Saturday In The Park

People dancing, people laughing, a man selling ice cream…
Can you dig it (yes, I can) And I’ve been waiting such a long time…
(Saturday In The Park-Chicago)

Well, I wasn’t in the park, today, but I did spend the entire afternoon, outside, soaking up the sun, because it was just THAT nice, outside!!!

I usually don’t bother you with a Saturday blog but there is an added product that I wanted to alert you to so that you can race and take advantage!

Champaign Berry Farms just added tubs of frozen blackberries!!! The warm day, the sunshine, and now the added frozen berries…I can totally dig it!!

Order while the quantities remain! Cathy also added a recipe for blackberry pie to the recipe section!!

Go, celebrate this sun drenched, warm, beautiful day, by ordering the last bit of berry sunshine to stock in your freezer!! Think of all you can make happen during the dreary months of winter with these in your freezer!!

Have an amazing rest of the day that is now taking us into a beautiful evening…

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

Stay Warm, Stay Spicy...

A new package of Swisher Hill Herbs comes to the market! Just in time for the chill in the air…

Swisher Hill Herbs adds an Herb Tea Sampler package to the Virtual market. This package contains a 1 oz. pkg., each of our 3 herb tea blends.
Crimson Berry This tea blend is great to warm you on cold winter morning or evenings. There is just a hint of red chili peppers and cayenne.
Fruit Herb – A sweet blend of fruit with a touch of peppermint makes this a mild full of flavor herb tea.
Orange Spice a nice blend of rosehips for vitamin c, orange peel, add a touch of cloves for spice
Purchased individually would be $9.00, sold as a 3 pkg. only $8.25. Save!

Better Than Sunshine?

Let your soul shine…
It’s better than sunshine…
It’s better than moonshine…
Damn sure better than rain…
Yeah now people don’t mind…
We all get this way sometimes…
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day…
(The Allman Brothers…Soulshine)

I am pretty sure that I used this song, before, but it seemed so fitting for all of today that I am using it in another form:)

You know those days when it feels so good that it’s like sunshine? But there is such a cool, hipness to it that it is more like moonshine? The combination of sunshine/moonshine becomes that old feeling of…soul shine..

I lived for a long amount of time down in South Florida. It was perfect for outdoor concerts, bands, and festivals. The Allman Brothers, The Grateful Dead, The Black Crowes, The Outlaws…lots of amazing sounds coming out of where I used to live, back in the day.

Soul shine, the anthem of The Allman Brothers, and South Floride, to me, is a state of mind. That point when you are beyond happiness, and on your way to the next level. A level of excitement, pride, bursting with shine!!

That is what I felt like, today. As usual, we opened the market, we filled orders, and then we had visitors from Miami County. They wanted to hear all about our little local market of love. All about what we do, who we are, the vendor base, the customer base…

I found that I couldn’t stop talking about each and every person associated with this market!! I was so excited to pass the information, along, and to share our experiences, our growth, our amazing band that makes us who we are, that I thought my soul would burst open and shine!!

My love runs deep for the people, places, and things I am passionate about. This market is right up there on the love scale! I was so filled with pride as I talked about how we began, how we got to where we are now, and what I see us still reaching to achieve!!

Soul Shine…there is nothing like it. I feel like it is when the sun, the moon, the stars, and the planets all line up, give hugs, give huge high fives, and dance around at the happiness of it all!!

I open the market, tonight, with the soul shine feeling. Keep it shining, keep it bright, keep the love flowing…we have so much to be proud of, we are being noticed on so many levels, and we are a power house to the local community!

Go ahead…let it shine…it’s pretty amazing..

Thank you for letting me be the manager that helps to make you shine! I love you all!!!

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

Last Call!

Last call! Almost closing time!

Please proceed with your orders!

We have 15 minutes left in this record breaking market!! Be a part of market history in the making!

See you at 10pm!

We Are Golden!!

So, with just over an hour to go in this week’s market, I would like to announce that we have now shattered our previous all time high of a record that was set back in late winter!!!

We have a bit of time left…I wonder what will still happen???

Your market managers are amazed, in awe, and so PROUD of all of you, both customers and vendors!!!

