alexandra ferguson: Brooklyn Flea!

Yesterday, I participated in my first outdoor selling fair, the Brooklyn Flea.

I was coming off of a really rough work week in the city, and hadn't done any of the things I had wanted to to get ready. So try and picture it, Friday night at 10pm arriving in the studio for the first time all week trying to gather up everything I needed. Thank god my mom had had the foresight to pre-load the car with the table and chairs (the HEAVIEST table and chairs she could have found, mind you, think solid teak outdoor furniture, no kidding). The night before I had stayed up till 1am making my logo banner to hang on the fence behind me--I was actually really pleased with how that came out, given the hour. So I was a little cross-eyed by this point.

The next morning, the alarm went off at 5:45. Then 6. then 6:30 (I know myself). Catrina brought bagels and coffee from downstairs. It was so early and I was so tired, that I insisted that we sit down like human beings to eat. Breakfast then took an hour, so even though I had woken up on time, we still left an hour late.

All the stress of the previous 24 hours seemed to be for nothing once we arrived at the Brooklyn Flea. We were not the last to show up (fear #1). Unloading the car was not as difficult as I had imagined (fear #2). I did not get a parking ticket (fear #3). The tent, although called "EZ Up", was not as EZ as they suggested, but it did in fact go up with little drama (fear #4). Fear #5--that credit card processing via dial-in would be a nightmare, DID materialize. But by the end of the day, I had gotten the knack of it. And my wonderful patient customers didn't mind.

Best of all, I left the Brooklyn Flea that evening with a whole lot less pillows than I had arrived with. It was so nice actually meeting my customers - living in a digital world can be a mind-bender sometimes, with no any face to face contact! Cool moment-- a woman walks up, points to a pillow, and says, "I saw that in a photo shoot last week." She is a re-toucher and had worked on some photos for a magazine shoot that I had submitted pillows for.

Also really fun was getting to hang out with some of my newnew team mates, who were in the tent next door. Jennifer from joyella.etsy.com and I had interesting chats all day. Jody from aStudiobytheSea.etsy.com told us all about how her glass jewely is nearly indestructible. Debbie from MilkMade.etsy.com even gave me a pair of earrings (!!!). Check them out below--Relax! I love how it matches back to one of my pillows. Her grandfather used to collect all these milk caps from the early 20th century, and now Debbie is upcycling them into jewelry and magnets. Totally cool.