October 4, 2009
The "Taste" (as locals call it) is a festival that me and Mari and dedicated to doing every single year until we can't do it any more. The people are fantastic, the music is AWE-SOOOME, and the food is always on point.
Driving through St. Louis reminded me of how beautiful this city really is.... I've been to many places around this fair country of ours, and I think many of our larger cities (outside of the Northeastern region) don't take care to preserve and maintain the original structures that helped to create their cities. St. Louis is not one of those locations.
The architecture, the Arch, and the feel of the place moved me so much on the second sunny day there that I had to take pictures while driving in my car (wrong, I know). While I'm now mesmerized, I realize that I didn't appreciate the beauty of this thriving metropolis at all when growing up here.
Setup on the first day was amazingly frustrating, as there were gale-force winds up to 30 miles an hour. Luckily, our family friend, Cory, was there to help out so he helped to keep me sane by holding the tent down from blowing away (even though I had 150 pounds of weights already holding it.... we had to get more before the day's end). Eventually, my sister came to save me and added another 150 pounds to the tent to fully secure it for the eve. 
The festival began on Friday at 5:00pm. Normally, we are so busy in our tent that we don't have time to sample any of the delicious goods provided by over 30 St. Louis restaurants, but this year I wanted to TASTE! So, taste we did.... and I mean everything. Wish I had some photos of the great food for you folks, but it's IN OUR BELLIES! (and yes, please think Austin Powers).
This 3-day festival is one of the biggest in the city, bringing out over 150,000 patrons (some say closer to 250,000) to sample yummies, fill their tummies, and shop from fantastic artists from all over the country.
This year, we were fortunate to have our booth located on the corner of the main fairway between the juried Artists' Market and the Taste Row.... this made for a very, very, very busy 3 days. With the festival always running long (until about 11:30pm), it is exhausting work, but the great people always make up for that feeling.
Additionally, we had some great surprise visitors that weekend, from our beautiful mama, to Mari's good friend (and great supporter of iram-inal), Tim.
All in all, it was a fantastic, exhausting three days filled with great sales, new friends and fabulous finds (which I'll talk about in a later posting). Thank you to the many who purchased iram-inal designs' creations, and we'll see you next year!
The "Taste" (as locals call it) is a festival that me and Mari and dedicated to doing every single year until we can't do it any more. The people are fantastic, the music is AWE-SOOOME, and the food is always on point.
Driving through St. Louis reminded me of how beautiful this city really is.... I've been to many places around this fair country of ours, and I think many of our larger cities (outside of the Northeastern region) don't take care to preserve and maintain the original structures that helped to create their cities. St. Louis is not one of those locations.
The architecture, the Arch, and the feel of the place moved me so much on the second sunny day there that I had to take pictures while driving in my car (wrong, I know). While I'm now mesmerized, I realize that I didn't appreciate the beauty of this thriving metropolis at all when growing up here.Setup on the first day was amazingly frustrating, as there were gale-force winds up to 30 miles an hour. Luckily, our family friend, Cory, was there to help out so he helped to keep me sane by holding the tent down from blowing away (even though I had 150 pounds of weights already holding it.... we had to get more before the day's end). Eventually, my sister came to save me and added another 150 pounds to the tent to fully secure it for the eve. The festival began on Friday at 5:00pm. Normally, we are so busy in our tent that we don't have time to sample any of the delicious goods provided by over 30 St. Louis restaurants, but this year I wanted to TASTE! So, taste we did.... and I mean everything. Wish I had some photos of the great food for you folks, but it's IN OUR BELLIES! (and yes, please think Austin Powers).This 3-day festival is one of the biggest in the city, bringing out over 150,000 patrons (some say closer to 250,000) to sample yummies, fill their tummies, and shop from fantastic artists from all over the country.
This year, we were fortunate to have our booth located on the corner of the main fairway between the juried Artists' Market and the Taste Row.... this made for a very, very, very busy 3 days. With the festival always running long (until about 11:30pm), it is exhausting work, but the great people always make up for that feeling.
Additionally, we had some great surprise visitors that weekend, from our beautiful mama, to Mari's good friend (and great supporter of iram-inal), Tim.
All in all, it was a fantastic, exhausting three days filled with great sales, new friends and fabulous finds (which I'll talk about in a later posting). Thank you to the many who purchased iram-inal designs' creations, and we'll see you next year!
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