Apple Blossom Festival

Oh my goodness, I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since I last posted. No wonder no one reads my blog consistently, lol. Life has been in some major turmoil and for awhile there we didn't even feel like we were treading water anymore. We were definitely sinking. Things aren't any better now but we have a better perspective on them. We know that we are praying about it, that God is faithful, God is for us, and he will also work toward the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose. We just have to keep reminding ourselves of these things :)

I finally got the pictures from my mom of my booth at The Apple Blossom Festival. This was hands down the best show I've ever done, but it didn't start out that way. Saturday was horrible, I mean just horrible. There were hardly any people and I'll just tell you that I was in a major funk of depression thinking that I paid all this money for a booth and my tent, etc and I wasn't even going to make that back, much less make any profit. During the last hour of Saturday there was literally no one there so my mom walked around and talked to a few of the other vendors and they said just stay calm, that Sunday is the day. They said that if 5,000 people come Saturday, then 50,000 come on Sunday. My friends later told me that people don't really come out on Saturday because of the two parades and all the other events going on Saturday.

I went home that night and made a few more things before I passed out and woke up on Sunday determined to have a better day. Even if I only sold a few things like I did on Saturday I was still going to have a positive attitude, chat with my guests, and have a good time. I also brought several projects to work on in case there was a lot of dead time again. Sunday was completely different. There were tons of people and there were several times when my booth was completely packed with people. You couldn't even move. It was awesome. I was selling the projects I was working on before they were even completed! I took several custom orders and have several more that are going to be contacting me, hopefully, about doing other projects for them. All in all, in was an amazing day and an amazing experience.

A few things I learned:

1) Having a million different patterns in my pocket albums in maybe not the best thing. Some people had a really hard time picking one out. My thinking was that I really want to appeal to the most people possible so I usually make 3-4 tins with one set of papers. So I'd say I had about 30-40 different patterns out. I think in the future, at least for these shows, I'll do maybe 6-8 tins in one set of patterns or I'll only put out half of the patterns that I have. If one set sells out then I'll put another out or if they are looking for something specific I can pull from behind the table if that particular pattern isn't out. I can see where it would be overwhelming if you aren't a good decision maker.

2) Always get their contact information. I got better at this as Sunday went on but when people say oh I'd like to talk to you about doing this for me or I'm looking for this and I'll contact you, make sure you get their information. I'd say about 60% of the time the people do actually contact me but then you lose that other 40%. I had several people that were looking for things and took my card and said they'd be in touch but I should have asked them for their email.

3) I need to make up some sort of receipt to give to those who pay with credit/debit cards. I had a few people ask for a receipt and all I could do was jot their purchase down on some scrap paper.

4) Last but not least, you need real weights for you tent. We filled milk jugs with water and they just weren't heavy enough. I need to get some cement filled pvc pipes for the next show.