Crafty Wonderland Spring Wrap-Up

First, a big “thank you” to the organizers of Crafty Wonderland for inviting us to participate in the Super Colossal Spring Show. We love this show because it’s full of wonderfully talented artists & makers and it’s SO WELL ORGANIZED. Thank you!

I picked Kate up at PDX airport and we headed right to Rain or Shine Coffee House for snacks and to meet owners Claire & Molly – who turned out to be just as lovely in person as over email. Plus I love their font and the cute way they incorporate “OR” with the outline of Oregon:

We always get a thrill from seeing our lollipops for sale out in the world so of course we snapped this pic at their register:

After saying farewell for now, we headed to Sock Dreams, a store my friend Anita loves and I’ve been wanting to visit for a while. Kate got some colorful anklets and I got these bad girls!

I’m wearing the nouvella ones right now and they are heavenly. Soft and comfortable, and very well made. I never realized how crappy most of my socks really are, until putting these on. I think I may be on the verge of becoming a sock enthusiast like Anita!

No trip to Portland is complete without hitting up Powell’s Books, is it? We spent close to an hour just browsing around. I barely even left the “confections” shelves in the cooking section, and walked away with a reference & recipe book from the CIA I’d been eyeing for a while:

Eventually we had to stop being tourists, and set up our booth for the show. Thanks to our new EZ Display unit, setup was short and sweet and easy. We’re psyched about how much candy this thing holds!

Of course we had lots of single lollipops for sale too, as always:

This was our first chance to show off our new pre-customized event labels. One savvy customer pointed out we don’t offer a version that reads “happy birthday”, a defect we shall soon correct!

The dinner we ate after setting up on Friday was so sublime, we went back on Saturday night before driving back to Seattle! We found Le Happy, a French style creperie, and indulged in savory entrees (goat chees + caramelized onion for me, chicken for Kate) and sweet desserts (Nutella banana for me, lemon curd & strawberry for Kate) until we were pleasantly stuffed. Le Happy had great ambiance including a disco ball:

Crafty Wonderland itself went well and we got to meet so many great customers. One highlight was meeting people who’d heard of us because of the custom labels we created for Regretsy!

We also met a producer from the TV show Portlandia. If only we were a Portland-based business! We could have contributed lollipops for their guest star gift bags. The very idea of, say, Kyle MacLachlan, having one of our lollipops in his mouth is just too awesome for words. Ah well.

When the show began, Kate realized she hadn’t packed her apron for handling cash. She needed one, pronto! Luckily, she discovered the Ginkgo Kids booth and actually bought the apron right off the shop owner’s body (obviously, Ginkgo Kids specializes in kidswear). Look how adorable!

Wow, Portland, all in all we had a fantastic weekend. Thank you so much! We hope to be back again at the holidays!