Photos from the Airboat & Swamp Buggy Festival

I'm finally getting around to posting the pics of our booth at the PBC Airboat and Swamp Buggy Festival. Dave had been sick with flu-like symptoms during the week prior to the event. Then on the Friday evening, I started to get it. I managed to hang on through the weekend, but was under the weather for most of the following week. Even now, I'm only feeling like I'm at 80% of my "normal" self! In any case, the festival turned out to be a nice event...well, except for Saturday! The weather was atrocious on Saturday! It was cold, in the mid 40's and overcast...then the rain started. It wasn't so bad at first, but then it really started coming down. Rain showers in Florida are normal...they normally pass in 20-30 minutes, but this one decided to hang around. We tried to hold out, but the rain wasn't letting up, and it eventually started to leak through our pop-up tent (even though it was Scotch-guarded). That along with the cold weather, the fact we were both sick, and the small crowd led us to make the decision to pack up and leave. I hated to do it since it was only 3:30pm and the festival was scheduled to go on until 9:00pm (there was supposed to be a concert), but my table coverings and jewelry, not to mention the Str8 Jab shirts were wet. We went home, dried everything, got some dinner and watched the weather channel. There was no rain in the forecast for Sunday and it was expected to get into the mid 60's. We did decide to go back for Sunday, and I'm glad we did. The weather was as predicted and sunny. And, the band that was supposed to play Saturday night had decided to cancel due to the weather, but played all day Sunday instead. The crowd was great! We had a good response to the Str8 Jab shirts and concept, but not as many sales as we would have liked. The jewelry on the other hand did really well! All in all, it turned out to be a good day. We handed out a lot of business cards for both Shelly's Stuff and Str8 Jab and had lots of good feedback. That is helping us to make some decisions for the future and how we want to proceed with each. And now for the pics! I'm really happy with how we set up the booth. It needs a few minor adjustments, but I was very pleased. I was so happy to find the cow print material...I had been looking for real cowhides, but they were kind of pricey. When I found this material at Jo-ann's, I was so excited because it wasn't the normal black and white cow spots! The cow print may make the setup look a little busy in some of the photos and almost like the jewelry gets lost, but in person it was great. And, thanks to Dave for making my stands. I thought I was going to sand them and give them a coat of varnish, but he suggested I leave them "raw" for that rustic kind of look and I'm glad he did. I'd love to know what you think!!!

The banners...I am so pleased with how these turned out (thanks, Jeanette!)

And what would and airboat & swamp buggy festival be without some airboats...

and some swamp buggies...