It’s true what they say about real estate: location location location. People weren’t afraid of this aisle. We made some great orders to some amazing places, like two Modern art museum gift shops, The Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, and DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park.

We also met some fabulous store owners like Debbie from InkThis, who actually has pink hair and was one of the coolest women we met. I mean, could you find a better match for us? Pink hair? How perfect is that? Or Harriet from Francis Orr, who in a stroke of incredible decisiveness ordered our cards within 30 seconds of setting foot in our booth. Did we mention that we love welcoming, funny, strong women? We do.

Now, did every one stop in? No. In fact plenty of them walked by and quickly chalked us up as yet another “pretty card company.” This was tough, as there were literally hundreds of “pretty cards” and our stuff was so different! Sometimes we just wanted to grab them and shout “No, wait! These aren’t what you might think! We’re funny! We swear!” But many just breezed by on their way to their regular stops. Still, nearly everyone who actually did stop in was so excited  because they expected us to just be boring …even with all our signs…which was definitely validating. Next year we’re considering wearing clown costumes and holding a gargantuan sign that says, “Surprise, we’re funny!” Either that or using a bullhorn.

One thing we learned is that the greeting card industry is a funny bunch. And, sadly, we don’t mean funny as in hilarious, we mean funny as in … comfortable. For example, every year the industry hosts a big award event called the Louie Awards. They liken it to the Oscars for Greeting Cards. Um, ok. Yes, sounds like a bit of an overstatement (no Brad Pitt lookalikes have ever been spotted on that lime green carpet) but it could be a big deal for greeting card nerds like us. And while some new companies won a few of the awards, the big award, the “Card of the Year” award, went to this:

Are you blown away yet? This card is from Papyrus, which, btw, we were very sad to learn is owned by American Greetings. They print bucketloads of cards in China and have distribution just about everywhere. Oh, and Ben & Jerry’s is owned by Unilever. We just thought you should know. Don’t kill the messenger. The point here is that the industry is rewarding a cut out of a dog as the best card created this year. Really?

Clearly this industry is used to doing things a certain way. And as you may have guessed, we’re not exactly the status quo types. Hopefully with your help (and by that we mean feel free to stomp into your local store and demand they carry Foxy Blunt) and gallons of mojitos, we’ll get there…

It was an interesting week and by the end of it we were wearing sensible shoes too. The great thing was we made some amazing connections and met some cool peeps. Like our new soul sisters, the creative geniuses behind Bold Face Type. Their cards are very funny! Visit their site and make a purchase. We have some similarities but there is plenty of room for both of us.

There were also some amusing parts, like the fact that buyers apparently like to purchase in dozens and half dozens and expect you to be able to rattle the numbers off the top of your head. We hate to admit it, but the last time we did multiplication in our heads was in third grade and it’s probably better for everyone that way. Still, it was a bit embarrassing with all the stammering and stuttering and fumbling for a calculator.

We also met some “interesting” folks, like the guy from Japan who stopped in and spoke to us in Japanese for 30 minutes. Literally. And then he looked at us like WE were nuts.

Umm, he lost us at “Herro.”