The Lampshade Lady Blog

Treasures from Brimfield, a week of selling and a week of picking up the pieces!

It's been a long week being home after Brimfield. It was fun to get away and break from routine and so painful to put my shop back in order. First to clean and tidy up the kitty fur ball and suck up the dirt in the cracks of my wide floor boards at the shop. The good news is that it is starting to come around and certainly a good excuse to rearrange inventory and make it fresh. Today is Saturday PM after work and boxes of Brimfield orders are almost ready to ship out, lots of new work prepped and a dozen new postcard shades headed north to Middlebury and Charlotte tomorrow. Phew.

On Thursday I realized that I was not receiving emails and orders from my website... ohmygod.... triple s....! My apologizes if you have sent me an email and I did not return it; I'm sorry to say in switching my website host the web guy missed this piece of the transfer. Fortunately a not so happy customer called wondering where her order was..... I can be a tad late, but never w/o notice and almost always return emails, unless away very promptly. A few more gray hairs. It seems to be resolved and if you haven't heard from me, please email again. I regret the error; in hindsight I should have noticed, but the spring has been busy.

Here's a few Brimfield Photos:

My booth and book promotion. Sold lots of books. It was almost more fun selling my new book than my lampshades!

I was so happy to find my friend from Vermont, Wendy Lewis. What a fun booth. Wendy is also know as Loodylady on Ebay. Oh, did I ever have a hard time picking out a few favorites in Wendy's booth. She sure is in the right place at the right time. Her booth was set up at The New England Motel Show. I had to scramble to get back to my booth.
After Wendy, I visited quickly with Gloria, my other lampshade lady friend and then onto Sue in Central Park to check out here beautiful trims.... as you can see I found a bunch of nice new treasures. 

My booth neighbors and friends, Philippa and Mary. They both are antique print dealers and from the sound of it had a great show! These are a few of Mary's favorites. I especially love the sweet little blue one on the top! Oh that blue. Mary also is a wonderful folk artist specializing in nautical themes.
All work and no play would be pretty hard! Doesn't this look like fun. Wasn't quite a Martha table, but great evening was had. Most likely it was early to bed.... w/ a glass or 2 of wine! Sure didn't take much after a full day of selling and chatting to customers. Our field was a great bunch of vendors! Head to the pillow and I was out like a light and up early again to do it all over. Must say the week went by fast. I hope to make it back again next May. July I'll be in Nantucket for my workshop and book demo and in Sept. I'll be busy in my shop in Vermont. I'll miss all the fun, but I am sure happy to be home again in my little studio/shop.

Again, sorry if I did not get your email, please give it a try again. Between changing blog hosts and website hosts..... I think I ought to be set for a while.

I will be participating in Vermont Open Studio Tours next Sat and Sunday. Come to Vermont and pick up a Vermont Crafts Council map and take the self guided tour. Look for the big yellow road signs. More to come on our areas artisans. Also follow us on Twitter, http://www.twitter.com/artisansofsovt  I am trying to twitter for our area in South West Vermont. It's a little tricking to twitter myself and for our group.... tech.no.turd.... I finally figured out to put each twitter account on a different browser.... yup, that worked to keep it all straight.

Brimfield Bound

It's always fun to do shows when you don't do them very often. Those are words spoken from one that has put many years on the road and now many years off the road. And now I am organizing my lists and piles of stuff needed to fill my little Honda Element. First things first, I cleaned the Element... I don't think it has been this clean since I got the it.


I am stacking shades, unplugging lamps, trying to figure out how many books to bring, what clothes to pack, food to bring, sunscreen, hats, sneaks, raincoat.... you get the picture. Pretty soon the old car will be looking like the Hillbilly's. Back on the road. I must say I get pretty spoiled here in my shop.
I've never shown my shades at Brimfield, only shopped till I dropped. This will be a new adventure. Hope I get a chance to shop, too. I am going to try hit The Textile Show on Monday in Sturbridge before set up. I won't be there for early buying as usual, but would be nice to hit the highway before the Labor Day traffic gets to bad heading south.
Things to remember at the Flea Market: water, cash,manners, sunscreen and hat, granny cart or backpack, write down where you park your car, a smile and more cash. Look for me, I'll be The Lampshade Lady at Shelton's Antique Show. I am set up at B53, way in the back, I think.