Where do you see Swirly?

It's that time a year again where we begin planning our Holiday Craft Schedule and figure out where we want to spend our advertising dollars.

With most of these crafts show you need to start planning the next years enrollment right after you finish a show. We never seem to get it together and do this. With the holiday shows so crazy it's really the last thing on our mind! We learned a hard lesson this year when one of our more successful shows' deadline came and went without us knowing. We never received any application from the organizers and now we might not be able to get in this year. We are still waiting for confirmation.

In that light, we'll keep you updated with all our shows in the coming months that we will be attending this holiday season. Which leads us to ask all of our readers, that live in or near the Boston area, if you know of any holiday craft shows you attend that you think we would be a good fit for Swirly Designs please let us know by emailing or posting a comment.

Advertising

During the months leading up to the holidays, all the major magazines put out a holiday issue or a special holiday issue. These are great for inspiration.

We buy lots of magazines all throughout the holiday season, but rarely get to peruse them until the spring. Not only are looking at new trends in colors and themes, but we're also scoping out which publication would be a great place for Swirly to advertise.

Our first taste of national exposure came in November of 2006 when we we're profiled in Yankee Magazine as one of New England's Finest. The response to that little blurb made us really think hard about print advertising.

After that success, we ran our first national ad in Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion Holiday issue. We were very pleased with the response (even though we weren't too happy with the placement of our ad in the magazine).

This year we are going to advertise in the MEHC Oct/Nov issue (to introduce our new Halloween Collection) and the Dec/Jan issue with our holiday collection. We are also considering Romantic Homes, which seems to be a publication our customers enjoy and read.

We would love to hear from you with any magazines or newspapers that you enjoy reading or use as a Christmas/Holdiay shopping guide.

Keep your eyes peeled, you never know where you'll find Swirly Designs!