Weekend not for the faint-hearted

As promised, an update on the crazee weekend:

Thursday dawned with the arrival of painters to finally finish off our renovations (started in June). Great to have the painters, but the timing could have been better. Our lives were in chaos and having this reflected in our apartment was a little too much! Paul also started fitting the final stage of his design for the Aquarium shop, and that evening, the Somerset Studio Show opened.

I set up my little display in the courtyard outside, showing pillows, teatowels, trays and button badges.
The opening night went well, but would have been vastly improved if I’d managed to wrestle my way through the crowds and load up one of my trays with strawberries and glasses of bubbly from the showroom up front!

Friday, more painters, more chaos, more cats stuck in bedroom all day. Paint on brand new kitchen cupboards! Ack! Saturday, up early to let the painters in, then pick up Jesse and set up the Handmade Now! stall at the Neighbour Goods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Salt River. Here’s our stall. Jesse’s tippling from a bottle of the finest ginger beer available, and Jenny’s looking happy, despite her felt dolls not having been packed for the market (oops).

Jesse’s liquorice-toned knitted critters and a knitted bag to the right of that. Below, a pile of teatowels and selection of button badges, and bottom right, the best-seller of the day – monkey tshirt for kiddies! Yay.

And now, we pause for a mini featurette: I’d like to pay brief tribute to the marvellous duo who make the market happen every week, and who also started the two What if the World galleries, injecting a wonderful focal point for creative energies in Cape Town. A gingerbeer toast to Cameron Munro (left) and Justin Rhodes (just striding into the pic) of What if the World! You guys are champs!
And the final finishing touch to the crazeee weekend – a horoscope illustration deadline for Tuesday, and my birthday on Monday. I took leave from my day job and staggered about in a daze. Now the painters are gone, the apartment’s back in order, the cats are happy, the Aquarium shop looks amazing, the height of my pile of trays and teatowels has dropped, Fair Lady loves my Aquarius illustration, and I had a very happy birthday. Whew.