and a good time was had by all

My first experience being an exhibitor in an outdoor show, the annual North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival, is now in the rear view mirror.  I met a lot of nice people, attendees and exhibitors alike, sold some of my work and overall, had a good time.  My neighbor Marie and I headed up to the festival site around 8:00 Saturday morning.  It was overcast and in the high 50's which pleased us to no end..no rain!  Setting up the displays went VERY smoothly and by 9:30 we were ready to go. It was at that point that Guy, who was volunteering for the day at the festival, stopped by and was nice enough to take some pictures of my booth so the photos you see were taken by him..  He is an AVID photography so I knew the pictures would be good!  Since people were already lined up at the gate, they opened 15 minutes early so I actually made my first sale before 10:00 a.m.  My booth was to the right of the Chase Hill Farm booth and they had free samples of their cheeses and selling said cheese, one of which was a garlic cheese.  There was always a long line to get a taste and so people in line got a change to give my booth a good long look which no doubt helped with the steady foot traffic I ad through my booth.  I felt it was a bit intimidating having 2 people sitting in the booth so Marie played cashier and sat in the corner and I sat outside the booth and came in to chat and answer questions.  A better assistant one could not have had  She knew all about how the fabric baskets were made since she was in on helping me making my first one   We even got a few minutes of sunshine right before the festival started.  That would be the last sun we would see for the rest of the weekend. 

Sunday morning we awoke to rain and much cooler temperatures but the predictions were that there would be partial clearing and it would stop raining later in the morning....WRONG!  The canopy held up to all of the rain, some of it heavy and did not leak...a real relief!  I managed to put up the awning so that the items I had displayed on the racks on each side of the entrance of the booth would stay dry.  My friend Ellen was my cashier for the day.  The attendance was much smaller but the rain was driving most people into the booth and people stuck around to talk about my work.  LOTS of questions about balsam and fabric baskets.  Ellen and I were both in the booth and we had a wonderful time talking to people.  Ellen told me she enjoyed listening to me talk about my work.  In spite of the cold, raw temperatures we managed to keep out spirits up and I am actually looking forward to doing it next year.  Everything had to be hung up when we got home since it was a VERY damp day but all and all, I think a good time was had by all!