The big show countdown

A few times a year, Red Delicious is broken out of the usual routine to do a booth at a big show. This is one of those times.

The countdown is on to Best of the Northwest's spring show. It's a big deal for several reasons:

• Three full days
• A big financial outlay
• Logistically complex
• A sophisticated art-buying audience

So I need to make sure I have all my ducks in a row.

The big old Mama duck is inventory: there must be enough so the booth is well stocked for the duration of the show, and so that enough is sold to both cover costs and make an appropriate profit. In technical terms, that's a whole heap of handbags!

Other considerations include organizing a good booth, loading in and setting up the booth, promoting my presence at the show, plus little things like what I'll take for lunch each day. Oh, and I have to meet my weekly attendance requirements at Pike Place Market.

I've been working on these details for weeks and with just a few days to go I'm now concentrating on sewing as much as possible to build inventory.

I'm hoping to post regularly to document the story of the show. I'm hoping....