The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Let's start with the good. Look at that beautiful grass. For years ACL Festival has been plagued with lots of dust. This year the city spent a kajillion dollars on making sure the grass was filled in everywhere, thick, and beautiful. And it was. When we loaded in on Wednesday we all whipped off our shoes and marveled at how amazing it was. We got set up with ease and showed up Friday morning looking forward to the weekend.

My booth partner and I couldn't use our individual names for our sign (Metalsgirl and Bolsa Bonita) so my partner came up with Charmed and Armed which I thought was super cute and fitting. The festival folks had these great signs for each of the vendors. Check out that gorgeous sky. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Our display came together - Liz's bags are so freakin' cute!

We were fairly close to one of the stages which at times was great - Michael Franti was fantastic - but at times there was so much base that I felt motion sickness coming on.

Then came day two. And with it the rain. All day. I couldn't help but take a photo of these cute girls in their home made garbage bag ponchos. The "General Store" booth quickly sold out of ponchos. There was a man actually selling garbage bags right off the roll for 5 bucks each! And he couldn't sell them fast enough. The rain was okay at first but then it started to get a little muddy.

This was me at the end of day two.

And then there was day three. This was the veiw from our booth. No rain which was good. But oh, the mud.

Imagine a foot of chocolate pudding covering an entire park and then 65,000 people arrive to listen to Pearl Jam. I wish I had video. It was like watching a crowd of people trying to learn to skate all at the same time.

Let's just say it was not the best experience. I was trying desperately to channel my inner PollyAnna but by the end of day three it was getting difficult. I just don't think that inches and inches of mud is condusive to shopping.

The ugly came today when we found out that the city folks, in their efforts to give us lush and luxourious grass, used dillo dirt and sewage to help that lovely grass grow. So, basically, we were all tromping around in s*%t.

And last I will leave you with this freakishly creepy photo. A friend of mine took this photo, I didn't get the pleasure of seeing it in person. I can only imagine that there were some drugs involved. But at least some people were able to embrace the festivities.

Calgon take me away!

I am not a morning person. At all. This morning the girls showed up to clean at 8:30 and I was still asleep. Okay, first, I know what you are thinking "poor you. you have girls to clean your house. you get to sleep until 8:30. waaaaa!" I know. I am very lucky. Don't I tell you all the time how lucky I am? So, we have wonderful girls who clean the house. And yes, I sleep past 8:30 - let's just leave it at that. But, I stay up late. Sometimes working until 11 or 12 at night. Sometimes with the computer in bed catching up on e-mail at 1am. Anyway, I'm a little tired and a little overwhelmed with ACL looming so near in the future. Will it go okay? Will I have enough inventory? Is my set up/display good enough? etc. Normal anxiety before a big show I think. So I am day dreaming this morning of the beach. The serenity of the ocean. ahhhh, calgon, take me away.

Updates and blog winners and ACL, oh my!

So I am a very bad blog contest runner. I promised to pick a winner on Friday and I never announced said winner! So, drumroll please...Janice, you are the winner of a lovely pair of concave disc earrings! Just send me your address and I will send them off to you lickety-split! Thanks to everyone who participated. It was fun reading all of your suggestions and very helpful!

Now for the Preacher update: No chemo this week. Hallelujah! But we did go in today to have blood work done just to see how he responded to last weeks chemo and to just verify all is well. Blood work looked FANTASTIC! Yippee!! And the wonderful news is that we are officially on an every other week schedule. I cannot begin to tell you how thrilling that is. And we don't have to even go in for blood work ... we are free and clear for two whole weeks! This is exciting for so, so many reasons. Most importantly because he doesn't have to go through it - the stress of going(it totally poops him out -see photos!), the mild nausea, etc. Second, it means that the chemo is right on track and he has responded almost as well as he possibly could (except for the week three upset). Third, one less week to worry about chemo reactions. And four, financially - I am not complaining about cutting out a weeks worth of vet costs at all! I know I have said it a bajillion times, but thank you all so, so much for your thoughts and prayers. I know, I absolutely know it has helped.

And last, I am in manic mode getting ready for ACL. I worked until midnight last night. I won't be doing that every day because I would be useless by the time ACL hits, but I am sure there will be several late nights and long days in my short term future. If you are coming out to ACL please stop by and say HI, I would love, love, love to see you!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Getting ready for ACL blog contest...

Okay, it's time for some more audience participation. I am counting down the weeks to ACL. I have made a chart of what I think I need, what I need to make and how much of each item. But no matter how much I pour over it, consider and reconsider, it's all still a big giant guess. So, here's where you come in. Hopefully everyone of you reading my little blog is going to be attending ACL...you're dying to see Pearl Jam or Levon Helm or Kings of Leon and shop the artists market...okay, maybe not all of you, but imagine for a minute you were and you were shopping the artists at a music festival...what would you buy? Bracelets? Earrings? Necklaces? Gifts for others, mementos, something for yourself? Tell me your thoughts, opinions...think of it as a survey. To show my appreciation of your feedback I will draw a name from the comment-ers and send you a pair of the above pictured concave disc earrings! Leave your e-mail so I can notify the winner. I seriously need your help!