Collins St. Festival

Thought I would start off with a picture I took of the moon a month or so ago.

It was shining in our bedroom window and was so bright it woke me up.

I stayed awake and watched it set behind the mountain.I did the Big Tanks market on Fathers day (also Damian's birthday)

For those of you not "local" the tanks were used during the war by the Navy to store oil, there are 5 of them and they are now used as art galleries and one has a stage set up for outdoor entertainment. Set beside the botanical gardens and opposite a huge parkland, the grounds are full of lush tropical plants and trees, some are growing as part of the entrance wall.

This is the main entrance, you can just spot my stall on the right.

This was just outside the main entrance looking west down Collins ave. Last year we had 30 thousand people go through during the day. I saw heaps of friends over the afternoon, Vanessa, Wick, Erin & Ryan - Filiz, Richard, Ollie & Finlay - Shinobu & Aya - Warren - Bindy - Keith - Peter & Roz - plus some of my regular customers from the Smithfield markets.

This was my stall and the best I could manage with the space they gave me, my usual spot allows me 3 times this hanging space and up a lot higher which is a lot more eye catching. Unfortunately it rained so for a lot of the time, my stuff was covered in tarps - needless to say, I didn't sell very much at all - very disappointing!
I had a great day regardless, and got to catch up with lots of my fellow market buds - Anne who owns a shop in town that I supply, the ever luscious Belinda and Steve who had been working very hard to create all manner of beautiful wood/shell/sand & candle creations - Maya who has some unusual and gorgeous jewellry - John who makes the most amazing pottery people that he adorns with op shop jewels and is always good for a bit of gossip - Patricia who sells the local fruit wines - Robyn with the lions club - and the ever present lions club gents at the sausage sizzle (always good for a laugh) - plus I met some new people, Catherine and Danny who had the stalls on either side of me.
As usual, Johnathan the organiser was a blur all day and made sure everyone had whatever they needed. Damian, Kylin and Dermott came to see me about 2.30 which was lovely and it meant I could pack up when the time came, and drive my car to where my stall was, rather than having to carry all my gear (over two or three trips) into the next suburb where we had to park. As dissapointing as the sales were, it was a lovely place to spend the day, the local radio station were broadcasting from just beside were I was, so we had music either from them or from the local soloists who were performing on and off throughout the day. I got to see lots of cute kids and babies and handed out lots of cards to the locals, so hopefully I'll get some sales down the track from that. All the stall holders I spoke to said that their sales were bad too, and the theory was that everyone had spent their money on Fathers day pressies already, and that this year, there was nearly twice as many stalls so the spending money was spread out. We then all headed home and prepared for the sumptuous birthday dinner - with Vanessa, Wick, Shane, Marisol and the kids - we had luscious spring rolls, and little quiches that Vanessa made (they are egg and bacon pies according to Wick) Moroccan chicken salad, fresh prawns, garden salad and two cheesecakes to finish off - everyone had a fab night - there are no photos though cause it was too dark where we were sitting.

Hope you are all happy and well - love and hugs to you all - Kaz. xo