Will be back for Last Call, in a bit…

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

Don't Go Back To Rockville

Looking at your watch a third time… waiting in the station for the bus…
Going to a place that’s far, so far… away and if that’s not enough…
Going where nobody says hello, they… don’t talk to anybody they don’t know…
(Don’t Go Back To Rockville-REM)

In college, I began a love of early REM. When they were alt/indie/rock. I listened to their first two albums, over and over and over. I have friends, now, from Georgia, who were lucky enough, in the early days, to sit in pool halls and obscure clubs and listen to the beginnings of REM.

Anyway, by the time I was listening to them, I had entered my later years in college. I was dabbling in a minor for my major. I was holed up in the building that housed the journalism, broadcast, media arts students. Serious times. I fell in love with broadcast journalism and started listening and learning and going to programs at an old, run down, historic hotel, in our college town.

I was new to the broadcast department, and it was a total boys club. They sort of just brushed me off, didn’t want to help me, thought they were so cool and smug. The professor took me under his wing and placed a bet with the boys. He bet them that I would kick all of their butts by the end of the semester and that I would get a B in his class.

It was probably the WORST time of my college career. But…I continued. I just kept going to class even though they were all so against the girl who entered their world. I went in, late at night, and sat with the sound guy who worked with me and showed me the ropes of the studio.

At the old hotel, I talked about, the boys all hung out, lived in the upstairs rooms and drank whiskey down in the old bar. I was determined to crack their code. Be one of them. Even if they ignored me. Even if they didn’t want me around. Even if they didn’t want to help me.

I continued to show up at their after hours club. I listened to their radio/television talk. I learned to sip whiskey just like they did. I continued to work hard. Study hard. I called my grandfather, on a regular basis. He told me not to whine, not to back down, and to find something that I could take to them that would impress and make them take a bit of notice at what I had to offer. Use your head, he said.

So, one night, I showed up with my music. I produced the REM cassettes. I talked them into putting them into the old sound system. Silence. A bit of respect. A new taking notice from them. We talked music. We sipped whiskey. We started making plans for our semester projects.

I ended the semester with a B:) My semester project was a short story all set to REM tunes, including this song. It was about a girl, looking for her path, her road, and explored different stages of her life. The ending was pretty dramatic but I will keep it a secret as to what it was…

Because, this all ties into this little market of love. Once upon a time, this market was not wanted, not believed in, made to work hard, needed everyone to take notice, had no clue if we would fail or pass. Now look at us…much like me, the girl in the boys club, we have worked, worked, worked…promoted, gathered vendors, begged people to give us a chance, proved ourselves, and now look…..tonight, we are on the edge of breaking our best record yet.

Let this tale of my college class, this market, my grandfather, and just plain hard work, be an inspiration…

Just go out and make it all happen. It’s not easy but once it all comes together, it’s the best feeling there is.

You have three hours before I close the market, tonight! Please consider placing your orders…help us on the never ending journey to keep proving ourselves.

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

Showing The Love!

Well, customers of all that is lovely and local…

You have just helped us break through an amazing platform!!!! We are on fire!!!

Keep it up!!! I want this to be a market celebration when we close, tonight!

Show us the love..it is so amazing to watch!!

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

You Really Got Me!

Yeah, you really got me now…
You got me so I don’t know what I’m doin’ now…
Oh yeah, you really got me now…
You got me so I can’t sleep at night…
(The Kinks…You Really Got Me)

So, can you feel the excitement of this market, this week? Maybe not. But, I can tell you from behind the scenes…it is a rock and roll frenzy of orders and numbers!!! You all TOTALLY have got me going!!! We still have until 10pm, tonight, and are on the brink of breaking all market records in our almost three years of being online!!!

Excitement…it’s what I live for, it’s what I love, it’s what I like to see!!

I was feeling this Kinks song, this morning, as I was looking through the market numbers. It reminded me of a long time ago, back when I was the queen of planning house parties. The kind of college house parties that rocked the houses, music blaring at all levels, bodies packed into every corner, stair steps, back and front porches. House parties that got your whole excitement level on overdrive.

I remember one such party. We planned to feature music by The Doors and The Kinks. We made special house party beverages, we assured the landlord and neighbors that it would be a quiet, peaceful affair. But, as most of our house parties ended up, we had too many people, too much noise, too much dancing, too much fun. But isn’t that what it’s all about?

You see, I am all about starting out on the easy going, let’s see where this will take us, side. But, as I see the momentum building, the excitement mounting, I become that crazy house party girl all over again!! It’s like I can’t help myself…I feel like it just needs to keep going, keep hitting crazy levels, until you have achieved yet another house party epic tale. Or, in the case of this little local market of love…rocking this local house party until we have crashed through the market roof!!

