By Donna
Posted Monday, June 16, 2008 Columbus Market 2008
We're back from Columbus Market and "Oh the tales we can tell".  We are back from the Columbus Market and "Oh the tales we can tell"!!!! Our flight out was fairly uneventful except for nearly missing our connection in Atlanta (yes, we were eating) and Donna taking charge of the luggage claim tickets (luckily we only lost our luggage on the return trip). Upon arriving, Julie knew that we better go to Yankee Traders (a gag shop) while we had the chance. SO our bags hardly got into the room and off we went. Of course there were the usual masks, games, and joke items but we focused on what would be great in the booth. All our attention was drawn to the life-size stand-up of Barack which we thought would be good with a label saying that Julie's bags will be perfect for travel on Air Force One next year. We did pick up a few things to dress up the booth but Phoebe seems to have made out the best with the rubber chicken. Other items may be making their appearance in November when the store re-opens.
 Set-up for the market was fairly uneventful once we finally decided what to do with the "bar height" table. Of course that took up most of the day but once decided we moved quickly. As usual, Julie Pischke Designs was the most inviting booth in the show. It was especially interesting since we suspended pillows and bags making see through walls. It was really fun watching people trying to decide if they could walk through the wall of pillows or whether they had to walk around. Business was brisk and we remained busy throughout the show.
   Just when we thought we were done, ready to go relax, have one of the great afternoon cookies in the hotel, we remembered we still had to set up the Galeria display. This was a great opportunity to show any new items for this show. Julie has been busy coming up with new bag designs that utilize 7.5" x 7.5" canvasses as the front panels. Using a bag sent to us from Master Stitcher Deb, we also featured a beautifully stitched starfish mounted on the bag. Both at the galeria and during the market, it was a big hit.
 The remaining days of the market were great fun (oh yeah, alot of work too). The market itself is sensory overload. There were canvasses of every type, shape, size, and image imaginable (some maybe unimagineable as well). Julie was able to find some great fibers. The new hand painted fibers by Claudia come in an incredible array of colors that will be beautiful when worked in Julie's designs. Look for them on your next visit to Key West!
And so the fun finally came to a close. We had not only done the market, but we had also found Columbus to be an extraordinarily fun place to visit. The little wine store we found had just what we needed after a hard day's work. The gallery openings were tremendous. The weather was hotter than Key West that week. And the food at North Market was wonderful. Who would have thought we would be trying to figure out when we could return. All in all we were blessed with a successful and memorable trip. |
