This weekend, we are at “StampFest Summer” – formerly StampFest Orlando, relocated to Lakeland in search of a quality facility with quality air conditioning with quality free parking with a quality hotel next door. All of these were accomplished – the customers were unanimous in their lavish praise, even those who had to travel from north of Orange County. For those of you who missed it this year – mark your calendars for the last weekend in June 2016.
This is the standard view of our booth at a show. I have been doing this blog long enough (and many of you have been reading it long enough) that I try to keep it fresh by looking for non-standard views – behind the scenes things – or from different angles things – that you don’t usually get to see. And I found three or four here . . .
Creek Bank Creations was across the aisle from us – this was Julie when she discovered that something needed to be adjusted after she and Tom had covered up their booth for the evening. I had to look twice – then made her stand there while I pulled out my cell phone. On our Facebook page, I captioned it “Some parts of StampFest Summer are still under wraps…”
I heard it all day long, and we were as far away from his performance as you could get and still be in the same room – “I couldn’t get anywhere near Tim Holtz all day!” It made for a fun story as I warmed up the masses for the giveaway at 4:00 p.m. – I was only a few feet from Tim earlier in the day, and there was no one else around. Of course, most of the customers at a typical show don’t have access to the men’s restroom . . .
Remember the “Senior Superlatives” (at least that’s what they called them where I grew up) that your classmates voted on just before high school graduation – you know, Most Likely to Succeed, Best Dressed, Cutest Couple, etc. If there was a vote for “Sweetest Vendor”, Lisa Yang from Local King Rubber Stamps would win every time. Lisa has been using some of our cardstock for her demo for more than a year – we have talked about putting footprints on the floor leading from her booth to the paper in ours. After several shows with a steady stream of customers asking for “Lisa’s Paper”, I put a shelf next to my cash register along with a sign – “Did Lisa from Local King send you here looking for paper? This is It!!” Now that she is using several different weights and coatings, that shelf has been replaced with what I have referred to as a “Shrine to Lisa” . . . today she saw it for the first time and agreed to do her best Vanna White in front of it.
This isn’t Lisa, but the pose is similar – this guy was posing for his wife, who was shooting the picture to send to friends. I saw it but didn’t get my phone out fast enough – but I convinced him to reenact it.
And during a lull in the proceedings in the middle of the afternoon, I found these pictures that were posted by my sister-in-law Lisa – Mom and Dad’s 58th wedding anniversary is Sunday, and they were celebrating with ice cream at Graeter’s (a Cincinnati-area institution for more than 145 years). I hated to miss it, but I’ll get my chance in a few days when I get home.
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