I was in the mood to take pictures this Saturday, so I documented a bit of what it is like to set up at the Portland Saturday Market. I love the imagery of this place, and I've taken pictures in the morning down here many times, but not really of the actual process of setting up... I've done this every weekend for 8 years now... so here ya go...
here is Mr Tim pushing my cart. Lately he has been able to join me in the morning setting up my booth before he goes to work - Thanks Tim! The yellow cart he is dragging is one of a half dozen or so carts that the market supplies to help vendors haul their stuff around the site. They are great! Sometimes its a challenge to find one to use, but its worth it. I have a few carts of my own to supplement though... you can't depend entirely on the PSM carts, there are hundreds of other vendors who also want to use them.
see here my booth is strapped to a cart. I wheel it out and set it up while Tim is dragging the rest of my stuff out from storage. This storage space is literally under the sidewalk on the South West side of the Burnside Bridge. The walls are wet with water that seeps through the concrete sidewalk. Its old and really pretty gross. Mold, yes. Rats, sometimes. Floods, I've experienced 2 in my 8 years. There is more storage in this building in the Shanghai tunnel space that is directly underneath my storage. Its awesome. Old historic creepy spaces. This is the basement of the old building that was once a brothel in Old Town Portland. The PSM office spaces are on the bridge level floor and most of the rest of the building is storage. I think the building is haunted by one of the old prostitutes that used to work in the brothel. Story goes that she tried to blow the whistle on the people being Shanghaied (between 1850-1941 people in port cities were stolen and sold to sea captains as labor - on the west coast Portland surpassed even San Fransisco in numbers of men Shanghaied) and so the prostitute was Shanghaied! She was never seen again and I think she haunts the place now! Currently a handful of artists store their market stuff (retail display stuff and whatnot, we're not allowed to store product in this storage) in this Shanghai tunnel space. Its really fascinating to me!
here is the big cart getting loaded up with my stuff. Tim built me these wooden pedestals, I love them. I use them as storage as well as retail display furniture.
here is my stuff ready to be pushed from my car to the booth. This little folding cart is wonderful. Its from Costco, its very light and it folds up real small... best part is its sturdy and holds lots of weight.
the market in the morning is an interesting site of people setting up their booths...
this coffee booth has been at the market for decades, serving warm beverages to the masses with handmade syrups and fresh local roasted beans... 
heres my booth all ready to go
and what it looks like from where I sit...
My day at the Portland Saturday Market today was made colorful with the Rose Festival Grand Parade. This morning as I set up my booth the fire department there on Naito Parkway was all abuzz with parade prep. All the firetrucks were looking shiney and super clean, adorned with roses and there was an old antique horse pulled fire truck that was gearing up to go. 
I happened to be taking a picture of some of the firetrucks when this entourage of horses and antiques left the station and headed off to the start of the parade. It was fantastic! 
Behind the big horses and the antique fire truck was this little mini cart pulled by ponies that seemed to be carrying the pooper scoopers!
I tried to take a video to show what it feels like to have a booth in an art market under a bridge that has a huge parade passing over head. Its really neat. I sorta love it.
I thought I'd share some pictures from the PSM this weekend. It was wildly bopping on Saturday with the annual "Doggy Dash" raising money for the Oregon Humane Society and all... Sunday was much more empty and less profitable, but my vendor neighbors rocked out and provided a whole picnic of grilled sandwiches - it was really incredible and wonderful. I love the community at the Portland Saturday Market.
Chicken salad with almonds apples poppy seeds and yogurt (yum) and grilled marinated peppers, pesto, cheddar cheese, two kinds of bread, peanut butter and jelly, strawberries and nectarines. It was such a spread (clearly we weren't too busy selling things). I provided speakers for some tunes. Thanks Nisey and everyone else for bringing such tastey yummies! The vendor antics in my neighborhood are so wonderful, I just want to hug them all. Nothing like having good neighbors.
Its been raining a lot in Portland. And hailing. And snowing up on Mt. Hood. Easter vacationers are getting lots of powder to ski on this weekend, sorta unusual, but the ski resorts love it! Down here in the valley its just been rainy, on and off, and windy, and pretty wet. Good weather for staying indoors and doing my accounting! :) I will not be vending at the Portland Saturday Market this weekend. If you're looking for me down there - email me - I am probably sitting in front of my computer doing accounting!
Here are some pictures of my new booth spot at the Portland Saturday Market. My 2010 season spot. Last year I was right in the front on the steps facing the river and the stage where musicians play and the fountain where little kids frolic. That spot was really a twist of good luck - for some reason the vendors with more seniority than myself didn't think it'd be a great spot, which left it available for my taking. Which I did. This year it was not available, but I got a beautiful spot nestled in the heart of the new market area. I have great neighbors (good company is key!) and my booth is protected from the wind (huge perk - I don't need that zillion pounds of canopy weights that my spot last year required)... but I get no direct sunlight and I am too far from the music stage to hear any tunes... this sorta makes me sad. I am not in love with my new spot. Admittedly I haven't been trying very hard to bond with it. I have opted to not vend at the mere mention of bad weather from the lying weather stations. However, on the days that I've been there it has been beautiful and wonderful. Just exhausting. Its been a lot of years now that I have been starting up a new season a the market and the amount of work it takes is sorta a smack in the ass. Between setting up the booth and talking to people all day, its intense!
The trees were full bloom, the weather on Saturday was sunny and mid 60's. It was beautiful and everyone in Portland came down to the waterfront this weekend! The trees above are on Naito Parkway on the corner in front of the fire department. They are so beautiful. Check out that magnolia! Its already in full magnificent tulip-tea-cup-style bloom! 
