SO NOT Fair! Yet strangely grateful.

So here's the long and the short of it.

I spent the past few days prepping for an Art Fair on Saturday.

I spent hours and hours putting notecards in boxes and framing little pieces like this. And this.  And this.

I literally stayed up all night Friday getting the stuff ready. 

Went to bed at 5:20. Got back up again at 6-something.

My adorable husband drove me all the way up to Salt Lake and helped me set up (so I wouldn't fall asleep on the road.)

We walked in and I knew it was a bad idea. No, make that a disaster.

This was not a fine art fair. It was a multi-cultural crafts fair. People were selling things like soap and jewelry and aprons and...well, NOT paintings.

You know you've hit an all-time low when the top selling item is in the booth next to you: kiln-melted liquor bottles selling as hors d'hoevres trays...and/or "wall art." yikes.

Now for the grateful part:

I DID sell a few items (mostly notecards). And I got some great tips about selling my art on eBay. But here was the best part of all: I got to take a mid-day nap. Gratefully, there was another artist-friend there, old enough to have grown children and a big, empty house, who decided I needed a nap. She took me home and put me in a quiet bedroom (all joyfully decorated from floor to ceiling in eggplant purple and lime green...these are the digs of a very funky artist!). I slept for about 90 minutes, and woke up feeling completely rejuvenated...but best of all, pampered and cared for.

This all reminded me of my dear friend Barbara, whose house in the hills above Pasadena became my occasional Napping House. Barbara provided those few delicious naps by recognizing I was beyond exhaustion, then pulling out some lovingly tucked-away dolls and Legos for the children to play with (and occasionally even offered them a cool dip in the pool) while I slept. My friend Barbara has since become synonymous in my mind with all things comforting and nurturing: Gentle conversation. A neck rub. A piece of chocolate cake. And a handful of well-placed naps. 

So, while I didn't become the overnight sensation of the art world at this poorly attended fair/fiasco...I found myself feeling grateful for a new Napping House, a new nurturing friend, and a chance to reflect on an old friend as well. If I could send you all a Thanksgiving wish, it would be for a caring and observant friend, a cozy, quiet corner, and a nap!