I will be monitoring, all day!! I will report in as the numbers skyrocket!! Get those orders in so we can have the fun of the reports of crazy numbers!! It will be fun and make the day so exciting for all of us!!

You really got me…now, let’s blow the roof off this market party!

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

Terrapin Station

Inspiration, move me brightly…
Light the song with sense and color…
(Grateful Dead – Terrapin Station)

Inspiration…it’s the basis for all greatness. Without inspiration, where would we all be? How would we get our ideas out? How would we accomplish our goals? How would we live our lives?

As you know, your market manager is a Dead Head taking much inspiration from her love of The Grateful Dead. When people say there is/was nothing like a Grateful Dead concert, well, that is very true. But, what is really amazing, really inspiring, is that each individual would take what they would from each performance. Terrapin Station was a suite of songs/music. A drifting, haunting, suite of Jerry’s voice, drums, taking you on an inspiring journey and then leaving you feeling much different than before the suite began. Your mind could float through the beats, the lyrics, and in the end, you would look around and think…wow…yes, and yes.

I use the term, Inspiration, Move Me Brightly, in quite a lot of my Cosmic Charlie writings and promoting. Inspiration is what I am all about, what I try to make both of my businesses about, and what I love about this little local market of love.

Each and every vendor in this market brings their own spark, their own imagination, their own inspiration. I love hearing from them, each week. I get lost in what they all are doing, working on, planning, executing. This market is just a hotbed of inspiration. A band of richness in ideas. This little market that has become such a rich in ideas little family, continues to amaze me and inspire me, each and everyday.

Much like the years when I was standing at Dead shows, finding inspiration everywhere I looked and listened, I get that same inspired feeling with my band of fearless vendors, keeping the inspiration alive and well.

This is Monday morning. I am blown away by the numbers, so far, at this market. We have all of today and all of tomorrow to order but we are poised to blast through and possibly break our highest record.

Be inspired to order…if you have never placed an order, be inspired to do so. You never know where that first leap will take you. Just as you never knew quite where Jerry’s voice and music would take you, it was always better on the other end, after that leap into his magic and lyrics. This market can do the same. It can turn you on to our local vibe, it can start your local journey, and it can inspire you to always turn to us for all of your local goodness.

Take the journey…

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam

Once In A Lifetime

And you may ask yourself…
Well…How did I get here?
(Once In A Lifetime-Talking Heads)

So many meanings, so many memories to this song…and, yet so much meaning for this little market.

Today’s song comes from a good friend of mine who lives way too far from me, in Maryland. She is the kind of friend that has a very dry wit, a very unique way of looking at things, a very polished music background, and we could actually go head to head in making conversations with just song lyrics.

Anyway…we had a few little quips on my personal Facebook page, today, it resulted in me quoting this song, we laughed, and then I knew it would be a perfect Sunday song for me to write about…

Talking Heads…a very specific group in a very specific time frame of my life. College, pre-college, underground clubs, lots of Talking Heads. This song was a song that I used in my everyday soundtrack that ran through my brain, back then.

Once In A Lifetime. I used the thought, I embraced it as a way of life, I decided that each and every moment should always be looked at as a “once in a lifetime” kind of moment.

And…to this day, I still have that thought on constant replay. I feel that people, places, things, times…they are all there, happening at just the right time, or coming on the scene right when you need it, or something exploding in awesome proportions, just at the right time. Once in a lifetime series of moments.

We all need those moments. We all want to experience a once in a lifetime moment. We know it when it happens. We know it when we have worked and worked and worked at something, it finally all comes together, it’s a success, and you step back and think…yes, once in a lifetime.

As you know, my love and passion for this market runs deep. People now stop me to talk about this market, this weblog, my passion for it all…my excitement for it all. This market is rockin’ and rollin’ and it continues to climb the charts. It’s that once in a lifetime moment when the customers, the vendors, the managers, the hosts from the Y, have all been cosmically charged to make this whole thing happen. To watch it skyrocket. To experience something so unbelievable on a local level…once in a lifetime.

Today is Sunday…the market is groovin’ right along. Make sure to take some time out of your day, look through the market, make your selections, get all of your shopping done for the week, and then join the party that Thursday evenings have become, when you pick up your orders!!

How easy, how simple, how healthy, how local….it all comes together…once in a lifetime.

Peace and Love,
Cosmic Pam