Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed

I don't know what came over me yesterday - I was up and at 'em and ready to splat 'em at 7am on a Saturday morning. Actually Saturdays are always my early morning rise since that's Market day. My favorite day of the week. Jeff and I (ZuCru Creations) sell our handcrafted ware every Saturday April thru October at Boise's Capital City Public Market. This is our third season. Normally when I arrive the hustle and bustle of vendors preparing for the day's sales is well into third gear. This Saturday I was the first one in my section to actually "pop the top" on my canopy - I was a bit perplexed with where I should actually position it within the chalked guidelines since I didn't have neighbors yet - and wasn't normally squeezing myself in. I arrived at 745am. Almost 40 minutes earlier then my normal arrival time. I got an early start because beyond sharing a booth with Jeff, I am also sharing a booth with one of my childhood friends, Chrissy Kramer. Together we are selling whimsical, vibrant, and colorful paintings geared toward the child audience. So thanks to my "early bird gets the worm" attitude I actually had 30 minutes of disposable time to visit with fellow vendors, run and get coffee, and just drink in the beginnings of a beautiful day.

Yesterday was an exceptional day. There was an abundance of Market patrons even for the long holiday weekend. Most of my sales for the day were complete before noon. I love the Market cause you see old friends, make new friends, experience a great venue for people watching, and the opportunity is always knocking to sell your goods to someone other then your supportive friends and family to enjoy. What really made my day was that I actually sold two paintings. A 3-panel caterpillar that's about two years old, a bumblebee - about the same age. I have a handful of whimsical bugs and farm animals that have been in storage waiting for the perfect opportunity to be sold - before they just didn't mix with the ZuCru theme since it's Japanese influenced and includes Jeff's pottery, framed origami, and leaf prints. Now I have another creative outlet to share with Chrissy which makes me grin even bigger. I love painting -much like pottery is meditation and therapy for Jeff - that's what painting is for me. And knowing that people can appreciate my simplistic whimsical paintings makes it more fun. So along with my happy face that I gained from knowing little people were enjoying my prints - fellow vendors were shining light on me yesterday too.

Setting up yesterday, Mike, my marriage partner at the Market, was putting out his goodies that include handmade wooden spoons and cutting boards indulged me with a warpy black walnut cutting board. Later on my pursuit down the road for food I stopped to talk to Sondra who has the Scented Room, whic she handmakes lavender yummy body care goodies from body and foot scrubs to spritzers, gave me a gift of citrus basil sugar body scrub. It was her last tub and it hadn't sold that day. Her clientele hasn't picked up much on the new line and so she gave it to me since she has plenty of leftovers at home. I love her stuff. I use her lavender/peppermint salt scrub almost every day. (www.scentedroom.com) And fact be known, I scrubbed the little man (Te) with the sugar scrub tonight and of course he tried eating it. The Market day ended with Ron from Kelley Orchards of Weiser (www.kelleyorchards.com) bringing us a yummy bag full of cherries. And on top of all this goodwill among friends - I ran into Gil and Molly who make hammocks (http://www.dreamweavershammocks.com/) here locally in Boise and usually tour around the Pacific NW doing shows (even Sandpoint) - and was able to thank them for the chair hammock they so graciously tipped me with two weeks ago at our family printshop, TomKat Printing. (We print for Gil & Molly). So all in all - yesterday was a fabulous day and maybe that's God's way of telling me "Hey, get your a#$ out of bed earlier and see how rewarding it can be!" Perhaps tomorrow I'll start my 20 mile roundtrip commute with the early morning sun.