Saturday, April 28, 2012

week in the life | saturday

week in the life: saturday

5:15 My alarm goes off. OUCH. I hit snooze. At least I think I do. I actually turned it off, but Larry's alarm goes off at 5:45 and I "jump" out of bed.

I intend to take a photo out the window to document the start of the day, but discover that I left my camera on all night and the battery is dead. Here is a recreation of what it looked like outside:
week in the life: saturday
5:50 Charge camera. Shower, get dressed, etc. Cookie for breakfast again.
week in the life: saturday
6:45 Car is packed full and we're on the road to Crafty Balboa April Showers in Philadelphia. What's in the back of my little Mazda? A 10x10 tent, two 6' tables, two folding chairs, eight tent weights, a tarp, two tablecloths, two wooden display panels, two paint cans, four ratcheting moving straps, a 6' vinyl banner, three bins full of prints, one bin full of supplies, a cash box, rope, bungees, clips, duct tape, a wire basket, plastic bags, a garland... We discuss the need for a bigger car.
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
7:45 Hello, Baltimore.
week in the life: saturday
7:50 Through the Harbor Tunnel.
week in the life: saturday
8:25 Over the Susquehanna.
week in the life: saturday
8:45 Tolls, tolls, tolls. Hey, here's an idea: why don't I just open up my wallet and throw cash into the road? Sheesh, this trip is getting expensive.
week in the life: saturday
8:50 An example of a conversation that takes place in the car between Larry and me:
Larry: EW! It smells like asphalt! Did you fart?
Me: No! That's the road that stinks because you always put the vent on outside air. TURN IT TO RECIRC!
week in the life: saturday

8:54 I map the final leg of the trip. Why does my phone tell me it will take 9 hours to go 28 miles?! Oh, because I have it in walking mode. Oops. I don't suggest walking from Wilmington to Philadelphia.
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
9:20 Hello, Philly.
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
9:30 Philly, your parking situation is insanity. What's this parking in the middle of the road business? We circle South Philly four times before finding a spot to unload. Schlep all my equipment two blocks to my booth space.
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
9:45 Set up: Tent goes up. Weights are strapped and bungeed to the tent. Banner goes up. Tables and chairs are unfolded. Display system is installed. Prints are displayed.
week in the life: saturday
11:00 Funnelcloud Studio is open for business. Larry runs over to a cute little coffee shop called Black N Brew (I meant to get pictures of it - loved the mosaiced exterior) and brings me back a cup of hot chocolate and a bagel for breakfast.
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
11:15 Make my first sale. We're off to a good start! (Or are we...)
week in the life: saturday
11:30 Philly is chilly! It's a slow day and it is cold. Despite heavy cloud cover and some threatening wind, we are so lucky that there are no April showers during Crafty Balboa April Showers. There are lots of people out, but business is extremely slow. Everyone who stops by my booth is friendly though. Ahh, the ups and downs of selling at an art market! It can be the most uplifting and motivating experience one week and then the next can be downright discouraging. Today is the latter. The vendor next to me packs up and leaves halfway through the market. I've never seen this happen before.

