Newport show, day two...

today was spent in newport RI again. 

passing from the front to the rear end of any show, especially a longish one, is always a roller coaster of sorts. 

at first, you think, well today i am going to make gobs of money. 

secondly, you second guess the weather to customer ratios. 

do they match up with their potentials?

does the rain bring out more serious shoppers?

and that black cloud that you drove under that had a small sputter... 

are you thinking that the sputter might be all that it had to offer? 

you ignore the ominous clouds at your venue. 

as your car is parked and you trundle down the main street,

 a huge bus is sitting in a queue with lots of other buses to follow that.

you are NOT one of the many older citizens getting ready to get on that bus. 

you are far too young to do this. 

and you just have no one to match your swishy sounding windbreaker and walking pants to. 

so you keep walking down the street at a nice clip. 

unfortunately, your rumblings are interrupted. 

you are suddenly upon the wind breaker-ed crowd on the plaza.

you find yourself amongst many organizing members of AARP. 

you bob, you weave, you avoid, you sidestep, you two-step, you slow down...

you try to avoid the group getting onto the bus. 

then you see her. 

she is the wife of a client of your husband's.

she is the mother of one of your children's best friends. 

she used to be one of your good friends. 

she is the 50-ish demon in the sea of 70 & 80 year olds. 

she caused you a lot of pain. 

she was so unkind to her husband that he did something really sleazy. 

they had hired your husband to work for them as a contractor. 

the work done was originally to include one bathroom and a kitchen.

then there were two bathrooms.

finally, there were three. 

and the time it took to do all three was greater than the time and budget planned to do just one. 

just one. 

only one. 

so the former she friend has been so awful to her own family, 

that punitive measures have been taken. 

her husband refused to pay a $5000 bill. 

on the basis that his wife was unpleasant to live with 

during a major construction in their house. 

with 20/20 hindsight, you find out that...

this is what he does to all of his carpenters, electricians, plumbers, stone masons... etc. 

he has a reputation for doing this to his tradesmen. 

too little info and just too late. 

after a few months of work...

our family was screwed out of what we consider a large amount of money. 

and she is in newport riding a tour bus with altercockers. 

i am not amused. 

she is the dreaded $5k biotch. 

and there is nothing that can be done about this. 

so i fantasize. 

i recall a scene in one of my favorite movies. 

it is from "high fidelity".

a well crafted love story about a vinyl record store owner 

and 

his wickedly beautiful and very smart girlfriend who is also a lawyer . 

it is about their break up

 and the understandings that reunite them solidly as a couple. 

somewhere in the mess that is their break up, 

is a scene with john cusack and tim robbins' characters. 

tim robbins has co-opted the beautiful lawyer for himself. 

he resolves arguments between parties. 

and his character plays a 

 patronizing shitheel. 

or a conflict resolver with a little stub of a ponytail and a thumb ring.

there are a series of fantasies that john cusack's character envisions. 

they are between tim robbins and himself. 

john's character is so angry, that he sees himself taking an old hardwired telephone handset and smashing the tim robbins character on his jawline. this makes all of his teeth fly out of his mouth like popcorn kernels popping. 

a second fantasy scene includes john ripping an air conditioning unit from the wall of his store. he uses this to beat on tim robbins. 

in fact, their characters simply have a disagreeable spat in the store.

a much less violent, black humored experience. 

it is much much more ordinary than the fantasies that john indulges in. 

anyways, here's to Tammy. the world class 

personal horror show that she is. 

i am so sorry, she surfaced to show her true colors.  

and i am equally sorry that i saw her enter a newport bus with a bunch of unsuspecting old people. 

my fantasies at that moment where i was sure that she skittled into protection amongst the bus riders were greatly along the lines of the ones john cusack performed. 

i saw myself cutting into line with my bead tray in hand... 

and smacking the daylights out of this very selfish and disappointing woman. 

i, as john cusack did, just kept on about my own business. 

i had a show to finish up. 

this was not going to be tammy's day. 

she will get hers. 

and it will be well deserved. 

she is not a nice person. 

and karma has a way of reconciling things like this...

i just need to stay focused and stay my course. 

that is all.


this is jennifer on the right 
she is QUEEN JENNIFER to me.
festival fete is her gig.
and KING DAVID is her other half. 
they are a rather tall salt and pepper shaker set. 
a fantastic and well matched couple if there ever was one. 
and i adore them both. 


in case you don't remember, 
my head is made of swiss cheese these days... so the lovely woman on the left is who i am calling amy. 
{i know she told me her name about forty times, but when you got teflon for brains,
 you just have memory issues}. 
i apologize whole heartedly for this personal lapse. 

a repeat showing of KING DAVID for those of you who are visual learners like me. 

they had a lot of kid related crafting and activities at this show,
 as they do for every show.
the crowns were a clear byproduct of their well thought out
kid friendly booths.
i have no idea if their children built their crowns,
 but someone with fun in their hearts surely applied themselves to the task with glee.

the rest of the show was filled with extraordinary vendor bonding. 

we artisans had opportunities to see each other and get to know a little more, 

since we generally only get to see one another in an on-line presence. 

when you do shows, you tend to stay in your booths. 

all things considered, i learned a few new things about booth presence and set-up. 

i met a bunch of truly swell, talented folks.
so in a networky kind of way, it was a smashing success.
if i had my druthers, i would be fully rested all the time.
and freaking cheerful.
this business of fatigue is hard for me to manage... i get cranky.
and basically, that is just not good.

driving my beastmobile, allows for select stuff to be brought with me. i wish i had made better use of my booth... and that i had a third table. 
but you make lemonade when you have water, sugar and lemons. 

and this is a view from my table so you can see how airy this tent was...

anyways, it is a fresh and another gorgeouso october day.
there is a lot to do as always and many more ideas to pursue.

the grueling schedule i have been keeping will now switch into one that will allow for a little more rest than the past few months have held.
i have a lot to do to make my creative notions  come into reality.
and i really want to experiment some with new jewelry.
stuff i have had on my mind for a couple of years now.
as you may have ascertained... i do not tend to follow trends.
i follow my heart, my head and my hands.
they have always led me somewhere that i have had chances to capitalize on.
i just need to trust them.

tonight, i will be with my knitting class.
heaven almighty, please let me figure out some of these godawful confusing patterns that the ladies have chosen to put into practice.
knitting pattern proofreaders are a secret and select group.
they are almost as untrustworthy to me now as weather forecasters.
and this group of ladies is quite a passel of personalities.
all of them very strong.
when this class is over, surely, i will spill my guts about them.
they are entertaining and uncommon women.

now it is time to find me a personally crafted, home-brewed
cup of life ... coffee, here i come... ready or not.

xo.xo..
W.