crazy weekend

I think I actually fell asleep several hours ago (mentally anyway) but I've been zombie-ing around all evening anyway.

I delivered my art to Grass Valley on Saturday, and then stopped at an office supply place on the way home to pick up some lights (my booth is usually one of the least well lit at that show). They didn't have enough lights in stock but I remembered about a zillion other things I needed and managed to run up a rather large bill. Great. I need to try another place tomorrow and see if I can acquire more lights.... hmm, better get some extension cords too. I'll probably remember a million more things I need. On the other hand, every year there are fewer and fewer things I need to buy in order set the booth up.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning this room for the eighty millionth time (every time I got it almost clean I had to do some more work in here, like framing, and then I totally turned it into a disaster again), and I cut out the pastry dough for the cookies, packaged up a few prints, and then even squeezed in a little time drawing Lemon Blue Old English. Went to bed at 12:30...ugh!

Up at 7:30 today, and after feeding the critters I started right in baking cookies. I made 105 of them, and didn't end up with many left! :-) They are quite possibly one of the most wonderful cookies in the universe, but the downside is they are at the prime for only a day--wonderfully crispy and flaky, sweet and tart all at the same time. But they don't freeze well and they don't store well so I can only make them when they will all get eaten in one day, so they've become my designated meeting-cookie.

Apricot Kolatchky, a.k.a. Auntie Lulu's Apricot Cookies
(no, I can't post the recipe, family secret)

ready for baking....

Fresh out of the oven, OMG they smell so good!

Sugared and arranged!

MMmmmmmmmm!

The last the poultry people staggered out around 4, and I could have easily curled up on the floor and not woken up til tomorrow, but alas there was too much to do. I passed the time during the meeting itself by folding cards. Not sure how many, several hundred. It took me about an hour and a half, so I was glad I got that done during the meeting. Later in the day I bagged them all, and packed up a few sale items, and managed only a very small amount of time drawing (crap! I'm off schedule again!)

There's still a LOT of work to do, I need to pack a bunch of things, make price tags and labels, and for that matter just figure out what I'm taking! I have to figure out if everything will fit on the 8' table I reserved, and map out the layout for how to hang the artwork on the walls (this saves me SO much time during setup). I get completely stressed out by this art show prep, but it always seems to come together okay. Oh, note to self, get another 8.5x11 portfolio...

I'll need to bring some artwork up there to work on during the show. It helps to pass the time, and people seem to enjoy watching someone draw (I would think it would be quite boring...) I guess the obvious answer would be to take the Lemon Blues. I didn't want to work on Standard stuff up there for several reasons but I think I might have to just to keep on schedule. I have a few other things that need to be done and I'd hoped to take one of them, but... deadlines a-looming. We'll see.

Absolutely nothing to report about horses or chickens, it's been all I can do to get out there and feed the last few days! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

I do need to make a slight rant here, and that is that in general people really need to learn how to RSVP. I won't elaborate because if I do then I'll just get long-winded (I do that when I'm tired). So I'll just leave it at that. RSVP, really, do it, it makes the hostess much less cranky.

I gotta go to bed, I have approximately ninety million things to do tomorrow.