The Mane Event

The focus this week is preparing for The Mane Event, a horse show in which I am a vendor at.Truthfully, I am both excited and a little nervous about the show as it's the first time I've been at this venue, type of venue, and this big of a venue.

Mostly when people look at my glass art the common reply is craft show and that's not a "bad" reply. However, in a craft show I'm one of how many tables allotted for the show with the common theme of "craft". Because I want to advance myself, I started thinking about where my niche in the market is and the suggestion came last year at my first craft show of the season. The suggestion was horses and it resonated because I'm a horse nut and have been since I was born.

Now at The Mane Event the trade show part is quite large and the weekend attendance is about 40,000 (yikes!).Of the 200+ booths, I will be in with the horse trailers, outfitters, horse blankets, training services, breeders, saddles, tack, you get the idea. There are a few jewelery booths, but for glass art, I'm a league of my own. In reality I have no idea what to expect as to how well I will do or how long my stock will last and that can be a little (ok, a lot) nerve rattling when it comes to preparing for a show as some shows get very cranky if one runs out of stock.

So in this week of madly preparing for a show I am going to Kung Fu even though my daily training has been scaled right down. I do slip something in here and there to keep connected. What I have made a priority though is meditation especially when I feel myself starting to go into a flap. I have a 10-minute meditation CD (I can spare 10 minutes) that I tune in to and bring myself back down to this planet. It's been a sanity saver and sometimes my sanity has been saved a few times through the day.

Even though The Mane Event is both exciting and scary, I am looking forward to it both for the adventure and my glass art career. It's something that I have a feeling about. I made 43 horses for the show (so far) and 5 have been presold, and another one spoken for and I haven't set up at the event yet. So if that's any indication, I'm in for a great ride.

The only thing for me to do is to don the boots, the jeans, the hat, the buckle, and my best smile and enjoy the show! As I see it I have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. At the very least at the end of the show, I will have completed one of my UBBT goals. Yeehaw!!

Sherri Donohue
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta