Indianapolis and stun guns

Hi Everyone,

It is really cold and rainy here in dismal Illinois but we are still warm and fuzzy from our unbelievable trip to Indianapolis yesterday.

As you may remember, in the past summer months we had nothing but the worst weather on the face of the earth for every single show in Indy. It became like an unwanted relative every single show. Since we moved indoors, it has been the opposite. Drop dead gorgeous days and huge crowds of shoppers.

Yesterday was the same and at exactly 9 AM the doors opened to this mob moving quickly,

(It's raining and this thing REFUSES to straighten out today. I sent and re-saved it four times and still sideways. Oh well . . .)

Anyhow, we were slammed. Our booth was third in from the entrance and immediately we were crowded and selling. My very first customer was a repeat customer, who was so thrilled we had returned and quickly gathered up what she wanted and headed to the ironing board.

As I was chatting with her and writing her rather large order up, a new woman walked up and started being so incredibly rude and difficult to deal with. I smiled politely and told her I would gladly help her in just a minute as soon as I finished the sale I was working on. She threw her selections at me and the ironing board in disgust and walked off.

I looked at my customer in disbelief and was going to start apologizing when my customer said the most amazing thing.

"You know if I had a stun gun right now, I d let you use it on her!"

Well, needless to say, that's all it took and I was in fits of laughter. We're talking a true Depends moment. We have been so incredibly blessed by the wonderful people we meet along this journey, offers of lodging, home cooked meals, gifts and so much more, but I do believe this was a first. It took quite a few minutes for me to regain my composure and news spread quickly as others heard her offer and pretty soon it was laughter everywhere. All I could think was, what a way to start a show.

The crowds didn't let up for several hours and that really limits the time I can spend with past clients. 

And yesterday that bothered me a lot. I looked up at one point and saw a face I knew I wanted to remember, that brain injury thing was working overtime and all it was saying was, " You know this person" and NOT a thing more.

Turned out that Marilyn and John from Louisville had driven all the way up to the Indy show, more than 2 hours away. I had invited them back in December when we first met them.

It was near closing at our first night in Louisville last December, that really warm weekend we showed outside at the art show. They came into our booth and stayed for at least an hour. It was such a delightful visit and here they were, all the way up in Indy to see us and do this show.

John said that when Marilyn walked in the auditorium at The Fountains, she let out a little squeal of delight. The market really was spectacular this month and here she was quickly gathering up items in my booth and before I could turn around twice from answering the others, she was gone, leaving John with an armful of goodies waiting patiently to be checked out. As if that wasn't bad enough, on their way out, they tried again and we were swamped again. I had to settle for a wave and thank you from across the booth. It really meant so much to see them and to know they made the effort on my suggestion to come up and try the market there. It doesn't get any better than that.

So, to all the incredibly great customers that couldn't have 'quality' visiting time, thank you for spending time with us in our booth. We really appreciate each and every single one of you.

The afternoon spend by like lightning and before I knew it George was talking about hooking up  the trailer and bringing boxes in. Really, not again.

We have a routine for breaking down the booth and I started with the desk, when I noticed another woman still in the booth. I walked over and she asked if we were closed yet and told her absolutely not. We started to figure out a couple of decorating issues she had in her bedroom and we were able to resolve several areas she needed pieces for. Our wonder loader, Tony had started breaking down other fixtures and George was dropping off the dozen or so crates and boxes and Peggy kept saying, "I can't believe you are still helping me". Truth be told Peggy, I would do just about anything to get out of breaking down ! But, working on the vignette we created for the top of that chest in your bedroom, won by a huge landslide. Truly, my pleasure.

I finally finished her sale and we packed up and with our friend Mark from Michigan, got on the road going north towards home.

Such a great day, new friends, new clients and offers of weapons. 

What more could a girl want? 

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes for my Mom, she is getting a bit stronger every day and we will continue working to til we get her back in the saddle.

In the meantime, I will be working to get a our new Spring line launched and figuring out where we are showing the rest of the month. Kinda' depends on Fran's recovery and how much time we will have.

Please remember that next month in Indy, we are actually at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and at the same time we are there, there is an art show going on. So it's going to be a big deal, two shows, one location. Start making plans for the first Saturday of April now.

Catch you all later,
Suz
the Muze