Holiday Bazaar....a preview!

Tomorrow is the big ‘preview’ day at Ft Lewis. As we mentioned in our last post the Lewis Community Spouse’s Club holds an Annual Holiday Bazaar as their major fundraiser. This year will be their 30th and now it is combined with McChord AFB under the new name Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The Holiday Bazaar will take place on Saturday, November 6th from 10am to 6pm and on Sunday, November 7th from Noon until 5pm. This is one great bazaar you won’t want to miss. It’s packed full of terrific vendors and wonder shopping for the holidays! Mark your calendars now!

Here’s a little preview of some of the newest handbags that we will offer at an invitation only preview show tomorrow for the Lewis Community Spouse’s Club! What great fun it will be to show off our newest bags ahead of the big show. The few bags we have shown to our friends have been well received. In fact the first two bags we showed at a b2b meeting sold before we could even begin talking about them!

We’ve been out buying materials for the bags and handles galore! We’ve looked at trim for hours on end trying to make sure the trim is the right one for the material and the style of the bag. It’s a different kind of fun getting all of this together and then sitting at the sewing machines to make them all come to life. We hope you like them and will want to own one or two of them yourself. In the next week or two we should have our etsy shop up and running as well as the new business page for Twisted Sisters on Facebook! Look for us soon!

Connie & Diane

Summer Fun at Go Dog Go...

Here in the land of Twisted Sisters life has been busy. In July we participated in the Go Dog Go event. It turned out to be the hottest day of the summer! The park was full of people and their dogs all wondering in and out of the vendor’s booths looking at all the wonderful items that were just for their furry friends.

Our booth was quite popular since we had participated in the Scavenger Hunt. Those that joined in the hunt had to come to a particular vendors booth and find out what they must do to complete their ‘card’ and be entered for the big prize at the end of them day. All dogs had to ‘shake hands’ in our booth. Now this may seem pretty simple on its face but let me tell you it was amusing in some cases, downright funny in others and most just a good time! We had dogs of every breed you can imagine visiting us during the day.

We had some good sales throughout the day. Our most popular item was the new treat bags. They are a small 4x5” bag with a Velcro closure and a clip that can go around your jeans loop! We also sold a number of pet mats, and scarves. The scarves were a hit because they are made to have the dog’s collar slipped through the scarf. They said great their dogs wouldn’t be biting them off!

Here a few pictures from that event!

We are headed to Ft Lewis next for one of two days there. The Officers Spouses Club holds a large fundraising event each November. It is a juried show and we were accepted last year and invited back this year. In addition we have been invited to a ‘special preview’ event on September 14th at Ft Lewis for a select group of vendors that will take part in the November event. We’ve got some great new handbags we’ll tell you about next.

Connie & Diane

After taking a break from all of last year’s shows it was time to gear back up with fresh ideas and start anew. During the last few months break we have gone out on several shopping trips around the area to buying new fabrics and creating more ideas for new products. We have had a lot of compliments from past shows on our selection of fabrics and the quality of our product. Satisfying all of our customers is our goal. We are really excited to be able to add new items to our collection. Of course we will still be doing our signature totes, but have several new designs coming in the near future. You’ll not want to miss them!

Twisted Sisters ventured out and did the 2010 Go Dog, Go! Canine Festival. It was a fundraising event held at Crestwood’s Park in Kirkland. July 24th, 2010. We sold many or new items from our canine collection including Doggie Bandanas, Food Mats, Treat Bags, Dog Tags and Cuddle Bag’s for our little friends that are always cold. It was a very hot day, close to 85 degrees but it was a lot of fun. We made several contacts with dog trainers who were interested in purchasing our treat bags in ‘bulk’ for their businesses. That’s the type of connection we love to make!

Our next date is the “Trash to Treasure” on August 14th. We will be at 2045 S 216th S Des Moines, Washington. The hours are 9AM to -3:00PM. The sale is a mix of crafted items and others treasures! There will be over 90 vendors there. I’m sure a person could find just about anything there. We will have our bags, totes, all of our canine line and some special closeout sale items you’re not going to want to miss! See you there!

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.

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

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…