Art Fairs in General?

We are deep into the almost-every-weekend insanity of the Midwest art fair season. Blessed with mostly excellent, or standable, weather this year. Knock wood. Cross fingers.

And the labor of making product (yes, I'm mercenary) is lightened by a booth of laughing and sighing customers.

The Ely Blueberry Festival in late July is always a highlight of our year. Folks are shopping seriously from before the show opens until we are trying to pack up the booth. This is not normal art fair behavior - so we must appreciate the crowd when it's there. Thanks, Crowd!

Our booth is never the prettiest, but there sure is lots to see. Most people seem to find at least one image that suits their needs. Lots buy groups of cards to frame. I'm "frugile" (cheap) & then ask if we may have the matching envelopes back to accompany a different card. Most say O.K., and we rescue a few innocent envelopes from the trash.

This past weekend we did the Powderhorn Art Festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was our first time there, and our booth space was moved from 131 to 70. Good Luck or Miracle? Friday night a storm blew down four or five tents in the area we'd have been in. Booth 70 was wet but upright. After a damp morning the crowds came and stayed. The ice cream was excellent. We made some new friends. The quality of art was high. Julie Crabtree, fiber artist of bowing-down to Julie quality, won Best in Show!

This weekend finds us once again near the shore of Lake Superior. Glensheen Art Festival, held in Duluth, MN, on the grounds of the Glensheen Mansion is a smaller, but high quality event. (Did a five minute radio interview about the event  at 8 A.M. this morning. I'm hoping it sounded O.K.)Tour the mansion and the beautiful gardens while you are there. Then follow the path down through the pines and toss some stones back into the lake. It's convenient, too, for us to send customers downtown to Blue Lake Gallery in case we don't have the exact bear they need.

So, on to the day. Too many tomatoes to think about, but won't complain about bounty. Must make product, maybe start a painting or two, and go draw at the Croixdale Assisted Care facility. Stillwater's Summer Tuesday Market- Music - Movie event is on tonight. Will try to sneak down.

On to our individual Grand Adventures!
Do something fun today? Do something FUN today!!

- Sue