Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Wining

I'm a winer...... I have a glass or two of wine every evening as I wind down for the night. It's been my routine for quite a few years. I've introduced several friends who visited me to my favorite affordable wine and they liked my taste enough to buy it for themselves. In the past couple of weeks one of those friends has called me twice later in the evening because she knows it's safe to call me late. We have the same cell provider so we're calling for "free" and can afford to chat. Each time we were both sipping our wine for the evening as we chatted. We don't do many of the same shows any more so it's nice to keep in touch on our cell phones and online. We talked about our shows, customers, designs, and products. Mostly we talked about our businesses and mutual friends and customers. I miss having Wendell to talk with and his companionship. While this is nowhere near the same, I enjoyed these visits via the airwaves. Both nights were warm enough to sit out in the dark under the stars and really listen. I'm blessed to have friends like these.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

April Woes

I've been neglecting the blog again because I feel I am repeating myself with the so-so shows, and so-so life. But that's my life.

Last weekend I had a show in La Villita, in San Antonio. We had an unusually strong for this time of year cold front hit, and temps were in mid-30's for a high on Sunday with rain and wind. Some of the vendors who had set up their booths on Fri. showed up on Sat. morning to dismantle thier setups and call it quits. The weather was so bad that most of the vendors who did tough it out closed for the day at 3:00 instead of 6:00. And there were more vendors who tore down their spaces at the end of this day. Sunday was even worse customer-wise than Sat. was, but at least the weather was a bit better. It was still chilly, but at least is was dry.

After such a disastrous show last weekend, I needed to try to make some money and my next scheduled show isn't until next weekend, so I decided to try doing Goliad Market. Another cold front came through Friday night and while the temps were completely bearable, the wind was horrific. Canopies were in peril of flying like kites, and merchandise was being blown about all day long. Even my jewelry which was on wire displays was being blown over. I had to rise at 4:30 to drive the 90 miles to Goliad. I am most definitely not a morning person, so this made it especially hard. I was pretty tired by afternoon, and had to walk around a bit to rouse myself. I was concerned about the drive home last evening, but managed just fine. The exertion involved in taking the canopy, displays, and merchandise down and hauling it to the van and reloading worked really well to wake my body and brain up.

Today I'm resting a bit before I gear up for my show at Gruene next weekend. The doggies will be happy because "Aunt Kim" will be coming from the Houston area to stay with me while she does the show. They love company, and Riley gets to sleep with her.