This past weekend was the Streetsville Bread & Honey Festival - what a learning experience...
After borrowing a pop up shelter (thanks Kerrie & Craig) I happily headed down to the festival early Saturday morning. Set up went off without a hitch (thanks to Bill & Amy for helping me with the tent). The weather was looking kind of iffy but hey, a little drizzle of rain never hurt anyone...right???
Ha! Things were going just swimmingly and then.... the storm hit. Rain... and wind... and thunder... and lightening...oh my! It certainly did a number on my display. The rain and wind were coming in all sides of my tent. Everything was SOAKED through and I looked like a drowned rat. My poor feathers! I wish the battery in my camera was not dead, would have been a priceless photo.
After some time trying to figure out what to do (a couple of hours, in fact) I finally packed back up and took off for home. I had to break the barrier that was blocking my car from getting out of my parking spot, but I was going home dammit...lol. I drove home, unpacked my things and headed straight for the hair dryer (upon receiving loving advice from my fiance - "birds dry, so should your feathers"). After quite a while of blow drying my things they looked decent again. Yay!!
Sunday morning I peeped my head out the door to happily find that it was a gorgeous day and didn't look like any sign of rain. So... I packed up my things and off I went again, perseverance, perseverance, perseverance... I wasn't going to let the previous day's rain bring me down! This time my Mom came with me and everything turned out fabulously (thanks Mom, again). The day was beautiful, there were large crowds and teens and kids were quite taken with my feather hair pieces. The day turned out to be a success but I can't help but think how much better it would have been if Saturday were the same, would have been my best show ever!
Anyways, I learned quite a few things when doing an outdoor show:
- Continue to leave a rain coat (or two!), a couple of umbrellas, Uggs and a hat in the car, I knew not cleaning my car would come in handy some day.
- ALWAYS wear your rain boots, never take them off!
- Bring a change of clothes (and don't wear jeans when it's gonna rain, they get heavy).
- Bring a tarp & bungee cords, even if it the most beautiful day ever.
- Put everything in waterproof Tupperware bins - $39 later I have checked this off my list.
- Bring lots of duct tape, bring more than you think you need - you will use it.
- If you follow the previous 6 items and you STILL get wet for some crazy reason - DON'T throw your ruined inventory in the garbage.
- Don't let it get you down! Keep truckin.
Now that I have experienced all of this, it will be the
last time I go unprepared. I swear.
Next Saturday's show is a the Pheasant Run Public School in Mississauga. It is planned to be OUTSIDE. I will definitely make sure to check everything off my list.
C
