Craft Fair Craziness

It's been nearly two months since my last blog post. I've been taking a break. Or that's what I've been telling myself after the craft fair I did in November. Yeah, a craft fair. Which was small, but boy did I bust my butt prepping for that show. Don't get me wrong, I've done a craft fair or two with my mom and her sister. I've even done the annual carnival country store (think craft fair, bake sale, and plant sale all wrapped in one ... talk about intense) for 5 years with them. So a craft fair on Oahu, hidden at the UH campus shouldn't be that big of a deal right? Wrong! This was the first one I did by myself, with just my creations. And I didn't go the dolls and bears route, either. I focused on my {guava girls} line that I've been playing around with for years.

So I had prepped a ton of pouches, clutches, earrings, rings, and a small bunch of other things to have on the table. I did bring along some raggedy Annies ... to fill in the gaps. My table was buzzing with activity from the moment the fair started. Thankfully, my sister ended up showing up in the nick of time ... I was about to go delirious with the steady stream of customers. Yes, that's always a good thing ... but my table wasn't completely set up. Not a good thing. Here's some photos:

The fair was on a Friday. I ended up prepping into the wee hours of the morning. This was the general setup I was going for (thanks for the use of the bed, Jess!). Don't mind the lighting ... this was about 4:30 in the morning. Yeah, I didn't go to bed until 5am. And then up at 6:30am. I don't recommend that at all.

 This is the table at the fair. A bit messy, but this was taken at the end of the day when I had sold a ton of items and there were some major bare spots on the table. Someone actually asked me if the mirror was for sale. Weird.

I did mention that I brought along my Annies. They sat perched at one corner of the table with one of my fake Christmas trees. Cute. The Annies will soon have a photo session and will end up in the shop.

Some zipper pouches ... I made over 50 of these! Yeah. Unreal. All out of my coveted kawaii fabrics. These were popular. But not as popular as the earrings, rings and bobby pins:

These jewelry accessories were popular. Probably because they were reasonably priced and that's great for the students who visited between classes. Interestingly enough, the rice was a big hit ... people thought it was such a clever idea!

Needless to say, I did better than I expected. Thanks to all the customers that stopped by and purchased stuff. I really appreciated all the support and the kind words!! And yes, I would probably do it again. Had you asked me a day or even a week after the fair, I would have said "Heck no!" Actually I did say that, multiple times using a little harsher word. Heh heh. But now that some time has passed (and I have pretty much stayed out of my craft room), I've now changed my mind and have decided that I will do it again. And maybe more than one next year. We'll just have to see how much crafting I can get going ... oh ... and maybe the {guava girls} Etsy store will be open soon, too! Stay tuned!