Market Day Iowa 2012

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This is our Tumblr, where we do quickie reblog posts. All the good stuff -- event information, vending info, and large original articles -- is at marketdayiowa.com

Market Day is an indie craft market: our vendors craft -- but they don't make your grandma's crafts.

Find Market Day at the Des Moines Social Club in the Kirkwood Building -- at 400 Walnut Street in downtown Des Moines, IA. Click here to get directions.

Contributors

catrocketship
Cat Rocketship dani-awesome
Untitled scottrocketship
@scottrocketship

Recent comments

  • November 23, 2011 8:11 am

    The Beauty of Market Day

    Hey, my name is Dani Ausen, though you may know me as Dani Awesome. I’m the co-director of Market Day, along with Cat Rocketship. I want to tell you how Market Day built me into a business.


    I’ve been around Market Day since the beginning, helping out and doing the graphic design. I’ve always been a crafty person, and I loved the idea of selling things I’d made, but I simply had no idea where to start. 

    I made feather accessories for a few friends, but I never thought I’d be able to sell them. Cat and her husband Scott Rocketship encouraged me to give it a try, so I leapt in. I didn’t sell a lot, but I had a great time, and I came back the next year more involved and more motivated.

    Taking cues from Cat and Scott as well as the many amazing vendors we work with at Market Day, I began to brand myself. I built a display. I saw my sales double each month. Black Friday was really the turning point for me. I grew a fan base, met future wholesalers, and finally got the guts to start up an Etsy shop and start selling online. We’re now three seasons into Market Day, and I’ve gone from a hobbyist making 10 hair clips for a show, to a business with hundreds of sales under my belt, and I’m Market Day co-director to boot.

    This is my first year stepping up to the plate to co-direct, and I honestly don’t know how Cat and Scott did it alone for two years. It’s a lot of work, and there’s nothing in it for us financially, but I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I love seeing businesses grow and thrive. I love throwing in my meager two cents and watching it help someone out of a plateau. I love watching customers carry out brightly colored bags and packages, or snap photos to tweet to friends.

    I’ve always been a bit of a mall rat, and I know there’s fun to be had on Black Friday. I used to do it, going to packed stores, looking for deals. The problem was, I never really found any. I was never willing to get up at 4:00 AM, nor wait in hour long lines. This is the real beauty of Market Day. 

    Market Day STARTS at 9:00 AM, people! Sleep in, have breakfast with the family. There will be over fifty vendors in one spot, no driving from store to store. I can guarantee you that no one has EVER been injured or in a fight at Market Day, and I’m guessing they never will. You’ll find a great deal, and a truly special gift for everyone on your list. Something that they’ve never seen before, something that’s special and original.

    Best of all, when you buy from Market Day, you’ll be helping out businesses like mine. Businesses that might not have started without a venue like Market Day, that might not have found their way. Businesses that you can GUARANTEE are local, that you can feel good giving your money to, knowing that it’s not going to a corporate entity that doesn’t care about the community. You’ll help grow a business that support your neighbors, people like me! And you’ll have fun doing it.

    1 note Filed under:  black friday, shop local, buy local, shopping, des moines, iowa,.
  • November 21, 2011 3:21 pm

    I would love to invite you to the Market Day Black Friday sale.

    This is a shot from the July 2010 Market Day

    Hi, I’m Cat. I’ve been with Market Day from the beginning, and now I run it with my husband, Scott Rocketship, and my BFF, Dani Awesome. Our biggest event of the year is this Friday: Black Friday. From 9a-2p at the Kirkwood Building in downtown Des Moines. 

    We work really hard on this event. This is the end of the third season of Market Day, and Black Friday is the big prize of the year. We work from May to November to get people interested and find vendors — and we have smaller sales each month along the way. 

    We want Market Day to help people shop locally. We want Des Moines to buy cool things from cool people at good prices. And we want this especially on Black Friday, the day when Americans traditionally do crazy things in the name of consumerism. 

    I posted a link to the event invitation on my Facebook wall today, declaring it “BLACK FRIDAY WEEK!” and forgetting that everyone else in the country cares more about Thanksgiving than Black Friday — and someone not quite so familiar with my event posted a comment voicing disgust about consumerism. 

    Totally understandable. But I want to take this opportunity to explain my very personal feelings about the Market Day Black Friday event, why I’m so excited about it, and why it’s taken over my Thanksgivings for three years. 

    When we started Market Day almost three years ago, we simply wanted more people to see the really cool stuff our friends made. They sold their stuff around the country at indie craft shows and got featured in hipster magazines, but no one in town knew them. So we started a May-October event to coincide with our local farmer’s market — to give people the chance to make shopping indie art and craft more habitual. 

    Then we got to November. We decided to hold a Black Friday sale in 2009 because we were so angered by midnight door buster sales at chain stores and the consumer frenzy marketers whip up every December that we had to respond to it. We kept doing Black Friday because we believe we have a better source for gifts than Wal-Mart’s $19.99 4-in-one grease-free ham handlers. We want to see our community use its dollars to vote for really rad people making really cool things, not plastic shit made in China that we largely do not need. 

    Now the first 6 months of Market Days are all in build up to Black Friday. This is the Most Important Day for us. Scott and Dani and Riane and all our vendors and I have worked since May to get ready for Black Friday. We think it’s that important — and that much fun. 

    So I hope you will come if you are able Here is the Facebook invitation. 

    Love,
    Cat 

    Filed under:  black friday, shop local, buy nothing day, indie crafts, crafts, crafting, shopping,.
  • September 19, 2011 10:49 am

    This weekend: Market Day’s SUITCASE SHOWDOWN



    This weekend we’re thrilled to tell you we’ve got a special thang going on at Market Day: the September SUITCASE SHOWDOWN. It has to be capitalized, because we’re that excited. 

    This Saturday, September 24, we’re hosting a mega-fun mini-trunk show. More than 30 vendors are bringing boxes, bags, and suitcases to the Kirkwood Hotel in downtown Des Moines. This is a great time to dive into Market Day and see what tiny trinkets our vendors have. 

    Even with the small footprint, we’ll still have a variety of STUFF. T-shirts! Vintage THINGS! OH SO MUCH JEWELRY! Treats, tricks, and even some handmade Halloween decorations. 

    See you there: Saturday, September 24, 9a-2p at 400 Walnut Street in downtown Des Moines. Invite your friends with our Facebook event.

    16 notes Filed under:  crafts, events, indie craft, september, shopping, des moines, market day,.
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