Seven Days of Market
Posted by lynnette on Monday, November 8th, 2010
Seven Days of Market
Day One: Dear Sally picked us up and drove us to the ferry. Now there are a few things you should know about Sally. First of all she is not a big fan of Halloween. In fact, she doesn’t like it at all. I don’t really know why, maybe it’s the ghouls and goblins thing. So she kind of skips it and heads right for the holidays. Her hard and fast rule is that as soon as the egg nog is in the stores, she plays Christmas music. How do I know this? Because I listened to her favorite CD of Christmas music at 8:00 am on October 27th! We were rockin’ to Feliz Navidad! That is a first for me in October!
Got to the airport thanks to my dear hubby and met up with dear Jane, Joyce, Miryam and Angela from Clothworks! Such a treat to know we were going to hang out with the fun Clothworks group for a week! We all loaded onto the airplane with our Starbuck’s coffee in hand. Had an uneventful flight (the best kind!) and arrived in hot, humid Houston around 6:30 or so. Phew it was toasty! Said goodbye to the Clothworks gals and headed for the hotel in our zoomy rental car – in Minneapolis, we named our car shark bait because it was small, black, and had a fin on top. This time we got a bigger white car with a fin so it was the shark! Laura drove it like she meant business too (more on that later)! Arrived at the hotel and walked over to the Hilton for a bite to eat as it was early to bed; set up day was starting early in the morning.
Day Two: Not as hot today. Downright pleasant outside- around 73 and sunny! Got up and headed to our favorite shops for decorations. Target, Goodwill, Joanne’s and the Convention Center were our destinations of the day. I had this eleventh hour idea to make lollipops out of material and mount them on sticks to go with our “kids themed” booth. We were leaning into the new high chair mat and Girly Gear Ruffles patterns this market.
Lesson Learned: Don’t count on an idea unless it’s thoroughly tested BEFORE you leave for market. The lollipops were a good idea in theory BUT needed a little more design work. They barely made it through market. I am fairly certain Laura would have tossed them in the garbage the first day if I had let her! Oh, well.
We felt a little behind on the first day because we spent too much time on the lollipops but lucky us, we were invited to the most divine restaurant called The Reef – OMGosh – if you are ever in Houston, you must eat there! We were guests of - you guessed it - Clothworks – thanks again, Ted and Candice and enjoyed dinner not only with Ted and Candice but also with the family of Laurel Birch, our new friends from Penguin and Fish, Australian Distributer Tim, and the team, Angela, Joyce, Miryam and Jane. I tried so many yummy things and had a mohito (or two!) Dessert was divine too – some kind of shake – oooolaalaa!
I guess the head chef is on Iron Chef – some sort of contest show about cooking. Ted and Candice watch this show and so the chef came out to meet and greet. Everyone had their cameras with them but me! Such a fun evening!
Day Three: In a word……. Schoolhouse! Now for those of you who don’t know what this is, let me explain. It's a talk for 15 minutes. It's also what I was dreading the entire month before we left. Why? I am not a public speaker but I was becoming one at Schoolhouse! And you know what? After all of the fretting, worrying, losing sleep, it was absolutely a blast! I spoke to a standing room only crowd, we threw all of our mats down on the aisle, and because I can talk about floor mats in my sleep (I probably do) – it was the easiest thing EVER! Go figure! Fear holds us back so often and it’s great when you can overcome it! I did! A special thank you to Angela and Miryam (who ran the length of a football field for the bracelet giveaways we forgot!) for helping us out on the spot and to Joyce, September and everyone at Clothworks for the wonderful support!
Me - using a microphone - can you believe it? I can't!
Just before we got started!
Afterward - our class listing!
After Schoolhouse we headed to the 19th Street district for an old high chair we rented. If we had had more time it would have been fun to shop this area. It was charming!
Came back and set up some more. Finally got everything in order!
Booth #1503 - us!
Clothworks Corner Booth - What I would call a destination - or perhaps a "if you can dream it - you can make it" inspiration corner!
Doesn't it look like the Clothworks banner is shining with the stars!
Our aisle during set up.
