Behind the scenes at American Artisan

I have never been a camper. Although I love the outdoors and could hike for hours and hours on end, I much prefer to return to creature comforts at the end of each day - pool or hot tub - glass of wine - big bathtub - cushy bed. You get the drift, I'm a Princess.

So, why oh why would I select outdoor art fairs as a source of income you might ask?
God only knows? What I do know is it seems a lot like camping......

Thursday I drove to Nashville to set up for the show. It was hot. Damn hot. Insanely hot. I had been sickly for several days due to this Calcium/Magnesium pill my Doctor had suggested. If you don't know the side effects of magnesium, I'm not going to mention it here, but let's just say I was weak.

I did manage to set up my tent without hurting myself or anyone else. No emergency personnel required. Whew. It was brutal with heat of mid 90's and a heat index over 100. I drank crazy amounts of vitamin water/gatorade/regular water. And I have found a miracle snack...........Flattened Bananas from Trader Joe's. They are only 90 calories each and have very low (if any) fat. They are chewy, semi-dried bananas and have a wonderfully intense flavor. I swear they give me a burst of energy.

The photo shown is the tent city we all built behind our booths. I have a full shade awning attached to the back of my booth, but we had all day sun exposure, so this convoluted structure was necessary in order to maintain shade (and our sanity). Sitting outside for 3 days


straight, wearing completely sweaty clothes, ugh. How delightful. Lucky for me, I had some amazing F-U-N neighbors and that made it bearable.
Mucho thank yous to Beverly, Henry, Jason, Theresa, Janice, Marie & Rhonda. Your humor made it all bearable. Thanks also to the staff of American Artisan and of course to Nancy Saturn. What a class act you all are.