The Calm before the Storm

Have you ever heard the expression the calm before the storm?  Thats what Saturday morning is right before they open the show to the shoppers.   I took these photos a few minutes before the Akron, Ohio Adventures in Stamping show started.  I figured you might be getting tired of photos of my displays so I will spare you more shots of our booth, but I did want you to see how my new sign came out:

this shows the middle of the back wall of the booth,

what you are seeing is 10' of the 20' across.  

Various vendors finishing up some last minute details. 

This is the far right isle of the show.   You can see a tiny bit of

our displays in the left (black table cloth, wooden shelves.)

This is the next isle from the far right.

You can see a section of our unmounted displays 

(the first two carts on the right of this photo)

behind us is Just for Fun Rubber Stamps owned and operated by Rick and Deb.

Rick's nickname for me is "Trouble" and he likes to razz us a lot about how long we take to drive to a venue.  Jezz, you take a few extra hours (about 5 actually)  to get to a show in Virginia three years ago (due to massive traffic delays and bridge closures, so not our fault! ) and they never let you forget it! 

Also, interesting to note, unbeknownst to Rick, one of the other promoters we work with also calls me "Trouble".   A title that I have unfairly received I tell you!

Other side of that same isle.

These are my neighbors to the right of me. This is also the first front row of the show. 

We were in the front row, to the right. This is all the booths to our left across 

from the front entrance. With over 50 vendors at this show, it was a good location.

I didn't get much time to shop and I really wish I had. There were several vendors at this show that I didn't know and wish I had been able to check out their offerings. I did manage to stop at the one booth that I had a shopping list for.  Outlines rubber stamps. Another must have company to check out.  You really need to see their displays in person though, photos really do not do this companies products justice. I picked up a huge, glorious assortment of sparkly austrian crystals, soon to grace the fronts of my cards I hope!

A little known fact about us. We frequently travel with one of our dogs.

This is Joshua, he is our 7 lb chihuahua.  He loves to travel with us and has been doing

so for all of his life.  Sometimes he has to stay back at the hotel and sometimes he is allowed

in the venue.  It depends on the location and promoter.  We tend to stick with the same chains

of hotels and with over 60 days on the road Joshua has come to recognize them very well.  He feels right at home right away when we check into our room.  

"Seriously? It's 8am already?  Do you REALLY have to leave at this ridiculous hour?"

"Stop taking my photo mom, I just want to go back to bed!"

Well, I hope you have enjoyed a few glimpses from our trip!  

Tomorrow I have a couple of new cards to show you :O)

These are the people in my neighborhood

I thought I'd take a moment to upload my latest show pictures from the last show we did before we head off to Akron, Ohio for Adventures in Stamping this weekend.  Last post I mentioned I wanted a new smaller sign to fit in with my Wall O' cards backdrop.  I will be picking up my new sign on tuesday, right before we leave for Akron.  

Here is a picture of the digital version of the sign. I am very curious to see how the sign will turn out compared to its little digital version.  So while I was in "new sign mode" I somehow diverted to "new logo mode" and managed to wrangle a super special doodle out of Irene.  It's Doodle ME! (o.k.. a cuter, thinner, younger me, but me none the less!)  I'm totally jazzed about being doodlized.  Granted she was kind to me and took some liberties, but you will notice a few of my features.. such as my straight blonde hair, blue eyes, full lips and a round nose.  

and here she ("I") am digitalized and ready to be printed on our new sign:

I will post follow up photos  of our booth with the new sign in Akron when we get back.  

Our previous show was in Allentown, PA.  I had some extra help for this show: 

My beautiful niece in all her Starving Artistamps accoutrements. 

She loves to do shows with me and this show she was especially helpful. 

She and I unloaded the entire trailer by ourselves during a bit of drama

when my sister realized she was missing her wallet and spent the first 

couple of hours of show set up on the phone canceling all her credit and bank cards. 

(post script: she dropped her wallet before we even left home, the police

called her monday morning. No cash was in it but she did get her coach wallet,

 drivers licence, photos, and all her now canceled cards back.)

 

Booth shot after set up was complete.

Oh, so the title to my post.. These are the people in my neighborhood

(my fellow stamp vendors friends)

This is Sam.  Sam is so cool.  I call him "other John" ... actually, I call him and his wife  Debbie 

"other us" because so many things about them reminds me of John and I.  We have the same

taste in products, the same over stuffed booth philosophy. The same affinity for big black trucks and pimped out custom trailer set ups.  I especially adore Sam because John and him get along like peas and carrots.  

Here are some other stamp gypsies I adore...

MaryKay, the brilliantly talented owner of Stamp Camp rubber stamps. She has a fabulous

eye for stamp designs, definitely worth checking out her wonderful line of stamps.

This is Kathy of Sea Side Stampin' ink.  They are out of Maryland and put on 

The coolest annual stamp show in Ocean city, Maryland. It goes on on the same

weekend as a HUGE car show. All weekend are hot rods and vintage cars crusing up and down the main road. Lots of  traffic and exhaust fumes in the air but super fun to do.  

(plus there are DOLPHINS in the ocean there, that alone would inspire me to go... the crabs are a good bonus too!)

This year we are talking about crashing at Kathy and Joe's (meet Joe below) house for the show.  And all we have to do is bring them a couple dozen NY bagels... can you say sweet deal!

This is Joe, Kathy's husband.  He looks like a big ol' teddy bear here but sometimes he sports  a Harley doo rag and other Harley gear and then he looks like a bad-a** biker dude.  He also loves the guitar so I suppose we will be doing some jamming while we are crashing there. (him more the jamming , me more the scratching out some sort of tune with my rudimentary guitar playing skills.

This is actually a pic of John from the show in Philly.  

I figured I would throw it in here because my husband is so darn cute an all.

Setting up Stamp Scrap Art Tour Philadelphia '09

Ever wonder what we do with all those cards that all of us from Starving Artistamps have made? Most of them go on display at the various stamp and scrapbook expos we do around the country.  I told the team I would take some pictures of the new display boards I had just put together with some of our (mine, the team and the guest designers) newest cards.  

Yesterday we got to set up about 2 hours before it was supposed to open.  We managed to get into the hall early and were lucky enough to be able to drive our truck and trailer right into the expo hall (a major treat as it save a lot of running back and forth wheeling heavy boxes and racks over to our assigned location)   Even with saving all that time and energy it still took us eleven... yes... ELEVEN hours to set up our booth.  Our space was 10' deep by 20' across.  And the answer to the age old question just how many products can you fit into 200 square feet of space?  

This much:

part of the back wall displays

My demo table in the middle front of the booth

Shot of my new Wall O' cards (work in progress)

I need to get a smaller sign, once I get it I will

have room for another 2 boards on this backdrop.

I have another 10'x10' backdrop which can hold

 9 more display boards for future expansion :o)

John covering the displays for the night before we got kicked out since set up was over.

Assorted clear stamps and stickers

CLOSE UPS OF SOME OF THE NEW BOARDS:

A few of the DoodleFactory sets on a hanging rack.

left half of back wall displays

far right side of the booth, the outer wall is being remodeled.

Prima flowers, just because John did a fantastic job 

making everything so straight and organized.

Im writing this from the hotel.  Its about 10:30 pm and the first day of the show is now over. Tomorrow we have another full day and then about 3 1/2 hours to pack up an break down the displays before we head home.  It was a really good show for us, especially good considering that this was the first year in this new location. We are especially grateful given the country's current economic worries.