Wendy, Sue and Jocelyn arrived about 4 p.m. from Calgary and I immediately put them to work with a last minute task for the show and sale. With that out of the way, Jocelyn had time for a quick look at some of my minis and my workroom then we left for the hotel. I was staying at the hotel with Eileen from Nanaimo since I had to be on duty at 6:30 in the morning while the ladies from Calgary would be spending the night at my place.
The evening before the show, we have a no-host dinner at the hotel for MEE members, out of town guests, and dealers. It's a good chance to have a relaxing visit before the show starts.
Eileen had been up very early to catch her flight from Victoria and I had been going strong all day so we turned the lights out by 10.
Up at 6:00, dressed and headed downstairs to the sales room. Kathy Barbier from Hummingbird Miniatures was there ahead of me. We visited for a few minutes then Alex Zohar from Victoria Miniland joined us.
The hotel staff had done a great job setting up the room. With map in hand, I put the numbers and dealer envelopes on the tables and our dealers began setup.
Most of our dealers are regulars so it's like old home week as they arrive.
In the meantime, Sunni and Lorry were doing their usual magic in the display room arranging all the beautiful displays. It was nice to see that many of the dealers also brought work for display.
In addition to the individual displays, the club unveiled the cooperative dollhouse that we have been working on for two years. The club was divided into geographic groups and each group was responsible for decorating one room of the house. All the items in the house are references to children's literature. The house will be presented to the Children's section of the St. Albert Public Library in October. I will be taking pictures of the individual rooms later and will post them then.
Dealers could shop at 9:30 then the doors opened to the public at 10:00. We had a wonderful turn out and people were still arriving at 3:30 and shopping right until closing at 4:00.
My upstairs neighbour Barb came by for a couple hours. She's just now getting into minis so it was great for her to see all the displays and see the fantastic variety of items available from the dealers. She had some questions about knitting in miniature and she was pleased with the advice she received from dealers who do miniature knitting. Barb also transported most of my purchases home so I would only have to deal with my displays at the end of the day.
All our dealers are so friendly and helpful. They are such a pleasure to work with.
Sunni Dixon did her usual marvellous job at the children's 'make and take' table with the help of some student volunteers. This year, children had a chance to make a small vignette. There are pictures of some of their work at the bottom of the page here.
I stayed pretty much on task with my purchases. Most of my purchases were light fixtures and molding.
I did hit the jackpot with an off-task purchase from Danielle Perry. Danielle was parting with some of her personal collection and was selling a Fisher Price Sesame Street dollhouse. DD Leanne and I had been discussing this very piece just a week ago so I HAD to get it for her. For now I am "the greatest mommy in the world". LOL
About 4:30, takedown was just about finished and it was time to go home. It was a long but wonderful day.
Today was spend downloading pictures, sorting through my purchases (and cleaning out the fridge so I can get a repair man out - and hopefully get it fixed and not have to replace it.)
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