Mess Mass Production

Mark and I never seem to learn our lesson. After vending a show, and going nuts for a couple of weeks right before the show because we're trying to get too much done in too short a time, and saying we will NEVER do that again, and will be "extremely organized from now on," we almost immediately lapse back into our old behavior. You know...."we have plenty of time to get ready for the next show." Pfffft.

It wasn't even that long ago. End of September. And here we are, in the same predicament. Only this time we have shows on back-to-back weekends. Yikes! What were we thinking?

The first is the Madera Wine Trail's Holiday Spirit Weekend. We have never vended for a wine trail weekend before. We haven't even attended a wine trail weekend before. Not really knowing what to expect, but based on the assumption that there will be a lot of people who are going from one winery to another, we are making a lot of wine charms, wine bottle stoppers, slumped wine bottles with cute little knives for serving cheese.

This is what it looks like around our house.

Kitchen counter:


Inside our oven. (Because we have to rinse out all those alcohol bottles, so we dry them in the oven before we put them in the kiln.)

In case you were wondering, we don't fuse or slump our glass work in the oven, even though Mark likes to tell people that we fuse and slump in our microwave. He says it takes about fourteen hours in the microwave. You wouldn't think anybody would fall for that, but you'd be surprised how many people say, "Really?" Maybe you have to actually know him. He gets that reaction a lot. Even from those of us who know him well. He says it with such a straight face, and then you I end up feeling so dumb after I fall for it, after all these years. Yeah, anyway...

(Side note to Mom and Dad: Mark doesn't drink anything stronger than diet coke, and while I like my glass of wine every night, I was not responsible for drinking my way through all these bottles. Although lately we have become friends with many a bartender.)

On top of the washing machine,
and the dryer.
Until after our second show next weekend--our annual open house--this is my new motto: