She Loves Her Apron!

So on day 1 of the Occoquan Craft Fair, this lovely young woman stopped by my booth and bought a Retro Revival apron.

 

 

Then she went home, slipped on her apron and whipped up an apple pie.

 

 

She was so excited about her new apron that she posted the picture on Facebook for me.  Thank you, Killiann, you rock!

Occoquan Craft Show Results

 

We had a wonderful time at the Occoquan Fall Arts & Crafts Fair over the weekend.  We kept my booth setup unchanged and the pink Frigidaire and pink stove drew lots of people in to check out my Retro Revival products.

 

 

 

We sold a good number of shower caps and pot mitts, and a few sleep masks and insulated travel flat iron cases, but as is normal for our shows, the biggest hit was my aprons.  This was my 13th show and I'm still tickled to see the smiling faces of my customers, and I'm always delighted when they so willingly pose for pictures!

 

 

I've designed my aprons to fit most, ladies sized 2 -22.  My customers are all sizes and shapes and ages too, but most of my customers at this show were between 24 and 32.  I love that so many younger women are into aprons!

 

 

My favorite picture of the weekend:

 

 

 

Doing these shows really is exhausting.  The loading, unloading and packing up, and standing on your feet all day.  But it's totally worth it because nothing beats interacting with the happiest people ~ apron lovers!

Occoquan Arts & Craft Show Results

We had a wonderful time at the 45th Annual Occoquan Arts & Crafts Show!

 

 

With a  crinoline beneath my voluminous skirt I couldn't resist vamping for the camera before the crowds arrived.

 

Our pink vintage refrigerator and stove really helped draw people into our booth.

 

 

Both of the appliances were full of aprons during transit which cut down significantly on the number of bins we normally cart.

 

 

Doing my best Vanna White impression...the stove displayed my pot mitts.

 

 

The crowds were huge and the weather warm and sunny.

 

 

We sold lots and lots of aprons to women of all ages, shapes, and sizes.

 

 

 

 

 

Sold a few pot mitts...

 

 

...Quite a few shower caps and sleep masks...

 

 

...And a record number of insulated travel flat iron cases.

 

 

What really made the show extra special was seeing so many friends and family!  My brother and his family visited (that's him on the left, goofing with Captain Project).

 

 

My step sister (on right) and niece visited too!

 

 

It was a great weekend for Retro Revival which makes me a very happy gal!

 

I am Show Ready!

 

I'm drowning in shower caps!  Not really, but this is what 100 of them looks like!

 

Just two more days before Retro Revival heads to the 45th Annual Historic Occoquan Arts & Crafts Show.  I'm so excited!

 

I'm well prepared with lots of inventory.  I'll have 232 aprons, 100 shower caps, 45 insulated travel flat iron cases, 40 sleep masks, and 60 pot mitt sets.  And I also have some exciting new display pieces and ideas for my tent (pictures soon).

 

If you're in the area, please come and visit me!  I'll be in tent #107 on Mill Street (that's the main drag, along the riverfront).

 

In the meantime, Twyla's going to help me out of the tub!

 

Arts & Crafts Show Results

Retro Revival showed at the 38th annual Micanopy Fall Harvest Festival last week.  Our fourth time doing this show, we were well prepared, relaxed, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Captain Project is such a good sport, doing most of the heavy lifting, and rockin' an apron like no other man!

And I'm obviously biased, but he's awfully handsome too!

On day two of the show, we moved the steel clothes rack (Captain Project made it for me) that we normally place front to back:

...and rearranged it to run side-to-side, across the tent and near the entrance:

Don't know why we hadn't thought of doing this before now!  It made lots more space for buyers to navigate around the tent and try on aprons.  I design the aprons I take to sell at shows as "one size fits most," but my customers love to try them on when deciding which one to buy ~ and often agree to strike a pose for me:

Can't blame them for wanting to play dress-up ~ I did it all weekend long!

My First Indie Show

I participated in my first indie show last Saturday.  This show featured handmade and vintage products so rather than just bring my Retro Revival products, I brought out a bunch of my antiques and vintage pieces.  We rolled into town singing the Beverly Hillbillies theme song.

Here's Jed Clampett.  I call him Captain Project.

This was also my first indoor show.

Not knowing if my collectibles and small furniture pieces would sell well, I was pleasantly surprised to sell about 3/4 of them.  Yay!  Not nearly as much to haul back home!

As I was preparing for the show, I realized I had amassed quite a flock of birds ~ iron, milk glass, wood, you name it.  Ridiculous, but great for the show because they all sold.  Tweet!

Every piece of my tinware sold.  I've got to pick up some more of this stuff for future shows.

I brought part of my vintage hankies stash and displayed them on this fire engine red spoon rack and stuffed others into some of my china vases and pitchers.

I found a new display for my shower caps.  She's made of concrete (hollow so she doesn't weigh a ton) and is a little banged up and chippy.

This is my new pop-up sign.  She's lightweight and pops up and collapses with the flick of a finger, and has her own carrying case.

Best part of the show?  My happy customers.

Captain Project rocks an apron.  Silly, I know, but he draws in customers.  I made him wear the 1950's shirt again.  He chose the apron.

And I wore my pinafore apron that I blogged about previously.  Underneath is an early 1960's shirtwaist dress with full, pleated skirt.

Sweet, happy people + lots of selling + air conditioning + great legs (Captain Project's) = a good experience!

If you haven't entered yet for a chance to win Beth's book...

...Click here.  Drawing is August 31st ~ good luck!