Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale 2008

I'm back home from the big super colossal holiday Crafty Wonderland. All 180 vendors were stocked up and set up in the Portland Convention Center, Hall E. Outside it was a winter wonderland, I almost heard sleigh bells when I opened the front door to a white wintery world.

It was a bit scary driving to the Convention Center (thanks Tony for letting me borrow your car!), I crept at a speedy speed of 20mph all the way on the slippery frozen road. As a girl that grew up in snowy Ohio, I cannot believe that no salt is used on the roads in Oregon. Instead just gravel. That's useless when the road freezes. As I ran out the door I grabbed the chains for the car just in case. I fortunately did not need them on the way there.
To break it down, I was simply pleased with myself to have shown up and set up - I was not really expecting many people to leave the house and attend the show. Basically, honestly, if I were at home with the day off and plans to go to CW, I would have bagged and stayed home and warm. But shockingly hundreds of people took the bus and rode the train down to the Convention Center to check out the crafty goodness.
The 200 swag bags of amazingness were given away within 15 min at the door. I suffer from swag bag envy. I want one and I made a few people do show and tell for me, there was some great stuff in those bags! And they served as a great shopping bag for the customers.
It was crazy, there was a really long line of people waiting to get in, and may I say it was the cutest line ever! People were in their snow gear and sitting on the floor playing cards and knitting scarves. And there was another long line at the Starbucks of vendors waiting to get their coffee. I brought a jug of tea that lasted all day. Heres a pictures of my setup, its a bit hard to see what I really looked like... but lets just say it was damn cute. ha! It was an alright setup :) and I sold well, which is amazing, and I had a fine time meeting some amazing customers. I even ran into an old classmate from 1st grade!
And then as the show rounded to an end, a little early becuase honestly the sun set and the roads froze and covered in more snow, more gravel was sprinkled about, and the news was telling stories of pile-ups and abandoned cars... it was a bit sketchy and still snowing. Everyone loaded in the parking garage (Convention Center usually uses the loading docks) and we put the chains on once we hit the roads, this time at a whopping 15mph. But no worries, we got home safe and sound.
So thanks to all my lovely customers - thanks to my beautiful friends who showed up and vended their arts n' crafts - thanks to Tony for letting me use his car - and thanks to Tim for helping me set up and take down. Phew. It was a long weekend. Not as profitable as maybe I might have hoped, but certainly awesome none the less and given the circumstances, it was all good.

and there are more pictures of it on my flickr account :)