Tired, we headed over to the Grove for a light dinner. Here is another fabulous place to eat. We ran into Ted and Candice also catching a quick dinner because it was Sample Spree evening.
Kinkame's Booth with one of our floor mats!
Sample Spree is very fun, especially if you are not working it. Laura and I only go to shop and it’s a chance to buy ahead. Since we are going to be at Sew Expo, we had our radar up for fun new things to buy. Met a bunch of fun ladies while we waited in a very long line! We headed back to the hotel after 9 pm, exhausted then we had another fun moment. Took the shark out to the grocery store to purchase a few things to jazz up our All Around Town Bag. The hotel staff gave us directions to Kroger’s. Now the shark was really speeding along – maybe I should say that Laura was really speeding along, barely making the lights but making them and it was dark so I couldn’t read the street signs fast enough. Before we knew it we were kind of lost. Suddenly found Randall’s! So the rest of the trip Laura got teased for speeding to Kroger’s only to land at Randall’s. Okay it’s not as funny now as when it was happening, but we were laughing so hard in the moment that we were tearing up!
Day Four: Market! What a blast! Meeting new friends, and visiting with old friends. Check out mats we made for Karla at Sweetwater and Deb Strain - Karla's booth got a second place for decorations - she obviously didn't do lollipops!
Sweetwater mat
Deb Strain mat
Great to see friends from RocLon - Darlene and Steve! Writing tons of orders – hey – we get to brag a little! The High Chair Mat was an enormous hit! Lots of people complimented us on Schoolhouse too. The day flew by! Another party after market closed and a fun new friend to tell you about.
Kathy York. Do you know her? If you don’t, you should! She’s made the cover of Quilting Arts Magazine, she had two show stopping art quilts on display and she’s our new and adored friend. Check out her website: www.aquamoonartquilts.blogspot.com . We love her design work on fabric – have you seen her line called Urban Landscapes? It’s bright, bold, cheerful – in a word – fabulous! We loved it so much that we bought it. It made our kid themed booth very bright and bold and happy!
We enjoyed appetizers and drinks and fabulous company again! Thanks to Brandi, Kathy, Joyce, Jane, Miryam and Angela for all of the fun. I know, I know, we seem to have a theme going of hanging out with our favorite friends! Thanks Ted and Candice! Here is our record of the evening. Someone read somewhere that this kind of pose makes you look thin, young, and beautiful! Okay, maybe just t-h-i-n-n-e-r! Anything that helps after all these meals out!
Day Five: Happy Halloween! See the fun rings worn by Angela and Joyce? Big spiders and little spiders! It’s the second day of market and so many fun things to feast your eyes on.
Big spider and little spider!
Dinner at the Hilton again – yes, we are getting a little road weary and are not feeling too creative in our dinner adventures!
Day Six: Final day of market. It’s also the shortest day. This is the day you run around and order the things you need to order (like books and new rulers/mats), say last minute things to dear friends, and then it’s TEAR DOWN! It’s amazing how fast the booth comes down when it took so darn long to put it up! We laughed, ate (hey that speedy trip to Kroger's via Randall’s was worth it in the end as we were nibbling on snacks from the All Around Town bag), boxed and bagged everything up before heading off to yet another dinner at the Hilton! Road weary - remember?
Boy, did we get a heck of a storm during the night! Laura was counting the seconds between lightening and thunder and at one point - there weren't any!
Day Seven: Pure Fun! The pressure is off, the work is done, and the day is yours! Especially when your flight doesn’t leave until 6:30 pm! So here is how we had fun on our last day in Houston until next year….
visiting Quilt Shops!
Visiting Lynnette's very favorite Quilt Shop!
Lunch in Galveston at the lunch box - yum! Have I mentioned that I need to start dieting?
Views in Galveston.
The Girls at the airport. Another "thin" pose. The funny thing is that I started this conversation talking about Egg Nog and guess what? I had an egg nog latte on my way out of Houston! Yes, the holiday season is upon us after all - that Sally was on to something!
I should be back on some kind of regular schedule now! And we’ve got some good give-a-ways coming your way so stay tuned!
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