Welcome To Hotlanta

Hey Y'all!

So, we're STILL recovering from Saturday's sale...that is to say, we still haven't felt like we're back into our regular "groove" just yet. Like, I only just unloaded my car this morning before going to work, and now all our craft sale stuff is scattered about the house. Oh well. Anyways, the I.C.E. ATLANTA sale was awesome fun, despite the oppressive heat. There were a ton of people there, which was truthfully, a bit surprising, considering that with the heat index, it was probably well over 100 degrees in Centennial Park. We got up Saturday morning around 5am, left Athens at 6:30, and got to Centennial Park at 8am...surprisingly, right on time! The day was already warm at 8am, and after a couple of hours of hauling and setting up equipment and merchandise, we were plenty sweaty:


(a sweaty brow and dark circles under my eyes, courtesy of an early Friday morning critique at work, and then having to perform late that night with Folklore, and then having to get up early again for the sale...)

Over 100+ crafters and artists did friendly business under the watchful eye of Atlanta-based CNN...every time I glanced up at the CNN building I imagined Darth Vader's voice saying, "THIS is CNN"...







The E-Z UP INSTANT SHELTER seemed to be the "industry standard" among the vendors:















One of the sponsored tents featured a stencil-your-own-t-shirt station:





The THREADBANGER tent hosted crafting classes:



Missy tried on the felt mustache pin I bought from the SUPERCUTE! tent:



Tim from CAPTAIN #1 stopped by to say "Hi"...he and Jenny had a booth for PRAIRIE DOG, INC:



Linda stopped by with her BLYTHE doll and took some pictures with our plush:



My favorite moment of the day: this girl bought a pouch from me about two years ago at a previousI.C.E. ATLANTA craft event. She told me that she used her pouch on a daily basis for over two years and that a couple of days before the sale, the snap finally broke off. She came to this sale hoping that I would be there with pouches so that she could buy a replacement...and she did! She bought one with the exact same color scheme/design...I ended up giving her a two-for-one deal I was so delighted that she brought that pouch for me to see...how awesome is that?



Missy traded some Blythe-sized clothes with SWEET HONEY COMPLEX for one of her crocheted doughnuts:



Bird On A Perch lucite earring designed by Missy...toast cell phone dangle courtesy of San-X? MorningGlory? I'm not sure...



Did I mention that it was miserably hot and humid at the sale? Here, Missy looks like she's giving someone the "stink eye", but really, I think she's just squinting from the glare of the relentless afternoon sun...or maybe the left-over pizza she was eating wasn't quite agreeing with her:





As the day wore on, we started to feel more and more worn out...but then, before we knew it, it was time to pack up and go...





By the time we got the car packed up and hit the road, we were starving. On the way home, we decided to stop at theDEKALB FARMERS MARKET to get some bomb-ass samosas and lemonade. We were well on our way to the market when we spotted all these colorful tents off the side of the road...there were all these signs that said "Festival of India"...we thought, "let's just get samosas from this festival...there's gotta be some good samosas at the Festival of India!"





The traditional music being performed at the main entrance of the festival was inviting...





...but as we made our way into the middle of the tents, things got kinda...creepy. There were all these disturbing hand-fashioned vignettes set up throughout the Festival Of India that were basically "religious propaganda"...

(some effed-up looking dude walking an even more effed-up looking dog)





(a giant fish kickin' it in a hammock...WTF?)



(weirdo baby in a highchair eating a bowl of nuts and bolts)



As we walked around it seemed as though everyone there was having a good time...but there was also this kinda spooky vibe that Missy and I couldn't quite put our finger on...













For sure we had a lot of questions, but we weren't sure we wanted any answers...the creepy vibes we were feeling finally made sense as soon as we saw this sign in front of one of the main buildings in the "compound":



...awwww...HELL NAW! We realized that we were in the midst of a HARE KRISHNA recruitment drive! We were outta there quicker than you could sing George Harrison's "MY SWEET LORD"...Luckily, we got away before anyone noticed we didn't quite belong there. We were spared the "hard sell" by some overbearing zealot...



Well, we hopped back into the car, MAJORLY DISAPPOINTED, and resumed our trip to the Dekalb Market...unfortunately for us, we got to the cafeteria there TWO MINUTES after they had closed....arrrrrgh! Even more majorly disappointed, we headed back for Athens...we ended up eating at a RYAN'S buffet, only because we were really really tired and hungry by the time we rolled back into town (around 9pm) and we didn't want to wait for our food to be cooked...if we hadn't wasted our time at the Hare Krishna fest, we wouldn't have missed out on some yummy deliciousness. Lesson? Sometimes it's good to "stick to the plan."