'Twas The Night Before The Event, When All Through The House...

It's the last day before the Spring Festival and Craft Show. We've been working diligently for the past few weeks to prepare for this event. Within that time frame we've made 5 Bodacious Patchwork Doggy Quilts, an assortment of leash/pup apparel holders, doggy themed wall decor, doggy toy boxes, dog bone shaped decorative pillows, about 50 doggy bandannas, and several dozen bags of biscuit love. I also managed to create a new banner for the front of our table last week. It arrived 2 days ago.

That's a lot of work.

We spent most of this evening putting the hardware on the leash holders and getting our event stuff in order. We boxed up the merchandise, filled a tote bag with necessaries, loaded the canopy and chairs into the back of our vehicle, and made sure we were all set to go in the morning. 

The event is about a 1/2 mile down the road. 

By 9 p.m. everything was done. Lisa and the kids went to bed shortly after. I picked up the kitchen, straightened out the biscuit room, and grabbed my usual tall glass of iced water. 

For a moment I stood in the kitchen and stared at the table. A month's worth of work neatly packaged in totes and boxes. A conversation Lisa and I had earlier kept replaying in my head.

"How do you think we'll do tomorrow?"

"I don't know. It's our first non-pet event. It's hard to say."

"Well, I hope we sell a lot of stuff. You worked hard and put your heart and soul into prepping for this event."

"I hope so too, but if we don't, that has to be okay."

It's then when you realize just how much time goes into preparing for a show. Time you don't get back. Time you're not paid for. 

You also have to consider the time that wasn't there to do other things like create new dog treat recipes and work on expanding both blog sites.

And, the time it's going to take after the event to catch up on everything.

I'm fairly certain that at this point, had it not been for the 2 reasons why we decided to participate in the Annual Spring Festival and Craft Show, I would have slowly spiraled down the path of regret. All things considered, for the amount of time spent preparing, and taking an entire day for the event, we'd have to sell everything.

I knew that wasn't going to happen.

At that point, I realized I had to stop thinking like that. 

A lot of positive things came out of preparing for this event. I learned a few things that will better prepare me for the work that awaits me in the weeks and months ahead.

If we don't do well at this event, lesson learned. I'll walk away doing my best to focus on the positive. 

More than likely, that'll be done after I crack open a bottle of wine.