Saturday, December 13, 2008

Lead poisoning and other recent adventures . . .

This post is way overdue as the bazaar was a week ago. It has taken me a whole week to recover and catch up with the Christmas season. (Though my tree is still not decorated!!)

I am proud to say that Ruby Market's premier debut was a success! After sleepless nights and hours ( upon hours and hours) of preparation, Jeremy and I were able to reign in all of our creative efforts and make for a wonderful show.


Jeremy's husband, Blake, was AWESOME to help us by assembling our booth, 4 old and worn doors and 1 not so worn door (though it still looked great)!

Jeremy and I spent some time scrubbing the doors down to make sure that all of the peeling and highly toxic lead paint was removed. Though we laughed about it at the time, I couldn't help but worry that a fleck might splinter into my hand, hitting a vein or something. (Yeah, I do worry a bit!)


We messed around with the booth for a little bit trying to figure out how we were going to display our goods.


"Willard" even graciously volunteered to sit up on this perch so that we could have a visual.


We also decided at the last minute that it would be so cool to have some wire hangers spray painted to give them an Anthropologie sort of look.

As if the paint chips weren't enough, I spent the rest on the evening gassing myself and my family out of the house with some spray paint fumes from the basement. It was sooo worth it though. They turned out looking great!

By the time that Jeremy and I made it to the venue location, we were delirious and thinking that we were a couple of comedians! Something kept us laughing in the car for about 15 minutes before we decided to go in and use the bathroom so as not to pee our pants.

Jeremy gave me the "talk" about not saying any of the usual odd and unsuspecting things that come out of my mouth in occasions like this, i.e. "Jeremy is soooo nervous!!" or "Hi, we're Ruby Market and we are sooo excited because this is our very first time ever!! Yipeee!"

I took her advice - although later, I did make the fatal error of complimenting one of the bazaar organizers on her artwork. I compared her work to another local artist whose work I just adore. Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say as she "could not stand" that artist. Woops.

Some of the little aprons that Jeremy made . . . which will be for sale in our etsy store soon. :)

Phyllis and Gertrude waiting eagerly for some admirers.

In the end, we were really please with how everything turned out. We were also blown away by the talent here in our little happy valley!! There are some amazing artists, creators, and crafters out there! It was so neat to see some of the new creative ideas that they came up with.

A couple of my favorites were -

-The "fresh" ideas from Freshly Picked

-Vinylicious designs

-Great artwork from Fall Down Tree

-Awesome purses, bags, skirts, and aprons from Noelle O Designs. These suckers were flying off of the racks!

There were also some d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. treats there. I met one girl, Anne, who makes the best and most unusual combinations of jam. She had Apple Lavender, Orange Rosemary, Blueberry Ginger, etc. Ummmm, they were all sooo good that I might be addicted.

Another tasty treat was Stephanie Higginbotham's gourmet cupcakes. I thought that I had died and gone to heaven when I had my first bite. I found out later that I can get one of her cupcakes anytime I'd like at Dear Lizzie's! Thank goodness.

This has been a wonderful opportunity and a great experience. Jeremy and I loved it and loved meeting everyone. We are already gettin' to work on our inventory so that ( should they choose us . . . ) we can be ready for the spring show. :)

**
A HUGE "thank you" to my awesome husband for supporting me in this adventure. I love you Sterling!!
**

9 comments:

Jacobson Five said...

I'm glad all went well. Congrats.

Owen said...

Looks fabulous!! Not that I expected anything less from Wonder Woman! Glad everything was a hit and hopefully you avoided lead poisoning.

Heidi P said...

That was so fun! You guys did great! (Nice building, too Blake)

I listened to some people too, all I heard everyone loved your stuff!! Way to go!

Lei said...

That looks like it was a lot of fun Zoe. Cute, cute stuff!

Jacobson Five said...

Have you heard, Christmas will be here at 3:00. Kevin wouldn't call so I had to. O-well. I'll take one for the team.

Anonymous said...

Zoe, it all looks great! Thanks for sharing. I read your blog because you are linked to other crafting blogs I enjoy.

I had something else to add, I don't mean to sound like a party pooper! I am hoping you already knew this and were taking precautions you didn't mention?

Your primary danger from chipping or sanding off lead paint is from inhaling lead paint dust. I hope you were using HEPA quality masks and a HEPA vacuum! you also want to cover surfaces with 4 mil plastic to prevent contamination.

You very well may have done all / most of these things--I just couldn't help but say something! Just being a paranoid ninny over here **hugs**

Zoe said...

Thanks annoymous! You are not paranoid! I am the same way. :) We did take some extra precautions. We were not even 100% sure that is was lead paint but we thought that we would be careful none-the-less. Thanks for your concern. :)

You will have to give me a link to your blog.

Tiffany Chamblee Funn said...

You never cease to amaze me with your talents. Congratulations on this venture!

Lisa said...

it looked so great. good job and hope you can recover. NOW, I'm not trying to get rid of you, but weren't you going to move? What happened with that?