Oh darlings, pass the mint juleps, this heat is exhausting this southern belle like no other. Well, it could be the heat. Or, and this is the more honest truth, it’s the weight of some incredibly exciting news. We at Chatty HQ are bustling about for many reasons.

First on the agenda, we are pleased as punch to announce that we’ve partnered with Project:PopUp, a program of the ever revitalizing River City Company and Berry + Hunt, to present the first ever Chatty Crafty Fall Street Fair. And, poppets, you ain’t never been to a show like this.

What is Project:PopUp? Dears, I’m glad you asked. Project:PopUp is a downtown retail incubator. It’s bringing the vitality of the North Shore and the suave cool of the South Side inwards to our city center. And we at Chatty HQ couldn’t be more thrilled.

And we do have a more personal reason than just our Street Fair, more on that later I promise but patience is a virtue for a reason or so we are told. Chatty HQ is bustling because we’ve MOVED! Chatty Crafty is involved with Project:PopUp because we were accepted into the retail incubator on Chestnut Street, the locale of our Street Fair by the way. It’s been quite the ordeal watching all these strapping youngsters lift heavy boxes to and fro. Miss Chatty doesn’t believe in manual labor after Memorial Day. Stains the white gloves, you know.

Now, on to this Street Fair I’ve teased you with a few times. Miss Chatty is, as ever, working away — all without even one nail breaking we just don’t know how she manages, perhaps it is the gloves — on another brilliant event. But, as she was getting her ducks in a row, she realized that the single most important part hasn’t been lined up yet. Vendors! Oh, pets, we want you, we need you, oh baby, oh baby. We really are that transparent. We want the Handmade! The Vintage! Alpha to Omega we want vendors and we want the best: e.g., you.

And we want you dressed to the nines. Chatty Crafty 2012: Fall Street Fair is October 27th, the weekend before Halloween. We’ll have a 20’s Carnival vibe running rampant through our new digs as we plan and we want it to spill out onto the street that weekend in glorious ways. Vendor costume contest! Doggie Dress-up!** Craft is gonna hit the streets of Chattanooga’s Downtown area and it is going to do it, not with a whimper, but with a bang!

Applications are open! What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation? Well, here it is.  And if my spiel hasn’t convinced you yet, here is a list of all amenities that as a Chatty Crafty vendor you can always expect. We’ve even expanded our Awesome to include three vendor types this year.

• Volunteers to help unload upon arrival and load up at the end of the show or just give you a moment to catch your breath and grab a bite
• Complimentary breakfast and Vendor VIP Area with healthy snacks and drinks for vendors. We know you need your coffee, water and a quick bite so it will be there throughout the show
• Promotions  – print, radio, posters, fliers, internet campaign
• Saturday Vendor Wrap Up Party, a bit of a meet-n-greet with fellow crafters – after you pack up come have a drink and something to eat but before you head to your final destination for Saturday night – stick around the area, there are lots of fun things to do downtown, especially the Saturday night before Halloween
• City Center location DOWNTOWN - this is the perfect place to insert a video of Dolly Parton covering the classic Petula Clark hit, but I have to save something for another post!
• Three Vendor Types; single, shared, and roving cart, bicycle, or wagon

Please, respondez-vous s’il vous plaît maintenant! We’re just dyin’ to have you. We, literally, can’t go on without you. You’re the apple of the eye of Chatty Crafty, dear vendors-to-be.

Waiting by the phone (laptop) for your application.

xoxo,

Miss Chatty

** It is Miss Chatty’s dearest ambition to find a corgi dressed up as Thor just to say the word Thorgi aloud. Sorry, she just couldn’t keep it in any longer.