Tuesday, November 10, 2009

It was quite a weekend...

What an adventure the bazaar turned out to be this last weekend. The Officers and Spouse’s Club has been hosting this bazaar at Ft. Lewis for 29 years and I am guessing that this one was one for the record books. We were located on the North Fort in a tent the size of a small gymnasium. We set up on Friday night after having driven there in an unbelievable storm. It was cold! Set up didn’t take too long and we found ourselves back on the road driving home in the storm. Saturday morning, we get up it’s not raining, yet. We hit the road, get some coffee and headed to the show. We were not in the tent five minutes when the storm hit again it began to rain sideways so hard you could not see anything. The storm lasted like this nearly the entire day, we were all cold and folks were wet, but let me say this everyone was having a great time!



The women running this show could not have been any nicer. They bent over backward to help us. They had hot coffee and tea for us through the whole show. They had breakfast muffins and fruit and then went out in the weather to get us sandwiches. This was way beyond expectation considering the driving conditions. Thankfully in the refreshment area there was a heater, giving us a reason to go get a refill periodically. The bazaar itself was great with a nice variety of vendors. Not much duplication was found and everyone seemed to be doing okay. We met some fun people and shared a corner in the show with a jeweler named Laura who made us laugh all day long. She was a riot. I discovered she is a painter so I booked her for an art walk in my neighborhood for January. She paints bugs in vibrant colors; I can’t wait to see them! This will be her first professional show.

The rain continued and so did the show. The traffic, though less than in past years we are told was still pretty good. A testament to the serious shoppers considering how wet everyone had gotten. Our grocery totes were a hit as were the shopping bags. We sold a good number of ta-toe® bakers and lots of favored nuts. We have another show this Saturday a few minutes from home. Hopefully the weather will be better!

Thanks again to the Officer’s and Spouse’s Club for hosting such a great bazaar. We look forward to next year with you and many more.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Holiday Bazaar...next week end!

We are nearly ready for the big Holiday Show at Ft Lewis this next weekend. It is the 29th Annual Holiday Bazaar at Ft Lewis. It’s going to be quite a large show with a real variety of vendors. This group strives to avoid duplication, and best of all its open to the public. So come one come all. Tell your friends! Make a day of it.

After the last show we took off and went to Portland on a fabric buying trip. There is a store there called Fabric Depot. For you fabric nuts the place it is not to be believed, it is one and half acres of fabric! Spend more than four hours in there and your brain is on sensory overload. We were shopping for nearly five hours and got some incredible fabrics. Between the two of us we had three overstuffed and over stacked shopping carts. When we arrived at the cutting area we proceeded to lay it all out, sort through it and decide what we really wanted and what could wait.
We then drove to our cousin’s house in NW Portland to show off all the goodies we had found. She is a seamstress also so there was much to chat about. We had a great night there, her daughter and granddaughter came along with the other grandmother. We made dinner, sat on out on the deck drank a little wine and laughed a lot. The three of us stayed up way into the night talking about family until finally we couldn’t keep our eyes open. Thanks Patty for the hospitality!

Since then we have been busy, in between dealing with everything else in our lives. One of us was working part time and the other made a major house move and still we found time to sew these great bags. We have both been busy at our sewing machines. At times we sewed together as we did for the summer show and other times by ourselves in our own homes. We’ve got three sewing machines now! The bags are great and we think they will be a big hit. The feedback has been terrific. The fabrics and combinations that we've put together offer some terrific choices. Once again the bags are made from 100% cotton materials and everything is completely washable. I’m posting a little video to share so you have a little peek. Hope to see you at the show! By the way our Etsy shop will be up and running soon…
diane

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Wasn’t this SUMMER Fest???

What a day. The weather changed like nobody’s business. No it is not so unusual in Seattle for that to happen! But after two days of incredible weather it turned on us today. We had rain and wind gusts that kept our tent moving all day. Near the end of the day, twice in about fifteen minutes actually our tent nearly flipped over. The second time was quite scary.

We were very lucky. Two gentlemen were walking up the street when the second gust of wind hit and the tent went airborne. My sister and I were grabbing poles and trying to hold down our tent with very little luck. They quickly got what was happening and dropped their stuff and took the other two poles of the tent and helped to get all four corners back on the ground. Even with four of us it was a tough hold. Once it was steady they allowed us time to pack up everything, which was about to get soaked and blown into the street and get it into our cars. Then they helped us tear down the walls and the tent itself and get it into its bag before they took off. Without their help we would have been in major trouble!

We had a very successful three days. The Twisted Totes® were a great hit and we had a terrific response to them. It was fun doing the Summer Fest, visiting with friends and neighbors and meeting new folks. We got lots of feedback that will be helpful. We are going to do the Alki Art Fair in two weeks. Right now I’m tired and going to put my feet up. Until later….enjoy!

Summer Fest

We’ve been at the West Seattle Summer Fest for the last two days. The weather has been wonderful, low 80’s with a nice breeze. And I say breeze because between our tent and the building there has been a wind tunnel created! So at times when the breeze comes through our tent literally takes off. It’s been quite funny at times and not so funny at others. Keeps us on our toes!

The Twisted Totes® are selling really well. The response has been great with lots of wonderful feedback. We definite hit the mark with our first shot out of the gate. It makes all those hours of cutting and sewing worthwhile. We have some great ideas for what will come next in our emporium. Just wait and see!

I think we are going to buy a booth at the Alki Art Fair. It happens in two weeks and is just outside my front door and across the street to the beach. It will be an easy set up and with sunny weather what could be better than sitting on the beach for two days?

Here’s a little slide of some of the last two days!





Today it is cool and overcast with rain clouds all around. I hope they stay out of our way! Enjoy…

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Twisted Totes....

It’s been a mad time for the twisted sisters! We have been cutting and cutting and cutting fabric for our Twisted Totes©. Cutting batting and layering them all! We will have a booth at the West Seattle Street Fair on the weekend of July 10 through 12, luckily! I say that because the booth fell through and we had no venue at all. Hundreds of Twisted Totes© and no where to sell them! Shoofly Pie Company came through and gave us the space on the north side of their building, a really great space for us and we are so excited.

I’m going to keep this short and show you a little slide show of just a few of the bags that will be available that weekend. Please stop to see them. You won't believe how many combinations of fabrics we have put together,and just maybe you can buy a tote or two or three!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Hooray...

I must first say thank you to my friend from Ranger U, Michael Putman. It’s his work that you see here in the creation of this blog. We talked and traded information about me and my sister, what we wanted the blog to look like, etc. Michael listened well and tada! So, welcome to Twisted Sisters, An Extraordinary Emporium.We hope you are going to enjoy it. We will be showing off much more of it very soon. Thanks for stopping by!
diane
 

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