Dennis' Seven Dees Holiday Fair

For the third year in a row, Dennis’ Seven Dees (a local landscaping/nursery company) held their Holiday fair/bazaar/crafty festival as a benefit for the Tucker-Maxon School here in Portland. This school focuses on children that have hearing and speech issues, whether it be complete loss of hearing, partial loss, cochlear implants, etc., but they also have welcomed children that have full abilities as well. I’m not sure what the exact politically correct terms are, so forgive me if I have misspoken. We actually considered Tucker-Maxon when we were looking at preschool options for our youngest son, Xavier, who has been in speech therapy since he was almost two.


When I got the Etsy convo, I was most certainly in! The totally cool thing was that there was no table fee. Table and application fees are the bane of my existence, and quite frankly, the reason I don’t do more shows. I hate having to wait to see if I’ve been accepted, and I don’t keep a ton of stock on hand, as I tend to do more custom work than anything else. What they do for this show, and did I mention it is a FANTASTIC idea, is they ask for an item donation from each of the vendors in lieu of a fee. They then sell raffle tickets, and people put them in little jars at each table for the item that they want to be entered into the drawing to win. I am far more inclined to donate a higher value item than I am to pay a table fee! For this, I donated something that I had actually intended for myself, and it was made with a gorgeous silver Madelinetosh merino wool yarn, with a retail of around $30 (and I under price things, so it was probably worth about $45 from another seller).

Not only was this my most successful show ever, it was also the most successful event that they have had, and raised the most that they ever had for Tucker-Maxon! Even though it was rainy, cold, dreary… and both Ethan and I were sick, we still had a great time and totally enjoyed meeting everyone! It was lovely to see some of my Twitter pals and fellow PDX Etsians. I am excited to participate next year, especially since I have a better handle on what sells at this event!