Riverside Arts Market

I love, love, love the news Arts Market that just opened in MY neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida. I have always loved living in Riverside and the RAM (Riverside Arts Market, of course) makes it even more enjoyable.

I have participated nearly every week since it opened, mostly as a shopper. Yesterday was my 2nd time as an artist, although I find it kind of hard to call myself an artist. I think of artists as the painting/drawing/sculpting kind and not so much the sewing kind.

This week, my booth was under the shadow of the Fuller Warren bridge and what a huge difference it made! It was almost cool with the soft wind blowing through. My first week I was under full sun, the wind was crazy and the sun zapped every ounce of energy out of me!! So yesterday was really lovely. Although I think my location might have made a difference with the wind. I heard from a friend that a heavy wooden pottery display fell over and smashed all the artist's hard work. How heartbreaking!

Here was my booth set up. It worked out better then last time. Having the tent helps to define the space. I also like that my tent is GREEN for eco-friendly, green living. That's my focus! Sewing products that make a better impact on earth then disposable paper products.




Kudos to wonderfully helpful husband, Glenn, in helping me prepare for RAM. He made my heavy duty tent weights with 4" PVC and cement. He also set up my tent and tables in my booth without my help. (Someone had to stay home and watch the kids. Our oldest child would have normally watched the younger ones for a few minutes but she was at a lock-in at church.)

He also came and relieved me for a few minutes at lunch time and he left me a helper, my 6 year old daughter, Kendall. It's nice being able to leave my booth so that I can actually buy lunch and walk around a bit. I love seeing what have available! My lunch was a pulled pork sandwich from the barbecue place. As a matter of fact, I buy the exact same thing every time. LOL It's really good! I don't particularly like their fries (too seasoned for me) but my kids deemed them great so there wasn't any waste.

My purchases this week were from my neighbor, a bottle of local orange blossum honey. Kendall loved it and tried to refill her little honey sample straw with my honey. I also bought a ball of soap from SunDog Soaps, a whopping $1.50 purchase! Kendall bought from them last time and I love that soap. It's gritty and smells so good. He had some new soaps out this week, too. And yet again, I meant to buy strawberries but I forgot!


There was plenty of goofing around going on, too. Kendall had a little fun with my clothespins. And one of the jewelry vendors had her hubby with her as a helper and I can just tell he's a trouble maker so keep your eyes out for him if you make it to RAM. ;) He was sufficiently shocked when I told him about how many children we have. I'm not sure what his wife's name or company name is but their booth looks very professional with black display stands and lights illuminating her lovely jewelry.

Another funny thing that keeps happening is that one of my husband's co-workers, Danny, kept walking by when I had no customers in my booth. It happened the first week, too, and then several times yesterday. He'd look over and smile as if to say "you aren't selling much, huh?" I did! LOL I'm quite pleased with my sales for the day. Anyhow, I now have a personal mission to have customers in my booth for the next chance encounter with him at a future RAM.

Thank you to my friend Teri (and her friend Kathy) for stopping by to see me. We used to be the Kerri and Teri team when we started in the same department on the same day at BCBS many, many years ago. People always mixed our names up after that. Anyhow, Teri is one of my favorite, bubbly people and i was glad to see her. So that's another reason why I love being a part of RAM....to see people I haven't seen in years. And it's good to see the friends I do see on a regular basis, too! (Hi Lisa and Lisa's mom who's name I can never remember.)

So if you are in Jacksonville, please stop by my booth next week. (I won't be at RAM every week so that I can have some Saturday fun with my family from time to time.) If you tell me that you read this blog, I'll let you pick any one of my single flannel cloths as a free gift!!! (Ssh - don't let Danny know you're getting a freebie. This is part of my grand plan of having customers around.)