In the words of my dear friend Cindy, "Feh!"

A group of us who hang decided a few months to sell our homemade wares at the annual Swiss Avenue home tour. There was about six of us who agreed (we all make different things from homemade cards to mosaics to styles of jewelry) with enthusiasm that this would be a great experience for us and well, it seemed like a good idea when you have months to work on it.

And the months flew by -- and one by one -- someone dropped out leaving just Cindy and I. I'm a jewelry seller virgin (one of the few times I can say that word) and she's been around the block (some work sales, local shops and through a friend in California). So we thought hey, let's stick with this -- but time restraints put me in overdrive and many a late night I cursed myself that I had agreed to this. (Especially as it came down to the wire and I've been pulling seven days straight, 12 hour days to put out this reallllly boring Business section that only the industry cares about).

This morning was the first day of selling and (surviving on a two-hour "nap") I stumbled over to Swiss Avenue (completely forgetting how to get their in my sleep- deprived brain and somehow (thanks Denise!) we got set up by the start of the tours.

People would come by, nod, smile, look eventually. I sniped to Cindy, "It's f---in Mother's Day people, buy something." Most would walk by and pretend not to see us (there were very few vendor- Wells Fargo, a local spa, another guy selling someone else's jewelry and decorative garden trinkets and a local masseuse offering chair massages) and this was definately a lesson in polite decorum as I was about ready to smack some people after their rude comments. One woman in a group of six tells us, "I don't need anymore jewelry, I have enough," as her friends were browsing and touching the necklaces. Because she was hovering around the table and others were trying to look in as thet walked by I wanted to retort, "Than get the (bleep) away from the table, you cheap asshole."

People kept telling us it was reasonably priced. But they still didn't buy. So the hours ticked by -- Cindy ran home to give her diabetic dog her shot and pick us up some lunch -- I worked on a bracelet and chatted with the masseuse (Dan) who was also not having any luck with customers. (To draw people over, he even gave Cindy and I free chair massages! My neck and shoulders thank him!) and it wasn't until about 4 and a half hours in that we finally made a sale.

Alma and Jamie came up and kept us company (thanks for the drinks, Alma) and Jamie was our second sale (thank you!) but the skies were starting to rumble and we all had to go to our "real jobs" so with their help, Cindy and I started packing up but didn't ya know it -- the rain came down hard before we could get all packed up.

So the day ended up being a wash -- soaked and messy -- but a learning experience. We're going to head back there again Sunday -- supposedly it picks up for Mother's Day and we both hope we can at least make back what we paid to have a booth -- which come to think of it is kind of expensive since the home tour doesn't provide tables, or even let people know there are vendors if they don't make it to the main area of the park.

Wish us luck cause what ever is leftover is your future gift! :)