24 hours.
In just 24 short hours, I will be arriving in Attica to start setting up my booth for the festival on Saturday.
Am I ready?
Yes and no!
I’m getting really really excited about it. I’m very anxious and nervous that something will go wrong, but seeing all the months and hours of planning and designing and hard work come together is really awesome.
What we’ve gotten done since the last update:
– Booth tests are about complete! Everything is coming together nicely, and it looks AMAZING! Here’s a sneak peek:
– All the displays are built, even the one I decided I needed at the last minute.
Originally I was only going to have the two wooden displays hooked together for all the originals and just replace ones that sell with back up ones. However, I thought the oil painting overwhelmed the watercolors and didn’t flow nicely:
I quickly designed a new display, and we went out and grabbed supplies, and now we have an oil painting display!
– Necklaces are complete! Woo hoo!
– The tent is waterproofed (which is perfect as there’s a slight chance of rain on Saturday) and the tent weights are made. My boys and husband made them for me, and they’re perfect!
What is left to do:
– Finish up prints and note cards. I was able to make some prints last week, and they turned out great!
However, this week my computer and printer decided to stop playing nicely, all my settings have been changed (and are still off), and we’re waiting on one last ink tank to arrive today (cutting it too close, eek!) in hopes that I can get these done before Saturday morning. If I can’t, it will be okay, but the note cards are my biggest seller, and I’d love to have them available tomorrow.
– SLEEP! I’m having a hard time sleeping this week for various reasons, and I don’t want to go into Saturday exhausted.
– Pack up! I have to finish gathering the supplies (like tape, hammer, etc) and putting everything into plastic totes. After we drop the kids off in the morning with their grandparents, we can pack everything into the van. I hope it all fits! 🙂
Bumps along the way:
– A literal bump (and bruise!) would be my leg. The first day we did tent testing, the wind was CRAZY. It was shaking the tent sides so much that it caused the table to crash over into my leg not once but twice.
I decided the tables needed to be anchored not only for stability reasons but safety reasons as well, and they’re not going anywhere now!
– Technology. I have no idea what happened to my computer, and neither does my super smart husband. I have to print out of the Windows operating system (which we normally don’t use), so we’re not sure if it’s a bad Windows version or what. It makes me appreciate Linux (the operating system we do use) so much more! Note: next time buy a printer that doesn’t need Windows….
– The weather. Over the course of the week, the weather prediction has been all over the place. Originally it was going to be 85 with 80% chance of thunderstorms. The latest prediction is 67 and no rain, and I like that a lot better! We’ve made as many changes to the booth in anticipation for any kinds of weather, so we should be set no matter what happens.
Questions I’m getting:
Are you ready for this to be over?
Yes, but not in the way you’d think!
I’m looking forward to it being over so I can have my dining room back. Normally I store my art things in the basement, either in my office or studio, but as I’m testing the booth on a regular basis, I really don’t feel like carrying everything up and down the stairs a bunch of times. Maybe I’m lazy, but I don’t want my shoulder or back injuries to flare up before the show.
I’m also looking forward to working on the new projects I have lined up. They’re a combination of geek, epic and awesome, and I can’t wait to share them with you. Boathouse Mouse illustrations are also screaming my name, and I can’t wait to get back to working on them again!
If you’re in the area tomorrow, stop by and see me! The festival is from 11 am – 5 pm at the Attica Veteran’s Memorial Park on Exchange Street. We’d love to see you!
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