So, Sally didn't make it over to the house, but I picked up her and her friend Bonnie from their hotel and whisked them over to South Congress as they passed through Austin on their way to the Round Top antique show at the end of September! First we had a snack at the wonderful South Congress Cafe...
Then of course, over to Uncommon Objects for a bit of shopping...
They were off the next day for a week of shopping at Round Top! I look forward to seeing what spectacular finds they unearthed!
The next day was a luncheon with my mom, a warm-up for the Austin Symphony League's annual fund-raiser Jewel Ball that evening. During said luncheon, someone offered me and Paul tickets that were going to be unused, so he checked to make sure his dark suit was clean (no time to rent a tux! gasp!) and I raided mom's closet for something that would fit the Hollywood 50's theme. No problem...
It was a lovely evening and quite fun to see all of the amazing gowns that people were wearing. They even had impersonators of famous Hollywood stars from that era!
My sister-in-law and I had promised the kids that we would take them to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. We didn't realize it would be in 3-D...a first for the kids...
They kept raising their glasses to check out the effect and Fiona repeatedly exclaimed, "Mom! It's right in front of my face!" I kinda like the look... Oh, and the movie is a must-see! Hilarious and well done!
Ty decided to wear his glasses home and I couldn't resist snapping this photo of him drinking a bubble-gum flavored (yeesh!) Jones soda...our family name is Jones...
Oh, I almost forgot! I need to announce the winner of the Drama Queen Gem Tintype Charm Necklace. I sincerely apologize to those of you who kept checking back to see if you had won. I truly meant to get a post up before the show, but it just didn't happen. I hope you can forgive me...
The winner is...
Fiona felt she needed to hold a few stuffed animals to give the shot some color. So, Daniela, send me your snail mail addy and I will send the charm off post haste! I promise...
Then it was into the whirlwind of trying to get inventory ready for the Bayou City Art Festival, my biggest show of the year. It is always so tough trying to anticipate what will sell and what you should make to fulfill what the client might want. I also promised some pixies to the manager of Asher Gallery at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, to be dropped off prior to the show. What was I thinking?!! Here they are in progress...it made toasting my waffles each morning a bit problematic...
And a few finished...
I left for Houston last Friday morning after waking up to torrential rain here in Austin. I waited it out until it was a light drizzle to load up the truck. I was flying solo since Paul was staying home to take care of Fiona. I drove in the rain for 3 hours to Houston, then over to the artist check in. I had Mapquested all of my little routes because downtown Houston always gets me turned around, especially in inclement weather. From the check in I made it over to the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and met with Suzanne. She was thrilled with the pixies, even though I only had 8 rather than 12. I told her she was getting quality over quantity. I was trying so hard to get these ready, that they were starting to feel forced, and I didn't like that feeling. Here they are, ready to have a stay at the gallery...
And here is a shot of the gallery itself...a lovely space!
Suzanne has a great eye and has created a very eclectic selection! Stop by if you are in the area and don't forget that they have great workshops too! I want to take the enameling class in a few weeks...
So, back into the truck and following my directions back to the DoubleTree hotel. Has this ever happened to you with Mapquest directions? I was driving down Houston street and the directions said to take the fork to the right to stay on Houston. Well, at the fork, Houston was to the left and Memorial was to the right. Do I take the direction (right) that it says to take or do I take the street? I chose the street, which of course was wrong. So, there I am, trying to navigate (hah!) through downtown Houston on a Friday afternoon at 4:45 in the rain...I got lucky and ran across an exit that was the street that the hotel was on. I made it (eventually) and checked into a really awesome room! It was pie-shaped with windows down each side...
The room came to a point over the street where you could stand and look straight down...freaky...
All in all, it felt very swank! I splurged on the room because I figured that doing the set-up, selling and breakdown by myself might wear on me a bit and being a block from the show would be welcome! I waited and went to set up around 8 pm. I found I couldn't even get down the street to where my booth was located, so I backed up (narrowly missing the $25,000 metal sculptures that an artist had on a forklift directly behind me!) and tried to get back to the hotel. Have I mentioned that I am directionally impaired? Only a block away, but with all of the one-way streets, I managed to get lost. But, in a flash of serendipity, I came across the street that was near my booth, so I parked and carted everything in, avoiding all of the the set-up traffic! Yay! It was drizzling, but at least it wasn't the downpour they had been predicting! I finished about 11:30 after lots of bruises and cursing when I needed that one extra hand. The volunteers were very helpful on those occasions!
The downtown location is quite lovely. The booths are situated on the streets and sidewalks between large oak trees and tall towers. Quite a juxtaposition...
Saturday was good...overcast weather and cool temperatures. The major fly in the ointment of the day was that I had ordered a lunch that didn't show up until three in the afternoon. Fortunately, some amazing friends dropped off three homemade chocolate chip cookies. Between that and my Diet Coke, I did ok...
Sales were fairly brisk and were mostly of my larger original pieces. I did have some new prints (which I will get listed on my ETSY store soon!) and those did well. At the end of the day, I went to dinner with my good friend and fellow Bayou City Art Festival artist, Debbie Little-Wilson. She does amazing work in printmaking and her new direction is very exciting! We had a scrumptious dinner at Vincent's and then it was back to the hotel to crash by 9 pm.
Up the next morning to do it all again. I was startled when I entered my tent and found this lovely lady suspended from the rafters...
I had told my neighbor, Michael Gard, that he could put stuff in my tent if he needed to...but I wasn't expecting this life-size lady! Yep, all of that is hand done wirework...gives me carpal tunnel just looking at it...
Sales were abysmal and all of the other artists were saying the same thing. We couldn't figure out what it was...overcast but no rain, comfortable temps, etc.
That is the thing about this lifestyle...you never know how a show is going to go and you definitely don't count your chickens before you sell them! My buddy Douglas came by and showed me his newest work...very cool photo montages that are cut and layered upon each other to give the illusion of depth...love his shoes!
Then it was time to breakdown...again, without the predicted downpour! I loaded everything up and made it back to the hotel (on the first try!), had dinner and went to bed. Up the next morning to drive back to Austin. I stopped by Uncommon Objects on the way home because I knew they had all been shopping the previous week at Round Top and I wanted to see what they had found. I wasn't disappointed and will share what I just had to have in the next post.
The exciting news is that Steve wants to start carrying the pixies at Uncommon Objects! He has already picked out space in a glass cabinet right at the front of the store! So, I need to get going on those, plus catch up with everything I have put off before the show. I am three weeks behind in Susan Tuttle's Visual Poetry Workshop, I have been invited to make a wreath (not your granny's wreath!) for a show at Robot Art Gallery, I need to work up two new workshop ideas in the next week or so in time to submit them, start applying for all of the spring art festivals, work on two commissions that were ordered this weekend, put new stuff in the ETSY store, make more inventory for the two local shows I will be doing in December...oh, and chaperone field trips and volunteer in Fiona's room, take care of the house and family...sigh. No problem...
