Evo's Show/People Report
The Washington Art & Rubber Stamp Festival
May 18 & 19, 2002 - Puyallup, WA
Sponsored by Heirloom Productions
3900 NW Cherokee Lane
Newport OR 97365
Voice/Fax (541) 574-8000

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Heyyyyyy, Folks...

'Twas the Monday morning of our leaving Puyallup that I must explain...
Mr Evo decided he needed to shift weight in bins, so we missed our plane!
If you ask him in the future, "Mr Evo, what was up with this?"
I 'm sure he will tell you that it was MY fault ... wasn't his. ;}>

And to be absolutely above-board with you here?
We also missed our plane in NJ early April ; I admit that with a tad of a tear,
'Cause that WAS my fault ... I read the flight schedule wrong! :{<>
And if any of you know Mr Evo... you know I'm still hearing about THAT frequently and lonnnnng.

Ok, so we missed our plane home and got a later flight that brought us home safely back to Florida and home around 1:30 am Tuesday morning. But that wasn't all bad... we had a row of 3 seats all to ourselves and got a lot of snoozing in.

The Puyallup show was busy both Saturday and Sunday, so I didn't get around to any booths to give you reports. Sorry! I really do like to do that.

I did get to observe stampers, though. My observations? You're buying more carefully. You're making lists before you come and buying what you know you want. And after that, you're taking the time to look around and decide what else you really want and need. You're comparing prices between booths that carry similar products. And ... you're still friendly and patient if there's a line, and you still have "ready" smiles. I like all of that about you, yes I do!

And, now... I have a very serious request to all of you stampers that attend shows. An unpleasant subject but a very real and very "problematic" one. (Is that a real word? I hope so, because it felt right to write.)

Sunday, I had one of the most traumatic experiences I've ever encountered at a show. I thought I observed a person "take" something from our booth. I believe myself to be fair, so when I "thought" I saw her take something, I did nothing ... because I wasn't 100% sure. But then when I "for real" saw her take something else, I asked Mr Evo to go for Eileen of Heirloom Productions and Security.

When Security searched her, I was dumbfounded to find not only the two items I thought she had taken from our booth but several more items that I never saw her take. And, there were more items in her back pack that couldn't be identified with which booth they came from or whether or not they had indeed been purchased or "taken".

This person was very fortunate: I didn't press charges. What she apparently didn't know was that another "taker" had been apprehended on Saturday and was spending the weekend in jail. A couple of vendors involved did indeed choose to prosecute.

So back to my request to you? As you're shopping and fraternizing and trading pins and having sooooo much fun as we all are and should be having ... I'm asking you to keep an eye out for not only your packages (Yes... stampers' packages of goodies do go missing) but also to keep an eye out for the vendors' booths too. If you see someone you suspect is "taking" ... it only takes a moment to tell someone in the booth to "keep an eye" on that person. You don't have to get involved ... your warning to us is enough to make sure "that person" will be watched not only by us but by Security.

Not all vendors at shows are big companies. In fact, few are. Many of us, as Mr Evo and I do, depend upon our little rubber stamping business to supply us with our grits and eggs for breakfast (well, yeah, we are from the South, you know) and pay our bills. It's our every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year oh-so-joyful commitment to you to try to provide you with our best and friendliest service in your mail orders and at shows. We strive to treat your every order and show purchase as special. Because you are just that, you know. You, for real, are special. You, for real, are the reason we're able to be doing today what we're loving doing.

So keep an eye out at shows for both you and us vendors? I thank you, Mr Evo thanks you, Cevo thanks you, and every vendor at the shows thanks you! :}>

And now ... it's time for a "nature" moment. I can't help it ... gotta do it ... 'cause Nature is my "laughing and relaxing" place.

Friday morning in Puyallup, Mr Evo and I awoke early. 5 am Puyallup time... 8 am our Florida-body-time. Mr Evo suggested we drive up to Mt Rainier before we were scheduled to set up our booth at noon. And... yes! We could see Mt Rainier from our hotel... not surrounded in clouds as usual... so we HAD to answer it's beckoning call.

About halfway through the drive up ... and what a nice drive that is! ... we were on a level stretch where the speed limit was 55 mph. And, I was indeed driving that speed.

When what to my wondering eyes appear on the left side of the road???? A Mommy Duck! :{<> And trailing closely behind as fast as their tiny legs would carry them ... 7 or 8 ooooooooooooooh so tiny baby ducklings. :{<> And that Mommy Duck with all her confidence and sassiness (neither looking left nor right, eyes focused straight ahead on an obvious mission from the Universe to get her babies across the road) brought a smile to my face and to Mr Evo's even as I braked while doing 55 miles per hour and waited for them to cross. And Mr Evo took a picture of them.

I wanna share this picture with you:
Mommy Duck On A Mission
We appreciate your letting us share this "Nature Moment" with you! And that's a fact.

And thanks to Ms Enchy and Maggie H and Glenna S and Debbie F for all your help in our booth at Puyallup! We couldn't have done it without you! And that's another fact.

Ellen :}> Evo