One or the otter

Had a customer at Market today ask if I had any sea otters? Sure, I say, pulling out the second dinner plate in the stack.

They ooh appreciatively, but ask, "You don't have any river otters, do you?" In fact, I do, and dig my way about two-thirds down the stack to show the river otter plate. More appreciative noises.

Of course, they didn't buy either of them.

Slither, perhaps?

Is there a collective noun for slug queens? There were a bunch of them at Market this morning, being interviewed just off the curb in front of my booth. Apparently, someone is doing a documentary?

(For those of you outside our little rain forest, there's more information here.)

ETA: According to Kim Still's Instagram, they were being interviewed for an Oregonian article.)

Seeing red

Panda-monium at the Market!

Well, no, but it was a bit busy. Our first reliably sunny Saturday of the season brought out loads of vendors wanting booths, and a lot of the reserve-booth folks who'd be dogging it during the rainy weekends preceding. Made for a very busy lottery; my potter friend Cherie got one of the last booths, behind the stage. (Not ideal. Hard to talk to customers over the music.) And Teri the jeweler didn't get a booth at all--they were down to 4x4' spaces when she was finally called, so she took her point and called it a day.

The day started out a lot like last week, one early sale, then waiting. But then a nice Mormon lady (she had a name badge identifying her as Sister M-) decided to buy four animal banks for her grandchildren. Asked her if she was a member of the LDS church up on River Road, and she said yes, so I said that I lived less than two blocks away. Confusion ensued, as she asked how far I had to come to Market. Turns out her church is on River Road in St. George, Utah.

After that, things picked up. Had a woman commissioned by her sister to look for (she said hesitantly) "straight-sided tumblers with sea creatures on them. No problem? I pulled a crab tumbler off the shelf, got an octopus and sea otter out of the re-stock box, and she texted pics to her sister, vacationing on the coast. Took a while to get a reply, but she eventually took the crab and octo away with her.

Had a nice talk with a couple from Bend who remembered me from the Saturday Cafe--they'd lived in Newport at the time, listening to sister station KLCO--who bought a dragonfly small squared baker for a house-warming present. Also sold a dragonfly small colander for a wedding shower present, and a dragonfly painted mug as a replacement for a (broken) favorite mug. Took an order for a chipmunk painted mug from the mom of a KLCC colleague (who happened to be wearing a red panda shirt). And was visited by a photographer with Travel Lane County, doing a piece on Market for their promotions.

Had a lot of people delighted by the banks (and dragons), one young woman exclaimed, They're all shaped like friend! Indeed.

And I got to introduce a new friend to Market. Meet Willy, short for Goodwill Hunting. Found him at the Delta Oaks Goodwill in Wednesday, filling time while Denise did her physical therapy. He's also very friend shaped.