The Accidental Frock: Scenes from a show

Both kids are home this week. Last weekend was Ruffles & Rust and my final day of a pattern-making class. Accordingly, online time has been curtailed for the week. R&R was a great event. The snow did not arrive, but the gorgeous (albeit freezing) weather was right on time. Timi did a fantastic job! Some great deals were there for the taking. Although I only permitted myself to purchase a pretty, old wire desk tray, with a larger budget I could have easily filled my van.

As a vendor, it wasn't a financial success for me. My impression is that shoppers were there for antiques and deals, deals, deals, although there were other handmade items. It was an interesting contrast in conversations from my last (and first) experience as a seller at a show in December near home in Seattle. Visitors were again generous with their compliments and I met many lovely people (including a couple fellow Etsians I'll mention in a later post). And this just happened to be my turn to encounter the shopper who really got under my skin. After taking a few shots of one of my dresses, while I chatted with another shopper, woman X turned to her friend and commented, "I am so going to copy this." As she moved to some of my brooches, she added, "oh, and these too." Due to the conversation I was having and my being flabbergasted by her behavior, I said nothing. Still kicking myself for that lapse in judgement. Certainly, co-opting the work of another is not rare, but her total lack of humanity as she looked at me and clearly had no concern for the time and energy I put into my designs was astonishing. Really, I'm just angry with myself for lacking the where-with-all in the moment to address woman X directly. Now that I've shared it, I suppose I best put it to rest.

So back to the good stuff. I took several pix - with permission, during the photo session before the event started. Now I get to share them with you. I do hope to attend future R & R shows as a shopper. I wish I could be certain of the vendor name to assign to each of the photos below. You can see a list of all of the vendors at the show here. In any case, lots of good stuff!