This past Saturday I had the pleasure of being a vendor at the Mt. Carmel in the Desert Decor Christi Craft Fair. This is the first year for this event, and the Sisters at Mt. Carmel hope to have more events like this that encourage the arts in the Antelope Valley while assisting in raising funds for Mount Carmel’s Child Care Center and Retreat Center. They are also raising money for an additional Daycare program for underprivileged families who cannot pay for daycare.

The event featured painting, sculpture, jewelry, stained glass, needlework, woodworking, greeting cards, sewing, quilting, crochet and knitting. A requirement for this show was all work displayed and for sale shall be handmade. It was a wonderful event with some great networking opportunities and the crowd was friendly. Several of my very talented friends and fellow artists were also vending at the show: Paula De Grace, Jamie Bostjancic, Debra Wilson (of Kittyloaf Designs) and Dee Hodge. The Sisters were are gracious as ever, had some rather tasty lunches for sale and even had a booth with jewelry. The Sisters hope the show will get bigger each year and will get more of the community involved. They are some of the sweetest and kindest women I have ever met and I try to help them as much as I can.

Setting up my booth before the craft fair opened.

Some of my jewelry display.

Paula De Grace and Jamie Bostjancic at their jewelry booth with all of their lovely work.

Debra and her awesome mother at the Kittyloaf booth. I think you can see on the far right the bracelet I just had to get.

Sister Benedicta trying the choose beads for a new rosary; she is a very talented jewelry maker. Her specialties are wire wrapped bracelets & rosaries.

The Sisters talking to a volunteer offering to help, as the weather outside was making a turn for the worse.

Sister Benedicta showing off her “Cheshire” smile. She is such a great lady, hard working, always laughing and making the best of any situation.

Jami visiting Brian (Dee’s talented son, who is a musician, substitute teacher and puppeteer) at Dee Hodge’s lovely booth. Jami was asking about commissioning some work.

The weather made a turn for the worst at the Retreat around 2pm. Heavy rain turned into hail and we got flash flooding.

More rain…

Thanks the heavens it was an indoor event. The weather was crazy, with flash flooding, hail the size of quarters, high winds, lighting, thunder and rain. The ever gracious Sisters of Mt. Carmel made sure we made it home when the roads flooded out.

Trees and the garden got shredded by the hail, the front yard looks like it was put through a wood chipper and the back is a lake. Jami says the wood pile submerged by water makes it look like we have beavers nesting. 😛

The up side is the parched desert got some much needed water and the night sky always looks so clear after a heavy rain. After the weather calmed down the wildlife was out and about searching the moist ground for food left by the storm.

Until next time Safe Travels!