We lived through it! Although it wasn't terribly hot, it was incredibly windy! We had a tent disaster early Friday morning when one wall split in two from the wind. Our canopy is 3+ years old and it was not the top of the line when we bought it. So it actually owes us nothing.
My wonderful husband was heroic holding the ripped sidewall as closed as possible while I threw everything I own haphazardly into packing containers before it blew away. And how did I thank him? By pissing and moaning and complaining, and just being downright b***chy. Then I had a
really good cry and apologized profusely. If he'd divorced me Friday morning, I would have deserved it. The rest of Friday, we hung out at the arts festival, listened to some great live music, strolled around in our official capacity, and chatted with all the artists, the great majority of which commented that they were having their best show of the year. In our spare time, we were talking about how on earth we could get me back in business for Saturday.
We got home Friday about 8:30 PM (the day started at 5:30 AM). It took us three hours, but with Paul's help feeding huge sheets of fabric to me, we put the tent walls back together with a fabric strips, repaired all of the corners, reinforced all of them with fabric, and created one huge wall that covered three sides of my canopy frame. At 11:30 PM on Friday, we needed to try this concoction on the frame to see if it would work, but the wind was still howling. So we set the frame up in our living room, got our wall invention on it, locking the dog in it in the process.... she didn't like that at all! But it did fit. We got in bed about 1 AM Saturday morning. Oh yeah... total sales Friday = $9.
Saturday began at 6 AM and we picked up the donuts for the festival on our way to the park at 7 AM. There was only a breeze when we set up our repaired canopy and got it staked and weighted down. And it held!!! About 11 AM, the wind kicked into high gear again, and it still held! About 2 in the afternoon, one of the windows began to separate, so we secured it with clear packing tape and hung a quilt in front of the repair job, and... that held too! Sales Saturday were phenomenal - really! We got home last night about 10:30 PM.
The absolute best news I can share is that people had money to spend at this festival. This is a colossal turn-around from the last three years. Not once did
anyone ask me to lower the price. They just said, "I want this - here's the money." And I wasn't alone... Our lone photographer did over $4,000 in the two days. The metal sculptor next to us, who makes these incredible bells that were marked from $35 to $350
gave us one as thanks for putting on this wonderful event. We graciously refused it, but found it on the front seat floor of our truck when we got in it to go home. The face painter lady, at $5 a pop, said she made her booth fee back in the first 30 minutes on Friday (Larissa - her's weren't as extensive as yours are, but they were very cool!). The pewter artist and wire-wrap jeweler were nearly sold out. The horseshoe artist sold a $450 cactus (it was amazing - there's a picture below of him standing with it). The list goes on and on. The demographics, historically, on this show are low to median income families with kids. Low end items do well - the higher priced pieces are admired only. If this show is any indicator, disposable dollars are beginning to be available to consumers again which is FABULOUS news for those of us hanging on in the arts community!
Here are some pictures.
Cactus made of horseshoes with the creator who was easily 6 feet tall!
Sculpture by Stoneman Meeks - Diane Meeks told me that they sold a large piece Friday morning that paid for the entire trip and then some! They didn't have a lot left to haul back to Page, Arizona.
Face painter in action, brush in hand... side note: Her baby is due the end of next week!
The beautiful work of Don Sutton - Flintknapper (now I know what a flintkapper is!)
Kelly Magelby Pottery
Okay, I'll stop before this post takes up an entire page! I'm glad your party was a success, Larissa - it went 9 hours, it must have been a great party! Hope it gave you the mental health break you so desperately needed. I've never had a pedicure, Kimberly... maybe I need to put it on my list of things to do. Hang in there through the rain, Monika! Sorry that summer was so short in Scotland! I hope the accupuncture works for you, Kris. Hooray on your tooth, Andrew! I know I missed someone, but it's only because I'm am dead tired.
Topic: What are you doing today? (Read 172807 times)
