My, What a busy week!!!

 Let's start with the Burien Market.  It was 25 degrees cooler this week than the week before, which made people more inclined to buy warm hats, but it also kept many people home.  I'm the eternal optimist and took off to the market without a coat.  

By 1pm I had to call Terry to have him bring me one with the walls of my tent.  EVERYTHING got wet, and once we got home at the end of the day, I had to set up my displays in the living room to dry out overnight.  I had another show on Saturday.

Despite the rain, folks were in great spirits.

 Two Scoops, a blues duet, showed up and entertained us for hours.  I just love their tip jar, shown above.

And look at those smiles.  You can tell they love what they are doing.

 And here is Tami Sioux.  What a kick in the butt.  I first met this woman while shopping at the market last year.  My kids had given me one of her pieces for Christmas the year before.  I bought another.  And, I'm sure I will continue to do so.  Another, and another, and another.

 We visited each others' booths constantly, and along with Alice who sells plants, we decided we had a good  basis for friendship and networking..

 Below is Jill Griffin, who does incredible jewelry at reasonable prices.  She is a really nice person, of course, and I spent a bit of time with her.  You see, my problem at these affaires is that I tend to spend as much as I make, but gee, I wouldn't have come to look otherwise, and wouldn't have the money to spend, right?

 As usual, the flowers were aplenty.  I made a trade with one of the farmers, and will be getting fresh flowers every week for quite some time.

Friday was supposed to be rest and relaxation.  I am detoxing from a powerful med that I have taken for years and it is having a huge impact on me.  I am exhausted beyond anything I have ever experienced.  It is painful and emotional.  But, due to the wet market, and having to readjust my plans, I had a pretty busy day.  The bonus was that a friend of mine whom I met at the Bellingham market gave me a call that night.  I had been trying to reach her ever since I washed my phone and lost all my info.  So there she was, and I was in desperate need of a massage!  Oh, that's how we met.  When I vended inside at the market, I was always next to a group of masseuses who became my friends and practitioners.  Susan is also living in Seattle now.  Isn't that great?!

So on to the Tukwila Backyard Wildlife Festival.  What a wonderful, funfilled day.  They do such a fantastic job putting on this event, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, despite having only gotten 4 hours of sleep.

Right next to me was the
Tukwila Rotary, who, as you can see, were having a marvelous time selling native plants.

They are also the ones with the sense of humor to put leg warmers on the flamingos.

I really want that flying pig in the upper left corner, but I had to settle for the flying wrench, even though sales were good.

This is Gary Golightly, The Bubbleman.  He had both children and adults howling with laughter.

This little pollinator kept me in stitches all day.  Her main stage was right across from me, and she knows how to flaunt it.  Terry says she has been at this festival for years.  She also does a dragon fly on stilts and a butterfly.  I liked the bumble bee the best.

So another good day of sales which makes for a deposit into the vacation fund.  Pretty good, making money while having fun.

Burien Farmer's Market

 It was a beautiful, sunny day for the opening of the Burien Farmer's Market.  Burien is about a 10 minute drive from my house, and they also take crafts.  Not all markets accept crafts, so this is my first attempt at more local markets.  There are more and more opening up each year.  I just read that one is opening on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond!!

 Here is my booth.  I did not take hats, and very few headbands, since it was 85 degrees, and no one wants to try on, much less buy, a warm hat in that kind of weather.

Two men were admiring my yarns when one of them says "Ya know Kaffe Fassett?  He'd really like this stuff.  Wow, I could not have received a nicer compliment.

Bottom line, though, I did not make a single sale.  That is not surprising for a first time at a market.  People have to get to know you.  The networking I did was phenomenal, and I had a great time.

 This is Max, my booth neighbor.  He sells OMG! dipping oils and balsamic vinegars.  I have several of the products, which I bought at the Pike Place Market.  It was so fun to listen to his sales pitches all day and get all the ideas of how to use the different oils.  Last night, I brushed my oven fries with Cabernet Garlic Oil.  Oh, My.

 On my other side was a new garbage and recycling company that will soon be doing the waste removal in Burien.  His is a drum made of repurposed propane tanks.  The sound it emits is so beautiful!

And here is the cookbook I display in my kitchen.  It's not my favorite, but I do like identifying with these wild and crazy women.

Back at it.

I think it is about time I got back to blogging. 
With all the problems I've had with my eyesight, it just wasn't comfortable, but things are improving tremendously, and I think it is time.

 I have been dying fiber again and having a grand time.  I attended a fiber show recently where I bought a fiber blending board, and I'm having a lot of fun blending colors.  I will be coming up with some new yarn designs as a result.

Which is a good segue into the Burien Farmer's Market.  This is a sweet little market, about a 10 minute drive from my place.  I will be vending there and am so happy to be part of a Market again.  Terry will help me to set up and break down.  That was always the part that exhausted me.  He has been working so hard to help me get ready.  He's made new weights for the tend, washed and waterproofed the tent top, and helped me to make a new sign.  

The market is on Thursdays, from 11am to 6pm.  Opening day is May 1st and it is forecast to be 79 degrees.  That should bring the people out.

 Last week we made a quick trip to Lopez Island and took our friend April with us.  Is this the sweetest little church?  I wanted to take pictures of all the churches, but I forgot my camera or it was raining too hard.  That didn't keep us from digging clams and doing some island exploration.

 The Tulip Festival is in full swing in Mt 

Vernon, and here are some fields we passed on our way to the ferry in Anacortes.  These are fields where they are harvesting the flowers.

Last but not least, here are some of the clams we got.  We  wash the shells really good, then steam them, saving the nectar.  I then squeeze the contents of the stomach out of the bug ones, cut them up, and then we freeze them in a quart container.  Enough clams and nectar to make enough clam chowder for at least 4 people.  Next trip to Lopez, we will be going after Dungeness Crabs.