Tag: bloomington
-
Tales from a Shopkeep Mom
So, my last blog post was in March of 2025. Not too bad. At least I’m getting a second one in this year. Oh no, wait, a third even! I had grand intentions back in March, but shit happens man. And a lot of shit has happened. Let’s be honest – this will likely be…
-
Weekly Walkabout
So, I miss writing. Not to say I was every *really* good at it, but it definitely fulfilled something in me that tiny social media posts just don’t do. For awhile, I wrote “Takes from a Shopkeep” on this here blog, rather sporadically, and those were fun. It was always specifically about the shop or…
-
Tales from a Shopkeep : BHM 2019
It’s that time of year again, and man, has it been a year! I mean . . . for us, at Gather and BHM, the year is just beginning, but we’ve been hearing it over and over again – WHAT A YEAR! *deep breaths* So here we are, year 11 under our belts. Boy does…
-
Tales from a Shopkeep: on the new year and Love
We’re off to a great start this new year – we’re pretty excited for what 2019 holds for us, are you!? I mean, sure, the weather hasn’t been great . . . as I sit here in the store, with the rain pouring down, threatening to freeze later this afternoon, but still, we’re glad to…
-
Holiday Gift Guide 2018
It was brought to my attention last week, by a fellow small business owner, that we were lacking a local holiday gift guide this year for various reasons. So, in a pinch, I reached out to local stores from our group, Bloomington Brick & Mortar, and without further ado, I give you our ALL LOCAL…
-
here’s to 10 (more) years!
The year was 2009. I was a stay-at-home mom to an adorable, kissable, cuter than cute bouncing baby boy, and Etsy was in its heyday. Far far away, on the IU campus, three young women started something big – the Bloomington Handmade Market. No one can really tell me who or where the idea first…
-
Tales from a Shopkeep: Craft-a-Way Camp
A few weeks ago (ok, maybe a month- time travels WAY too fast these days!) I was reminded about Craft-A-Way Camp thanks to FB and its incessant need to stalk my interests and friend groups. As per usual, FB wins and I applied to join the adventurers that run craft-a-way in the middle of the…
-
Tales from a Shopkeep : BHM Wrap-Up
Last fall, four of us sat around a table and discussed the future of the spring BHM show. Gather had moved out of Fountain Square Mall, which meant, it didn’t make logical sense to host the spring show in that location any longer. To be honest, FSM was never the BEST place for a spring…
-
Tales from a Shopkeep: Bloomington’s Bicentennial
Today the fam and I ventured into the wild (ok, downtown Bloomington) to visit the City’s Bicentennial Street Fair held on Kirkwood Ave between Walnut and Indiana, which, for those of you that aren’t familiar with organizing festivals (and wrangling cats) is a SUPER HUGE endeavor. It really is no small feat to close down…
-
Tales from a Shopkeep: New Year Reset
There’s this thing in the retail world – they call it a reset. I think. I mean, who am I kidding? I just make this shit up as I go! But, it sounds good nonetheless;) Every few months we make the store look new again. It’s important for us to change things out for a…
Gather 