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NaBloPoMo #17 – The Last Thing I Was Convinced to Buy Was………

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NaBloPoMo November 2013Women Having Coffee

Earlier this month I blogged about my excursion to the annual Houston Ballet Guild Nutcracker Market at the Reliant Center.   Even though I am a native Houstonian, I had never attended the market.   I invited my good friend and writing colleague from Austin to accompany me.     Our plan was to spend the day browsing through all of the national and international vendor booths.

The booths that were jewelry related I skipped because I wanted to focus on Christmas-related items and other unique items.    I was tempted by the holiday decorations especially the turkey platters and candelabras but I was able to skirt by those items.    The food items were very tempting especially the food at the Cherry Republic booth (http://www.cherryrepublic.com).    There were many items made with cherries from such as:

  • Mustard
  • vinaigrette dressing
  • Nut mix
  • Salsa
  • Syrup
  • Coffee
  • Granola
  • Peanut butter
  • Wine

I tasted the salsa and it was fabulous!   However, there were so many people around the booth that I decided to grab a catalog and order some items later.

Finally, we reached a booth that got my full attention.   It was the Stafford Enterprises booth.   They were selling the Casada Massage Device (http://www.casada.com) which is portable and can be placed in any chair for use.   My friend and I decided to test it.   I sat down in the chair and was instantly captivated by the heated relaxing massaging motion on my back and neck.   The salesperson came over and explained everything to us along with the pricing (several hundred dollars).   She informed us that the device can also be used in your car seat as it has an adapter to be powered by the cigarette lighter in the car.    Since I had only come to the market to browse, I decided to give it some more thought.

My friend and I walked around as we discussed the massage device…   She actually has a wonderful full massage chair in her home office and commented that she liked the Casada device more than her home massage chair.   I thought about her chair since I had used it while visiting with her and agreed the portable device was a tad superior.   Also, I thought about how I sit all day in my dual-career life and a back massage at the end of each day would be great.

So, we returned to the booth and I purchased my massage device.   My friend purchased one as a gift for her brother.  The salesperson gave us a discounted price and gave us a giveaway of either a hand massager or a massage pillow.   I chose the pillow so that I can place my feet on it while I am enjoying the back massage.    Overall, I am pleased with my purchase and really appreciated the perks given to us by the salesperson.   I was surprised to find such a device at a Christmas craft market.

H-Town Happenings – Houston Ballet Guild Nutcracker Market

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On this past Saturday, I was able to mark “Done” on my H-Town bucket list next to the entry about attending the annual Houston Ballet Guild Nutcracker Market.     Since 1981, the Nutcracker Market has raised money for the academy and scholarship programs of the Houston Ballet Foundation.   As a native Houstonian, I had been a subscriber of the Houston Ballet and attended the performance of the Nutcracker several times as a Christmas tradition but I had never attended the Nutcracker Market.   So, I called up a few girlfriends and we decided to have a field trip.

The venue for the Nutcracker Market is the Reliant Center which is on the same complex as Reliant Stadium – home of the Houston Texans football team.   As usual, there was adequate parking and a shuttle service to/from the Reliant Center.   We arrived early, a few minutes after the opening for the day, and there were already a considerable amount of shoppers in the booths.   I was expecting handmade beautiful Christmas decorations and merchandise for sale but there were all sorts of other merchandise from jewelry to furniture to back massagers and even cowgirl boots  ( I guess the latter should not have been a surprise in Texas!)   There were approximately 300 national and international merchants.

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My girlfriend and I were not interested in jewelry so we focused on the non-jewelry booths.    The booths with Christmas decorations were wonderful and the most amazing to me was the “Linda Jeanes Original Santas, L.L.C” booth with beautifully detailed Santas of all sizes.   The designer is Linda Jeanes at http://www.lindajdesigns.com.   There were many other booths with Christmas decorations and here are some of the pictures.

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Another booth that caught my eye was one that had elaborate handmade birdcages and the prices were just as high as they stood.

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We traveled up and down the aisles tasting some of the culinary fare from cherry salsa to toffee to rum cake (that would have made me drunk had I eaten an entire slice!).   We had only planned to peruse the market with no intent to shop but I succumbed to the test drive of the back massager by Casada.   Every person that sat in that massage chair did not want to leave it.   It is a wonderful item in that I can put it on any chair and even use it in my car.    My girlfriend succumbed to the call of the Old Gringo booth and ended the day by buying two pairs of beautiful cowgirl boots.

Overall, we enjoyed our visit to the Nutcracker Market.   It was very well-attended and I now understand how the Nutcracker Market has contributed $22 million to Houston Ballet Foundation since 1981.  If you are a jewelry lover, you could attend all three days and not visit every booth but, for everything else, a one-day visit should suffice.