San Marco.....

Ahh, what a delightful weekend. Pouring rain during setup, pouring rain all day Saturday, threatening rain all day Sunday. Add a disorganized promoter who decided to inform us rather rudely at 6:30PM on Sunday breakdown that we needed to be off the street by 7PM or they would “move it onto the sidewalk”. Gee, how about moving it into the van instead. At least be polite about it, it’s not like they bothered to tell us beforehand. Obviously we were struggling – everything was soaking wet. Of all the information that would be important to put in the information packet about the show – that would probably rank among the most important. They did make sure they got my signed agreement – three times! And that wonderful volunteer who walked right up between me and a customer to ask for my critique. All in all, one of those weekends where I wonder why I do this.

The people were wonderful though. A neighborhood woman even brought us coffee and towels during setup. And a big thank you to my helper Michelle. I couldn’t have done it without her. And my boss let me work from home Monday so I had a chance to dry everything out. Did you know you can wash Velcro? Just stick it all together in the washing machine and dryer and it comes out nice and fresh.

This weekend looks like it really is going to be beautiful. Do I hear strains of a Jackson Browne song - “tear it down and set it up in another town”…….

Fall Schedule

Well the final fall schedule is in. You can see it on http://www.serenityscenes.com/UpcomingEvents.html

I’m quite happy with the results. Three rejections out of seven applications isn’t bad for Florida art shows. I’m disappointed about not getting into Disney but the Maitland location is known for a disjointed layout and dead locations. I’ve done the Spring show twice and I’ve pretty much decided never again. The first year I was in among the food booths and next to the guy dressed up as a chicken giving away free coupons. The whole day went like this – mom and dad with kid come into booth, mom and dad start to look around and murmur positively, kid sees chicken, runs out of booth, mom and dad follow never to return. The only worse location I’ve had was when I was next to the cute dog modeling dog clothes. Same scenario only worse, kids dragging their parents past my booth…

So the second year, when they asked for requested booth locations, I said “NOT NEAR THE FOOD”. This put me in a location actually behind another booth. There was a whole line of us behind a line of booths that put us totally out of sight from the main traffic area. Not one of my better shows. The one big sale of the weekend was entertaining though. A couple comes into the booth in the last 15 minutes. While the husband is talking to me about a possible “end of the day” discount and I’m debating about how badly I want to make at least one good sale for the weekend, the wife is looking around. Just as I’m about to offer a discount, she screams “Oh, I’ve got to have this one”. Husband mutters something about “not taking you along when we buy a car” and pays full price.

I’m excited about Winter Park. It’s not the big spring show but it’s still the same location and a great location it is. I’m not sure about the Jacksonville show. I applied on a whim. None of my usual sources knows anything about it. But the location looks good. I didn’t know about the Saturday morning setup but thank God for friends that come through to help.

For those of you that got postcards I will not be in Deland this year. Notification was quite late and I needed to get the postcards out. But I’ll get to spend an extra two days with my daughter and grandchildren which is fine with me.

Hope to see you at one of the shows!