Florence + The Orzo Salad

My nose has been to the grindstone...er...wheel since the beginning of October, getting ready for two holiday shows. This weekend was the biggest show I've ever done: Crafters' Marketplace in Princeton, NJ.  Other vendors (over 130 of them!) were more than kind and super-generous and I learned more from this weekend than I have in the entire year:  what shows are good, how to efficiently transport your booth, where to source shelving, how to discover all the aspects of Square, etsy tricks, etc. etc.  It was wonderful to talk with customers and share my passion for ceramics with them.  And yes, it was heady that random strangers wanted to part with their hard-earned money for one of my pieces!  It felt, as my friend Jen would say: "A-Maze-Balls."

I wanted to share the weekend's pics:

So today was my first day off in almost 2 months and it was so, so sweet!  I didn't do anything fancy - even better - I did everything decidedly unfancy.

There are now clean clothes in drawers, an empty dishwasher; we have milk, bread and eggs again.  This morning I made pumpkin bread in my son's third grade classroom, happily counted the weekend's earnings, and watched a YouTube video of Florence + The Machine on SNL from this past weekend - a joyful, transformative version of "Shake It Out" with full gospel choir and ridonk sequined dress. Watch it here: Shake It Out - and guaranteed that you're going to wanna shake it out...

For lunch, I SAT DOWN to eat grilled shrimp with Orzo Vegetable Salad ala Ina instead of scarfing down a yogurt (okay, maybe not a yogurt, maybe a handful of Fig Newtons,) standing up.  I actually listened to my sons' after-school chatter instead of pretending to listen and really making a long mental list of what I had to do.

I'm looking forward to being present for the next few days...until my next little show next week. ;)