Return from Florida

We've returned from our Florida fair and family holiday visits. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday too. The 30-50 mph winds and no cable service greeted us but hey! it is definitely not Florida here...or is it? There weren't any hurricane type gusts of wind down there!
We took a chance on a show in St. Petersburg on the Gulf mid coast across the Tampa Bay from where my folks live, CraftArt2009. How was it? beautiful, lovely weather, good artisans, good food and hospitality but no buying crowd........ so it was disappointing... Russian roulette at best. Fortunately, we did make expenses and combined it with a family visit so it served its purpose. However, for a true test of how we would do at a Florida show, we'll rely on Winterpark in 2010. Winterpark is a very well established show so we would expect it to have a good buying clientele (i.e..people that wait for that particular show to purchase beautiful hand crafted objects for their homes and as gifts). CraftArt2009 had one strong recommendation in a trade magazine.
Our pots looked great! We even tried to wax local by placing palmetto in our wall pockets rather than the usual long grass. Instead, there were quite a few New Yorkers who stopped by recognizing our listed address in Saugerties!

Just look at that pedestal bowl in the front right corner .... Wow!
Here is a measure though of our sales: the crowd was so thin that we had time to add up the value of the pots we had on display. That is a first! a first in over 30 years!! Any idea? Give me a guess in the comment area... come on.......

Now for the drive there, we got stir crazy and stopped for a mile walk in the Santee National Wildlife Refuge in Summerton, SC. It is so close to 95 that it was a blessing for sure. The landscapes were beautiful and could inspire some landscape pieces for next year.

Doesn't this Spanish moss remind you of Newcomb pottery from Louisanna?


After the show, we meandered over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to the other side of the bay and found that the locals on Anna Marie Island had already set up their sandcastles for holiday viewing.



Then on the way home, we drove through some luscious scenery in SE Georgia. What a beautiful and varied country this is! We counted our thanksgivings!

all except for the green boiled peanuts....ew!