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!

What's Better Than Flowers & Chocolates?

I'm giddy with happiness and have to share my good news with you!

It was a record breaking January for Retro Revival shower cap sales.  72 sold.  Yippee!  And I contracted with another retailer ~ this one in Australia.  Woo hoo!

I've been promoting my shower caps for Valentine's Day gifts.  They last longer than flowers...





...and are as sweet as chocolates!





Love = shower caps.  Who knew?!

Please remember to enter this month's blog giveaway contest, a chance to win this apron!



Click here for details.  Drawing is 2/29 ~ good luck!

 

Craft Show Results

Well, after seven wildly succesful shows, I experienced a bummer.  Hardly sold a thing.  Kept thinking things would pick up and at the same time wishing I was at home sewing.

The show was part of a high school production of Twefth Night.  Learned throughout the day from the students, the few attendees and the teachers that Shakespeare doesn't draw in big crowds.  To my chagrin, I also found out that not one penny had been spent on advertising!

Lesson learned!  Since I had been a part of three previous productions at this school, I just took for granted that this one would be well attended too.  Next time, I'll be sure to find out how many tickets have sold!

So Dianna and I made the most of the day by meeting the other vendors (sadly, they did not do well either), networking about future show opportunities, and taking lots of pictures.

My vintage tub's been looking a bit shabby lately so Dianna repainted it.  It's all shiny and lovely now, especially since she painted on the name!

Near the end of the day, we got a little punchy.  And by now, you all know how much I love a cheesy picture ~ hahaha!

(Inhaling the sweet scent of my handmade, lavender-infused bath salts)

With so few customers ~ seriously, there were maybe a total of 50 attendees ~ I considered hanging myself on the maypole, but instead...

Hope you're all having a not so bummer start to your summer!

Don't forget this month's blog giveaway ~ these wonderful products from Paula Parrish's Natural Garden Soaps...

If you haven't entered yet, click HERE for chances and to read the rules.  I'll draw the winner on June 30th ~ good luck!

Mommy & Me Aprons Now Available!

Ta dah!  I've officially launched Mommy & Me aprons on Retro Revival!  And my first customers, my (step) sister Suzanne and my niece Aubrey were sweet enough to model them for us!

How cute are they?!

Aubrey's decorating cookies here with her assistant, my nephew Evan:

I'm a serious sucker for customer pictures!  Please, send me yours!

This is my last blog entry for the month so this means it's your last chance to leave a comment for a chance to win:

...Two vials of handmade, lavender-infused bath salts!  Drawing is on the 31st.  Good luck!

Amusing Myself!

I'm always looking for creative ways to help advertise my business and sometimes (well, maybe more often than not?), I get a little dramatic!

Paul shot these pix recently...

Does mopping the floor make you feel mopey?

Brighten the task by wearing a Retro Revival apron!

(My new "Classic Kitchen" apron, featuring 1950's kitchen icons in pink and aqua.)

Cheesy enough?  Hahahaha!  We had fun with this.  And fair warning, we shot LOTS more - of other household chores.  Check back, I'll post more soon!

And here's a closer look at the dress I'm wearing, that I bought from my friend Becky's tag sale (check out her blog at http://sewinstitches.blogspot.com/):

Isn't this GORG?!  It's my new, favorite frock!  An authentic, 1950's dress!

For a chance to win this month's free blog giveaway leave a comment on this or any of my January entries.  I'll draw a winner on the 31st.  Good luck!

Results from 2 Big Craft Fairs

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.)

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:

I also met another charming woman, Debbie from MySewingInfo.  Please check out her website which is full of sewing, crafting and quilting information.

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.