Yesterday we went to Hatley Park for the annual Mother’s Day Paint In and Craft Fair. We had never been to the event before, let alone as vendors, so we had no idea what to expect. We did know that the registration cost was much higher than it had been in previous years (enough to deter more than half of last year’s vendors from returning- oh, snap!), but we were hoping that we would still come out in the plus and that we wouldn’t get rained out.

Going into the day, I was totally preoccupied with the amount of merchandise we would have to sell in order to break even. It was a lot (relatively speaking- getting into Hatley Park was more than 3 times the cost of the Moss Street Paint In!) Even more than I worried about getting rained on, I worried that we wouldn’t sell enough during the day or that we would have been better off staying at the Harbour instead of heading out to Royal Roads. (Alas, we had signed up for the Hatley Park event long before we knew we would have a spot down on the causeway, so we really had no choice but to attend.)

Anyway, seeing as I was so preoccupied with finances and such, the first thing I did upon arriving on the castle grounds (long before we made our first sale of the day) was to purchase a gorgeous (but not exactly inexpensive) pendant:

Hmm... should I pay for it with our float? What means budget?

It started off as an innocent wandering of the grounds, but as soon as this pendant caught my eye, it was as good as mine. I couldn’t help myself!

Made by island artist, John Taylor, these pendants feature intricate silverwork on semi-precious stones. Mine is a stunning moss agate stone, and I just love how it looks like an evening sky behind the tree silhouette!

I. Love. This. Pendant!

All in all, it must have been a case of ‘giving some to get some’, because we ended up doing really well at the Mother’s Day event and packing up our last box just before the raindrops started to fall! My life consists of nothing but vending now, but at least I have a beautiful necklace to show for it!