Shoots & Gifts & Baskets

I started easing into fall today, no matter that it rained in the morning and then it was 80 degrees; I placed my seasonal sentry at the left front post at the Corona del Mar farmers market~
it was a busy morning, with all the usual wonderful activity and beautiful canines~
this Maltese is the apple of her Mommy's eye, and she gets her topknot and both sides of her muzzle beautifully braided, and makes her rounds in a baby stroller; this is a very very sweet and beloved dog~
The scarecrows put everyone in a good mood, especially the kids, until someone "has to have them" and they depart the market (psst $5 at Michael's now)~
We had an unscheduled photo shoot today by a local magazine. As I followed them around at the other end of the market, I finally got close enough to confirm. YES, that IS my Aix basket on the model's arm (full of produce and flowers), which as it happens, the photographer had bought from me 2 years ago. Need I say, she loves it and uses it daily; here a stack of Moroccan baskets in front of the booth today~

they came with a trailer full of clothes, as well as the model, a stylist for hair, one for makeup, a design stylist, several assistants and the photographer.
The photographer was really funny, when I tentatively approached their trailer to ask about the basket, she said it was from "the French Basketeer, it's a company in Laguna."

"That's me!" I said, as we both had a good laugh. They shot at my booth a little later in the morning; sorry my pics are not good, but you can't upstage the pro photographer so I shot from a distance~
At the end of the day, each of the crew picked out their favorite basket, my comp. Hey, when the logo of the magazine is "the Bible for the Trendsetters," of course they must leave with samples....the photographer took a Moroccan Eze, the model immediately chose the new cherry red check that Laura also has; the stylists chose an orange Cap Ferrat and a blue Antibles ombre. The stylish people know exactly what they want, and I want my merch in their hands. Great crew today. I hope something will come of it; something usually does :)

Later in the day, I stopped by to see two new friends, Jann and MaryAnn, who have organized a writer's salon for women called She Writes. Here they are, all smiles, despite all the last minute stress of their event here in Laguna next week~
Well, part of the reason they are smiling is cuz we had just cranked out their gift baskets with all the merchandise they had assembled; the results were very pretty and sophisticated~
I offered the baskets plus the assembly; it's what I do; as it's October, the baskets were wrapped up with fine orange tulle and acanthus ribbon, I was very happy with the results and so were Jann & MaryAnn; this look is my fav; the contents are held in but you can see through the tulle netting~
We did several variations, including ivory tulle tied up with orange doubleface Swiss satin; I find cellophane-wrapped gift baskets a little tacky, and the tulle can be reused on other gifts~
I will have some holiday basket pics up soon, which of course will feature some lovely items from Metis Linens.