So Saturday, my friend Lisa and I participated in our first "craft fair." We shared a booth, which consisted of my hubbies' (partially broken and well-used) green pop-up tent, 2 borrowed 3x6 (I think) tables, 1 borrowed 4x4 table, about 100lbs of water and bungee cords as weights (for the wind), large scrap pieces of material pinned together for table covers (I don't think you could tell), a butt-load of zip-ties, and various baskets on my table and easels on Lisa's. Here is where the photos would be, if we had remembered to take some (which we totally meant to do!). We split the $25 booth fee, and were able to set up the tent and tables the morning prior to the day of the fair. We saw that all the other booths had signs, which we hadn't yet thought about, so once we finished setting up we headed to Hobby Lobby to figure it out. We bought a piece of foam-core and had it cut in 2 to make our individual signs with. Here is mine (though on the mantle at home, because we forgot to take photos at the fair):
I thought it was a great idea to print the letters and cut them out individually. Well . . . I think it turned out nicely . . . but the cutting out part sucked! Lisa was smart and designed her's where she only had to cut a few straight lines. I'll try to insert a photo of her's later.
Anyhow, we set up our goods the morning of the festival, and the people started to come. There seemed to be a steady stream going through. Lots of nice comments to both of us, but not too many sales. Thankfully, we each had a "collector" of ours (ie relatives who love us and our stuff) to help jump-start our sales. Then we each had a few more, which was great.
One of the people I talked with, who bought 2 mini Musers for her children, turned out to host her own blog about her life and local "going-ons" and asked if she might take a few photos and post about it, so I said sure! Here is a link to her great post!:
http://www.thebeardediris.com/2011/10/03/this-craft-fair-didnt-suck/. She was super nice, and had the most grown-up 8 year old girl I've ever met. I think the Etsy shop has received at least 20 visits directly from her blog so far! Thanks, Iris!!! :) OH, and SHE actually has a few PHOTOS!
At the end of the day, Lisa and I were a bit relieved when the neighboring booth owners asked us if we had had a slow day. They were craft fair regulars, and said this one was much slower than many they participate in. This was, of course, the first year for this festival, and the booth fee was quite low and the show was only one day, so we weren't too disappointed. We kind of went into it as more of a learning experience than anything else.
I had also come down with an awesome cold the night before the fair, so had to dose up on Day-quil all during the event. Then I slept almost all of Sunday to try to recover from both the cold and the fair.
I got an "emergency" order yesterday for 5 new ghosties, all slightly different than each other, so that's what I'm working on now.
I hope to have them sewn and stuffed by tomorrow morning, so it may be a long night!
:)
