Last night Nikki and I had a meeting with the people from the Farmer’s Market to potentially sell our cards. It was quite the experience. Based on the phone message we got from the lady in charge, Nikki and I assumed that we’d show up and display our product to a panel of people who would judge us "acceptable" or "unacceptable". We’d be in and out of there in 45 minutes, tops.

Nope. Think again. We were so completely wrong.

We arrived at the market, to be faced with 25 other groups of people looking to get a table. Each “seller” was given a booth, and we were privately interviewed by maybe a half dozen judges. They asked us questions about our cards—some actually looked at them, others just stood staring at the table and said nothing. It was very bizarre, like an elementary school science fair. I was nervous and sweaty and I fidgeted. I glared at the lady next to us who gave out individually prepared bags of gourmet dog treats to the judges as a suck up. Damn suck ups.

Basically, they told us they’d let us know within a month if we were “accepted,” based on the scores given to us by the judges. Then we’re put on a waiting list, and it could be up to a year before a booth is available. Any longer than a year, and we’d have to re-apply. There are maybe 200-250 booths, and 157 are run by permanent sellers. Only 20% of the total booths are crafters, so I gather it’s a tough group to crack.

Overall, however, after wandering around and looking at the competition last night, I think we had the best craft. There was a man selling rain barrels, and a bit of a nutter selling bath salts (which she kept making me sniff, which in turn made me sneeze.) Another lady was selling meatballs, and a man who looked like a chubby Weird Al had quite possibly the ugliest art on the planet. But, it takes all kinds, right Pants? We all have our gifts...