Market friends

The market experience continues to evolve. Highlight this week occurred when Joshua swung by to pick up the maple leaf skullcap he had asked for last week. The look on his face was priceless. It's so nice to be able to gauge in person how the customer reacts to their custom order. He clearly loved it.

One of the wonderful BAC volunteers helped me set up my booth last week. Note to self - double check that all weights have been lifted out of the car. When i went to set up, I had only 3 weights. Luckily my friend Margaret was on the way and i was able to get her to look for the errant weight.

Meantime the wind picked up, and we had a solid little downpour. I have all my inv pegged to bungie clotheslines hooked between the legs of my stall. I was fairly effortless able to swing all the lines to the interior  right under the roof. So nothing got damaged.

The watercolour vendor beside me was not quite so lucky. There was a bit of water damage to some of her matts. However the day became searingly hot by the end, so my damp socks dried out completely. And when i glanced at her matts they seemed to have dried up too.

Other vendors were busy hanging their walls when the rain came. i don't have them and felt a bit incomplete without them. But i noticed the wind wobbled the stall with wall more than it did mine. And as long as all the merch stayed dry, I'm happy with my solution.

It's the first day i hung the HP sweaters, blue and black - i don't have a demo version of the red left. I thought this would be pointless as i'm not doing the greatest traffic in small ticket items. But a lot more people stopped by and lingered over the sweaters. Go figure. Gotta get a red one worked up.

Have had 2 bits of feedback about not preferring the moccasin style men's slippers. Not sure what they want but i can work up a sample of a more common look. Not what i would want, tho.

Someone took a card interested in crochet lessons.

It was great to have Marg come by. We got a lot of planning done for the upcoming Manitoba trip. And she brought me a much needed coffee and mini banana loaf. And the formula of me setting up early morning, and having hubby come and help me for vehicle fetching at teardown worked quite well. And i even found a wheelchair ramp close to the elevator/washroom doors that makes it easier to do that side trip. The cooler temps helped. Will be glad when the dog days of July are behind us.

Christmas shopping has begun - even for me!

What I mean is I don't sell volumes of stuff. But 3 items in a week is a sign that things have begun.

My thanks to Nicola in the UK for purchasing a simple cream coloured chunky scarf with maple leafs - reminded me that expat Canucks are looking for Canadiana on the giving or receiving end of international shipping.

Had a nice email exchange with John re an HP tie. He notes that gold and burg are the colours of the U of Southern California. Had a great tip about an essay on the value of hand made by Octavio Paz. I have already added this to my wish list on Amazon ; ) . Even the reference put me in mind of the PK Page glosa based on Neruda's 'In Praise of Ironing.' I love that pairing of poems so much - have pulled it out to review when I get time.

Trunk sale is shaping up nicely. Have 6 vendors now. Had the brainstorm to knit 1 more HP sweater in chunky and raffle off. Diane at GYC helped me with the conversion of Alison Hansel's sweater to chunky. If I can shave a bit of time off the making of it, perhaps I can list for less. But what the hey - it's handmade, it is what it is - you just can't rush it.

Fundraising calendars should be here soon. Received shipping advisory. Can't wait to see them. The kids did phenomenal work. Maybe this is a good place for a sneak preview. Good idea. Will upload a pic... Ok what you see here is Holly's dream catcher, blending in the golden acorn idea from the book. Isn't she a wonder?!

Think that's it for now. Gotta start Benny's cereal sogging...