Whew! I'm finally caught up with filling my Christmas orders and want to share some of the highlights from my first two big craft fairs.
(Shameless plug first: Retro Revival is now offering GIFT CERTIFICATES! Perfect if you're not exactly sure what your special someone will want. Available in $10 increments.)
(Shameless plug first: Retro Revival is now offering GIFT CERTIFICATES! Perfect if you're not exactly sure what your special someone will want. Available in $10 increments.)
The first show was the McIntosh 1890's Festival, October 23-24th. My dear friend Melanie came down from Iowa to help me and boy am I happy she did! Fortunately, we were slammed with business - yay! Unfortunately, we were so busy we forgot to get a picture of ourselves together - doh!
(Pre show set up - can do it in under two hours now!)
Most importantly though, we sold a ton of aprons and met some amazing people, including this young lady:
Eva Jo, another lovely woman we met, was impressed with my use of vintage tablecloths (for my aprons), went home, came back and insisted on giving me a beautiful tablecloth she owned. How nice was that?! She told me that she'd love me to use it rather than seeing it sit her linen closet - so sweet!
I'm telling you - the people I meet at my shows are just the nicest! Women (and believe it or not - men!) love aprons and sharing their memories about their mothers and grandmothers wearing them. It's amazing and really makes me so happy to meet people who share my love of vintage linens and aprons in general.
We sold a record number of shower caps (and at my prior, smaller shows I rarely sold a shower cap!) and displayed them next to my new product, handmade bath salts:
We also sold a few pincushions and dessert pedestals. During this one-day show we did really well, selling ten times the cost of the entry fee and of course, it was so much fun with my BFF at my side!
The next weekend, October 30th - 31st, my hubby Paul helped me at the 35th Annual Micanopy Fall Festival. Honestly, Paul wasn't my first choice for a helper - was concerned he'd be bored out of his gord but it worked really well!
Paul's a mathematician and I really put him to work as aprons and all manner of Retro Revival products and cash were flying! I can hardly believe how well we did and am sooooo happy! We sold 17 times the cost of the entry fee - woo hoo!
The town was crammed like sardines and everyone seemed to be in a buying mood!
All of my customers were incredibly delightful; I managed to snap pix of a few:
Since I didn't sell many of my pincushions or dessert pedestals at McIntosh, I decided to reduce the prices a bit at Micanopy and it made a huge difference - I sold almost all of them - yay!
My mother-in-law, Lois, made me a gorgeous retro dress that perfectly coordinated with one of my vintage pillowcase aprons:
I got so many compliments on my dress that at one point I thought, "Gawd, it's distracting from my products!" Ha!
Near the end of day two at Micanopy, Paul got a little punchy. When I wasn't looking, he donned an apron which I thought was totally ridiculous until I realized it was actually helping to draw more people into the tent! He's so silly!
Back-to-back shows are beyond exhausting but I had a blast! Hoping I'm fortunate enough to do several in 2011. Now I'm busy restocking/sewing my inventory. Life is good:)
Please remember to leave a comment on my DECEMBER 9TH blog entry for a chance to win a very special apron! Please read the rules for the giveaway. Drawing is 12/31.
1 comment:
I am pea-green with envy! The 2 shows we did last summer were awful!
I love that your hubby Paul really is a traveling salesman! Looking good in that apron he is!
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