Excitement was abound, well at least for me, for the start of the Intown Manchester's Holiday Market at the Brady Sullivan Plaza on Elm Street in beautiful downtown Manchester.  It's so great participating in Intown's events that keep focus and fun on the local downtown area, people and merchants, many times throughout the whole year.  For me, based in Manchester all my life, it means a lot. 

My first visitor was Mayor Ted Gatsas and Vicki. He has been the face of Manchester for many years now and will be leaving his position, but it is always nice to see him participating in the local scene as he does and I took a photo of one instance at Intown's free concerts at Veteran's Park last year.

The mayor's assistant, Vicki, purchased a small kissing ball from me as he answered a call, of course he's a busy man, before he came back to let me take a picture of them and Vicki took a picture of him with me.  Send it to me Vicki if you think of it and thanks so much!

Another local celebrity came by my booth.....Gunther!!!...of Gunther's Goodies.  Amy was nice enough to bring him by and what a BIG, beautiful dog!!! Now I have met the icon behind the name, thanks Amy! 

As one would expect, at the different shows there are usually familiar vendors that participate and you get to know them.  Gunther's Goodies is a prominent booth in many shows and is well known and has great products for your beloved dogs.  My second customers, Maureen and Diane, bought a heart from me and obviously also purchased at Amy's booth seeing the dog bag on her arm! Thanks Maureen for your puchase and Diane (what a great name) for letting me convince you to be in the picture too!

Nicole ordered a heart to be made for her from the sheet I post of photos from past heart designs.  I have found that even though I started my hearts with a heart in a heart, almost anything can be made as an inlay. I've tried a lot of ideas now and even if I don't currently have one made, in most cases, I could make it.  Nicole wants a shamrock heart with the split shamrock petals and tinted green. 

Jean and Celeste let me take their photo after Jean's purchase and Celeste is a woman after my own heart....she loves her Christmas tree and had one once until May (and it wasn't artificial she said)! Wow, I thought I left mine up a long time, from the beginning of December until the middle of January. She even used to hang the tree from the ceiling on a turnbuckle.  The tree couldn't be fooled with or knocked over and you could easily turn the tree around.....fabulous!  Thanks Jean and Celeste!

Kathi bought quite a few dot inlay hearts from me for neices, etc. I always try to keep my prices down, there is really much more work that goes into them than it may appear.  The small dot inlay hearts are a nice, inexpensive gift that makes it affordable to purchase multiples.

As you can probably see in the previous photos, across the lobby from my booth is Stephen and Stacey Forster of Jollywood Christmas Tree Farm.  They had seemingly similar products as myself, but really mostly different. They own farms in Gilmanton, NH; Shapleigh, ME; and Canaan, VT and are formerly from Boston.  Their products were some evergreen holiday buckets, but more interestingly they had seedlings for sale; larger ones I think he said 2 years old and smaller ones and all were in cute holiday packaging. Obviously they have Christmas trees for sale and delivery at very reasonable prices.

And then there's Lisa!!!! What a boost to my confidence! She is such a lovely woman that makes me feel like my hearts/items are the greatest.  My booth is not always the most popular at the shows, but I have so much to offer and she gets it.  I'll be working hard this week to build up my inventory for the last few shows as she nearly bought me out.  I am NOT complaining!  Thank you Lisa for your words of encouragement

Another repeat customer here at the Holiday Market is Gertrude, a vendor at the Romana Gugerbauer booth which sells exquisite, hand-painted mouthblown ornaments.  She always gets some evergreen arrangements from me and this year she is bringing back her containers from them for me to refill. I am happy to do it and even though she refused, I will give her a price break for that.  She can be reached at P.O. Box 5753, Manchester, NH 03104.  

Riff Raff Glass by Theresa Caulkins is another artisan that I have seen at many shows over the last few years and I think Theresa has been working very hard making many new beautiful items.  Check them out!

All the way on the opposite end of the lobby corridor from my booth (by the Elm Street entrance) are many wonderful vendors and I'd like to mention a few. Jeanne Pride has an amazing booth and she displays wares relating to a few organizations. Heshima "works to bring dignity to disabled children and their mothers in Nairobi, Kenya", and Hazel & Deene displays "designs that are modern interpretations of heritage skills that bring new life to artisans in remote areas."  The jewelry, etc., she displays is so stunning, different and meaningful.  There is so much more to these organizations and for more info click on their links below.    

Recently Jeanne had the opportunity to take her 12 year old granddaughter to one of her trips to Africa.  What an amazing and eye-opening trip it must have been for a young girl that age.

Derek Lynch is an artist that prefers to fly under the radar.  His mesmerizing paintings are so unique and colorful, and these are a great example of the different items that can be found here at the Holiday Market.

Fabulous Trixie, the face of Intown for all of us, positioned the raffle table to be at the parking garage entrance area by my booth and Jollywood's to encourage visitors to walk down the entire lobby corridor and see all the market has to offer. Thanks Trixie!  The raffle gives free chances to win vendor donated items. Make sure to enter.

The individual pieces reflect and shimmer as the light shines and the heart moves.

Merissa was nice enough to go to the ATM and come back with cash to purchase this tree mosaic from me and loved my explanation that of out of necessity comes something so beautiful. My leftover pieces of the pearls are combined in this mosaic type design, be it a tree or a heart, etc.

Cindy is a repeat customer from last year and she purchased 2 kissing balls as she did last time.  She was so sweet to send me a picture of one with snow on it.  It looks nice like that.

Sue purchased this small boxwood tree in square glass container as a gift. She wasn't sure at first but after telling her the long-lasting arrangement would be beautiful until way into the next year, she was convinced.  The only factor is faithful watering at least twice a week.

Please do yourself a favor, participate in a downtown Manchester event, visit the Holiday Market and check off some of your family/friends from your list with special gifts.  Click on the links below for more information and like my facebook page to get my blogs automatically in the future.  Thanks and Happy Holidays!

https://www.intownmanchester.com/  https://www.facebook.com/IntownManch/

https://jollywoodchristmastreefarm.com/  https://www.facebook.com/jollywoodchristmastreefarm/

https://www.facebook.com/riffraffglass/

http://www.gunthersgoodies.com/  https://www.facebook.com/gunthersgoodies/

https://jeannepride.hazeldeene.com/   

http://www.heshima.org/  https://www.facebook.com/Heshima-Childrens-Center-117201841656386/?ref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/Jeanne.hazeldeene/