Another whirlwind week!!!

Sorry It's been a whole week since I last posted, but you won't believe how busy it's been!

First, these are pics from my Show at the Loveland High School Arts and Craft Expo. We arrived at 6:30A, as did a lot of others as you can see. This is just one gymnasium filling up. On the other side of this wall is another. Outside the entrance is a hall leading to a cafeteria...to my amazement it was all filled up with the

most amazing assortment if arts and crafts I had seen in a long time. There were no two booths alike. I was happy to see two other vendors who used vintage finds as the basis for their designs. One was a jewelry designer, who created brooches, belt buckles, etc, and the other took found kitchen and cooking items and turned them into the cutest holiday arrangements with plush Gingerbread Men. I never did get to see the whole show. There were a lot of attendees. This was the 26Th annual show, so this is one of the oldest school events of its kind. They really have there show together. They made set-up easy and were soooo helpful. A lot of the past vendors said sales were down this year, but reassured me that it is this way all over. I did make a few sales..at least I made my show fees back...but there were a lot of requests for my brochures (I actually ran out)...asking about my custom designs...and when my next show was. I received a lot of good response to my designs.

My booth display was a hit. The folks who put together the show were really happy with the finished area. They were a little leery at first because the space was only 10x10, but as you can see there was plenty of room. They said they had a little problem with measurements so, since I was the first to arrive and the 3rd space, they used my side stanchions as a measurement point. Some vendors questioned at first that I was over the size limit, but a measuring tape solved the question. I had my computer as you can see on the left of the screen. I used it as a banner for my shop name, to process credit cards, and as a source of musical accompaniment. The vendors around me loved that. The event committee hoped other vendors would adapt the idea to their spaces next year creating little shops within the building.

Next weekend..Nov 21st...is the Sycamore High School Craft Show. This one is just as big and almost as old, so I've got my fingers crossed and I should have some other new items to display as well. Hopefully Jim will have some other display pieces completed I can use next week and I found new table skirting in a rich chocolate brown that'll go great with my brown gingham fabric I have.

Now to the second part of my post. We have been busy at the flower shop getting ready for the holidays. This weekend we begin to turn our 1850's rock-lathe house into a Christmas Cottage (we do it slowly since we still have do for Thanksgiving..and it feels so early). I love this part..it's like having a huge doll house to play with.

Over the past weeks we have also been 're-decorating' our website for the shop. http://www.sharonvillehometownflorist.com

We have revamped the whole site (all by ourselves thank you very much..that's why it took a while). Created new pages..recreated old ones... and.....yipppeeee... added a new blog!! that will replace our newsletter. It's called the Flower Press From A&J's...all the budding news for you to use... We are sooo excited. There is a link to the blog on my list to the left of the screen. We hope you can stop by very soon. Don't forget to sign the Guest Book on the home page and leave us a comment on the blog posts.

Well, Id' better close for now. Santa's Elves come by the shop to help us with the holiday cheer-up and are they pushy little guys.