Chalk Festival

One of the first to set up!

The Luna Park Chalk Festival was a lot of fun. Getting up before sunrise was not fun. Crow and I wound up being the first vendors to check in at registration (at least I think so).

Our first booth!

Russell (Guest Artist on our site) came to help us set up, but had to hurry to the city for a coffee date.

Ready for business.

My mom stopped by too with donuts, coffee and hot chocolate.









We walked around together to admire the art. I saw some great pieces; however did not take many photos of the illustrations as I, in retrospect, should have. I meant to wait until they were finished. For some that was never to be.

Greek myth comes to life...

As Medusa takes Cerberus for a walk???

Dralion

Picture the Alien

A lovely fairy

The first two hours the park was crowded with lots of potential for sales as a multitude of people came to browse the artwork and poke through the numerous stalls. The performance stage rotated through two bands and a good time was had by all. After the second hour - just around noon - the weather shifted dramatically. Little Owl (Guest Artist) stopped by briefly to admire the stall. Her husband spirited her away shortly after the rain started. Of course most of the vendors packed up as soon as it began to rain and all but one of the chalk artists were washed away.

And then the rain came....

The vendors and chalk art washed away...

It rained buckets, near "monsoon weather" as Crow put it. It is a good thing we bought two tarps to cover our canopy's frame! When the rain started, we set the shop up differently to keep the rain off the merchandise as much as possible (not that it worked, everything was soaked or splattered  by the end). With a make-shift 'back room' in place, we were ready for business again.

Everyone packed up.

Coyote's Blessings - one of the last vendors standing.

 The rain caused some interesting patterns in the chalk art, and some unintended beauties.

Reflection

This shot was not posed.

The rain wound up being a boon for us. When the weather started getting rough, would be patrons and passerbys took shelter under our tarp. While they waited for the rain storm to pass, they browsed and so we made more sales after the rains started than before.

Stall set up part III.

 Crow and I stuck it out until the end and were one of two vendors standing. We wound up being the last stall to close up.

Everyone's gone! The only other vendor is on the other side of the tennis courts (you can see the courts' edge on the right side of the picture).

Thanks goes to Tina for the use of her magnet boards, key chain stand and window! Thanks to my mom for loaning us TV trays to create one of our tables. And of course, thanks goes to the Luna Park Art Foundation for hosting the festival! We are looking forward to next year.

Getting Ready

Due to the fact we have such little time to prepare for the festival, we have to basically triple our stock. We anticipate great sales! And of course the holiday season is coming up. Here's a sneak peek at our up-coming Halloween stock:

A spooky spectacular in the oven, ready to be baked.

Mountain View Art and Wine Festival

Mountain View General Store - A mini fair in progress.

We had a great time at the Mountain View Art and Wine Festival! The MVGS' set up looked like a fair unto itself. Tina had live music, the Kwanis club sold flags to support the Immigrant House and Lizzy Cross was there with "Latch hook with me". Here are some pictures from around the store.

 

Lizzy - Latch with Me. She was worried no one would come.

Latching Hands.

Members of Kwanis Club - They sold international flags as a fund raiser for the Immigration House, a local historic landmark.

Live Music - The Jammin' Duo. I forget their names. Their music was great. Tina was worried our music would be shut down for lack of a license to play amplified music in public. No police came. I think it was because they were too good!

 We had a table all to ourselves. It was intimidating. As you can see our items do not cover the entire table!
 Looks like we'll have to make more.

Think we need more stuff?

Magnet Boards - Made from old metal platters and displaying a variety of our magnets.

Crow and I had the opportunity to explore the festival too. There were so many vendors it took almost an hour to peruse them all.

Mountain View Art and Wine Festival - 2013

Dave's Killer breads was there too - if you enjoy seeds and grains in your breads, or just like breads made with the finer ingredients, I recommend Dave's Killer Breads. They are great. Some places offer the Sin Dawg cinnamon rolls too.  Although I know Dave's breads are available at Safeway, Sprouts, Whole Foods and other places, I do not know where the Sin Dawg's are available - at least in California. If anyone finds them let me know!

Dave's Killer Bread! According to the man behind the counter, Dave looks just like his picture. Unfortunately we did not get to meet Dave in person. He's on vacation.

The weather was miserable, and the heat drove us back to the relative coolness of Mountain View General Store before we could finish our tour. On the way back we found some epic sweet potato pies. It was a pity the company had no business cards when we stopped by. They were so good, I forgot to take pictures of them before we ate them.

New News!

Coyote's Blessings is going to make our first official public festival appearance! We are registered for the Luna Park Chalk Art Festival, in San Jose (CA). This great festival is unlike most other "Art and Wine" festivals as it is sponsored by an art foundation (usually they are sponsored by cities). The proceeds from the registration fee go to the Luna Park Arts Foundation.

"The mission of the Luna Park Arts Foundation is to promote and highlight the importance of the arts in our community by supporting arts programs in local schools and youth organizations and creating opportunities to develop the talents of local artists."

The festival will be on Saturday the 21st of this month so we only have a few weeks to prepare. If you are in the area, come and stop by our booth! If you're not in the area, send good vibes. Of course Crow and I are nervous to say the least - as it is like finally getting into the deep end of the pool. The next two weeks will be awash of madness as we gather supplies, inventory, tables and umbrellas for the big event.

This Wednesday I *will* be updating the store too, to reflect new products and goods. Get them fast because we're hoping to sell out at the Luna Park Festival!