Dishonest Country "Crafters".

I have lots of new things to post on the blog this week but today is a Busy Day so I'll have to start with a short story that doesn't involve any pictures...

My cousin Chrissy (Chrissy 'Cuz) and her friend Cheri from Connecticut came to visit me this weekend. We had a great time, played board games, had cocktails, went shopping, almost died in a snowstorm... good times, good times, but we also came to a rather sad "revelation" at a local school craft shown and I must share it with all of you crafty (and maybe not so crafty) women out there.

We went to the local intermediate school for their holiday fund-raiser/craft show this weekend. The school is big and it was full of crafters. Every hallway, the gym, the "multi-purpose room", each place was full of vendors, the good, the bad and the tacky. We came across table after table of cute "hand-painted" items until we stopped at a woman who was selling little square slates with leather cord hangers. The slates were painted with cute sayings like "Live, love, laugh" "Live for Love" and all that shmaltzy nonsense. Chrissy 'Cuz wanted to get one but they were small and the "crafter" was charging $6.95 which we thought was a bit much when we are already crafty and could make our own. Chrissy 'Cuz told her she thought they were cute and the woman replied, "Thank you." with a smile. We continued on...decided we didn't really need to buy anything and headed on to do some shopping.

Our first stop was the Dansko outlet...do you wear those Dansko "Professional" Clogs by any chance? They're the best. Chrissy 'Cuz and Cheri each bought two pairs. I didn't get any because I already have a few.

We continued on to the "Floral and Craft Warehouse" in Blue Ball, PA. (Yes, Blue Ball, for those of you who don't know, it's right near Intercourse, PA. LMAO! Really...I kid you not) Anyway...as we traversed through aisles and aisles and aisles of All Things Crafty. We came across the "Home Decor/Cute Little Painted Slate Aisle" and what did we see? We saw the same EXACT "Live for Love" sign that Chrissy 'Cuz was admiring at the craft show. The. Same. Exact. Thing. the woman who was trying to pass it off as her own creation didn't even try to make it a little extra special by adding a ribbon or extra details or anything...she simply added $3.95 more and sat there smiling while we stupidly thought it was her handy work. Liar!

I tell you, I am now completely disillusioned. I have no problem with Captitalism, that's what retail is about and she didn't come right out and say that she made it but she sure as heck didn't say she didn't make it either. It now makes me wonder, how many of those other vendors bought the crap they were hawking and tried to pawn it off as their own. It's wrong, wrong I tell you and it makes those of us who are crafty feel bad. I was very disappointed. Very. Disappointed.

Chrissy 'Cuz ended up buying three of the slates at the warehouse and was very pleased that she didn't buy them from the Liar Lady. It was a learning experience for us all and next time I visit any craft shows, I will be specifically asking the vendors if they made the items before I buy them.

By the way, there's also a Bird in Hand, PA which is another one I find hilarious...gotta love it.