The Pre-Thanksgiving Rush
Some things change and some things stay the same. Our fall show - Kid 'n Ewe 'n Lamas, Too is always on the second full weekend in November. This year that meant November 7-9. Peggy and I drove over to Boerne, TX on Thurs afternoon. We could get into the facility at the Kendall County Fairgrounds that evening to unload if we were willing to help map out the booth locations and with the understanding that the insurance didn't kick in until midnight. We were fine with the insurance situation and more than happy to help with the booths. All of this made for a long day including the 3 hour drive from my house but getting everything unloaded meant that set up the next morning was easy.
We got back into the Kendall County Fairgrounds at 7:30 on Friday morning and had to be up and running by noon. No problem! The show was fun and it's always great to see our fellow vendors - some of whom we may be seeing less of. Many of us are getting old enough that slowing down by reducing the number of shows we do is a common topic of conversation. The weather was glorious and we had good sales. It was a great show.
We came back from Boerne on Sunday evening and had the next 10 days to unload and reload. Our local guild, the Contemporary Handweavers of Texas, had it's fall sale scheduled for Nov 20-22. There was an inventory list to create and file, linens to be woven, hemmed and ironed, yarn, fiber, finished goods and knitting and weaving kits to be tagged. Then all those items needed to be taken down to our new Guild House and checked in. Whew! Between Peggy and I we came up with nearly 200 items for the sale. We pay a commission on each item sold and to keep that to a lower percentage we need to work three hours. That was yesterday. We worked from 10 am to about 1:30 and had a great time. We were both helping with the sales table so we got to see every item bought in the opening morning of the sale. There are some amazing artists in this guild and more amazing items than you could imagine. Dyed silk, scarves, knitted, crocheted, woven and spun wonderfulness!
Our fall sale is usually much earlier in the year - September or October are much more likely than November - but this coming Saturday is the annual fall Art Crawl on the east side of Houston. Now that our Guild House is in that neighborhood, it seemed only reasonable to be open for all those Art Crawlers. We are hoping it makes for more sales. We already love being in that part of town and our new space, not quite ready for this sale but due to be available next month, should be fabulous.
But today, tomorrow and Sunday are the Civil War re-enactment at Liendo Plantation in Hempstead, TX! Peggy and I have been demonstrating there for years now. We were able to schedule our work at the fall sale for Thursday so we could be at Liendo on Saturday. Wait! That's tomorrow!
Yes, long dress, corset and petticoat if not the hoop skirt, bonnet and apron all ready to go first thing in the morning. We try to get there about 8 am so we can drive up to the mansion and unload our spinning wheels, etc. before they shew all the cars out of the way and prepare for mounted troops. It's been torrential rain all day today so it will be muddy tomorrow. We are strongly hoping the rain will hold off for the day.