Art Fair News (with major editing)

First of all I didn't mean to worry anyone with my last post. I was exhausted and felt that the Art Fair kicked my tooshie.

Monday: I knew we were going to be on gravel and didn't want my bags ruined so hubbie and I ran to builders carpet to get me and my friend each a chunk of carpet, which turned out to be a great thing.

They were predicting the weather in the 90's so I ran to Fashion Bug to get some nicer tanks with the built in bras (my fave). I just feel so much cooler with bare shoulders. I ended up with 3 for $16 and change. Not bad.

I loaded everything in the monster truck and was ready to go.

Tuesday: The kids and I get there, set up the tent, racked everything and got the bleep out of there before it got crazy busy with other artists.

My friend got a late start, so I met her there at 10pm and helped her set up and were home by midnight.

We left the house Wednesday at 8:30. parked at the mall and caught the shuttle to avoid the huge parking fees. I love riding the bus, it feels so big city.

This is Wednesday, first day of the Art Fair, note the nice carpet.

It looked so nice (note the term looked)

It was a long, hot first day. Sales were slower than usual according to artists who'd been there before, and slower than I'd hoped but the people were very nice.

We closed up our tents, caught the shuttle and were home by 10:30.

I showered, hit the sheets and was asleep about 20 minutes when the phone rang.

It was Josh. I'm not sure what Joshs title is but he was the assistant of the coordinator so I knew it wasn't good that he was calling me. So I say "What happened to my tent?" It wasn't mine but my friends tent. Freaky storm blew in and trashed her tent and he told me it was bad. So I wake her, she thought I was kidding, we get there a bit after midnight other tents had toppled and her tent was trashed, broken metal. Luckily only one painting with glass broke and one other had a bit of water damage on the mat. Could have been worse. We dried off all the shrink wrapped paintings and stored them in the building we were using for potty and water breaks.

I tubed up all my things and lowered the tent since the weather was still an issue.

We were devastated and figured it's now 2am well figure out something in the morning.

So of course I couldn't sleep and needed to find a way to help my friend, I call my Mom at 6am, she has one of those quick shade tents, not great but what else can I do. I meet her halfway to her house, give thanks and smooches and head home. I pack lunches, get dressed, wake my friend and tell her all she has to do is shower and go, I have everything covered, she reluctantly agrees. I pack the little car and we head out to see what we can do.

I give her my tent, I take the smaller and less nice shade tent and just as we have the big stuff set up, in comes the Calvary. My Mom, Sister, her kids, my Step mom and my kids. They help hang bags, stack tissue packs and haul out watercolors. I am a lucky woman with a great family.

This is where I spent the rest of the fair, not as nice looking but my customers didn't seem to mind.

This is where the story becomes a giant blank spot due to personal things and respect to a 28 year friendship. Lets just say it got me down in the dumps a bit.

My fashion model earned her keep. Day three I put an apron on her and she sold 2 of them.

The last day was rainy/misty and I used the sides from the trashed tent. They didn't quite fit and looked kind of junky but kept me somewhat dry and got me through.

Quitting time was 6pm Saturday and my hubbie and kids showed up and made quick work of packing our stuff. Luckily it stopped raining for the hour it took to load up. YAY!

Total tally

I sold 31 bags (2 of those were llama bags, thanks Lisa)

2 sheet book bags, 9 tissue packs, 2 aprons, 1 art postcard and 1 pack of buttons.

No chick bags though, what is up with city gals?

Even though that was the most in sales of any show I've done, the booth fee was so high it took the first 2 days of sales to cover my costs.

Things I already knew

I have a great family

other artists are great people

I love my customers, not just because they purchased something but they made me feel so wonderful with their kind words and make me want to continue this path

Things I learned

Bigger isn't always better show wise. There were so many cheepie mass produced items for sale all over the city, it seemed more like a flea market than an Art Fair. Even thought I was invited back, I'm sticking to my smaller, more quality shows.

Giving help that wasn't asked for isn't always appreciated

If I drink tons of water and stand on my feet for 14 hours on 90 degree days, my ankles swell up like water baloons. So Gross.

I really missed my blog friends

Three weeks till the next show

Its a good thing I'm young ;-)

Ooohhh lookie what i got. I took a welding class a couple of years ago at our local college and they had a booth there and one of the instructors is this awsomely cool chick, well she gifted me with this dog food bowl stand. Ain't it cool!

What can I say...

Do you have those times when you think something is going to turn out one way and it turns out way different than you hoped?

I'm not quite ready to share all that happened this week but I found something on utube that sums it up quite well.

The Cat represents the Art Fair and the Dramatic Prairie Dog represents me.


http://www.livevideo.com/video/F793FFF784D2482282A3BA4A41270D52/cat-vs-dramatic-prairie-dog.aspx


I need to go unload my car.

