I love the the Carmel Indiana Art Festival. The people are great and love their art. However, this year the show proved to be a real challenge, to say the least, because of the weather. It could of been worse I'm sure, but it sure played havoc with the artists' as we put up our booths Friday night.
The skies were dark as I unloaded the car and set up the tent. Within minutes the skies turned black, thunder and lightening and high winds tore thru the main street of Carmel just as I was putting up the last wall of my booth. Crashing and clattering sounds were
everywhere and all we could do was to wait it out. The storm stopped, the booth had weathered
the storm. I guess hanging from the
frame like a monkey in the pouring rain and lightning wasn’t the brightest
thing to do but I didn’t have much choice since the storm hit so quickly.
The storm left one tent a few
booths down from me mangled and lying like a rag doll in the street. After checking to see if everyone around me was OK, I quickly finished my tent and found my friend Christie who's booth was down the street a few blocks from mine. We had weathered the storm and everyone was OK.
I was soaking wet and chilled to the bone when I arrived at
the hotel and no doubt I looked like a drowned rat. I had one thing on my mind
– HOT TUB! You would know the hot tub
jets were down but that didn’t stop my roommate Christie and me. We were an unnatural shade of blue when we got
into the hot water and stayed till we could feel our limbs once again. We headed back to our room and stumbled into
our beds knowing the weather didn’t look promising for Saturdays show.
You'd never guess by the picture above that we battled wind gusts over 30 mph all day long Saturday and
those tents sure were swaying, but I managed to stay put for the most part. My new magnetic tables and jewelry displays
and stands were put to the test here at Carmel and worked beautifully! I need to tweak them just a little bit more
and they will be perfect.
You know you have great family when they fly in from Atlanta
to visit you or come up from Anderson and not only buy Christmas gifts but
bring you lunch too! Thanks Dawn, Cathy
and Desi, it was the highlight of my day to see you all.
The ever present wind gusts wore out the most seasoned of
us art show artists and we were so thankful when 6:00 pm rolled around to close up
shop. My arms were a few inches longer
and I felt like I’d been stretched on some medieval torture rack after struggling
with the wind and the booth all day. Once
Christie and I got our booths secured we were off to Bub’s for burgers. Even though we were exhausted the long wait
was worth it, the burgers were terrific.
Sunday, the alarm didn’t go off. Really, after the last two days this isn’t
the way we wanted to start our day! I dashed
around the room, got dressed, actually got makeup and hair looking pretty good,
packed the car and arrived at my booth in 45 min. flat - amazing what a crazed
lady can do in 45 min!
Sunday the winds had died down and gone their mischievous ways so we could enjoy
our customers and the event. Thank you to all my old customers, new
friends and my family for their support!
I love the Carmel Art Show - well, everything but the wind!