The highlight of my day is when Brandi stops by my booth. I don't know many people in Philly, so it is nice to see a familiar face in a foreign city!
week in the life: saturday
I'm set up next to the DaVinci Ristorante. Another familiar face: Mona Lisa keeps watch over me.
week in the life: saturday
Jay McCarroll has a tent two down from mine. I've never in my life watched Project Runway, but my sources tell me "Hey, that guy was on TV!" and that he won the first season of the show.
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
Love the couple in the lower left corner!
week in the life: saturday
I adore these prints by Yardsale Press. The cake one says "SAVE ROOM" and it immediately made me think of Michael. If you follow either one of us on Twitter, you know that we both love caaaaaaake!
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
3:45 Finally decide to take a break. Larry mans the booth and I get us some lunch from Black N Brew, then take a walk around the market and surrounding streets to check out the area. Strangest sighting: I see a man walking around the market carrying nothing but an open pitcher of orange juice and a hacksaw.
week in the life: saturday
4:00 I wander into a garden store called Urban Jungle. They have some small Beyonce chickens, and even cooler - metal peacocks!
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
5:00 We're done and we're tired. Break down the display and pack up the car. The most popular item of the day was the New Jersey map prints. Sad to say that Philadelphia lives up to one of its less desirable nicknames, as all of my equipment (tent, tablecloths, artwork packaging) is covered with a filthy layer of black soot. Ew!
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
5:30 On the road again. Goodbye, Philly.
week in the life: saturday
7:30 Dinner stop. More junk food. Guilty pleasure: Chick-Fil-A. My platform is anti-hate, anti-ignorance, and anti-assholes, so I try to never patronize companies who don't support acceptance and equal rights. I make an exception a couple times a year when we're on the road. Chick-Fil-A may be run by bigots, but sometimes their #1 with lemonade really hits the spot.
week in the life: saturday
8:00 More tolls. Sheesh, again.
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
8:05 Back through the Harbor Tunnel. Hello again, Baltimore.
week in the life: saturday
8:30 A familiar landmark! Spotting the Mormon Temple from the Beltway means we're almost home.
week in the life: saturday
8:45 The last leg of the trip. Things are a little blurry. 300 miles down.

9:00 We're home! Fifteen hours later and guess what...
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
week in the life: saturday
9:05 Gravy welcomes me home by snuggling my sneakers.
week in the life: saturday
9:15 Banjo gets jealous and demands some lovin'.

9:30 I head up to the office for a few minutes of work. I have lots of shop orders to fill and convos to respond to. As soon as I sit down at my computer, my eyelids start to droop. This will have to wait until tomorrow. What an exciting Saturday night.

9:45 I call my mother and let her know we're home safe. She came over, fed, and let the dogs out while we were away. (I couldn't run this business without the help I get from my mom and Larry.) Mom gives me a report on the dogs. She also tells me that she ate one of my homemade dog treats. (!!!) "Not bad!", she said. "Good peanut butter flavor!"

11:00 Zzzzz. I'm asleep by 11 pm. Hallelujah! After a week of staying up until 2 am, I sleep soundly for ten straight hours.

9 comments:

Brandi said...

You got Chick-fil-A??? I want that stuff so badly. Even if I don't really eat chicken. It's all about the waffle fries. Anyways, I'm glad I got to see you on Saturday, even if it was brief. I was hoping we'd swing around again, but my friend wanted to eat and then there was gelato and then it was past the time I needed to move my car so we dashed there so I wouldn't get a ticket. I do love the photos you took of the day though, especially that one with the couple in it. So cute.

FOLKEditor said...

I want to go here!

Michael Wurm Jr said...

OMG.

First. thank you for taking the time to do these posts everyday. I'm sure it take forever to take, edit, organize, etc all of those photos and thoughts.

Second, thanks for the shout out. Seriously, made my day.

I'm going to be sad to see this week long in-depth look at your life end.

Encore!!

Ali said...

Loved this whole post. Great documentation.

Funnelcloud Rachel said...

Thank you, Ali - so sweet of you to stop by!

Mike Dale said...

Loved watching your week go by! Thought of your earlier post as my wife and I were inhaling a cheese plate last night at 10 p.m.

Funnelcloud Rachel said...

Thanks, Mike - cheese plates at 10 pm are the best!

Abby said...

Hey Rachel -- I'm catching up with your "week in the life" posts and it's so fun to read! I sent you an email through Facebook, but I'm sorry I didn't make it to Philly on Saturday to meet you. My sister was in town for the weekend. Hopefully you'll come back to Philly soon (despite it being Filthadelphia) and I'll get to see you and Larry!

Jillian said...

Very nice booth set-up! Also, on a roadtrip last weekend I swerved over and pulled into a farm stand lot yelling "LOOK! Beyonce!!" just to get a picture of a giant metal one! Cool to see you love the Bloggess too :)