Well hello there strangers! Please pardon the ‘pregnant pause’ in my blogging (pun very much intended) but growing baby #3 has kicked me in the ever growing derriere. There, I said it.
Now, would you like to know what these sisters have been up to lately? Well, nothing short of one of the most exciting (or scary depending on how you look at it) things we’ve attempted as a small business thus far – the ‘All Things Baking’ expo in Schaumberg, Il in early October. That’s right, we rounded up the grandparents to watch our herd of kids, shlepped our dozen suitcases or so with husbands in tow to Schaumberg via the FABULOUS city of Chicago and took a chance on our very first trade show. At the time I had visions of blogging all day long with no ‘typical’ daily distractions but alas I was oblivious to how busy we would be every day from start to finish! The response was phenomenal and our booth was hoppin‘. We had a blast and loved meeting everyone! One of our favorite parts was meeting loyal customers who stopped by to say ‘hi’. Being a ‘cyber-business’ this is something we typically miss out on so it was a huge treat.
The jury is still out on whether this will be an annual undertaking but for what we will now call our ‘first’ show, here are some highlights:
Here we are setting up. This was no small undertaking. We displayed 7 Towers which equals about a bajillion cupcakes to place. All in all though it’s not a bad days work hanging with your sister in a room immersed in the scents of ‘all things baking’…i.e. donuts, cupcakes, cookies, the list goes on.
The ‘cornerstone’ Tower was the wedding Cupcake/Cake Pop Tower that we’ve done in the past for Photo Shoots. We used Navy ribbon with black and white liners and the result is nothing less than striking:
The square Tower was a surprise HIT. We don’t sell nearly as many square as we do round but there’s just something about it that really grabbed people’s attention. The set up was the ‘as seen everywhere’ owl theme that I just couldn’t resist. It fits perfectly into fall/winter and once I came across the mason jar owl here on Hostess with the Mostess I was smitten and the wheels started turning. We are always wanting to show how The Cupcake Tower can display any of your treats so we alternated with mini brownie treats sprinkled with powdered sugar and a ‘dollup’ of frosting.
Isn’t he CUTE?
I wont dwell too much on this next Tower since Halloween is ‘so 2 holidays ago’ but I have to show off this cute little Tiny Tower anyway. The Peeps were inspired by this debut of The Cupcake Tower in Parenting Magazine (I’m just a teeny bit proud 
Of course we couldn’t leave out the ever popular crowd pleasing Pinkalicious Tower. Enough said.
This next Tower was largely inspired by our current addiction (seriously people…hard core addicted) Pinterest. We wanted to do a Winter/Christmas themed Tower and LOVED these powdered donut snowmen we found as well as the ‘North Pole’ cupcakes. The Cake Pops were provided by The Lollicake Bakeshop (as were all the Cake Pops in this post) and quite honestly drew in a HUGE chunk of the traffic (thanks again Kerry!).
I’m sorry but is he not the most adorable little donut you ever did see???
Next was our Jungle Theme Tower and for obvious reasons, was the most popular. Again, the Cake Pops provided by Kerry were too cute for anyone to just pass by. Our Cake Topper was provided by another awesome customer and award winning bakery Bleeding Heart Bakery.
Again a HUGE thanks to everyone who stopped by. We had so much fun and were really proud of our hard earned success.
Have you ever been to one of these expo’s either as an attendee or an exhibitor? What’s your thoughts? Did you consider it worthwhile?
The entire post is worth checking out.
