{Me in my booth, photo taken by Lindsey from the Artisan Market… more photos of the event can be found on their facebook page, vendor apron from Terrace Hill}
Now… first things first… this entire event could not have happened if it weren’t for this wonderful man… my man… he has been so supportive, done so much work… hard work, he’s encouraged me, shared ideas with me, he’s been my sounding board and my right hand man in this. It was his original “yes” that started the whole process of me doing this show and it was his assistance the whole way through that made it actually happen in the end, so thank you sweetie. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you more than words can express and I’m so blessed to have you as my husband and partner for life.
And now for the rest of the juicy (bulleted) details:
*The wind blew ferociously, but the sun was shining.
*Even high quality tents can rip if it’s windy enough… bummer. 
*I spent the first two hours of the show trying to keep my stuff from blowing down… Then I finally got smart called my hubby who came to the rescue and told me what I should do. 
After a bit of reorganization, things went much smoother and I actually got to sit down. And so did my mom… who by the way, was with me the entire day! (I failed to get a photo of us)!
She is another person I couldn’t have done this without. She was there so I could take bathroom breaks, she was the gopher for our lunch, she gave me ideas as we discussed what might work better next time, she was my moral support and not only that but she slept at our house the night before and watched our kids so hubby and I could get everything set up without child-like interruptions and distractions. Thank you Mama!!! Love you!!! 
*I realized there is no such thing as being too organized for an event like this. I definitely could have been more organized. Mostly with supplies and such, my products themselves were pretty organized, but I could have spent more time organizing and planning out where I was going to keep supplies and other necessities.
*Next time… More tables. I need more workspace and space to keep things like packaging/bags/receipt book/postcards/business cards/etc. Maybe something with drawers would be good, something with a top that could possibly even be used to display products. I only had a couple of little inches here and there at the back of the table for stuff like that and the plastic totes I thought I’d use under the table were holding things like bags, business cards and the like, so I could really use them as a surface for other things.
*I learned that I can keep track of cash in the Square app! If only I’d figured it out sooner though! Whoops!
*I realized I need to work harder at promoting my work, even when it’s right there in front of people… It will not sell itself. It’s not natural for me and certainly doesn’t come easily, but it’s necessary in order to build my business.
*Pretty decorations really do matter, many people noticed and commented. Maybe they don’t matter completely, maybe not even a lot, but it’s nice that people noticed, because it was definitely part of the fun!
A lot of people mistook my prints for cards, which tells me a couple of things…
1) There’s a market for cards… Which doesn’t surprise me, something I want to add and have been working on, but maybe something that needs to move a little higher up on the priority list.
2) I should package my prints to make it more obvious what they are. I think the easiest way to do this would be to add mattes to them. Another thing I’ve considered previously and that should move up on the list, at least before the next show (which is to be determined).
*It was a lot of work, but it was a labor of love for sure. And while I didn’t quite get to the sales goal I had set (I of course had no idea what to expect though), it was well worth it. To get exposure, to get the “first time” under my belt, to figure out what worked and what didn’t, to experience windy conditions and improvising to make things work despite the weather, to stick it out and to be able to support a great cause at the same time.
Thank you to all those who stopped by to show their support and thank you to those who helped and encouraged before, during and after the event. I’d say… it was a success!
