May 22, 2010.  Prospect Street Fair.  Great venue.  Great weather (?!).  Great organizers.  Great vendors.  Great food. 

Mid-morning a rogue gust of wind came along and literally TOOK OUT most all the tents at the South end of the fair. Everyone scrambled to save their product, their displays, the tents, and stay safe at the same time.  It kept up for maybe 15 minutes and when it was done, the street looked like a tornado had gone through.  Broken glass, broken tents, broken art and antiques.  A mess.

This -

 used to look like THIS:

 

And there were a few others.  Heartbreaking.  But truth be told, I fared better than some.  Most of us packed up and went home.  A shame, as the folks at The Nest put an awful lot of work into this event, as did all of us vendors.  This is part of the problem with outdoor markets and street fairs.  You always run the risk of the weather ruining the day and costing vendors and organizers lots of money. 

So....what to do now?  What about future street fairs?  Is it worth it?  All of us have to decide that for ourselves, but for me, I think not.  I'll finish up the ones I'm signed up for this summer, which are few - but I'm looking for a new plan, a new idea, a new venue.  This whole event took the wind out of my sails.

My "day job" became too busy/exhausting - and keeping up at the farm became near impossible during the week, so took up all of my time on the weekends.  There has been NO time, since that day in May, for me to even work in the gourd studio and create new inventory.  My blog has suffered as well.  I'm "out of the loop!"  I lost momentum!

I just took a week off for my stepson's wedding.  A lovely event and a week full of entertaining out-of-town relatives and guests.  The week also included "farm tours" to see the llamas, and the gourds, and everything else that goes on here.  It re-kindled my excitement and creativity to see the enjoyment everyone got out of visiting the very quiet little gourd studio.  I spent a few hours today back in there, creating again!  I'm ready to get back out there.  If anyone has any ideas to share - any thoughts or suggestions - as to where I can display my work going forward, I would appreciate your input!