Barbara's 3rd Annual Christmas Craft Show

Added a day or two later: Channel 7 is advertising my show!!! At 10 and 40 minutes past the hour there's a few seconds of talk about it!!! Also, check out what the Chamber - Hutchinson and Reno County has to say about it!!!http://members.hutchchamber.com/events/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=4049

Also I've noticed it's already up on the digital sign on the front of the fairgrounds. May need to call and check on that tomorrow. It was supposed to be for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday...not the entire week. I'd LIKE the entire week....but I can only AFFORD three days!



It's almost here!!!! My third annual Christmas craft show! This started out in the spring of 2009 with a three-vendor gathering in my living room. Several people suggested we should do it at Christmastime, so in December 2009 I had the first Christmas show. I had a fairly large house at that time and had eleven vendors there. We had a good crowd and a lot of fun.

In September 2010 I moved to a triplex. I announced that I wouldn't be able to do it because I wouldn't have the room. My vendors convinced me otherwise, and I wound up with 14 vendors. We were practically standing on each other but we had a fun time.

This year I said, "We gotta go to a public building!" So I rented the Boy Scout building on the Kansas State Fairgrounds. I sent out booth applications and immediately was "full." So I rented the Girl Scout building as well. The buildings are practically identical and sit side-by-side.

Now both buildings are full, plus there'll be a trailer out front selling kettle corn. It's people selling antiques, aprons, bakery items, beaded jewelry, baby items, candles, cookbooks, cookies, cosmetics, dolls, drink mixes, duct tape purses, embellished clothing, embroidered items, florals, gift items, goat's milk soap, greeting cards, hot lunches, jams, jellies, jewelry, kettle corn, kitchen items, iris-folded cards, oddities, packaged food items, pillow cases, plasma-cut metal, purses, quilted items, sack cards, salsa, Santas, scroll-cut wood items, snowmen, soy candles, sterling silver jewelry, tea towels, tole painted items, tote bags, wave art, wheel-thrown pottery items, wine jelly...and surely someone will have a zebra. That's A - Z!!!! (with a few exceptions.) There'll be a lot more there too, because almost every vendor has said, "And other stuff....."

I've been trying to get the word out with hand-out postcards at every craft show around. Several of my vendors have cards to pass around too. By the end of this week hopefully people will be saying, "Who the heck is Barbara???" It's to be in the Hutch News in at least 4 places, the Bee, the Rural Messenger, the Lyons News, and already on-line at VisitHutch.com. I'm working to get mentioned on a local radio station. It'll be on digital billboards at Bank of Kansas on east 30th and also in South Hutch. And on the digital billboard at Hutch Credit Union at A and Adams. Also on the big digital billboard on the front of the fairgrounds along Main Street. AND I have about 22 stick-in-the-ground realtor-type signs to put around town. I'm everywhere, I'm everywhere!!! So...."who's Barbara???" should be on everyone's lips!

So...Saturday, December 10, from 9am to 4pm YOU should try to attend Barbara's 3rd Annual Christmas Craft Show! Yoder Pastries will have hot lunches...I'm hearing chili, hot dogs, chili dogs, and tentatively homemade chicken and noodles. And they make the BEST jalapeno bread!! YUM!!!

I personally am having INCREDIBLE prices for this show. It's my last show of the year (as it is for many of my vendors) and I don't have another one until March (so plenty of time to re-order!)...so this one's going to be good!! I did the Hutch Rec show yesterday and probably shot myself in the foot several times by telling people that. I always added, "But my inventory will probably be pretty low...so if you want it, you might want to buy it now." However, a lot of people said, "See ya next Saturday!"

And we hope to see YOU next Saturday..... whether you buy anything or not, you're sure to have fun!!!!!!!!!!!! See ya there!