So, I had a few extra days off last week. My original plans were to have a booth at the local arts and crafts festival. It’s called the Bloomin’ Festival . It’s held every April in Cullman, Alabama. You should really check it out if you ever have a chance! Anyway, I apparently waited too long to check into the requirements to apply. I still had time to get the application in but one of the requirements was that you had to submit a picture of your tent display. No can do…I didn’t even have my tent yet! I had been lurking Amazon trying to figure out which one I wanted to get and before I could even decide, the openings for vendors were filled. I have my tent ordered, it should be here next week!!! Look out Bloomin’ Festival 2019…I plan on setting up tent!

I decided to go ahead and take the time off anyway because I can always find something to do! I really needed to get some pictures of my artwork and jewelry so that I could get some things listed on Etsy. I have the pictures but not one single listing is done yet. It’s a work in progress. It is ALWAYS a work in progress! Anyway, I talked with my daughter and she only had one class on Friday, and since I really needed to go to Huntsville, we decided I would just take her to class and we would have some lunch and do some shopping. Her class was at 10:30 so she said we would be fine as long as I was at her house by 9:30. No problem. Except I forgot to check my gas gauge the day before and had to stop and get gas before I could pick her up. I got to her house at 9:35. I was shocked that she hadn’t called or texted me before I got there to make sure I was up and on my way. She usually does! When I got there…she wasn’t ready. We finally got out the door at about 9:43 and she said we would still be ok….just don’t drive slow, she says. That is not usually my problem…she is usually telling me to stop speeding!!! So we get on the road and it is smooth sailing for about the first 20 minutes…then traffic pretty much comes to a stand still. Uh oh…not looking good for getting there on time. We creeped along for the next several miles until we could finally get off the interstate and headed at a normal rate of speed towards the campus. I told her that if I would have known about all the traffic mess I would have just taken the time to make my coffee to bring with me. That is definitely not something she is used to hearing because I have just recently started drinking coffee! She told me there was a Starbucks right by where her class was and I could just go in there and get some coffee while she was in class. Sounded good. Except what she didn’t know was that I have never ordered coffee at Starbucks! Never! Ever! We finally made it to campus and I delivered her to her class. She pointed out where I should go if I wanted some coffee and headed to her class. I would have about 40 minutes or so to wait and since I was just going to be sitting in my car reading while I waited I decided I would go for that cup of coffee after all. So I walk over to the building that housed the coffee shop, walk up to the counter, and explain to the woman who was working there that I had no idea how to even order the coffee that I wanted. I don’t know a cappuccino from a latte. Let alone what a Frappe or Macchiato is. So I told her what I wanted…brewed coffee with half regular and half decaf. Her reply was…”Oh….we ain’t got no decaf in the brewed coffee.” Although it plainly stated on the order board that it was an option. I said..”ok…well…what do you have that we can do half and half?” She offered an Americana with one shot regular and one shot decaf. “Sure”, I say, no clue what an Americana even is. Now, in my mind, at some point she is going to ask me if I want cream, sugar or some type of syrup. I don’t know much about Starbucks, but I do know that they have syrup for your coffee!!! Nada. She handed me the cup of coffee, told me how much it was and that was it. Ok. I look around and see that there is a counter that has stir sticks and some other stuff on it so I am thinking I will just go see what they have to offer there. Once I got to the counter I realized that she had run this coffee through some machine and I wasn’t exactly sure WHAT was in it. I took the lid off and it was a light color foamy looking coffee. Well now how an I going to know what the heck to add to it if I don’t know what’s in it? Guess I need to taste it and see. I just have to say…that was the HOTTEST coffee known to man!!! Oh my gosh!!! Talk about a tongue scorcher!!! I don’t think my tongue is ever going to be the same! I am pretty sure that I burnt the whole top layer of my tongue off!!! AND…it was just plain coffee!!! I put some sugar in it…stirred it up…and headed back to the car. I like cream in my coffee, preferably Hazelnut. I didn’t have that. Burnt tongue, no cream and a horrible first experience ordering at Starbucks…dumped the coffee in the trash can outside as I walked by. Should have taken the few extra minutes at home that morning to make it exactly like I like it! Not to mention that I honestly think it interfered with my sense of smell for the rest of the day! My daughter says it is the other way around, smell affects your sense of taste, but not taste affecting smell. She might be right, but I’m telling you, if you have never burnt your tongue that bad you will never know!!!