I'm back! Sort of.

Every summer my dad and stepmom, our family, my sisters' family, my brothers' family, an aunt and uncle and their granddaughter, all converge on my dads cabin in the woods. Its located in northern Michigan, with pit stops it's about a 4 hour drive.

The kids rode up with grandma and grandpa on Wednesday to get an early start. I spent Wednesday getting my mini farm set for the long weekend. I fill huge water buckets, put out tons of grain and feed, then mow the yard and cram the grass into the outdoor runs. The runs are old swing set frames covered with chain link fencing, ugly but secure.

Thursday morning, we loaded the car. I picked everything in the garden, peas mostly, gathered every last egg and off we went.

Hubbie, the pup and I set off to the great north.

Passing lake Cadillac.

And a ski resort.

Somebody napped on the way up.

We finally made it.

Being up north is fun, we cook out on the campfire.

Go on nature walks.

There is a neat old tree with names carved in it.

Deer tracks every where.

Wildflowers galore. I have no idea what this is.

My siblings bring their campers but we usually bunk in the cabin with the Grandparents.

Luckily in the summer we don't need heat.

My brother builds a tepee and the kids take turns sleeping there.

Did the Indians use blue tarps?

On Friday we rafted the Pine river. Saturday we played at the lake.

Sorry no pics, I didn't want to risk the camera.

The morning view, one morning was deer and another a wild turkey.

Frog catching, horseshoes and laughter are the main activities.

Saturday the kids put on skits up on the porch and my brother makes a crawdad boil. Spicy hot onions, sausage, potatoes, corn on the cob and crayfish caught from the pond.

My dad who eats pickled pigs feet wont eat a crayfish. Go figure.

Sunday means time to go.

It was a tighter squeeze on the way home but the pup loved being squished between his kids.

I always get nervous on the way home, wondering if my chickens are well.

Everyone was fine.

I had tons of peas to pick and 19 eggs! Those girls were busy.

Bandit and her two week old brood were happy to be let out.

"Any news Bratty?"

Yep, she is a mom of three!

I love vacations but i also love coming home.

Today I have to pack for the show and get everything ready for my family to survive without me. Tomorrow I set up and the show starts Wednesday.

10 am to 9 pm Wednesday through Friday, 10 to 6 on Saturday. They get 500,000 people through in four days, that's half a million! Help!!

If you happen to be in Ann Arbor for the art fair, stop by and say hi. I'll be at the Kings Courtyard off of Liberty street. I'll be the crazy woman selling bags with my best friend selling watercolor paintings, having a blast! Positive thinking.

Do me a favor and don't blog about anything interesting while I'm away.

I'll let you know all about it when I get back. Squeezes!

Houston....

...we have Jam.

I made quite a few things from the raspberries from my last post.

I love raspberry jam but have elderly people in my life that don't care for the large amount of seeds. Squish and spin, squish and spin.

Luckily the girls in my life love the seeds.

One evening of picking equaled 4 pints of Jam, one pie and a 2 cup portion for muffins in the freezer. I am hoping to get at least one more batch but my time is severely limited in the next week and a half.

Mo from Green Desert, http://desertingreen.blogspot.com/,

tagged me for the 6 random things that's going around blog land.

I've just recently been getting to know Mo, she's a mom of 2 (like me) , lives in Phoenix (I lived there a few years as a kid and one summer while working for Braniff Airlines) and is blogging of all things frugal and enviro friendly.

So here goes...

1. I am a big cry baby, anything that touches my heart makes me juice up. Commercials, movies, whenever Pa had those deep meaningful conversations with Half Pint and he juiced up, I'd always lose it.

2. I got my first sewing machine when I was about 20, I was an aerobic instructor and waitress and used my tax refund check for my trusty Kenmore and a pair of Reebok's because my coworkers said I'd ruin my feet with my converse high tops.

3. I'm 1/2 German, 1/4 Irish, 1/8 Dutch and 1/8 French Canadian. The only foreign language I speak is piss poor Spanish.

4. I frequently have chicken crap on some part of my body. If you have chickens and like to pick them up then you know what I'm talking about.

5. Free is my favorite word.

6. I am a huge procrastinator. For example: I have the biggest Art Show of my life on Wednesday, a vacation weekend starting tomorrow (awful timing) and I am sitting here blogging. What the??

I know I'm supposed to pass this on to 6 other people but I have way too many bloggers that i want to get to know better, so if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.

I'd better quit sitting and get some things done.

3 day weekend

We have gotten into our summer groove.

We've been staying close to home,

we've been cooking meals on the fire pit,

and traveling.

Seeing new sights.

Sometimes needing a hand when you get trapped in the garage.

Appreciating natures gifts.

It could have been worse.

I hate to listen to myself complaining, so I wont. I'll just tell you of the comical bordering on give me a break evening I had.

