Aftermath of Winter Wonderland event post

After doing so well in our first craft show, I guess we had too high of hopes going into the second craft show.  We both only sold ONE item a piece. ONE! Excuse my languange, but WHAT THE HECK! lol. I did secure a few emails though for the email list I'm building for announcements such as new product lines, sales, and events that I have coming up. So that was a positive I suppose! But with what a disaster this event was, I definitely learned a lot.

Possibly the most important point to mention is:

RESEARCH YOUR VENUE!!!

Dalana and I are new to this, like I said, this was only our second event. That being mentioned, the fact that this was the FIRST Winter Wonderland event for a craft show, didn't concern me till probably the day or two before. This event was one of the many that Dalana had found and I guess neither one of thought about it, but I'll definitely think twice before joining a first time craft show again. The event coordinators just didn't seem to have enough advertisement for the show, we found that very few people knew that there was a show, and the people that had come for other event activities weren't interested in shopping around the stalls.

A second note would be perceptive about your booth area allowance.

BOOTH SIZE

They gave us what number of tables they recommended, and we just went with it. Not only was the space not big enough for the two of us, but the tables they suggested for one booth, was too many for a proper set up in the amount of space. Possibly another note for this area would be to really brainstorm on how to properly display your items, the mix up with the booth size and tables threw me for a loop, and then I had some difficulty trying to display my items in a nice way to show off all their beauty! I am definitely going to spend more time preparing and possibly making a few custom display pieces for my works.



On another note, I'd like to say a few words on generosity.

The booth next to ours was a family, their mom baked cookies, and the father and kids sold them at various shows like the one I attended. The first night the boy came over several times looking through all our items and finally I asked him if he was looking for something special. The darling child was looking for a present for his little sister. Naturally Dalana and I set out to help him then. He settled on a headband from Dalana and went back to his booth while we just stood their, warmed by such a loving action by such a small child. The next day, As I set up the booth, the little girl had come to help her family, but ended up over in my booth keeping me company while she played dress up with some of the items. Of course she was absolutely adorable, and warmed my heart just as much as her brother had the night before. Over the next couple hours I noticed she became hooked on my elf hat, and kept asking her father for money to buy it. Knowing her brother bought her an item the day before the dad kept declining. The night went so terribly slow I ended up packing up an hour early, but I found myself avoiding packing that elf hat she had her heart set on. So I decided to quietly slip it to her father without her knowing so she could be surprised Christmas morning. Being as sweet as his children were, he kept trying to get me to take money for the item, but I couldn't, my heart was set on giving that little girl a special surprise on Christmas, and after refusing money several times, I decided to let him talk me into taking a set of sugar cookies as a trade. I figured why not? His son can have another gift for his baby sister, and my dad can eat himself to a tummy ache on some more sweets :]!

I know my retelling of the story doesn't nearly capture the holiday spirit, and love that we had been filled with by the presence of these two kids, but they definitely reminded me of the true meaning of Christmas, and it was beautiful to see someone so young understand the gift of giving!