THE ART WENT FLYING

Off the shelves. I mean, literally. It was a windy day. REALLY windy! We would have not been able to stay if it hadn’t been for a fellow art friend Raven Armstead. She ended up not being able to finish even setting up due to the wind. And while packing back up, she graciously offered up her weights for us to use. We gladly accepted! She saved the day!

This being my first outdoor market, I learned a LOT. SO MUCH. You think you have it all figured out going in but you don’t. The assumptions we made in the driveway on a calm day didn’t exactly pan out like we had hoped. Since this was my first one, I didn’t want to invest too much money into a proper set up. Well, I was ready to dump all the money into it but Kyle was smart and said let’s just give it a try and see if this is something we want to keep doing.

Is it something I/we want to keep doing? I think so? In perfect conditions? YES! In the rain or maybe another windy day? No, thanks. I feel way too overly stimulated when everything is blowing around. At some point I just sat there and let it happen. Prints started flying out of the tent. I made jokes with some of the people walking by that my prints were all $20 bucks and that there was some free art available out on the lawn somewhere.

We met lots of wonderful people! Met the Toole family - Matt and Nicole and their 3 kids. They own Tools of Cultivation. They have a cool farm up in Ardmore, AL. Amazing family and such a neat shop with products like meat, yarn, wool balls, sheepskins, blankets, concrete pots and soap dishes, and sheep’s milk soaps. Definitely go check them out.

I think the next time I am able to do a market would be sometime after January 2025. Right now I’m going to focus on making some more art and selling things on Etsy. And attending all the things we have going on each weekend from now till the new year. Though we did just get back from the 2024 Monte Sano Art Festival and I feel even MORE inspired to keep doing more markets.