This weekend, we are in Bloomington, Minnesota – right across the street from Mall of America. Each show brings special challenges – this time, the challenge is getting our booth up to a convention hall that is on the second floor at the Ramada Mall of America. So the vendors spent all day Friday jockeying for space in the freight elevator. But I have to admit that I only jockeyed for a couple of hours – after that, local heroes Leo & Jan Viktora and Rene Mewes brought everything upstairs while I worked on building the gridwall.
This was the view outside the window behind our booth (yes, we have a window!) – apparently, the Ramada Mall of America was originally the Thunderbird Motel, and I saw Indian themed carpet and accessories everywhere.
Of course, we only got to see that window until the booth was built – then I noticed that the glare through the window made it impossible to see our sign. So I had to draw the blinds. And you’ll notice that the ceiling is lower here than most places, so only the top half of our sign is visible.
This was above the entrance to the room where our booth is located – notable only because I went to Miami University (founded in 1809), which was named after the Miami Tribe. We take great pride in differentiating ourselves from that “other” Miami down south – there are t-shirts for sale in the campus store that say “Miami was a university when Florida still belonged to Spain.”
After setup, I walked across the street to Mall of America. No, I wasn’t shopping – I went to the train station underneath the Sears parking garage and bought a $4 roundtrip ticket to ride to Target Field in Minneapolis so I could cross another major league ballpark off my bucket list . . .
The Twins have played at Target Field for three years – before that, they played at the Metrodome about half a mile away. This place is really nice, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it was more than a little chilly at games in April without the usual retractable roof found in the north these days. And it was Fireworks Night!
Had to support my son’s employer – Best Buy was sponsoring a booth where folks in blue polo shirts would snap your picture and then text or e-mail it to you. And the whole thing was free.
When Saturday morning rolled around, “Tweety Jill” Haglund was doing great Make & Takes in our booth to promote her new Christmas stamps and collage packs. I thought her posture looked exceptionally good until I noticed why she was sitting up so straight . . .
And I had to make do with “Virtual Cheryl” – but the Queen of Craft Wars will be live and in person in our store next Wednesday night and all day Thursday (August 1 & 2), and in our booth in Cincinnati next weekend (August 3 & 4). And if you missed Cheryl’s winning performance, TLC will repeat it on Tuesday, July 31 at 7:00 EDT.
This is a first for me (I think) – this is Trisha Dolinsek (or Patti Dolinsek, or Patricia Dolinsek – apparently she goes by different names for different purposes . . . cardmaking, friends, etc.). She won a Spellbinders die in the giveaway on Saturday, and told me she would make a card with her present and bring it back Sunday morning. What she made was very impressive – and I got to take it home with me! She is extremely talented – I suspect you’ll find more of her work on if you click this link and go to her blog.
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