful friends and family that came through for me. Thank you all so very much!

Kay Foley Rubber Stamps

The gals at River City Rubber Works reproduce some of my verses as the fabulous Kay Foley Dilettante rubber stamps, so if you want to try making your own cards with my words, here's your chance. (Of course, everything is copyrighted, so they should be reserved for personal use.)

Everything they make is available wholesale and retail, and you can order a catalog through their website. The catalog itself is loads of fun to read, as it reflects the zany humor and abundant energy of these three great gals, Mary, Dana, and Leeanne. I know you'll love it! Go to their website and order one right now! www.rivercityrubberworks.com

River City has been manufacturing their products at The Big Red Barn, but life changes are calling for a new location, so they have moved operations to Haysville KS. But you can find them online anytime (below).