More than 40 vendors set up shop at the Creative Babe Market event hosted at Barnyard Buddies in Lakewood on April 28 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The place was packed with families and friends hitting up the photo op, feeding many animals at the petting zoo, and simply taking a stroll down the line of vendors.
As you walk up to the entrance there is a sign-in sheet as well as a section where you can purchase tickets to the pony rides or entry to the petting zoo for $6 each.
Once you walk into the event you are greeted by many barn animals such as goats, pigs, and horses.
The line for the pony rides grew longer by the minute as it was a hot commodity at the event.
People surrounded the fences of animals more and more as the day went on while the animals jumped up and bent down to reach the hands feeding them.
After you get past the petting zoo you are greeted with music and many vendors eager to talk about their products.
Directly to the left of the start of tables was a business called Pupper Squares hosted by Kenneth Chan and Janice Hui. They sell dog treats unlike any others including dog-safe sushi and s’mores.
The business is a little over a year old and thriving as Chan said, “We’ve seen a lot of good loyalty from our customers too, they always come back and buy more.”
The sushi ranges from $16 to $24 depending on the size you get and the S’mores are $12-14 based on the flavor you choose.
“You can’t really find it anywhere else,” Chan said, “We make unique and fun dog treats.”
Moving towards the middle of all the tables was the small business La Tiendita de Keni by owner Kenia Soto who was selling Mexican-inspired candles and other items.
Soto, like many others during the time of COVID-19, started looking into the craft of candle making and her work took off from there.
Her candles take about 10 days to make and she acquires the food-safe ollas from Guadalajara, Mexico.
“I feel like it’s more modern [the olla candles], now we’re forgetting our culture and I feel like I’m bringing it back,” Soto said, “We don’t cook with it [ollas] and I feel like that’s incorporating it without using it like we used to.”
Wrapping around towards the other side of the market was the sister-in-law duo of Sarah Torres and Marissa Torres, creators of small business, Simply Bloomin’.
Their business involves books and succulents as well as is fairly new since they just started it up this year. Sarah Torres said, “We just kind of always loved books and we found that there’s not too many good bookstores around here so we need more.”
The hottest item on the market for them is their blind date and mystery date with a book idea. The books are covered in plain paper so you can’t see what it looks like and it takes ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ to another level.
The idea behind this started around Valentine’s Day as Sarah Torres explained how people feel the need to have one so why not have one with a book and dive into a new world.
“You really have to just go with the genre or the hints that we give,” Marissa Torres would add, “It’s the whole premise of not judge a book by its cover.”
