Craft Show & Beach Glass Wars

I am pleased to report that I did pretty well at the Legion Craft Show on the 10th.  Didn't make as much as last year, but only b/c I didn't sell many necklaces.  My biggest selling items this year were the acorn capped beads and photo cards.  I think my table did better than some of the others though, which is cool. 

I was a nervous wreck the day and night before the show.  I didn't sleep well at all, waking up probably close to 4 with a headache and stomach ache.  Tossed and turned and just decided to get up at 5:50 & get ready to go.  The doors were scheduled to open at 7 for vendors to set up.  I got there and found my table.

And here it is all set up.

I wish I had more pics but I don't.  The place got packed really fast, first with vendors setting up and then with the shoppers, and I didn't want to leave my table (and change money) unattended. Marsha, bless her, got there around 8:30 or so to sit with me, and that put me so much at ease. She was really great at selling.  I was sitting down and hiding behind the displays and she was bravely showing people all the stuff.  I just don't have the self confidence or chutzpah to go, 'Look how pretty my stuff is! You want to buy it, don't you? DON'T YOU?'  I could barely squeak out a friendly, 'Good morning, how are you today?'  But she's out there, boldly pointing out stuff to everyone.  In fact, she sold the mirror right off the table, and for a lot of money too.  I bought it last year - a cheapo, purple, star shaped hand mirror - and decorated it with rhinestones.  It's purpose was for people to use in case they wanted to see how the jewelry would look on them.  So it wasn't exactly for sale.  But someone happened by and commented on the 'cool mirror' and Marsha blurts out, 'It's $20' and next thing I know I'm being handed a $20 bill.  I am still chuckling about it because it reminded me of Addie Pray blurting out the price of bibles that Moze was trying to sell in "Paper Moon".

At one point I was visited by a woman and her adorable twin sons. The boys couldn't have been more than 3 years old, red headed and freckled, and they reminded me so much of the young actor Max Jansen Weinstein.  They were quite taken with the acorn beads and one announced he wanted blue and the other, purple.  They both said they wanted to bring them to grandpa.  So the mom shelled out the $2 to me, but I was somewhat distracted with another person who was also at my table at the same time.  Marsha talked to the mom and when they left she told me that the boys wanted to leave them on their grandfather's grave.  If I had known that I would never have charged for them, but I assumed their grandpa was alive.

The best part of the show was how many familiar faces I saw.  So many schoolmates and longtime friends of the family.  A couple of Sandwichites (Sandwichians?) who were Facebook friends up to that point came  specifically to meet me.  Russell's niece & her little girl were there.  My mom also went.  Had quite a few laughs especially when Elaine stopped by.  She is by far one of the funniest people I've ever known, and I've known her my entire life, as our parents were friends long before we were born.  I can remember many a time where I was spraying some kind of drink out of my nose & mouth because she was making me laugh so much.  Which leads me to...

Beach Glass Wars

Elaine's a beachaholic, going to Dune 1 as often as humanly possible.  She rushed there to see what the damage was like after Hurricane Sandy and after the 2 day pounding we took from a Nor'easter that raged from early morning on Wednesday 11/7 through about 9:00 pm on 11/8, with high winds, nonstop driving rain and power outages.  It was way worse than Sandy was, in this region.

As a result of her getting there right after the storms, she cleaned up with beach glass and posted a picture of her mother-lode find.  Our friends are aware of my and Elaine's blossoming 'beach glass rivalry', so I was even tagged in someone's comment about how jealous I was gonna be.  So I played along that I was green with envy and was on my way to her house to beat her up and take her glass.

I have become a huge fan of those hilarious someecards that I keep seeing all over Pinterest and Facebook.  You can make your own too.  I knew exactly the image I wanted and it was really easy to find in their templates.  Then I added the text and sent it to Elaine in a private message, b/c I wanted her to know I didn't mean it maliciously of course, but I couldn't resist making it.  She responded that she wanted me to put it on her timeline b/c she couldn't stop laughing and wanted all our friends to see it, and she asked for the link to the website.

Less than 5 minutes later, this appeared on my timeline from Elaine.  Of course I asserted that she was the one who got the ass whoopin from me, but she begged to differ.

The other day she posts on my timeline, "Only found 33 pieces today!"  That's it.  I'm going to the beach.   It's killin' me not to be out there looking for glass.  I got up on 11/12 to an unseasonably warm day.  A tshit and no jacket kinda day.  First I tried Spring Hill near Old Harbor in E. Sandwich but had zero luck, although that area is super pretty and I want to go back again sometime.

I was on my way home and thought about going to Scraggy Neck.  I was kinda tired and hungry, and I'd just bought a delish looking frosted pumpkin bar from Marshland Restaurant in Sandwich that I wanted to eat too.  Well, I get to the Bourne Rotary and instead of going over the Bridge, I got off at Shore Road and ended up driving down to Scraggy Neck.  The last time I went in March, I had a terrible time finding it but this day I found the beach with no problem.

And once again, this place paid off for me big time.  This piece is the new star of my collection. Even over the reds and oranges and purples.  I was shocked to see it.  I thought it was plastic.  I searched and searched for more like it but this was the only one.  Once I found this, all thoughts of hunger and pumpkin bars faded and I started picking my way, ever so slowly, up and down this tiny beach, and slowly filling my baggie with glass and beautiful stones.

Now this is an amazing, and very rare, specimen.  It's totally worn, large, green and the bottom of a bottle with writing that can still be seen. As I've mentioned before, because of recycling, true worn glass is very hard to find now, especially in colours.  I consider myself to be somewhat of a tree hugger...I mean I know I could do more but I've done what I can, when I can....but when it comes to beach glass, I wish more people were tossing bottles out in the water like back in the 70s when you could find it all the time.  I know, I know....

My final count for the day was 62 pieces.  2 from Spring Hill, and 60 from Scraggy Neck.  Some not worn much, but they don't cut me so it counts, including that white bottle top on the upper left.

That may be the last good day I will have for a long time now that it's late fall and going into winter, so I'm glad I didn't waste the day cleaning the house and mucking about online.  This find will hold me over for a couple of months.  OK a few weeks.  Till next week......