Boutique Season Again!

I've been really fortunate to have some really fun jobs, and this is one of them. Before I started working at Corn Wagon Quilts I worked for Ellen Zimmerman at Heritage Woodworks in Springville. When I started there in June of 1998 I was working 3 days a week, eventually that turned into just one day a week. I've been going there every Wednesday for the past 5 years up until just this last July. Why did I quit you ask, I didn't by choice. Ellen has decided to retire, this has been her life for the past 23 years or so and she is ready for new things, but there is one thing that won't change and that is the Hobble Creek Barn Boutique that Heritage sponsors 2 times a year. We just ended another great boutique, it ran from October 2nd-11th. Many of you that have been there know how fun the atmosphere is, the vendors have great merchandise, the food is always something to look forward to and for most, it's a girl's day out. Year after year we have watched this become a family tradition for many mother's and daughters, and now many of those have added grand-daughter's and great grand-daughter's. This is me and our loyal door greeter Deb Horracks, she has been doing this job for many years, we collect a dollar donation at the door to go to the local Women & Children Crisis Center.

These girl's have been a part of my life for a such a long time, they are practically family. Meet, Karen, Kim, Ellen and Brenda.

This is part of the Heritage booth, Ellen decided to bring what was left in the store after closing it, there were so many good buys on everything. She had her large peices of furniture marked at prices you wouldn't believe.

There's always some kind of little mishap at the boutique and I guess you could say this was it! I got my finger stuck in a piece of rolled up duct tape and I couldn't get it out. No I'm not making obscene gestures at anyone! No wonder they use that stuff on everything, it really sticks.

This is the booth that does really well, it's the handbags! Everyone loves a new purse. My mom looked forward to this booth every year so she could get her new fall purse. I still can see her picking one out.

Katherine Moody, is the purse vendor and a jewelry vendor too, she does really well at the show, she also does purse parties when she's not set up at the boutique.

This is more of the Heritage gang, on the back row is Deb, Wendy, Afton and Karen, and in front there is me and Ellen. What a fun group of ladies to work with.

For years we have been saying we were going to to a picture with these tiara's, and we did it! There is a booth at the show that sells so many of these and little tutu's that go with them that it's become a joke for us that we all needed them. Here we are in all our fancy. We even got Don to be a part of this one. (Don is the reason Ellen is retiring we do believe, what a great man he is, we really like him and so does she!) I'm really going to miss this group of fun people, but I always know there will be a next time, when we do this all over again in six months for the spring show.

It's all over and now the real fun begins, clean up! Not! What a job this is. Everything is packed up and will be taken back to the store. Ellen hasn't quite decided what to do with all of it yet, she's thinking about a huge parking lot sale or just donating it all to charity. Anyway it's over and we all had a great but exhausting 10 day show. Make sure you put the spring show on your calanders now, it's always held in May the weekend before Mother's Day. See you there.