Up and coming events

Here's a listing of events that we will be particpating in over the coming weeks. Please come out and show your support. The name of our business is DandL CREATIONS.

Nov 7-9 Antioch Holiday Craft Fair, Fairgrounds, Antioch, CA
Nov 14 Kennedy High School, Fremont, CA
Nov 21-22 Noel Notion Christmas Bazaar, Mount Carmel School Auditorium, Mill Valley, CA
Dec 6 DeAnza College (contingent upon the weather...rained out yesterday)

Come on out and support your community and of course, ENJOY YOURSELF. The weather is looking great. At least so far!!!

Support Your Community Events!!!

Earlier this afternoon I was in the vicinity, so I drove by the Orinda Holiday Bazaar. There were only 4 booths in front of the building. Last year the entire area was filled up with vendors especially in the area off to the right and along the walkway in front. I realize a number of vendors must have located inside due to the rain. I didn't go inside, but I could tell that the total number of vendors had to be down considerably. I noticed perhaps 20-25 people departing the events and they were carrying no bags. (purchases)

The promoters of this event always do a wonderful job and are to be commended for their efforts. The local community must support this event and not be just going there and socializing. You have a number of smaller vendors that do just a couple shows a year selling their hand-made jewelry, etc. and they are satisfied with just making a small profit. However, you do have vendors who need sales to exist and if they don't do decently, they do not return the following year. And of course, that is what happened here.

The show loses money from these vendors' booth fees and that 'income' would be divided amongst various community organizations.

People, this pertains to all of these community type events. You need to support these shows by purchasing from the vendors, etc., that are offering their goods. Excellent time to start your Christmas shopping. We all are playing a huge part in the total success of events such as this one. There were vendors out there last year who made virtually no sales in really beautiful weather. The economy was better back then, but no excuses.

Please read what I had to say regarding last years' event here and I would probably say the same this year also.

Store Fixtures

If you are a vendor or store owner, I am providing you with a number of businesses that sell store fixtures.....i.e. grids, shelves, display cases and much, much more. I've been to all of these over the years and those are the places where I have picked up things for our booth and store (that we once had).

Nearly New Store Fixtures, 3950 Norwood Ave, Sacramento, CA - (916) 920-3003 (this is a big warehouse up in Sacramento that has used fixtures they picked up from store liquidations. Interesting. You could browse here for hours.

These other three sell new fixtures:
Visual Merchandising Systems, 2260 Paragon Dr, San Jose, CA 95131 408-436-1307
Grand & Benedicts Fixtures, 2368 Tripaldi Way, Hayward, CA (510) 782-1988
Union Store Supplies & Fixtures 22128 Mission Blvd, Hayward,. CA - (510) 881-2845

Cowrie Shell Chokers

I am your 'blogmaster' and this is not any kind of spam. I wish to show you some of the beautiful cowrie shell chokers that we hand-make and sell on our website: http://www.dandlcreations.com/

These are of excellent quality and I am sure that you would proudly wear one of these. On-line secure ordering and payment through Authorize.net. Shipping within a couple days as it does take time to make these. Here are some samples:

Shows, Festivals and Events

If you are a vendor, I'd like to find out how you did/are doing this weekend. Especially if you are at the Orinda Holiday Bazaar. I was rained out at DeAnza today and the rain was widespread throughout Northern California.

Did anybody else drop by the Orinda event today? Kind of curious. Large crowd. Small crowd. Spending. Not spending. Wet crowd, Dry crowd. Either comment in this blog or send me an email at StarvingVendors@aol.com Drop by Starving Vendors and read what I have to say about many events and other things Loads and loads of stuff to read. You will love it. Great reading on a cold, rainy evening, ya know?

Anybody out there participate in any other events? Or visit anything else?

You can order shell necklaces, cowrie chokers and a whole lot more at our main website: www.dandlcreations.com

Mervyn's is closing

I guess that we all have heard that Mervyn's is closing ALL it's stores...something like 170? I heard a while back they were just going to close around 40 of them with just a few in the bay area. However, things changed, I guess. They are bankrupt.

