I should warn you at the start that I am in a bad mood today. A really bad mood. It all stems from this...
Sunday's craft show was a bitter disappointment. A mind numbing waste of time and money. A colossal abyss that I cannot wrap my mind around. I spent over four hours in travel to and from and did not even make booth fee. Very few vendors, even fewer customers and don't you love the electrical cords running through my space? I had to force them to put more tape down as I explained about people tripping...Since I'm on my soap box let me throw this around. Isn't a craft show supposed to be items MADE by people? Made by people in their booths? When people actually entered my booth I had to answer the following question over and over again, "Did you make these?" Um, duh, YES. With my own two hands in my unheated, unfinished side of the basement craft hole. NO, I did not purchase my items as some sort of franchise scheme and no, my jewelry is not made in Bali assembled by children in horrible conditions. It's me. Digging through dirty garages and yard sales to find hidden gems which need some TLC and some thinking to give them new life. Bringing them home, CLEANING them up and then toiling away in my aforementioned freezing "studio".
Oh, it was horrific in so many ways. And I am the idiot who pre-paid for a holiday booth at the same venue in November (because I was trying to save $5 on booth fee). An all around crushing experience. So today I must empty out the car and figure out what to do with MANY, MANY vintage sheet music items. Yeah!
OK. Enough self pity. On to my number of the day which is as follows:
Happy birthday to my baby bird (who is so NOT a baby)! Today is her day and I'm going to try to focus on making it fun for her. Because she is fabulous and was quite the trooper helping me set up in THE POURING RAIN on Saturday (not one single break did I get). She even fell asleep in the car on the way there.And a big shout-out to Coloradolady who is the winner of my 100th post giveaway. Young Captain America picked her name out of the bowl this morning. Drop me a line with your address and we'll get your goodies out.
I'm off to begin unpacking and getting ready for next weekend's show which has got to be better???????
Hope everyone had a great weekend filled with good junque!
9 comments:
Happy Birthday to your little girl! I hope she has a great day, doing lots of fun things!
Although I've never done a craft show myself, I've sat with my SIL, who was doing her first one, and I watched as she only sold one thing. And it was me who bought it. I know how much heart, soul, time and money you poured into this show, but I bet you'll do great at the next show!
As a customer at shows where the items are not handmade, I walk away very disappointed, because I can get that cr*p anywhere. I want to see unique, handcrafted things, like you make!
Oh what a bummer on the craft fair front. On the up side, your sheet music goodies are beautiful. Etsy perhaps???
Hope this week is better.
Hugs,
Judy
OUCH! So sorry to hear about the disappointing event. Time to focus on happy things like BIRTHDAYS! YAY! Hope it's a fun one for everyone, especially the birthday gal.
Midge
Happy Birthday to your little girl - it's my biggest boy's 6 birthday today too! Hence much cake making and not much thrifting...
I feel for you on the craft show, how disappointing. As to the 'did you make this?' questions, I guess you have to take it as a compliment!
I did a craft show and it wasn't good! I made cards and a few altered pieces. I can say that I "DID" it, and I won't "DO" it again!
deb
Oh, I know...I had a show like that. Just remember that your items do not lose value by being packed and repacked. You were NOT rejected. You just weren't given the opportunity to be appreciated!
Thank you so much! I am so excited. Maybe the show will be better around the holidays. I did that once myself, and barely broke even. These days, I don't know what it takes to make a go at craft sales. So much of it is re-selling purchased things, the art part of it is gone. Thanks again, can not wait to get these goodies!!
Happy, Happy Birthday to the big 6 year old!!! And thanks so much to Young Captain America for pulling my name!! He totally made my day!
Oh, I am truly so sorry that it was such a bummer show for you. That stinks.
Happy birthday to your little one! Hope that made the day better!
Hi there....I read your post w/a twisted sense of comfort, knowing I'm not the only one w/craft fair horror stories. I finally decided to take the plunge and buy stall space at a "craft fair". I didn't even break even, as a matter of fact I didn't even make ONE SALE!!! Of course, having a vendor next door to me selling homemade oils that she would slather on anyone/everyone passing her stall didn't help, cuz then the now oil-infused public wud just march on over to my booth and pick and handle my HANDMADE PAPER CARDS/BOOKS, and FABRIC and handmade jewelry items...let me type that again, PAPER AND FABRIC & JEWLRY items...and leave oil residue from their greasy little hands onto my PAPER AND FABRIC & JEWELRY items!!I spend the entire wasted day...wiping oil off of my precious items before they were ruined!! It was truly a nightmare. I had to ask the lady NOT to be slathering the public w/oil, and to make matters worse, she(the oil sheik)was really nice. She would come over to my stall go give me encouragment, since she knew I was a newbie at this selling stuff. Oh yeah, and to make matters worse, I not only didn't make one single solitary sale, it was windy that day and ended up with a respiratory infection that lasted 2wks for all my wasted efforts. The "craft fair" included vendors selling Tupperware, manufactured jewelry, junk tables(they were making sales!!!)
Nuff said...ughhhhhhhhhhh
Still trying to recover from the no-sale experience....LOL
Trying to get up my courage to do another a different craft fair soon....LOL
Wish me luck...wish you better luck too....!!!
Posh
http://posh-creations.blogspot.com
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