The craft fair and the end of my slow meltdown.

I got the bright idea at the end of last December and, from then on, set this year on a trajectory of foolishness.

First, the details:

• What: The Pride of Dakota Holiday Showcase in Bismarck, ND featuring booths full of North Dakota-made products.

• Where: Bismarck Event Center

• When: Friday, December 6 (12 - 8 p) and Saturday, December 7 (9 - 5 p)

I have notebooks of carefully planned details, goals and objectives, planning dates, product completion dates, and everything you could imagine, but right now my brain is falling out and I hope I remember to put on my pants that morning.

If you visit my website’s “about” page, you’ll see the ideology I’m functioning under.

As people become minimalist and do everything “paperless” we are left with digital artifacts that are easily deleted, stuck on devices, and at the mercies of tech providers who determine how much we can store, what we can store, and if we’ll need to replace the devices or formats they are stored in. Click the wrong button and we forget how we got through life.​

Even worse, we rely on templates, filters, and trends to generate these digital artifacts, pretending they make something unique and original even though they make everything the same. It’s not easy being the truly unique person God made you to be in a world that encourages trends of sameness, or brutish attempts to be seen.

Fire marshals everywhere do not agree.

But I theorize that you can throw off the miserable algorithms by using paper. Of which I have plenty. You can also do it by being different than the Standard Modern Existence—a cousin to SAD, the Standard American Diet—and not falling into the standard by simply existing away from connected screens. Just as trying to create randomness creates a pattern, trying to be different creates sameness. Being an average bloke living more offline doing nothing special in particular makes you incredibly different these days. If you can watch TV commercials or hear people talking with modern lingo and feel confused, you’re doing it right.

You know what else throws off the algorithm? My approach to preparing.

My friend, who is helping me, is a bit more of a planner than even me, so when I respond, “We’ll just play it by ear” or “I’ll know when we get there and start setting up,” I imagine the internal pain is significant but the artist in me just knows some things I can’t decide until I’m in the place.

I shared some of what I was creating over on my business Facebook page, but that does not properly capture the abject chaos of the year: paper, glue, and scissors, a crafter’s Rochambeau.

I thought I’d keep things reasonable and not overstress myself this year by…making hundreds of cards in which each one was drawn, painted, and assembled by hand.

I made some North Dakota-themed prints and postcards that I will delicately tell people the state tourism department has not endorsed.

I finished the third book in The Mystery of Whisper Bay children’s series in time because while I have many more planned, I felt there needed to at least be a trilogy because that seems stable. And now there is a trilogy. Plus, a giant painting for the back of the display featuring all of the main characters took forever to do.

And other stuff.

More than once people have asked me what my goal was with this show. It’s a legitimate question. My goal is to sell my books and let people know that my website and business exist, sure, but even more I want to bring some joy.

Yes, I’m that schmaltzy.

Somewhere around March of this year, the four-year mark since the start of the pandemic, I decided to attempt to define success by whether or not it brought joy into people’s lives instead of usual benchmarks. Wouldn’t that be a good use of the gifts God gave us? Couldn’t we use more joy instead of more targeted marketing to lighten the wallet?

So when I’m making something, I ask if the thing is something that could make a person laugh, smile, or feel valued. Would I enjoy having this? Would I like it? Maybe a hand-drawn card or funny postcard or one-of-a-kind blank travel journal can do that. Maybe an autographed book for a young reader who likes mysteries can do that. I don’t know. We’ll find out.

I have no idea what to expect at this point.

The whole year I’ve been creating all of this stuff non-stop in significant self-doubt—a condensed version of the past 20 years—and that is a tiring way to spend eleven months of your life. It’s also tough to eat the expenses of booth rental, signs, printing, marketing, and everything else, knowing it will take a miracle to recoup that amount, especially in this economy.

It’s just the cost of doing business. It’s a business expense. A tax write-off. You have to try.

Joy doesn’t come cheap, but God owns the cattle of a thousand hills so I’ll just trust in that.

I’m game to give it a try, at least for one year. I’m wary, though.

I was with my sister at a fiber show in Hopkins, Minnesota a few days before the election, and the foot traffic was light. I know that the Pride of Dakota shows are much bigger, but it still fed doubts as to not just the financial investment but the energy investment that artists and crafters put into their work when we have a $5 or less section at Target that is full of cute things that were last year’s breakout ideas at craft fairs. If tariffs shut down the cheap Chinese product pipeline, would people’s attitudes on owning lots of cheap products shift to owning a few unique ones?

Fiber and craft fair. My sister sells wool cloud, yarn, hides, and more. CrookedFenceRanch.com

From my experiences attending the Pride of Dakota show as a customer, the people who do the best are selling soap, food, and alcohol, not stationery and books. We don’t mind buying consumables because we’re already drowning in a world of possessions. I get it.

Still, I’m going for that unique, truly one-of-a-kind experience and hoping there is still value in it for someone. So I will be there at a little table in the booth creating on-site as I’m able just so people can see that, indeed, the thing they are buying has my literal and figurative fingerprints all over it.

If you’re in Bismarck this weekend, December 6-7, stop by the Event Center. The show is free to get into, it’s a lot of fun, there are so many great products (and food samples), and I’ll be sure to say hi.