The Oregonian did a great article Sunday morning about the 2010 Grand Opening of the market - Judi (pictured above in her booth Curly Girl Jewelry) was featured in the article among many good friends and great market vendors! Check out the new glass display case that Judi built (pictured above encasing the bowls of lentils), its great: no one can set their coffee cups on it (they will slide off the top), she can reach in from behind to access jewels to show customers, and best of all no more little kids sticking their fingers into the lentils and happily burying the jewelry. Brilliant. Well done Judi!
Here is a picture from south of the market in Waterfront Park. I had forgotten to put my parking pass on the car (which was parked in the parking garage a few blocks away) so I had to run to the car mid-day and produce this parking pass (whew - no ticket! yeah for my swiss-cheese memory!) and on the way back I took this picture. The market was packed. We had a record breaking day. Between photographers coming out to take pictures of the cherry blossoms along the waterfront, college kids coming down to have lunch, tourists coming down to check out the local duds, and locals enjoying the beautiful weekend - the place was bopping! The food court has never been more popular, most vendors ran out of food (this is unheard of!) by mid-day. It was great to see so many people enjoying the Portland Saturday Market. Kudos to Reid Decker for doing a great job on the advertising!! Thanks Reid - well done!
I wish I took more pictures of the cherry blossoms. You can see them in the background here, with the Steel Bridge behind them. I think its supposed to start raining tomorrow, so I might have missed my chance to get a good picture. They are amazing (and blooming way early this year!)
Portland Saturday Market opens this weekend! I'll be there. I've got a new spot that is more buried in the aisles. If you come down and find me (feel free to shop! we artists need the income!) I'll be giving out little free-bies to blog readers who find me! Its a scavenger hunt of sorts!
Check out these amazing boxes I made today! (big Thanks to my friend Maggie) She owns an Accu Cut System and oh my goodness it is this fun die cutting machine! I really like playing with crafting machines - and this one impressed the socks off me!
This is the machine. The first picture shows the types of boxes I cut (and yes, I stamped a bunch all ready!) Below is a picture of the die cutting pad for the small square box... you put a piece of paper on top of the foam pad and turn the crank, roll it thru and bam - you have a box cut out (complete with fold creases)
Here it is in action!
These little purse boxes made me swoon. And don't they look cute with my stamp! I am going to use these for packaging necklaces at the Portland Saturday market.
These little flat boxes are also perfect for jewelry... I stamped the bottoms of the larger box.
These little rectangular boxes are perfect for earrings or small figurines... a little bit of ribbon thru the top. Oh my goodness, I love my new packaging!!
I like a good to-do list. Keeps me on point. I like reading other people's to-do lists as well. Wanna read mine? (you will find most of this pertains to the Portland Saturday Market this weekend)
I am busy making things today... and running errands... this is my last Sunday free for the rest of the year -!- the Portland Saturday Market opens next weekend. Wow.
I have been fusing like nuts. Turning scrap pieces into little gems. I was just washing a drying all these little bits... looks like candy on my kitchen table. All these pieces are becoming little crafty mobile making kits... so you too can play with them too!
I found this picture in my booth last weekend - I thought it'd be funny to share what I look like all wrapped up in layers
I'd like to give a big shout out to my assistant Aimee. She is a good friend and damn good help! Especially after being sick with da flu for 2 weeks I was overwhelmed in the need for production. Holiday shows demand lots and lots of extra inventory. I am so fortunate to have good help.
Seems the sun is setting around 4:30pm now. The market closes at 5pm - so we get to take down in the dark! 
Here's what it looked like this morning, it was sorta foggy, but then it turned into a beautiful fall day. Not a drop of rain, that was wonderful!
There's a group of Canadian geese hanging out in Waterfront Park lately... they look beautiful against the greens and reds of the fall foliage. I think they eat breakfast on the lawn in the morning. I had to take some pictures, there are more on my flickr account.
Oh and whats up with this random Santa sighting? I actually stopped them and tried to ask what they were up to, no real results from that inquiry. It was not a pub crawl (although they were certainly drunk, rather clean though I must add) and not anything organized (although they were indeed all in matching santa outfits, way tooo early for xmas). One of the Santas had a cardboard sign that said "will Ho for booze" and in the moment I stopped to question them there were two homeless men serenading them with the "here comes santa claus" song. All around, an odd encounter.
It was a beautiful day in Portland today. Check out these amazing trees in waterfront park. The colors are stunning.
These musicians had a gig on the main stage at the PSM this Sunday, and my booth happens to be right in front of the stage - front row seats baby :)
No big shocker, it rained today. Honestly though, it rained hard! Florida big fat drops (and lots of them) kinda rain, not Pacific NW drizzly stuff... although it drizzled for a good part of the day too... but the dramatic stuff was the dark gray clouds blowing around and occasional drenching down pour. The weird part was the sun came out many times today. It would get bright and sunshiney (a little blinding with everything so wet) and warm. I kept taking off layers, putting them back on, taking them back off... you get the idea :)
So my day at the market was pretty damn wet. Nothing like sitting in a tent in waterfront park as big rain storms blow in and out of the city. Its sorta beautiful listening to the rain, and with all my new weights and seam-sealer (which worked pretty well - would have worked better if I actually had sealed the entire seams, I didn't do the entire length of each seam, I am too short to reach the inside of the top of the peak - so it leaked in the middle, but not around the sides where me and my stuff sits - over all I had 90%less dripping in my booth!) I was well prepared for the weather. However - it was so much rain! It kept accumulating in my canopy top - which is like a waterfall when emptied. I had to empty the top at least every 20 minutes while it was raining. This kept me in my booth! Everyone kept making fun of me that I was actually in my booth all day. 
