Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A'Fair 2010

As promised, here are more pics and some stories of Saturday's A'Fair around our county's courthouse square. In addition to seeing two specific prayers answered, we had a lot of fun. This was Kiddo's first venture in helping out his parents at 6:30 a.m.
What? Doesn't he look like he's enjoying himself? I know, I know...he's still half-asleep.

He did perk up and was a big help to Sound Man and me.

When I was designing my booth, I kept wondering how I was going to show people how you can use tassels. There are so many ways to hang them. Originally, I wanted to take my china cabinet but my husband forbade me to take my very heavy, very cherished china cabinet out of this house. I kinda see his point. Whatever. But that meant I needed a really great center focal point in my booth.

I came up with the idea of a window. Sound Man built this little gem out of scrap wood, then painted it with spray paint about a bazillion times. Or maybe just three or four. Then I took just some cheap sheer fabric and cut it to make the curtains.Drat me I didn't take pictures of the tops of the curtains where I just put the fabric over the top of the dowel and tied a pretty white satin ribbon around it.Then I put these cute little tassels on the curtains and the gorgeous cross tassel in the middle of the frame like it was hanging from the window latch.And then these goobs showed up. Just kidding. On the right, that's my sweetie pie, Sound Man. On the left, that's his best friend, Jeff. Jeff and his wife, Lisa, and two of their kids helped us all day. Well, M, their middle child, helped. J, the youngest, and Kiddo kept themselves entertained all day. Not an easy task for two boys for 10 hours. K, their oldest, was and still is at the beach in Alabama. Hate her. Just kidding. I love her to pieces! Just not while she's at the beach and I'm not.
Here's Lisa helping me tag the tassels. I think M was, too. Please forgive my hair. I was going to just pull it back for setting up then let it down, but it was so hot I forgot to. And drat me again, I forgot to take a picture of the finished booth. But you can see this:My new floor lamp from Kirkland's. I lurve it! The tiger didn't sell, and when we got home I liked the way it looked next to my living room curtains so much it's still there.

Speaking of tassels, here's the last one I made at 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning (after promising I wouldn't do that this year!):Ironically, he was the first to sell! The cardinal, not the rooster. I can't believe no one has grabbed that rooster. Love those colors.

A close-up of the cross tassel that didn't sell Saturday but did by Sunday morning. A friend saw my pictures on Facebook and said, "I WANT THAT TASSEL!" Not really, but almost. I love this picture because you can see out the window to the courthouse beyond.
Speaking of the courthouse, we had lots of music to keep us awake during the day. Several bands played at the front of the courthouse. The first band that played was Jett Case, in which my friend Kim's son Josiah plays drums. They are a talented group of young men!
We had a lot of fun just being with each other for the day. Only sold three tassels (one to my friend, Donya; one to a family member; and only one to a new customer I didn't know) and three bookmarks. I haven't put my bookmarks on Etsy yet...I wanted to see how well they'd do at the fair. I might put them on, but still not sure.

Monetarily speaking, I did horribly. Didn't even cover my booth fee. But I had a great time, just like last year, got to spend the day with my family and friends, saw several extended family members I only get to see once every two years or so, got to visit a little while with Kat while her kids, Moose and Fep, played with Kiddo and J, and saw God work. What a great day!

I wanted to focus on not having one customer before 1:00. I wanted to feel sorry for myself and wonder why in the world these people didn't see their need to put a tassel on their lamps, forgoodnesssake. And I did focus on this, until I realized what God DID give me. My view of the day has totally changed.

I can't wait for next year!


5 comments:

BLJ Graves Studio said...

Your tassels are SO pretty!

Richella Parham said...

How many--how MANY??--times does God just gently say, "Look at this differently"? He's so polite. . . He never yells or hollers. . . just tells us to change our perspective.

And you listened!! Good for you! I'm so glad you had a good time, even though I'm so sorry that you lost money.

Speaking of cross tassels. . . . No. Don't you dare stay up 'til 1:30. Just let me know when you have mine ready for me to PAY MONEY FOR IT. Because I AM going to pay you for it. I never intended to ask you to do something and then not actually purchase it! No rush, of course. . . just let me know. And then I will have to tell people about it and direct them to your Etsy shop!

Darlene said...

Your booth looks so pretty. Glad you had a great time even though you didn't sell many tassels. They are beautiful!!!!

Manuela@A Cultivated Nest said...

Sounds like you had a good time despite not hitting your financial goals. I think a lot of people just don't know what to do with a tassel!

Manuela

Trixi said...

Your tassels are beautiful and I love your great attitude!!!