Last Saturday was Art on the Avenue, my first Autumn fair of the year.
I had raced against time to get all my shirts and onesies printed, sewn and packed in time for the big day, fueled by strong tea, adrenaline, and Tiger Balm patches (pulled muscle – thanks for the betrayal, body). The night before the fair, I had barked at my kids to go to bed early, but of course, they chose to stay up later than usual jumping on each other’s beds, and complaining of insomnia. My husband and I were no better, we got hooked on an episode of Narcos and stayed up too late as well. Despite this, all of us were up early the next morning……………and what a morning it was.
It was grey, and cold, and soggy as a teabag. Every now and then, a torrential downpour would start, and then disappear as fast as it arrived; it felt as if someone was emptying a barrel of water on us periodically! To make things worse, my six year old would not stop crying “I wanna go hooome!” and the ten year old was close to throttling him.
As I unpacked my products under the partial protection of my tent, all I wanted to do was throw the towel in, go home, and sit on my sofa in the comfort and warmth of my family room.
But I didn’t.
I stuck it out and as the day progressed the weather got a little brighter and the crowds showed up. As it turns out, I did pretty well at the fair and am busy this week trying to print more shirts for my next fair. The weather has been beautiful this week, but I have been hearing forecasts for another rainy weekend coming up!! I’m not sure if my inventory can handle another weekend of dampness, I’m not sure if I can handle another week of drying out my tent, and dehumidifying my shirts, I’m not sure if the kids can handle each other’s whining if it rains again. So here I am, doing the only thing I can do, crossing my fingers, carrying on with my work, and hoping for the best!
Here are some pictures:
[…] amount of sales, setting up in a rainstorm was not a bowl of cherries (read more about that day here). Oh, and last weekend’s festival in Fairfax can be best described as a dampening […]