Happy Dance!!

Hi everyone!! We were away at a show in Occoquan Virginia for the weekend. This is the show that really kicks off our season—but it is a notoriously difficult set up. There are many crafters that refuse to do it for that very reason.Occoquan is outside of D.C. and is a quaint little village with many great shops—needlework ,prim ,colonial, and artist shops. This first pic is of new construction townhouses. They are gorgeous…and very expensive.The backs of the townhouses are on the edge of the Occoquan River and have docks. We have heard they are priced close to 1 million. WOW!!

                                                              

This is a wonderful year round ornament store—I even found a little crocs ornament here!!  (LOVE my crocs!! )Most of them are blown glass in shapes like fruit, animals etc. Beautiful themed trees. The ladies that run all the stores are so nice!

                                                              

The whole village is so pretty with nautical accents and clapboard sided storefronts.

                                                              

Now, for the trip…

                                                              

We left home just before noon and made good time until we hit central Pa. That is when we kept running into heavy rain and fog—in fact we drove through low clouds as we climbed in elevation. There were periods where we almost pulled off the road because the rain was so heavy. But we didn’t…it’s a guy thing!! After central Pa. the rain would come and go and it continued like that through Maryland.  When we approached D.C. the music on the radio was replaced with constant weather reports. We know a lot of the towns down there, but it was still unnerving when they were reporting funnel clouds in different areas that we were unfamiliar with. I saw 4 funnels myself that didn’t touch down. We also were lucky enough not to drive through hail. We heard reports of cars submerged, rescues from cars, many trees down, and the 3 major airports were closed.

We finally arrived at Occoquan which by that time is usually bustling—but there were no tents set up—a very odd sight!! In our area we are not allowed to set up until 9PM but usually there are many tents up in other areas.We parked and called our older son for info on weather radar. Since they were still calling for bad storms and tornadoes, we decided to get up early for set up. Storms by that time were training across the area heading up to Baltimore.There was one tornado sighting that hit the ground.

Al got up at 3:30 to get ready and we left a little after 5. Because we were so early, we were able to park right at our booth to unload—we’ve NEVER had such an easy set up at this show!! We were ready in plenty of time.

Last year, we had a record show…but this year blew it out of the water!! It must have been the full moon!! By the end of the show on Sunday, our booth was pathetically empty—and we had many people come back for things that were already sold out. Every new piece was sold—including all the black signs I showed in my last post!!  This show is a good indication how the season will be—it’s looking good!!

In the coming week I am going to post about 2 of the nicest, totally out of the ordinary shops in town. Village Americana is a drool-worthy  prim/colonial furniture shop  and Personally Yours is a prim/colonial shop selling mostly accents (fabulous, hard to find, unique accents!!). I took lots of pics and I think you will love seeing them!! Both shops are run by the NICEST ladies that take such joy in their shops.I’ll give more info on where they are situated when I post –if you are ever in the area these shops are a MUST to see!!

Al is doing a small show by himself this coming weekend and I must get back to replacing what we sold. I will stay home to work. DRAT!! He had better save me some of the fresh Amish donuts!! Have a great day!!–Jan