Last week I was super excited to be a vendor at the Iditarod Craft Fair held at Old Saint Joe's Church in Nome. After years and years of dreaming about having a table and selling my fur wears, I finally did it. It was wonderful! I had an amazing few days hanging out at my table.
Being in one place all day long in a town that is over run with visitors has it's advantages. It's pretty likely that most everyone will wander through the craft fair and art displays at some point. It was wonderful to visit with people from around the region that I have met over the years. I got to reconnect with old friends and get to know some acquaintances better. It was also very inspiring to be around other artists and crafty people. I came home with many new ideas and enthusiasm for creating new and interesting things.
Me and my load, waiting for the plane.
After paying for a plane ticket, a table at the sale, food for the week and excess baggage I'm fairly certain I didn't actually make any money. But I was very excited about the experience and hope to do it again next year.
The very best part of my trip was getting to spend time with my very good friend,
Mollie, who recently moved to Nome in January to work at the hospital as a nurse. She spent three weeks with us in Brevig
last October, enjoyed the area and decided to pursue work in Nome. I love that she is on this amazing adventure and that we're close together again after spending the past 12 years thousands of miles apart. It was wonderful to stay with her (sans family) and relive our college days together. She's doing great and loving life and work in Nome. I hope she stays forever. *^-^*
The craft fair took up a majority of my time in Nome so I didn't do very many of the numerous Iditarod-y activities around town. We did, however,watch a few mushers from the middle of the pack cross the finish line. A siren, loud enough to be heard all around town, goes off about 20 minutes before a musher arrives. This give people enough time to get geared up and ready at the finish line to cheer for the finishers. By the time the middle of the pack rolls around, not too many folks are rushing out there. It's a shame people's enthusiasm is dying by this point, the dogs and mushers have come so far and accomplished quite the feat. Each one of them deserves to be celebrated.
As I had mentioned earlier I was pretty inspired by other people's work at the craft fair. Saturday night, when all was said and done, I hit one of the shops that carries furs and dropped a bit of money to buy an otter and sheared beaver hide to make C.O. a new hat. His old one,"Big Red", was getting kind of shabby. I decided to make him this super DE-lux version. I came home on Sunday afternoon and had this hat finished for him by Sunday night. Inspiration does wonders for productivity!
I'll see you again next year Iditaroders, same time, same place.
~AnnMarie
