Greetings, Steemians!

I hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start! I feel like I've got a lot on my plate for the next few days, but needed to have a little relaxation time before getting back into it. And I totally did. 😍

Before getting into what I did for fun. Let's talk about Nonprofits!

Crestone Performances Inc.

I work for a nonprofit for the arts. I was brought in a few years ago to help fix a music festival (The Crestone Music Festival AKA CRESTFEST) that had been going strong for about 14 years but then began to significantly decline due to more and more festivals popping up in the area. When I came in the festival had already had a few years (in a row) ending in the red.

I tried. And I didn't do horribly.😏

I simply wasn't able to do enough in a short amount of time. The first year I was here I simply WATCHED and learned how the festival and organization was being run. I needed to be able to see what was working and what wasn't. And figure out if I could do anything about it. I was able to save a considerable amount of money, but alas, it wasn't enough. As expected, we ended AGAIN in the red. No change = no change.

We took suggestions from the community.

We really listened and tried to appease everyone. Turns out, that's pretty much impossible... and the messenger often gets shot. 😏 We lowered admission prices. We lowered vendor fees. I reduced the number of vendors overall in hopes they would be able to have more possible revenue. And more out of necessity than suggestion, we reduced the number of days from three to two. Another suggestion or praise of the festival was the overall safe, family feeling. I wanted to focus on that.

The Carnival.

I created from scratch a traveling carnival, with the intention that it could be used/rented/borrowed by other communities in our area to help raise FUN and funds. For the festival (last year) I set up 14 games under a big top tent, complete with Balloon Pop, A Dino Dig, Gone Fishin' and a Bean Bag Toss (to name a few). The kids and parents (and all those in between) had a blast! Unfortunately, the festival was still in decline and even with the draw of carnival games our attendance was at an all-time low.

Time for a break.

We really had no choice but to call off the 20th Anniversary festival (that would be this year 2018) and repay our (very) past debts, get back on our feet, and focus on our kid program. Honestly, I haven't felt the backlash of this decision yet. Though I'm sure it's coming...

About the Kids!

This is probably my favorite part of Crestone Performances Inc. (CPI). Our Youth Enrichment Program (YEP), completely separate financially from the festival, has been going strong for over 14 years. We bring high-quality performances, shows, presentations, and activities to local underprivileged schools and communities in our area. We are able to subsidize 50-100% of these programs for the schools, providing all aspects from booking to the performance. It's pretty awesome. While the past focus has been on music and the traditional arts, we are now integrating more Science and Technology options to help supplement current school curriculums.

Scholarships

We also offer scholarships to kids for... just about anything they ask for up to $500/year. Need some new colored pencils cause you dig drawing? Want to buy a guitar, but just don't have enough? Looking for a telescope so you can reach the stars? Kids under 18 are encouraged to apply ANY time during the year and must be residents of the San Luis Valley or surrounding areas.

That's what I've been doing.

So, yes, it's taking a LOT less of my time now that I'm not planning a huge festival. And that's quite nice. I am, however, still the Bookkeeper for the whole-shebang so have been working on taxes the last couple of weeks. Oh! And grants... Why must they all be so near the same time? Why? Sigh.😔 Alas, we just finished one a few days ago and have another deadline in the next couple of weeks. We are currently asking for money to continue our YEP offerings and hoping for a general support grant to help our community with more events. We have already received a new grant to continue with our Carnival and bring it to schools for THEM to use as a fundraiser.

It's a great idea.... cause it was mine. 😎

We provide the carnival and all aspects minus volunteers. Tickets, toys, prizes, set up, tear down is all provided by us and THEY get to keep all the proceeds from the carnival. It's literally FUNdraising! I'll be working on a post describing how I did everything, the math involved (to not LOSE money), charts, graphs (I like those...) and other helpful resources if you were getting started on your own.

The last few weeks have been busy, hard, too long & too short and sometimes stressful, but overall, I made it out alive.

Now. About that relaxing, AKA "Wine and Fingerpainting".

Yesterday morning the hubs @chrisroberts and I made a quick trip to the city. I literally had to drop something off at the accountant. We called and made plans to eat lunch with his dad and it was just lovely. We aren't really accustomed to coming to town without hours of shopping to take care of so had a pretty good leisurely time of it.

After lunch we went to Hobby Town a local hobby/toy store.

It's so cool. We ended up getting a new 2-player card game: RIVALS FOR CATAN DELUXE.

WE. ARE. STOKED. 😎

It's based on Settlers of Catan, which is just downright amazing but requires at least 3 players. I think we are going to give it a go this evening. Be on the lookout for a post about it!

We then stopped by the Dollar Tree, where everything is a dollar. 🤑

I pretty much LOVE this store. LOVE. I always pop in to see what new toys and games they have that may be good for carnival prizes. They never disappoint. This time we were literally just looking for something fun. We found it: FINGERPAINTS!!!!

So I poured myself a glass of wine, got a couple of napkins and dove right in!

The paint felt different than I expected. I suppose I thought it would be pretty much like most paints, but it totally wasn't. It was like... more wet, and strangely thicker, but still almost translucent. I started by painting the palm of my hand with a brush so I could do hand prints. These didn't turn out as awesome as expected, so I just kept going.

After just a glass and a half of wine, this masterpiece was born!

Turns out, fingerpainting is pretty fun and relaxing.

The mess (if you're an adult 😏) is pretty minimal. And as stated on the paint, it was non-toxic (well, I didn't taste it...) and washed off everything very easily.

Now, it's 3 o'clock and I've been building the anxiety that I've again spent too much time on a post.😔 I'm gonna go try to walk off that feeling. Time for the dog walks anyway.