Random Men in Windows

In all the craziness and chaos of the Christmas season I neglected to take pictures of any of the presents I made. I was just thrilled to have even finished them in time! So, unlike Sarah, I don't have any fancy photos to show you (which clearly makes her the better blogger around these parts...) Instead I thought I would tell you a story.

Some of you may recall that our first ever blog post was about 'Art Basement Guy' - a random man who appeared in the window of our studio one day last summer. Well, apparently there is something about Five Corners and random men in windows because here is another story about just that.

One recent rare sunny day the two of us were in the courtyard with Sadie, Five Corners' resident mannequin, taking photos for our Etsy listings. This involves all sorts of manipulations of the mannequin; taking her arms off to photograph bracelets, wrapping scarves around her neck, moving her around the courtyard, posing her in various ways. We were working away, minding our own business, when we heard a hollow sort of banging sound. Bam, bam, bam, bam. Both of us looked around but didn't see anything so we just ignored it and went on with what we were doing. But then it happened again.

We realized that it was someone knocking on a window. We peered at the windows facing the courtyard but didn't see anything. We heard it again so we looked up and realized that across the alley is an office building and anyone on the upper floors would be able to see us mucking around down there. We still didn't see anyone in any of the windows. What we did see was a big whiteboard propped up, facing outwards. On it, someone had written in big block letters "Leave the dummy alone!"

"Uh... is that for us, do you think?" I asked, confused.

"It must be. What the heck?" Came Sarah's reply.

Just then someone inside the office picked up the board and waggled it back and forth. Then a man's face appeared next to it - he grinned down at us, waving and pointing to the message on the board.

We both burst out laughing and returned his greeting. A moment later he took down the board and with one final wave at us went back to whatever work he was presumably supposed to be doing. We went back to our photo session, but laughed about it all day. I wonder what he thought we were doing? I wish we had had a whiteboard of our own to write back to him. Alas, we all just went on with our regularly scheduled day, but brightened by the momentary interruption and the odd connection with yet another random man in a random window.