Mome Rath Garden by Meagan Segal: unique LA, black market, and patchwork LB

now that two weeks of craziness have come and gone, and i have come through no worse for wear, i would like to share some pictures from Unique LA, the Bat's Day Black Market, and the Patchwork Show Long Beach. through all three shows (two consecutive weekends), i worked hard, learned a lot, and had a blast, when i wasn't on the verge of tears or a panic attack. if you'd like more details of the nightmarish obstacles i encountered (and that my mom, sister, and boyfriend had to help me over), keep reading. if not, feel free to skip ahead to the photos. which is probably a wiser idea...

because Unique LA was the first (and my debut) in a long list of shows i've got lined up this spring/summer and into the fall, not to mention the show with the greatest number of attendees, i spent several weeks preparing. i gave myself what i thought was plenty of time to order various products and set-up supplies and receive them with time to spare. turns out not.

about a week after i placed the order, i was notified from a fabric supplier that the 15 yards of ivory burlap i ordered to cover the walls in my 10x10 foot booth was out of stock. i immediately replied with the substitue fabric i would like instead, and asked for expedited shipping, which the company upgraded my order to at their expense. very kind of them, but by the time the order had shipped and i was received the tracking information, it turned out that the fabric would not arrive until friday, may 11, when i would be setting up my booth at Unique LA, sans the fabric i had ordered. so, the day before, i made a mad dash to Joann's, where i got some beautiful fabric and payed about three times what i had for the other.

whilst standing in a long line to have my fabric cut that morning, i was anxiously awaiting a call from Tagless Threads, informing me that my t-shirt order was ready for pick-up. they are an amazing company, and i know they were working extra hard to have my order completed in time, for which i will forever be so grateful. luckily, i got the call earlier than i expected, and as soon as the madness at Joann's was over with, my mom and i got in the car to begin what should have been a one hour, forty-five minute drive to Vista, CA. well, we got as far as Huntington Beach when traffic was beginning to back up, and we decided, very wisely, to take a detour. good thing, because the 405 was completely shut down a short distance ahead, due to a power cable that feel across both sides of the freeway. although i was glad we weren't stuck in the parking lot that the 405 remained for the next hour or so, traversing the surface streets was no walk in the park. i have a terrible sense of direction to begin with, and combining that with arguments over navigation, my mother criticizing my driving skills, a few hundred other people trying to figure out the detour, too, doesn't help. add on top of that my rapidly increasing heart rate and shortened breath, and my long to-do list repeating on endless loop in my head, and it's quite amazing i didn't have a complete breakdown then and there. after coming across several other delays, including accidents and power outages, we finally made it to the Tagless Threads shop after about three hours in the car. fortunately, the shirts turned out amazing and i couldn't have been happier with them, because that was my consolation on the three hour return drive.

after arriving home at 8 pm that evening, my mom and i spent the next seven hours stuffing prints in plastic sleeves, making price signs, folding shirts, and packing everything up for the next morning. set-up was time-consuming but went smoothly enough, thanks many, many times over to the help of my amazing sister, Lyneigh, and my infinitely patient boyfriend, Corey. And of course, my mom, without whom i would have been a basket case. however, the whole time i was panicking that my last two packages wouldn't arrive on time (yes, more mix-ups for products i had ordered with plenty of lee-way). first were the iSkins i had ordered from Gelaskins, who had mistakenly printed my entire order with the incorrect text, and were rushing to re-print them and get them to me on time. they were also wonderfully accommodating, and overnighted the package so it arrived that morning. that just left the envelopes and card blanks i had ordered to print my designs on. there had been a delay in the shipping of my order because first the envelopes i had chosen were discontinued, and then there was a problem at the paper mill. they finally arrived friday afternoon, and while i was still setting up, my brother took them over to Post-Net, where the incredible Marvin was to rush-print some for me. well, turns out, the cards were not the size i had thought i ordered, so he couldn't print them until i got home and sent revised files, anyway. so much for that. just when i had finished that last task, and was ready to take a shower and put my feet up, i recalled that i hadn't gotten cash from the bank to use as change. i ran in just before they closed and walked out with a fat stack of bills, and then i couldn't get to that shower fast enough.

if you just read through all of that, i am amazed, and i also sincerely apologize. to sum it up, i had a lot of bad luck the week leading up to Unique, but the show was fun and fairly successful, and i'd definitely do it again. the Black Market this past saturday was a much smaller, albeit much more colorful (or lack thereof... get it?) show. the one major snag was mid-way through setting up with my sister and niece, it hit me that i forgot my business cards, of all things. mom and dad bailed me out again, driving them down to Anaheim and hand-delivering them to me. and it turns out my niece has a flair for selling; she played the part of a perfectly adorable, quirky salesgirl, and i owe much of my success that day to her. after a late night in Anaheim, i got up bright and early yesterday morning to get set up for the Patchwork Show in Long Beach. it was my first outdoors show, right by the water, and it turned out to be a beautiful day, and the most successful thus far! now i've got a bit of a break until Patchwork Culver City on June 10. time to make something new!

and now, without further ado, for you patient readers: the photos!