Uptown Art Fair, Minneapolis

Well, the Uptown Art Fair came and went, and I never took any pictures there. I guess I was too distracted by the weather or something, whoops :(

Mike and I headed out to Minneapolis for the show, which was held Aug 7,8 & 9. This was my second year doing the show, and like last year, we also got a David Sedaris book on CD to listen to for the trip. I highly recommend this for long car rides, he's freakin' hilarous. The drive was about 7 hours - long, but not bad. We got to our hotel and had some dinner and crashed.

We set up the booth on Friday morning - in the rain. The worst! It wasn't pouring, but any rain is bad rain when you're trying to set up the tent while unloading and keeping your stuff dry. The show began at noon, and it was an OK day.

Saturday began pretty well, but it rained around 1pm and the humidity rolled in and made the air like pea soup. I felt like I could cut the air with a knife. Hot and unpleasant, yuck. Sales were pretty good, but were down from what I expected due to the weather. Later that night we decided to get sushi in Calhoun Square, and there were apparently tornado warnings going on while we were in the restaurant. They had passed by the time we left, but a couple had touched down outside of the city - yikes! Really scary. Our friends, Dolan and Ali, got caught outside during the all the warnings, and took shelter in the YMCA basement (read about it on Dolan Geiman's blog here).

Sunday the weather was actually very nice, and I was hoping for a big surge of customers who had stayed inside the previous 2 days, but that didn't necessarily happen. I can't complain though, I still sold a good amount even if it was a little below expectations for the weekend. I do have to say, I love this show for their organized load-out procedures, which is huge when at the end of the show, all you wanna do is get the F outta there - no offense, but we're exhausted, folks ;)

When we were all packed up, we met Dolan, Ali, and a few other artists for food at Namaste Cafe, and had a family-style dinner, passing around a ton of absolutely delicious Indian dishes. Such a great way to end a show - great company, great food, great conversation - and of course, some wine ;)

Getting ready now for the Bucktown Arts Fest in Chicago this weekend! This show is near and dear to my heart because I've been doing it so long, it's in a great neighborhood, the organizer is great (Maria!), and it's always falls on or near my silly birthday. This is my TENTH year in a row at the Bucktown Arts Fest - come celebrate with me!!!! See ya there.....