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

 

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