Today was my second week at the Peoria RiverFront Market. The weather looked a bit iffy early on, and we got a few sprinkles (which the musician sang about until the rain stopped - It’s only raiiiiining, not a reason to stay inside!), but then the sun came out and things were lovely. Market traffic picked up considerably once the clouds began to clear, too.

A dear friend came to help me out at the market today, so that SciFi Man could get a bit of extra beauty sleep. Between eating farm-fresh strawberries, people watching, and interacting with vendors and shoppers, I think we both enjoyed ourselves. There were plenty of dogs (even one that had it’s own stroller to ride in!) and babies walking (well, not the babies themselves, of course) through the market, and one parrot, who seemed to be pretty popular with everyone. I definitely love being able to talk with the people who stop at my booth. Several people asked about items I don’t currently have, and that has given me some good ideas to work on for next week. I’m starting with zippered change purses. My helper gave me a few good ideas, too. I’ll keep you posted on how those shape up this week.

I am still working on how best to set up my booth. It will definitely continue to evolve as I expand my available items. I like having my tables in an L-shape, but I think perhaps shoppers would prefer if they were just flat across the front of the booth, so that they don’t have to “come in” to my tent. I don’t know. What do you think–would that make a difference to you? My booth is on the grass, between the parking lot (where all the food/produce vendors are) and the river, which makes for a lovely view for me. I’ll do my best to remember to take a photo of the river for next week.

Starting this week, there are two new places you can find Anodyne Design. First, Anodyne Design wristlets, wallets, and journal covers are now available at S’more Couture in Alta, Illinois. This is a charming little boutique filled with fabulous creations from local artists and fancy things (like perfume and soap) from France. Definitely a stylish little shop in central Illinois. If you decide to stop by, you can’t miss it. It’s the pink house.

Second, Anodyne Design will be appearing at the Peoria RiverFront Market every Saturday for the season, June 6th (this weekend!) to September 26th. Be sure to stop by and say hello! SciFi Man and I went to the RiverFront Market almost every week last summer to buy most of our produce. Local veggies (and pasta, and cheese, and, and, and…) are so fresh and tasty. This is definitely a Market you’ll want to visit regularly throughout the summer.

I better get back to sewing so I can be ready for this weekend!

You may have heard, Sew, Mama, Sew! hosted this massive May Giveaway Day. Lots of great blogs participated and I was amazed at the generosity of creative bloggers. So many amazing people were giving away amazing things. Quilts, patterns, supplies, bags, jewelry. So much goodness. Of course, I’m a sucker for giveaways and I entered a few with little expectation of winning. I’m not the luckiest girl around.

Kim at True Up was so suprised by how many people entered her giveaway for scrap bags that she decided to have a side bet on twitter (@trueup), and invited her followers to guess how many comments she would get by the end of the giveaway. I bet 833, and someone else bet 879, and apparently we were both exactly 23 comments away from the actual number she received. Which makes us both winners! Hooray for winning, and those scrap bags look fabulous. I can’t wait to see what sort of goodies are hiding in there.

This also gives me an excellent opportunity to mention True Up, which is a great blog about all things fabric. Just recently, I’ve learned all about silk and gotten a peek in the Quilt Market. True Up also regularly posts about US and international fabric shop sales, and it’s been great having all that information collected and neatly presented. It’s one of my regular blogs that I follow in my feed reader, and it you haven’t checked it out, I recommend you do so now.

Thanks to everyone who shared their great craft fair tips and advice with me last week! The Fancy Schmancy Flea Market was yesterday. I was really worried it was going to rain, but it turned out to be a lovely day to spend outdoors. I really appreciated having a canopy to shade me from the sun, though! Scifi Man kept me company through the day, and although business was a bit slow, I met and talked with a lot of great people. I was terrified I was going to have a “making change” mishap– I am a bit math-phobic to begin with, and way way back in high school I helped a jewelery-making friend out at a craft show and had the hardest time making change. Somehow, I’d gotten it in my head that money and time were on the same system, which obviously meant there were 60 cents in a dollar. Of course, I knew better, but under pressure I temporarily forgot. So embarrassing! Fortunately, I did not have a repeat performance of that special moment in my life and all math-related things went smoothly yesterday.

Here’s a picture of my table set up. You can click on the image to see a larger version at Flickr. I would have liked to have more “height” on my table, but that will have to happen another time. Also, I totally didn’t have a chance to iron my table covers. Just pretend you didn’t notice all the wrinkles! Despite these things, I think my table looked pretty good for the show. There were a lot of jewelery vendors there, and a few bag makers, but nothing quite like mine. All in all, it was a nice day and good practice for my upcoming summer at the Peoria RiverFront Market.