Alison M. RiceMark Your Calendars: Fenton Street Market opens Sept. 12 and Oct. 3!
The email arrived in my inbox a few weeks ago with an irresistible subject line: “A new venture.” The news? A former colleague was starting an open-air market in Silver Spring, Md., combining her affection for her neighborhood with her experience as a magazine editor and former vintage crafter.
Hannah McCann wants her Fenton Street Market to be a "first step" for craft vendors and small businesses.
“As someone who writes about architecture and land development, I’m always thinking about Silver Spring as a developer,” Hannah McCann told me. “I feel like there’s a funkier part of Silver Spring that people just aren’t exploring.”
That will change next month, as the Fenton Street Market opens Sept. 12 and Oct. 3 at the corner of Silver Spring Ave. and Fenton Street. The market, which will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., will feature baby toys, handmade jewelry, homemade doggie treats, vintage treasures, uncommon teas, photography, and an even a bicycle mechanic. “I love the idea of an interactive market—more than just merchandise on tables,” Hannah said.
(Full disclosure: I loved the idea of this market so much I volunteered to help Hannah for free with the PR after I talked to her for this blog post.)
Hannah hopes her market will become a launching pad for new vendors and her neighborhood alike. “Let it be a first step,” she explained. “Let it be a first step for someone to develop a following for their jewelry or their baby toys. I hope the market can become a stepping-stone for small businesses either in the neighborhood or businesses that are considering Silver Spring.”
For that reason, Hannah kept prices as low as possible. Rentals start as low as $15 a day for a 10-foot-by-10-foot space; 10-foot-by-20-foot spaces run $25 a day. (If you’d like to participate, note that applications are due to Hannah no later than Aug. 29.)
Fenton Street Market
What: Open-air market with crafts, toys, pet treats, jewelry, art, bicycle repair services and more
When: Saturday, Sept. 12 and Saturday, Oct. 3
Hours: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Corner of Silver Spring Ave. and Fenton St., Silver Spring, Md.
Contact: Hannah McCann, market maker
Vendor Information: Rentals cost $15 a day for 10-foot-by-10-foot space or $25 per day for a 10-foot-by-20-foot space. Applications are due to Hannah McCann no later than Aug. 29.
Website: www.fentonstreetmarket.com
Alison M. Rice
Market update from Hannah: All vendor spots for the Sept. 12 and Oct. 3 markets are sold out!
"This is serious." --Ming-Ming
Serious cupcakes for serious "Wonder Pets" fans.
Either I have been drinking too much coffee or Noggin plays secret messages backwards in its kids’ shows. That is the only possible explanation for last night’s Cupcake Tuesday project: Ming-Ming Cupcakes, which Lucy has been requesting since she saw a clip on Noggin about them last weekend. (Here's the recipe.)
You don’t know Ming-Ming? She is the duckling on “Wonder Pets,” where she and her fellow class pets—Tuck the Turtle and Linny the Hamster—regularly rescue baby animals from alarming situations. “This is serious!” Ming-Ming likes to say. “We have to help them!”
Well, obviously I need help too if I made 24 white chocolate cupcakes with pale yellow vanilla buttercream frosting and then decorated them with flight caps (flattened Tootsie Rolls cut into cap components), eyes (M&Ms) and beaks (pink Starbursts, shaped appropriately and with nostrils created with a toothpick).
The Cyclist and the Little Supervisor place Ming-Ming's eyes.
Thank goodness for the Cyclist, who skipped his usual Tuesday ride and was therefore willing and able to assist with beak creation and cupcake assembly. Otherwise I would probably still be rolling Tootsie Rolls into sugary flatness.
But despite my exceedingly sticky fingers and the mountain of mixing bowls last night, I have to declare this Family Cupcake Tuesday a sweet success. There’s something to be said for turning off the TV and baking as a family.
Got Tantrums? Make Cupcakes.
The Little Supervisor sifts the cake flour.I have discovered the solution to Tantrum Tuesdays, when the Cyclist rides with his cycling team after work and the Little Supervisor and I get special mommy-daughter time.
