Me In The Making: July 9, 2007 Coon Dogs and Hand Crafted Jewelry

So, I was up in Saluda, NC this weekend. I was a vendor at the Coon Dog Day Festival there.

A friend of mine's mother hand crafts jewelry...anything from Jasper, Carnelion, Garnet and fresh water pearls. Beautiful stuff! (I bought a few pieces!)

Anyways, she sells all of her jewelry at art shows and festivals, etc.

Well, she ended up having 2 festivals in one weekend. Obviously, you can't be in two places at once! Although sometimes at work, I feel as if I have to be! lol

I agreed to help out. Her daughter was going to go up by herself, and she isn't really into that kind of thing so I offered to go up with her. I brought Bigster too!

Anyways, I majored in fashion merchandising and in marketing in college. I have managed in retail many times and have worked part-time in retail as well. I also used to manage properties (apartment complexes) so I'm good at selling in a retail type environment. I'm not good at "sales" though, as in traveling sales, car sales, account executive type sales jobs...just to clarify the difference. (I don't cater to suits very well either.)

Because of my background, etc., I wanted to go help. I like doing different things anyways, and I like to help out friends. It was a lot of fun. I sold a good amount of jewelry too.

We arrived the night before at around midnight or so maybe? We set most everything up and spent the night in my friend's truck! (no money for hotel, but who cares?) The weather was awesome up there this weekend. I am so jealous of their weather...only a few hours away from Columbia! Not fair! Our evenings here in Columbia are so steamy!

It was hard to get to sleep that night. I think we managed to set everything up and get in the truck to sleep around 2:30 am? All I could hear was this clanking sound against a flag pole. The wind kept blowing this thing around making a clanking sound on this flagpole nearby. We listened to trucks passing through all night and the funnel cake people setting up their gig as well. I could not wait to get my hands on one those things! lol

I finally drifted off to sleep and maybe as i was entering into REM phase, I was awoken to the sound of water surging out against this man's alloy wheels! At 5:30 am, he decides to come out and wash his car off! Weird...anyways, about 6 am, all these cars start coming in to set up.

I hurried and changed and we drove the truck to the vendor parking area. We packed up our shit, and started walking down to our spot for the day.

This was our gig for the day:

I had Biggie on a retractable leash. He was doing really good so far! Until this poodle type dog passed by. He ferociously tried to attack at that dog...really he was just trying to say Hello in doggy language...but he almost broke the retractable leash! He is a very powerful 16 pound JRT! He can be vicious! lol My friend, Sam, puts him into this crate and she carries him inside the crate down to our spot! lol He was growling the whole time. I was so embarrassed! But it wasn't his fault...he's not very socialized. Of course, he's never been to a festival before and he's never tried to sell jewelry either!
;-)

Anyway...thank God for 85 degree weather with not much humidity and an overcast!

Biggie started barking at all the coon dogs, so I had to crate him for awhile.

After about 2 hours like this though, he calmed down a lot. I think he just had to get used to the smells and the sounds, etc. And there was a parade and they shot off muskets! So of course, that scared the shit out of my dog!
I held him in my lap. He was such a baby! He clutched on to me as if the world was ending. WHIMP!!!

He got a lot of attention though. Everyone loved him. :)

We managed to sell quite a few pieces that day! Here's me after our first sale at 7:30 am that morning! (Tired as hell...but still kicking...) "Yay! Our 1st sale!"