Art in the Garden weekend the recap.

Hello everybody.What a weekend it's been and what a work up to the Art in the Garden show!It's been a fantastic few days, mixed with hard work and exhaustion, and a couple sushi suppers. Come, I'll show you how it all went.As late as Friday afternoon, the day before the expected 300-400 people came for a visit, I was still picking up weeds and leaves and bits of stuff, cleaning and filling up the waterfall, putting things away and bringing things out into place.As I complained to my friends on FB, I took the glass from my tea caddy trays and into the kitchen to wash them, and, as everything was all soapy, the bottom glass slipped out of my hands and crashed into my stone sink, upsetting four vintage and heavy ceramic ink bottles on the window ledge, which crashed on top of and around the tray.Well, my hearts stopped, but, miraculously, nothing broke! Not even a chip! Can you believe it?By the way, are you my friend on FB? If not then friend me. :)So, after a few deep breaths, I opened the garage-studio, parked my sports car against the doors, moved tables and chairs around and put my big oil paintings on the easels because I thought it might be nice to have people wander into the studio.And then I did what every artist/gardener would do the day before a major outdoor art/garden show, I cleaned up the entire inside of the house!I know you can relate. ;)And then I painted well into the evening till I felt a bit calmer, and went to bed.Saturday morning dawned sunny and warm and some more flowers started to open. It's been such a late spring that most of my late May flowers are still in very tight buds, but some are making up for lost time, so I'm happy about that.I put my paintings on the big studio table,hung some more paintings around the garden, and opened my sketchbooks on some stands and shelves so people could have a mooch thru them.I brought out my vintage tea service and some old tea pots. I love serving tea in real tea cups and saucers, and ages ago bought these for use when there are big crowds. I also bought some crispy coconut cookies. Just the thing for a little pick-me-up in the heat.And then it was noon, and, with Chloe's help, we opened the garden!Morgan took up a favourite position. She was funny. All weekend she made the rounds to people she liked. Everyone loved seeing her.And loads of people came. About 200 each day.And my little birds flew out with their new owners.People enjoyed the garden. Some walked thru and sat for a bit, some sat in the cool studio, some came to see the rescued 100yr old grape vine or the rescued peonies, others came to see the art or listen to the concert.The concert was amazing. This beautiful girl, Feona Lim, played and sang on both days.Feona was accompanied by this beautiful girl, Jill Russell.I loved it so much.Everyone stopped and painted a little something on our interactive canvas.Young and old, everyone really loved sharing a little of their art and left a mark.Here are some close-ups. I love the pink baby squiggles. There were a couple little guys here who could barely reach!Here is the full canvas. Amazing, right?Well, the weekend just flew past! Before we knew it, it was 5:30 pm Sunday night, the art in the garden weekend was finished, and some friends stopped by for a visit.So we sat for an hour and chatted and cleaned up and moved things and watered, and then we went out for late sushi......while the garden bloomed on.