Kalamazoo: Friday Set Up

Friday morning I was all ready to head up to Michigan with the exception of one thing. My friend Frannie, who knits the toques that I sell, had sent a box of five new ones to me and it had gone missing in the mail. They'd gone to the wrong state and then had simply disappeared from tracking. And while I had four toques in stock, I really wanted to display more than that.

Fortunately, despite the tracking/location issues, they showed up in Friday's mail. What a relief! These take time for Frannie to make and I would have been really sad had they been lost. 

With Craig staying home to care for the dogs, Lisa, Frank, and I hopped into the car and headed up to Michigan, about a three hour drive north of us.

With 60,000 plus square feet, the Kalamazoo Expo Center is massive.

It's also very well designed for conventions and events with lots of parking and easy access between all the exhibition halls. (The Kalamazoo Living History Event uses the entire space.)

The expo center was in full swing when we got there - people were unloading trucks and trailers, bustling around carrying tubs and boxes, and getting ready for the event. Leslie and Rick had brought my inventory up on Wednesday and had even unloaded my things and brought them into the Expo Center for me. As always, our tables were in the Expo North Hall. (The purple rectangle on the map.)

I popped into the Lobby and registered while Lis and Frank began covering our tables with block print fabrics. 

Maple Cakes!!

Toques!

Frannie gifted Frank with his pick of her toques. He was pretty excited about that.

Fabric remnants - I always save my remnants from projects, measure them, and bundle them up for sale at $3 a bundle. I just can't see throwing them away when they still could be used. I almost always sell every single one.

New eyes can mean new ideas. Frank set out the dishtowels in a display I had never thought of. I liked how well it displayed them, was creative and caught the eye, and conserved space at the same time. Lis (on the far right) is putting out fans. (I try to have inexpensive things available for kids to buy.)

Frank also put together the clothing racks that my father made years ago and we got the clothing up and out on display.

Next to us were our dear friends, Frank and Carol Jarboe. Frank is an ordained minister in real life and Carol is a retired teacher like me. (They also are horse people!) Frank portrays Parson John, an 18th century traveling minister and Carol is Maggie, his indentured servant. 

Two Franks! (And one Carol.)

Parson John has an old Bible from 1723 that he uses. (He actually conducts the Sunday church service at events.)  The pages are made of linen, not paper, and that has helped the Bible to survive for 301 years. Here he is showing it to Frank. Every time we are together, I actually ask if I can see it. To touch a book that old and still being used in religious services takes my breath away.

Carol and I did not get one picture together all weekend, but we did get some time together to chat between customers. This photo is of us at the Conner Longrifle event in February.

We finished setting up in about an hour and a half and then headed over to our hotel, tired but excited for Saturday morning to come.

Stay 'tooned!