the day after

It's the day after...3 long festival days have ended and we are taking a much-needed break.

I'd say the festival received mixed reviews. The weather didn't cooperate completely and there were several outbursts of heavy rain and wind. The humidity was extremely high all weekend and while the vendors and visitors suffered, we were grateful to be in air conditioning.

Several vendors said they weren't selling like in years past and several attendees said the number of vendors was down from previous years. It's obvious that the faltering economy is affecting everyone. We did less business than last year but we had lots of visitors, many of them finding the shop for the first time. Building our presence and spreading the word continues to be a full-time effort.

One of our first-time visitors struck gold (well, really silver, gold and pearls - but you get the idea). She was with a friend and they took their time looking through the store. Just as she was about to check out with her first find, she saw a display on the very front table that she had missed on her way in. She tried on a necklace and I heard a soft voice say "Ohhh, I really like this." She moved from mirror to mirror, brought over her friend and they both were smiling. Then she went to get the matching earrings. Her eyes were shining, she was smiling and the jewelry looked drop-dead gorgeous on her. She will be the MOB (mother of the bride) at her daughter's August wedding and she had just found the perfect joolz to go with her tea-length black chiffon dress. She will look simply amazing. I actually got shivers at the shop yesterday, so I knew it was meant to be. That only happens when I see the right piece of jewelry on the right customer. The other piece of "meant to be" is that the artist's name is Thompson and the customer works for Thompson Health. How about that?