The Robbins Nest Creative Studios at the Christkindlmarkt in Salt Lake City | Whitney Beth Photography

I don’t talk about the other sides to my business much over here since I know my audience is primarily photo related, but after Saturday I just need to brag about Danny. Legally, Whitney Beth Photography is “The Robbins Nest Creative Studios” and I use a DBA for Whitney Beth Photography. I set up my biz like that as sort of an umbrella company. I also teach art classes under that name and Danny does pottery as well. Since I also run the books, and socials, websites, etc I wanted it easier on myself when it came time to do taxes. For the most part, my photography does the brunt of the earnings. Art classes haven’t been in session since the summer of 2019 (hello Rona and having a summer baby) and up until now Danny’s pottery has been sold in a few tiny shows and mostly to friends and family who commission us. That all changed with an acceptance email in July stating that we had gotten into the Christkindlmarkt at This is the Place! 

We pitched them the idea of selling hot chocolate and kinderpunsch out of tumblers and tankards. They loved it! Since this was our first festival with them they offered us a Saturday only spot. This was perfect for us seeing as we had no idea what to expect! Danny began using every bit of free time he had in the studio on top of working 40+ hours a week at the pharmacy and being the bishop of our local congregation. All while we figured out that newborn life again. I had a LOT of solo parenting days on top of everything my photography demands of me during busy season. (We are so blessed with amazing family to step in and watch kids when one of us had to be at work.) - Seeing it all typed out makes me wonder how the heck we managed to pull it all off! Danny ended up throwing north of 650 tumblers, 25 tankards and we brought 8 lanterns that we had made last year just for the heck of it. My sister in law, Amy was a HUGE help also. She did a lot of backend stuff like getting the permits we needed and letting us use her kinderpunsch recipe as well as helping man the booth and make up the drinks on the day of. 

Saturday morning Danny and I, along with our family who came to help for the day, set up and transport inventory. My Dad dove up the totes of tumblers and inventory. As we finished packing up the car at our place he looked at the trunk and said, “That is a lot of hours of sacrifice in my car. I wish I wasn’t the one in charge of driving it.” We got to This is The Place around 7:45 am. It was freezing as we put up our booth. Amy started heating water for the drinks right away so that we could get the first batch made up. Curtains went up to separate the “kitchen” from the point of sales. Strings of lights and garland covered every inch of space. Stars and ornaments hung and shone in the morning light. It was beautiful! Just as we finished - with an hour until open, Danny got a call. A very frantic head of the festival called and told Danny that one of the huts in the main pavilion had sold out of too much inventory and needed to consolidate to one. They would have an empty space at the entrance and she didn’t want that for the busiest day of the festival. So with less than an hour until opening Danny, Amy, Karl (Amy’s husband), Talia (my niece, Amy and Karl’s daughter) and I hauled ass. For lack of a better way to say it and tore down all the decorations and moved our entire set up to the other side of the festival and into a hut 

It was the prime location. Right next to the stage and across from the entrance. I had to leave to go nurse my baby before they were officially open, but I managed to stay long enough to help get it decorated again and snap a few pictures. I came back after it had opened with my boys and we spent a few hours at the festival. Jones loved “helping” Danny work - aka he was on dish washing duty, should they need arise. He washed one dish and was very disappointed there wasn’t more for him to do. Fields just ended up eating candy canes. We stopped by the booth about three times and every time it was so busy Danny didn’t even have time to say more than a few words. They sold as many as they could. Had we had more drink dispensers and more man power we could have easily sold out! From the first customer at 11 to the last check out at 8:03 pm They sold all the kinderpunsch, finished off the hot coco without opening a new box and 362 of Danny’s tumblers, all 25 tankards and 6 of the 8 lanterns found their way to new homes. 

I am so proud of Danny and all the hard work he put into doing what he loves. I have never doubted him and it was so wonderful to have the success of the festival cement and validate him and his pottery. He is a master of his craft and holds himself to a very high standard. I loved getting to show him off to the world. Thanks for letting me brag about him. If you want to follow along with his pottery, his Instagram account is @Robbinspottery