I drove near there today and the parking lot was packed full right outside the Mervyn's in Southland Mall (Hayward). Went down Winton Avenue and their were a couple guys waving huge signs 'MERVYN'S GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE."
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DO YOU CHRISTMAS SHOPPING AT www.DandLCREATIONS.com for great buys on shell necklaces, cowrie shell chokers, wrap skirts, shoulder sling bags and a lot more We are always open morning, noon and night...come on down.
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I find that very hard to comprehend. They've been around for years and now they are biting the dust. They still have a JC Penney's and Macy's at Southland, but Mervyn's was one of their 'anchor stores.'. You've got Ross over there and you know the type of crowd that brings into the mall as it has been going downhill for several years now. There are a good number of stores closed over there and it's not going to get any better.

De Anza College Flea Market

RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN

Going to rain like hell on Saturday, so that shoots my plans for DeAnza College. Will probably try again on December 6. Looks like bad weather for the Orinda Holiday Bazaar also, which we did last year and hardly anybody bought from any of the vendors.

We will be at the Antioch Holiday Arts & Crafts Show at the fairgrounds over there. Indoors, space A28. Looks like more rain and I think that we are going to have a very wet winter. Snowing up in the Sierras tonight.

Show info - reviews and much more

Hi. Check out Starving Vendors to see many reviews of shows we have done this year....Paso Robles EOS Winery, Monterey Columbus Day Festival, Richmond Homefront on the Bay, Hayward Zucchini, Oregon County Fairs (Coos, Deschutes and Douglas County), Manteca Crossroads Street Fair, Marysville Bok Kai Parade and Festival, Arroyo Grande Strawberry Festival, San Mateo Fiesta Italiana and loads of other shows and locations.

Many resources available. Read about Tales of Woe and Flying canopies; repairs to canopies; where to get fixtures such as grids, hooks, stands, etc. Get the lowdown on devious unconcerned promoters.

Get info on Arts and Crafts Guides. Links to motels, gas prices, etc.

COSTCO GAS PRICES

Even though my tank was half-full, I decided to drive over to COSTCO in San Leandro (off Davis St) and get some gas. I was surprised to see it at $2.43 per gallon. Wow. The Chevron Station over at Southland was $3.07 and some of the other stations had gas in the $2.90's. But I haven't even seen anything close to COSTCO prices. Maybe they are trying to draw people to shop there.

So, if you deduct the 2 percent rebate you get, then the gas was $2.38 per gallon. Maybe it'll start going up after election, you never know.

GAS PRICES GOING LOWER

October 28, 2008. Oil has dropped to $63 per barrel as opposed to $140 just a short while ago. With the economy getting worse and the stock market collapsing, this will probably continue to drop.

Hopefully, all the gas stations will be selling their gas under $3.00 per gallon and hopefully we can get it down to $2.25. There are numerous websites out there that list the lowest prices and I have found an excellent one. Today (Sep 29) it shows COSTCO as being the lowest at $2.74 per gallon, a far cry from the $4.59/gal that we were paying just a short while ago.

UPDATE: COSTCO gas now at $2.55 gallon (Oct 29)

To see gas prices in the San Leandro area try this website:
http://www.oaklandgasprices.com/San_Leandro/index.aspx
For the Los Angeles area:
http://www.losangelesgasprices.com/

Those are samples of what they show. To find prices in your area, visit http://www.gasbuddy.com/ and enter the city or zip code and it will show you the cheapest in the area. There are other websites out there that provide similar information, but I like this one the best.

Betty Boop T-shirts

Check out our auctions on Ebay. We have Betty Boop T-shirts, shell and semi-precious necklaces and more.

Visit our website for more shell and semi-precious necklaces. We make these ourselves and whatever size you want. Great buys. Made with Beadalon beading CABLE, the strongest stuff around.

Also, our cowrie shell chokers are very popular and hand made. Many designs to choose from. Good deal!!!

Terrific Burritos

Try Taqueria Mar y Tierra located at 1475 Broadway in Redwood City. tel 650-369-2201

We did a craft show in this mall about 10 years ago and our booth was located directly in front of this Mexican Restaurant. It was raining and we didn't to go far for food. So, we tried a couple of their Super Burritos and they were indeed SUPER. Best burritos I have ever had.

Read the reviews on Yelp about this place: http://www.yelp.com/biz/mar-y-tierra-taqueria-redwood-city

We have been stopping by there many times over the years. Around lunchtime and dinnertime, this place is totally packed. Matter of fact, I went in there two weeks ago and every chair and table was taken. I passed by the Chinese Food Restaurant next door to it and there was absolutely nobody in side there. They had opened quite recently.