By Pam Kragen
The San Diego Union-Tribune
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Meet the sisters with a love for crafting who want to share their passion through expanding their craft show business across the country.
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Three years ago, North County sisters Allison Gharst and Kellie Dooley were faced with terrible news.
Queen Bee Market — a craft show where the siblings sold their handmade goods twice a year — was going out of business. But rather than quit or find a new market for their wares, the siblings got another idea. They bought Queen Bee Market and are now planning to grow it into a national business.
Their next show, the Winter Expo, takes place this Friday and Saturday at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. More than 100 vendors will be selling their own homemade home decor, accessories, clothing, paper arts, vintage items, furniture and more. Among those vendors will be the siblings themselves, whose wood sign business got them started on this path years ago.
Growing up in Rancho Santa Fe, Dooley, 41, and Gharst, 39, were not close. They had different personalities, different interests, different friends and, when they finished high school, they went to different colleges.
But both ended up becoming teachers. Gharst taught art and Dooley taught first-graders. And when they both became pregnant with their first children a decade ago, their commonalities outweighed their differences.
“When we had our first children, it brought us back together. We figured out we liked each other after all,” said Gharst, who lives with her husband and three children in Poway. Dooley lives with her husband and three kids in Vista.
The young moms began spending five or six days a week together and from that togetherness grew a shared passion for crafting. Their business, Peabody & Sassafras, makes quirky wood signs and home decor items, which they initially sold on the craft-marketing website Etsy.com.
In 2010, another pair of sisters launched Queen Bee Market, which they marketed as “Etsy comes to life.” Dooley and Gharst loved the market and were active vendors until its founders announced plans to close in 2014. The siblings couldn’t stand the thought of the show going away, so they bought it themselves.
The sisters are born entrepreneurs. Their father owns an insurance company and their mother owned a retail store.
Dooley’s husband is a contractor and Gharst’s husband owns a pool business.
Their initial goal with Queen Bee was to carry on what it did best.
“We loved how highly curated it was from the beginning,” Dooley said. “We don’t want a lot of duplicate vendors and we try to choose the best of the best.”
Queen Bee Market hosts two shows a year, which draw from 2,000 to 4,000 visitors. The business has recently expanded to the Las Vegas market.
The sisters have also introduced “craft nights,” where attendees can have dinner and try out two to three crafts to test out new merchandise without a significant investment in equipment.
Each show has a charity partner. This weekend’s expo will have a San Diego Food Bank booth. Visitors who drop off five non-perishable food items there will receive a coupon for 10 percent off show purchases.
Because the sisters are both stay-at-home moms, they run their business by phone, text and email most days. All of their kids are in school from 9 a.m. to noon Mondays and Wednesdays, so that’s when the siblings have their “office hours.” They set up laptops at a back table in the Nutmeg Bakery & Cafe in Sabre Springs and discuss business over cappuccinos.
Recognizing each other’s strengths, they divide the company responsibilities. Gharst is better at scheduling, banking, list-making and business details. Dooley is better at public relations and communications.
For now, their children, ages 4 to 9, are the sisters’ first priority. But once the kids are all in school full time, the sisters have grander plans.
“We want to expand to other cities,” Gharst said. “Our lawyer has already drawn up a partnership plan to take Queen Bee all over the country.”
Queen Bee Market
When: 4 to 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16.
Where: Wyland Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar.
Tickets: $3, adults. Military and children 12 and under are free. Parking fee required.
Online: thequeenbeemarket.com