Yesterdays weather was beautiful, early bike ride, gardening, got some major sewing in, nice. My Sister had invited my kids to spend the eve at her house so around 3:00 I dropped them off. This is great, I don't have to fight the kids for the use of the computer. Came home started dinner, finished a bag, started tagging more bags and logging them on the computer so I know just what I'm taking to the show.

Hubby came home, we ate, sky's getting darker, he goes out to mow before the storm. I go and gather the grass clippings to give to the meat chickens because they are penned in a woodsy run.

"Thank you nice lady who is eventually going to eat us!"

Thunder is rolling in, we start getting a torrential downpour.

Quite a few chickens are on the porch. The dog who HATES thunder had just hopped into the pond a few minutes earlier and wants in, not just in sitting by the door to dry off, but in under my feet. Big annoying baby.

Well it was staying pretty dark, so in between downpours (is that a word?), I run out and have the girls on the porch follow me to the coop. The girls apparently don't know what to do other than stand by the door in the rain. So I'm grabbing them one by one, while I'm in my bathrobe, and put them on some roosts. Two decide they don't want to come in and I had left the big baby chicken herder dog in the house. I then see at least half of the meat chickens are out in the rain and thunder with no idea what to do.

Now as a side note, I had just seen the man who was struck by lightning on TV and the little metal doohickey on his baseball hat was where the lightning struck and i am standing there with one of those giant metal flashlights that the police carry in the middle of a storm.

So it is really booming and cracking all around me so I decide saving some chickens isn't worth dying over so I set down the flashlight and close the coop windows and hang with the ladies for awhile.

So when I deem it safe to make a break for the house, I run with a bathrobe pocket full of eggs because i am a multi tasker ya know.

My concerned for me Husband, NOT, hadn't even got out of his chair to see if my charred body was out in the yard.

So while inside looking for a smaller flashlight, I notice that the power isn't quite out but so low that the only thing working is a couple of dimmed lights and the TV. At least I could watch So You Think You Can Dance. Yea! Bad news is the computer went out and all the new items i listed for the show are gone! Now I can't even get the computer kid free time in that I was planning.

I shove the bread i was about to bake into the not working fridge to hopefully slow down the rising process.

So the thunder had eased a bit so I take a tiny but powerful flashlight and big baby dog out to track down the rest of the chickens. We get the 2 missing hens in, my big baby dog is scared but still is helpful bless his heart.

Those meat chickens just do not want to cooperate. I had to pin them into a corner and shove them in. It is pouring, my legs and shoes are muddy, but finally we get everyone in.

Whew!

I dry off a bit, watch my show, start getting ready for bed and the phone rings.

Apparently one of my nieces was having a meltdown, my girls feelings were hurt and begged me to come and get her between sobs. Still storming, I throw raincoat over pj's and hop in my "new" car. Luckily I had the little flashlight in hand because never having driven this car at night, I couldn't find where the light nob was. Finally find it and what is that strange sound? It sounds like rain coming in the car? What?

Well those handle type things are what make the windows go up and down and one of the backseat ones was left open for the 3 1/2 hours of torrential down pour. So nice.

I get the girl, she isn't ready to talk about what happened, I tuck her in and snuggle a bit.

In the morning before work, Hubby gets the generator going so we don't lose our 1/2 hog in the freezer.

I go on a walkabout to see if all is well.

There was about 5 inches of water in this tub that had no water yesterday.

Luckily the garden did well and we only had a leaning tower of peas aah.

We had a bass swimming between rocks we usually walk on.

All the meat chickens survived the trauma. I'm still mad at them though.

The power came back on around 10:00. I turned off the generator, flipped some switches and my deflated bread is about to go in the oven.

So other than some questionable bread, a very soaked robe and car, having to re-list some bags on the computer, all is well.

I hope you are all weathering your storms.

New Adventures

Bandit took her brood out and about for the first time yesterday.

I find watching them interact is one of the most adorable things i have ever seen.

She clucks, they peep and look up at her with such adoration. I'll see her just sitting, then she stands and they pour out from under, then run around and over her back.

It is strange to see the little ones out not needing a heat lamp.

When we got back from our evening bike ride, the girl noticed 2 out of the coop. They couldn't manage the step, so I grabbed Bandit and the babies ran over and we got them settled. Sometimes new mamas need a helping hand.

The amber raspberries are ripe.

Golden orbs of deliciousness.

I have gotten almost ziltch done on the sewing front but we got the rental house cleaned and painted, the new tenants are in...

... and cleared the two trees that came down in the backyard and brought home all the wood.

The nice thing is, the four of us working together, we got it cut, loaded and home in half a day.

A family that works together, stays warm together.

Ok, no more excuses, other than laundry, house cleaning, gardening, feeding my family, blog reading ( you ladies are too interesting). I need to get back to work.