Have a great week everybody!

Jo

Whew! I’ve been gone for a while! I just don’t know where the time goes. As I get older the days go by so much faster. And I don’t seem to get as much as accomplished daily either. I have been doing a lot of painting. I am really enjoying doing the fluid acrylic painting and I have also been doing some acrylic painting and some water color.

This past weekend I was able to be a vendor at a local women’s conference with my friend Ginger. We both love to make art and we have wanted to set up a booth at arts and crafts shows so this was a good opportunity for our first venture!

We both had canvases already done but with the opportunity to show our art and possibly even make some sales we both worked hard and created even more so that we would have plenty to show. It was truly a labor of love for both of us because we LOVE doing it! However, it did involve quite a few VERY late nights! When I set my alarm on Friday night for the event on Saturday, my phone said “your alarm is set for 3 hours and 27 minutes”!!! What??? When we got to the venue we discussed it and she went to bed about the same time I did!

 Once we found out where we were to set up our booth we got busy unloading the cars and preparing to create an awesome display! I had a wire grid wall that I was going to hang my canvases from and I had a set of lights to drape around the sides and top to make it stand out. I got the wall put up and the lights on and guess what….half of the strand didn’t light up!!! I just bought them!!! It never even crossed my mind to check them ahead of time….rookie mistake! I thought…no problem…not gonna let that bother me, it isn’t going to affect how the art looks, let’s just get the canvases up and displayed. We had to be at the venue at 7 am and to be set up by 8:30. Shouldn’t be a problem! Right. My original plan was to put wire on the back of the canvases for people to hang them with but then I decided that it wouldn’t really be necessary because with fluid paintings they can be hung whatever way looks best to the owner. And one less thing for me to have to do before the event! Score. NOT. My plan was to hang the canvases with the wire from “s” hooks on the grid wall. When I tried to hang the canvases without the wire from the “s” hooks….it wouldn’t work! It needed the wire to hold on to! Another rookie mistake. In my mind it should have worked but I didn’t try it ahead of the event day. Another rookie mistake. Now, I have 40 canvases, a wall to display them on and no way to hang them. Bummer. I decided I would run out and try to find something to hang them with. It was 8:03. Supposed to be set up  by 8:30.  I left and went to the nearest place that might possibly have something I could use… Dollar General. A sign on the door said they were closed due to register issues. I drive across town to another Dollar General, ran in, told them what I was needing and the clerk took me to where the hooks were and what they had wouldn’t work….Okay….think outside the box Jo, time is ticking! I look down and see a roll of twine. That’s it! I can make a hook with the twine, attach it to the back of the canvas with duct tape and hang it from the hook! SCORE!!! I. Am. A. Genius!  Rush back to the event, Ginger helps me and we get them all hung up. Whew..disaster averted. WRONG!!! The first guest speaker started telling her story, which was an absolutely amazing testimony of the power of prayer! A canvas falls. Boom…..hits the floor. A few minutes later, a second one, then a third. One by one….the canvases were falling. Minutes apart. Just when I thought another wasn’t going to fall……crash….another one would fall. How embarrassing!!!! Finally I just got up and took them down, stacked them in front of the wall and left it at that! Major rookie mistake with the duct tape!!!

I said all of that to end up saying that I am grateful for the opportunity to get it all figured out and ready for the next event!!! I am now currently working on making a fail proof hook for my canvas!!!

Ginger had her artwork displayed in an awesome way!!!

I also make jewelry from the leftover paint from my fluid acrylic painting and those were on display as well.

Here is what the booth looked like before all my canvases decided to play Humpty Dumpty and fall of the wall!!!

Photo credit to Ginger.

So that was my first event experience with my art. I am thankful for the experience and looking forward to my next event!!! 

This is just one more example of why my blog has its name!!! Mishaps and Mayhem abound whenever I’m around!!!  But ya know what….I just keep on keeping on!!!

Be blessed! I will be back soon.

Jo