I participated in my first craft fair last weekend (well actually, it was a folk festival that had some craft vendors) and it went really well. Although I have nothing to compare it to :) There was supposed to be about 10 000 people who come to the festival but I heard from repeat vendors that this was the slowest year out of the last five. Either way, it was great to get the experience!
I thought I'd post some pictures of my booth and a few random shots of the festival. The craft vendors were near the secondary stages, a few blocks away from the amphitheatre at the millrace by the river.
Here's my booth! We never did try setting it up at home because Dave was called into work early on Thursday so all we had to go on is what I had envisioned in my head (we had set up the tent and tables at home so at least I knew where they were going!).
Here is our side of the road find from last year painted up and put on a table to add some height.
The left side. Notice the $5 pet bed from IKEA painted up to hold my sunglasses cases and coin purses.
On the left is a crate (I have no idea where from, I found it in the basement) and on the right is a tray we picked up for $3 in Canandaigua in June and had planned to paint and use in the kitchen. (Say hi to my mom in the back!).
Here I am. This picture makes me cringe but I wanted to show off the vendor apron I made for the festival :) I love that I never had to worry about my money going missing!
And here is my booth at night (sorry for the exceptionally awful picture). It never even occurred to me that I would be there in the dark until the day before the festival. So Christmas lights it was. And a $10 light from Home Depot. Good enough for me!
Overall, I was really happy with how it turned out. Dave used conduit and hooks to hang my purses from both sides and another piece of conduit to hand my sign from the back. Next time I might put up some sort of divider between my tent and the tents around me. The ladies on either side of me both had something to divide the space but there was nothing between us and the guys behind us. Thankfully they were super nice!
Here is a closer look at my sign (I forgot to take one at the festival). I appliqued the letters on and my mom quilted and bound the whole thing and added the sleeve to hang it. She helped so much! Altogether, she spent over 30 hours in my booth with me. Thank you mom!
The w and the v are backwards. I was too lazy to fix it.
Here is the view from the front of my tent. The church my grandparents got married in ♥
Old city hall.
The performers tent near the craft vendors. There was some fantastic music!
Close up.
I'm already looking forward to next year!
If you're interested, there will be lots of new things going in
my shop in the next week or so. And I'm thinking about a giveaway. Anyone interested?
Have a great rest of the weekend!
Bethany
