Craft Fair Weekend Part 1

We survived craft fair weekend! This was our first fair - I shared a booth with a friend. She sells frames and hair flowers at www.moiandmine.etsy.com.


Briar Patch puts on fairs all over the valley - it's set up with central cashiers that accept credit cards etc so as a shopper you just collect items and pay at one spot. Each item has a coded tag that gets sorted later by "shop". That relieves us of dealing with each transaction, we can leave the booth unattended, and folks spend more if they can use a credit card. :) Part of our obligation involved working some volunteer hours at the registers. I didn't get to shop much (I had a shower to attend immediately after my volunteer hours)but I did get to meet a really great girl who talked my ear off in a good way! Karlee Fuch makes a wide range of fabric bags and patterns. She's been doing shows from several years and shared lots of tips and information with me (and also encouragement!) You can check out her shop and blog at www.karleefuchs.com.

My sales were minimal and I'll admit to being a bit discouraged. However Sunday's church services were all about our words - so I'll be positive and just focus on that. :) Also our booth neighbor who sells hats said sales were lousy so maybe it wasn't just us. We'll have final tallies later this week. Working the register I saw a lot of elderly shoppers buying food items and decorations and not many young familes which might be more my target customer. Either way I enjoyed making my items and if nothing sells at least Eliya will have a closet full of Mommy made skirts to twirl about in a few years. :) I also set out a papergoods item with my sketch. Most of my sketches are probably best for stationary, cards, print type goods. I'm trying to work with them and do something with them. Also our booth display was mostly 'round the house items (didn't want to invest a whole lot upfront but we plan to change it a bit and add some actual tableclothes and maybe poster size prints of girls in the clothes ad style for the next show.)