I followed a tiny sliver of the moon over to the Chicago area early Saturday morning. The colors of dawn on the eastern horizon were gorgeous--even at 5:00 a.m. which is about the time I made it to the turn south at O'Hare. I am still getting used to the Chicago highways--make that the construction zones on the Chicago highways, so, I hoped I would not have any big delays making my 5:50 a.m. check-in time for the craft show.
I got to my spot, unloaded the van and turned to introduce myself to my neighbors only to find the promoter had put me right next to candlemakers. Argh. That necessitated a half hour delay while I explained the issue to a promoter with decades of show experience--someone who should KNOW this. I was moved down one spot--which honestly did not do any good. Later I found she had another candlemaker three booths down on the other side of me--so that is three highly scented booths in 60 feet of linear space. That is not fair to anyone of us and I will do the education thing in a letter to try to make sure it doesn't happen again.
The show itself was really nice. LaGrange is a nice town with only one problem--very little parking downtown. The artists all had to park over a mile away and be bussed to the show. This was a problem for those of us used to bringing big roller carts, coolers, generators and tote boxes with us each day. You cannot fit any of those things down the narrow aisles of a school bus easily. LOL
I was next to a jeweler from Crystal Lake, Karolyn, who was super busy with her regular customers. She had a great following--she had good prices and lots of variety. We chatted when things were slow and ended up trading soap for earrings. On the other side I had a gal from West Chicago who did natural stone coasters--I liked my spot and my neighbors!
Saturday night after dinner with a couple crafters, I tried to find a way to wile away a few hours until it cooled down enough to camp in the van. I ended up at the local theater to watch the Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz movie, "Knight and Day". It was fun and the whole audience seemed to get into the silliness of the movie. A nice, light way to spend the evening.
Sunday afternoon right before packup brought some clouds and we knew from the radar there was rain coming. I was able to get my soap all tarped, the tent down and in my tote boxes before getting down to the bus stop for the long wait to the crafter parking. By the time I got back it had rained, and it rained the whole time packing the van and on the drive from LaGrange to about Woodstock on I-90. But, all in all a nice show and one I will probably keep on my schedule for 2011.
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