Sandy Miller Pottery & Garden: Selling pots on the surface of the sun......

The packing and unpacking......... studio is looking like a storage locker!

Sitting here on a Monday morning with a slight drizzle and positively freezing with 68 degrees registering on the thermometer..... Why?

Keep reading.........

After setting up at Home Grown Home Thrown, in Louisville, KY and needing to be hosed down in the high 90 degree heat. My inside voice said: OMG, I paid to do this! Leaving Ohio in the dark, early hours on Friday I flipped the heater on in the truck to take the chill off. Six and half hours later I rolled onto the surface of the sun; an asphalt parking lot at the Deer Park Baptist Church and thought I had taken a wrong turn somewhere. Stepping out of my air conditioned truck I heard the words from my young daughter at a past show echo through my head; "Mom, it's so hot, there are wiener dogs exploding in the parking lot!" Linda ran over, welcomed me, handed me a name tag with instructions to "put this on". Thanks, Linda because by 8 p.m. I had no idea what my name was. While setting up I heard one potter mutter; "I'm too effen' old for this crap! I'm going home for an attitude adjustment and a shower!" And she was delightful when she returned!

Following Dolita back to her house I became aware she was in the same shape I was as she drove over the curb while motoring home but then she had had a gin and tonic at dinner. Arriving at the Dorhman Hostel I said a quick, Howdy to Gene and crawled up the stairs to shower before slamming my face onto a pillow in her lovely guest bedroom I passed out with visions of getting up and doing this again on Saturday. Drinking gallons of water in the heat of Saturday, the question among potters for the day...... have you pee'd today? Nope! and besides I wearing jeans and the thought of someone finding me face down in the Deer Park Baptist Church bathroom swearing a blue streak while trying to get myself back into my sweat soaked jeans was not appealing; well at least it wasn't a port-a-potty. Saturday we broke down and headed for the showers........ 7 hours away for the traveling potter of Paine Falls. Sales were down but I covered my expenses and made a few more than expected. All in all I am happy I attended. It was so good to see woodfired pots, see old friends, make new friends, have a great meal on Friday night and realize I needed to step up my game! I love the long drive after a show going over my strategy and making a list of changes I need to address, immediately. Why good potters can't sell pots and why so - so potters make a killing. When the thermostat tops 95 degrees in the shade and you are selling pots on an asphalt parking lot, with not a tree in sight, who wants to buy pots and carry them around? I didn't even want to be there! I'm thinking the Louisville Clay Guild should sell cold beer to make money.

OH and LET me just rant here for a minute............ KEEP YOUR DOG AT HOME! And to the idiot who brought his St. Bernard, there is special place in hell for you, wearing a fur coat. I see this at every outdoor show I attend and am always amazed...... why, I don't know, you would think after 20 years of doing shows I would be over it but I'm not! Ok I am stepping off my soapbox now.......

I returned home for a couple days to spend a day gardening with Bee, throwing bowls and lanterns, loving the 70 degree, low humidity and sunny days of June. By Friday moring I was recharged & packing for a return visit to Louisville for a garden show at friend, Dolita's. On the road early Friday morning after tracking down Casa Blanca lilies for Dolita's garden I was headed south. The skies grew dark as I approached Columbus. Holy Noah's Ark! I pulled off to find a Starbuck's and called Butch to check the radar. Go home or keep going..... of course, keep going. Adjusting my water wings I could feel the temps going up and I was back in the tropics. Where the hell is the Cabana Boy?

Arriving in the sultry heat and setting up in Dolita's garden we all remarked how it wasn't nearly as bad as last week. True but heat is relative when you live in Northern Ohio. We had a great dinner and retired to a great nights sleep. Sometime after midnight I awoke to hard rain......... great. Up at 6 am the next morning and YIKES...... steamy, overcast and a slight drizzle with a hint of mosquitos. Gosh, I miss Louisiana......... NOT!

Amazed that folks came to the sale. Seems as though everyone who walked down the driveway, walked away with pots. Wow! It really was a good one day sale.

The sale was over at 4 p.m. By 3:30 p.m. the sun was out and heat shot up again...... heat index 106 degrees........ just kill me. Packed and out the driveway by 5 p.m. Air conditioner on high, full frontal arctic blast.

Home at 12:30 a.m. hit the showers by 12:45 and a cool bed with a warm body snoring next to me..... the dog. Life is good. I unpacked yesterday and I still have quite a few pots left and now wondering where do I put everything? The studio is still loaded with pots to be picked up or delivered from the Dinnerware show and I just keep adding more to the mess. This could be clean out the studio week!

Good to see the garden growing and I notice I must have planted the wrong beans in the frenzy of trying to get seeds in the ground this spring. Thought I planted bush beans but alas they are runners.