Just for a Week

If I could clone myself just for a week, I could get reasonably caught up, I swear. Thankfully, I'm feeling very motivated in all areas of my life in need of attention (not in order): day job, Pine Tree Designs, Stefani paperwork and basement re-org.

The basement re-org is an ongoing project that keeps getting put on hold for shows and well, life. But now we have 30 (?) years of Sports Illustrateds to deal with. Steve saves all of his WEEKLY Sports Illustrateds - for what I'm not exactly sure but it makes him happy. He still had some boxes at his mom's house, which he and his brother have been continuing to clean out.

Now those boxes cover our pool table, which annoys the cat no end, since that's one of her favorite spots to hang out. (The pool table is covered by a comforter which is over the pleather cover.) He said the other day that he was ready to take my suggestion of putting them in plastic boxes instead of cardboard. So I went to Lowe's the other day and bought all they had of the right size. I even took a Sports Illustrated (1978, Pete Rose on the cover) to measure.

So that's the Saturday morning project, after my 8:30 haircut. Steve can box them up, I'll print labels (of course!) and make room on the existing shelves for these boxes. I'm in a huge purging mood so that should be easy.

Every so often I've been taking stuff into work to put on our Freecycle table and that stuff is gone within the day, usually. Most recently was a perfectly good black plastic pot that held flowers from Wilma's funeral. I've taken some of Simon's old Disney videos. (I don't even care if someone is taking them and selling them on eBay, which I doubt they are - they're gone from our house.) Knick knacks, all gone. I'm going to take some books in today.

I do worry that I'm so not sentimental that I purge too much. I do save some stuff, as I talked about here. Love to purge. (Have you seen this TV show, Hoarders on A & E? Fascinating!)

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I took my car to the dealer for an oil change and NY State Inspection yesterday - dropped it off the night before. The whole thing cost me $27.38 because the inspection was free. I used to take my Saturn to a Jiffy Lube type place and never got out of there for twice that. (And I said no to most of their suggested add-ons.) Say what you will about car dealers, they have really upped their game over the years in terms of customer service. This Toyota dealer just moved into a new building or newly remodeled building I guess it is - it's all so shiny and new. I told Steve it looks like the lobby of a swank Las Vegas hotel. I exaggerate, but it's nice! The waiting room is huge and offers a couple of big high def TVs, a little kitchenette area I think, comfy chairs and free wireless connectivity. I would not hesitate to take my car there for an oil change and wait.

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So last weekend's craft show produced by the Jr League of Rochester was a success for me. I would have sworn my sales were higher than last year, but turns out I was down 15% from last year. That's still one of my more profitable shows and I definitely hope to do it again.

I had plenty to say on their vendor survey. Two things are my traditional complaints about any show: vendors who leave early and vendors who park in what I consider customer parking. Some jewelry vendors near me left 30 minutes early on Saturday and on Sunday, they started packing up an hour before the end of the show. I would just never do that. Ever. And I always park as far away from the building as possible. Each day, there was one other car next to me.

This show is billed as a Holiday Market, not a craft show. My guess is it's a 50/50 mix of hand crafted items and wholesale/resale items. I understand their rationale - it's a fundraiser and they want as big a show as they can. But I wish they were more selective.

Near me was a Billy Mays dude that had at least a double booth - filled 3/4 with cashmere scarves, which he ignored. The other 1/4 was a table full of colorful plastic cones used for removing snow from your windshield. He had a looping video showing how they worked. And he was selling the crap out of those things! Another vendor and I figured he must have been accepted at the show based on the scarves, then slipped in those ice scraper things.

I went in early on Sunday to have some time to look around. A vendor at the other end of the hall was selling packaged bedsheets! I think their hook was high thread count cheap sheets.

Call me a snob, but I'd like to see a higher end selection of product. That's the one comment I hear repeatedly about my work, "Wow - this is different; I've never seen anything like this." But bedsheets and ice scrapers? C'mon!

Oh - here's another one. I saw a print of a painting that I really liked and decided to buy but the artist wasn't in her booth, though her lights were on. I went back two more times and she still wasn't there - and the last time was 30 minutes after the show started! I decided she didn't deserve my business so she lost a $30 sale and I saved my money. (I did sneak back over to take a peak at her at the end of the day, so presumably she wasn't MIA earlier due to an emergency or something.)

On the other hand, I had at least two customers who asked me if I was a local artist because they like to buy local whenever possible. One woman told me that's a stipulation of the gift exchange between her extended family from around the country - all gifts must be created in their locale. That's cool!

And I reconnected with some vendor friends, which is always fun. I ran into a friend from high school I haven't seen in 35 years - loved seeing her!

In spite of these things, I think it's a good show and one I hope to do again.