Or not. My initial vision for such evenings involved crafts, movies, popcorn, and lots of laughter as the Little Supervisor and I created loving memories that she will fondly remember in the years to come.
I must have been high on Play-Doh fumes, because I definitely did not account for the Thermonuclear Threes.
Between the guilt (“I want Daddy!”) and the tantrums when I declined to agree to yet another showing of “Charlotte’s Web,” let’s just say the reality of Tuesday evenings have not quite lived up to my expectations. A snippet from early this summer, when I took her out for her favorite tacos: “Little Supervisor, what did you play today?” (Pause.) “Nothing.”
Apparently my child is 3-going-on-13, and we all know what a lovely age that is.
This week, I made sure we had wine at home decided to try something different: Sugar.
Well, not exactly PURE sugar. But it was pure bliss for Editor Mom (a.k.a. me). Without even a whine, the Little Supervisor and I baked a batch of Martha Stewart’s marble cupcakes and delivered them to a handful of neighbors. “I think everyone who eats needs marble cupcakes,” the Little Supervisor declared.
Me too.
Just the Fax, Ma’am: Adventures in Mobile Working
The bench where I did my Friday conference call. Ah, the freelance life. You can work in your pajamas, weed your garden during lunch, and write in complete silence, save the meowing of your hungry cat at 4 p.m.
Except when it is your week to host the nanny-share.
For those who neither live in our nation’s capital nor the suburbs that surround it, a nanny-share is an arrangement where multiple families (in our case, four) employ one nanny. The details vary—some families take mornings, others take afternoons; other families spend X days at one house and Y days at another—but the basics remain the same: families get loving, high-attention child care and the nanny makes a decent wage.
Our nanny share usually takes place at the lead family’s house, but they were on vacation two weeks ago, so I volunteered to host. (I thought it would be a good chance for the Little Supervisor to practice her “sharing,” and it was time to move to Defcon-4 in the potty-training process, which I certainly didn’t want to inflict upon anyone else’s house.)
Talk about an adventure.
First, WOW! ARE COFFEE SHOPS LOUD THESE DAYS OR WHAT? YOU CAN HARDLY HEAR YOUR OWN CELL PHONE RING OVER THE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO LAPTOP-LUGGING, LATTE-CHUGGING YUPSTERS NEXT TO YOU.
I now know WAY too much about three particular people: a young woman of color from the Great Plains who was studying for the bar exam and hopes one day to run for public office; her newfound friend, a lawyer-turned-lobbyist; and an older woman advising fellow volunteers on how to dial for dollars.
EXCUSE ME, BUT WHEN DID STARBUCKS TURN INTO CONFERENCE-CALL-CENTRAL? THIS IS NOT YOUR OFFICE—IT IS MINE. I THINK I AM LIVING A DILBERT COLUMN. AND NO, IT IS NOT NICE TO POUNCE ON OLD PEOPLE IN SEARCH OF THEIR CASH JUST BEFORE THEY KICK THE BUCKET, AND YES, THE WAY YOU SAID IT DID SOUND BAD.
Thank goodness for the public library, where I found silence, an outlet for my laptop and my Bluetooth headset, and free wi-fi. (I still can’t believe I had to pay $3.99 per 2 hours of wi-fi at Starbucks after all the money I’ve spent with that company....)
Until “teen gaming hour” started on Thursday afternoon and the movie “Rebecca” began playing on Friday. (I always thought of “Rebecca” as a quiet, foreboding sort of movie—who knew it had such a booming soundtrack?) Good thing I spent my formative writing years in a newsroom with five other reporters.
And you thought I was kidding. Note the fax machine to the right of my laptop.But there was no way I could ignore the mobile worker next to me. In addition to his laptop, he plugged in a FULL-SIZE FAX MACHINE at the library. Seriously. First, how many people use fax machines in the age of email, PDFs, Internet fax services, and user-friendly FTP sites? Second, who brings a FAX MACHINE to the LIBRARY? I kept craning my neck to see if he had a wheelie bag to haul all this office equipment away when the library closed.
It almost made me lonesome for my coffee shop buddies. But not quite.