things i learn at shows

Last weekend was my largest show of the year~the Sami Show held at the Merrill Center, in Katy. It was a very good show for me, but thinking back on it, I always come home with lessons learned. Yes, it is good to make the booth rent, but I know & have always known, it is the people I enjoy. Because I am a people person, I normally have alot of good conversation with my customers, and even with those who just choose to look. Did I learn this from my grandmother, Josie, or from her daugher, my mother, Vivian? My great grandmother, Rosa's mother Rosalia, sits in the picture above, in the black dress. I never knew her. She spoke only Czech.

I learned the previous weekend, at another sale, the reason why people did not smile in these photos. You may or may not have noticed. Elsie said, in those days it took so long to take the picture, that the subject was told not to smile, or move during the taking of the picture, as it would ruin it. I never knew that. The only reason we talked about it at all was because in another one of my photos (all family members), now used in my display, is a picture taken of my two uncles and an aunt as children. My uncle, Eldie, is the baby in the picture, and he is smiling. She commented they were never allowed to smile. I told her he smiled all his life, and because he was a baby, they probably couldn't stop him. Eldie never married, and had the best disposition of anyone in my entire family. He smiled alot. I inherited his home, which was my grandparent's, and all the pictures left inside. A box full of cabinet cards and old photos. I am eternally grateful that they landed in my possession. I scanned them for safekeeping, and will not use them forever, but for now they are my muses at shows.

I had so many wonderful compliments on my set-up. Thank you all....I felt like I was sitting in my own little corner of bliss. Was it because of all the family photos that surrounded me? The vintage suitcase to the right held a wedding picture of my grandmother, Rosa's, brother and new wife. The wedding dresses they wore were gorgeous, and the headdresses even more so.
The primitive pumpkin and witch were bought at the Warrenton Antique Festival.

A pair of stick freshwater pearl earrings sat quitely waiting to be purchased.

An iron dove sat on one of the tables, keeping watch for me.

I had the sweetest neighbor, Nona. It was her booth's lattice work that I used as a back drop behind one of my tables. It worked out beautifully, as I hung a lovely guilded mirror and a piece of my art, a collaged Frida, on it. Voila!

Nona designs and sells purses, bags and other fabric items made from vintage fabric and trim. I have bought 4 purses from her in the past 2 years. I just love them.

"The highest courage is to dare to appear to be what one is".

~John Lancaster Spalding