A Tutorial...Sort of

So, as you may or may not know, Starla and I just completed a 3-day craft show in Eureka at the Runeberg Lodge.  While we didn't do as well as we had hoped, (still trying to come up with the secret to success) we did make some new friends and won some great items. 

One of the new friends we made is Naomi of Merchant of Venus.  She is a hometown girl who makes wonderful and fun knitted items.  Go check out her Etsy shop and give her some love.

One of the new items Starla and I featured at this show was our Rebuttoned Flowers.  They went over fairly well and we sold several.  Here is the tutorial on how to make them.  Starla did a wonderful job of explaining the whole thing.

If you think you can't come up with one of these on your own, try it.  If it still doesn't come out the way you like, give either of us a holler and we will be happy to send one your way at a deal you can't beat.

I'm Headed Back to School

Saturday, November 21, will find me at Simpson University in Redding, California.  I'll be traveling there with Starla to take part in the 2009 Craft & Fair Trade Bazaar.  This event is being sponsored by Simpson University’s Office of Spiritual Formation and is used to raise money for the university's Student Missions program.  We are so excited to be accepted to this event.  It is a juried show, so it is an honor to be invited. 


As Starla stated in her guest post, we are hoping that by attending an event that is out of our local area, we will gain some business insight.  We are looking forward to meeting other crafters and networking to bring the items we create to a larger market.  We know we have unique items all created with love and recycling/repurposing in mind.  We are praying that by attending this event we will, not only sell many items, but also come away with a greater knowledge of marketing and sales.  If you have any tips you would like to share, please feel free to let us know. 

We plan on taking Starla's laptop to the event with us and uploading pictures to our blogs as we experience the excitement throughout the day.  Or maybe we will be to busy to even turn the thing on!  In any case, this will be a busy week for us as we have a three day event coming up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  If we do well in Redding, we will be putting in some long hours to get ready for that sale.  Keep us in your prayers, let us hear your advice, and wish us well.

Dress Rehearsal by Starla

I'm so excited to offer you a post today by my friend and "partner in crime," Starla of ReFashioned Threads. She has graciously offered to write this review of the craft show we did this past Saturday, November 14th. After reading the post, head over to her blog and check out the great things she has going on.

Thanks for the post Starla, you did a great job!

It was the nightmare before the craft show and we were in it for the long haul.  Cindi and I knew that this was going to be hard and was it ever.  We are basically starting our little cottage businesses from the ground floor - many decisions were to be made - from pricing, business cards, signs, staging and more.  We knew when we put ourselves out there we needed to make a good impression.  Our first sale, well, it didn't go too smoothly, however we learned a lot! That story is here.

Even though this craft sale was like cramming for a final, I think we did a wonderful job. *high five to Cindi*

We went Friday night to set up our tables with linens, put up our "fence" displays and made notes to bring other things we were going to need.

We were set up in the Veterans Memorial Building in our little town of Fortuna.  This is a broad view of our area.  We had 2 tables with an area to walk in, like a booth.

We were located by the entrance and this was one of our tables, which we sat behind - Cindi crocheted a scarf and I worked on our snakesssssss. Behind us on the walls we have some of our products on display - pennants, tutus, wreaths,  and our Fairy Wands.  On the table were Book Purses,  a parliament of owls and our newest product  "a little saying".

This was the walk-in booth area.  On our two-tiered table were more owls, cats, snakes, scarves and snowmen to keep everyone cool. The "fence" displays are against the walls.

This dispaly was closest to us and on it we had the tutus and beautiful autumn pennant banners.

This was the other "fence" display located in the corner and on which were purses and butterfly button fairies.

We felt we did had excellent improvement from our last event, however the people were not coming in and those that were coming in were not really buying anything.  This is something that has us scratching our heads and wondering "How come?".  We have many guesses... Is it our area?  Is it the economy? Was it because the craft show wasn't sponsored by a group or organization? 

In the end we did barter with other vendors and that was fun in itself. 

We are not giving up though - we are scheduled to be at 3 more craft shows and one will take us out of our area.  That will give us a chance to compare and see what is going on.

This Sauturday we will be at the Simpson College in Redding, CA

Then we will be at the Runeberg Lodge in Eureka, Ca for the three days following Turkey Day.  On December 3 we will be at a school-sponsored craft show at Freshwater Elementary School, Eureka.

I have considered this last weekend's show to be a dress rehearsal, which has made us even more ready for these future events.  Next time hopfully we won't have any "butterflies" in our tummies and we can "break a leg"! 

At the End of the Day....

What really matters is that you have done the right thing and brought glory to GOD.  I'm still recovering from a marathon week of crafting and preparing for more upcoming craft sales.  Refashioned Threads creator, Starla, and I are partners in this new craft adventure I'm on.  Many of you already know this. Right now, I'm too tired to analyze today's experiences or post pics.  I do promise to do so by Monday afternoon.  I do know that I'm following God's plan and that's all that matters.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17