Sakura comes: cherry petals and anime hair to stamp and ebay sales

Sakura is here, with Cherry Trees almost all in Blossom. The three day fan based anime festival starts on the 22nd. I have been busy passing out and also trying to get everything done by the time to leave for Seattle. It will take two days to safely transport my body to Seattle, so we are leaving mid week. Today, the weather was beautiful, and the Cherry Trees looked resplendent against the blue sky.
We didn’t hit the beachwalk in the sun as we had the annual stamp and craft fair today. This is where, in theory, we sell the stamps we don’t use and then replace them with new ones we will use on the postcard project AND make a profit (that's the part that never has been able to come out ahead). But we also have to see if we can get ink (as new is expensive), and stickers (again, for the postcards). I kicked in the money I had made over the last three weeks, and Linda and Cheryl put in funds too. I did some of the pre-sorting of sales stamps and Linda and Cheryl did the rest. The advantage of selling is seeing the goodies first before opening! Too bad the room was SO HOT, I was totally red faced as were many of the other sellers.

We got some wood backed stamps, which are easy for me to use, which range from the scenes of Venice, Salish Native Art to the first and most important Vampire (no, not the sparkly one): The Count, who taught me to count bodies, ‘vone, two, thr(rolled R’s)ee…”
There were some Stickers, including some vibrant colored Japanese and Chinese sticker sheets.
One find I made was a lot of mixed old ad stickers which filled an envelope. It was unmarked so for a few dollars, I had 40+ stickers advertising everything from Chick Corn Seed, Barbershops, Melons, Tea Rooms, and Bars.
We also got quite a few (a pile?) ‘backed’ stamped which require an acrylic block to mount the stamp onto to use. We have some, but are going to try to get some more. Here is our pile, which used up our funds, except enough for Pizza (back in Cardiff, Linda and I always had Pizza after a book faire) and a bit more. The stamp up top is a quote “A Canadian is a person who knows to make love in a canoe”. Honestly, I can’t remember that part at camp, but just showed that I went to the rather dull camps, and colleges. Nor did it show up when getting my passport: "Can you have sex in a canoe?" That’s not to say I didn' get full training for my canoeing including single handed canoeing for five miles around a series of islands. Oh, the lovely J-stroke. That actually does sound quite sexual.

In Prep for Sakura-con, I got my annual hair cut and color. Finally it is back to the natural color (anime red/pink). I am glad this one 'took', or gave full color in my hair as the medications as well as auto-immune diseases can effect the amount of color your hair picks up. This place has experience in doing coloring for women with auto-immune diseases but the cost of haircut hurts when a straight, ‘clip, clip, clip’ and another minute or two for the bangs costs $36 (ouch!)

Tomorrow, on Sunday evening, the ebay auction lot to raise money for emergencies is finishing. This will likely be the second to last or last ebay auction I have. It is very tiring, and very difficult even with Linda doing a stellar job to do these auctions. I am selling several of the series I have collected, including Fate/Stay Night, because I don’t believe it possible I can see the end of the story. I am also selling favorites which are out of print like Boy Princess and Queen’s Knight (a hughly popular Shojo series), Someday Dreamers and W Juliet because I don’t think I will have the time or strength to read them. I hope they end up in good homes. There are award winners, and Viz Signature line along with a few group lots. Let any manga fans know please, the sale is here.