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(this one has a little bit of everything)
...actually just the one really big craft fair.
So this year I took a little notebook with me to write stuff down so that I wouldn't forget to post it later. You lucky lucky people. Lucky in the fact that you only have to read it. I had to be there.
Wednesday is our packing day. It takes me about a half hour to get my car loaded up. Usually I head over to help mom/grandmom get thier stuff together, since they always wait till the last minute to do anything. Yet they brag that they are "retail geniuses". Yeah.
This year I offered to help, but it was refused. They were not able to pack things because they were still pricing things. *pricing*?! Okay whatever.
So I had a fairly normal evening except I couldn't chew because my dentist appt had been rescheduled over and over until Wednesday afternoon. Wonderful to not be able to really eat anything before a big day of physical work.
Thursday is set up day and the buildings open at 9am. My hair appt got rescheduled so I won't be arriving until lunchtime. Thankfully my jaw isn't as sore as last night because I am starving.
Deadbeat uncle - who is supposed to help us load the truck and trailer pulled a NCNS on us. So it's up to grandmom, mom, sister and mom's bf to finish pricing and load up the truck. They arrive at 11am, I'm there at 11:30.
Of course after I show up, my mom and sister began harassing me and insulting everything. The bulk of it was "Why do you bother to get your hair done/wear nice clothes? You're ugly and you'll always be ugly and everyone hates you!" Yeah we're such a fun and positive bunch. I just buckle down and get to work, because throwing a tantrum isn't going to fix anything.
Finally unloaded my quilts and was finished setting up my things in 2 hours. I took a break after that and met some other quilters. Talked shop for a while, it was nice to get away from the family. We got kicked out at 10pm, and despite mom/grandmother only having to make displays for 2 tables and a christmas tree, by 10pm they still had 1 empty table. I have no clue how they managed that. That is some serious skills.
I also found out that my younger sister would be working the show with us this year. We have a ton in common, so we should be really good friends. However my sister prefers to purposely insult and annoy people to try to piss them off. So looks like I'll be insulted the entire weekend. But at least I look good.
Even though Friday it was cold and rainy, that didn't stop people from lining up outside. There were tons of people with very small babies out in the cold and rain. One was only 17 days old.
We had a bit of a slow start. Lots of "Oh this is beautiful! *look at tag* They want how much for this?! It's just a f
king blanket!" *dirty stare at me and then flounce off*
Sold a lot of little cheap stuff though. It seems every year I get sick just before the show. Last year I had the flu and was running a fever. This year I lost my voice. Didn't stop my mom from pushing me over to talk to the customers. I have aspergers and BPD, I can answer questions and stuff, but sometimes I get really flustered. Plus I had the whole whispered squeaky thing going with my voice, so it was a disaster.
The "beautiful patina" on those glass ornaments you love so much - is from when the store burned down!
My favorite customer in the whole world came by 15 minutes to close on Friday. She was polite, kind and practially gushing about how much she loved my work and told everyone she knew to buy quilts from me. She bought 2 twin size quilts, no arguing about the price or asking for a discount. I wanted to kiss her.
Saturday was a bit slower then Friday. Usually Saturday is the busier day, but with the angry-looking clouds outside, I guess people didn't want to risk going outside.
There was a lot more of the same old "look and walk off" people. I knew that I was the least expensive quilts in the building and one of only 2 quilt booths that were not resellers. I did sell a fair amount of baby quilts though.
The staff put up a sign in the women's restroom indicating that one of the stalls was "Vendors/staff only." Of course it was one with a broken door and no TP.
I did get out of the booth and do a little walking around and shopping. We got busy enough that I had a $75 quilt stolen. A first for me, I've never had anything stolen before. There are police at the show, but they're mostly for looks and not action.
Overall for most of the vendors it seemed to be a slower show, but better then last year at least. One of the funny highlights of the day was when we were cleaning up and getting ready to go home after the show closed. The workers were emptying the trash cans and a lady came up and told them to call security because it was 5 minutes after the show closed and there were still people looking in her booth. I know that goes against a lot of what you guys say on here, but when you're paid by the sale and not by the hour, we'd glady stay open if it means you'll buy something!
Sunday was of course, cheap people and hagglers day.
Here is the list of things I was asked if I made for 2010.
duvet covers (solid colors only)
toaster cozies
diaper bags
diaper covers
and a massive quilt - bigger then a california king.
I had people who thought I was a reseller.
"Do you have a Queen in this style/color?"
"How many of the horse quilts do you have in stock?"
"Can you order a quilt with blahblah on it?"
"Can I have this for half off?"
"Is there a discount, it's really pretty but I don't want to spend *that* much."
I also had a wonderful conversation with a lady who just didn't get it.
Lady: How much is this quilt? *looking at the tag*
Me: It's $45 ma'am.
Lady: Is that the price for all of them? *gestures to the rack*
Me: No each quilt is priced individually.
Lady: So this one is $45?
Me: Yes ma'am.
Lady: And this one is $45? *gestures to another*
Me: No that one is $55.
Lady: But all of them are $45?
Me: No ma'am, all the quilts are priced individually based on how much the materials cost.
Lady: So these aren't for sale?
Me: Yes ma'am they are for sale. They're just priced individually.
Lady: You're not making any sense.
Me: *sigh* I'm sorry that you're confused ma'am. It's actually a very simple concept.
Lady: *huffs and flounces off*
Me:
Overall it was a pretty good show, I sold a bunch of stuff, passed out a lot of flyers and got a lot of emails about t-shirt quilts.
And I get to do it all over again next weekend.
...actually just the one really big craft fair.
So this year I took a little notebook with me to write stuff down so that I wouldn't forget to post it later. You lucky lucky people. Lucky in the fact that you only have to read it. I had to be there.
Wednesday is our packing day. It takes me about a half hour to get my car loaded up. Usually I head over to help mom/grandmom get thier stuff together, since they always wait till the last minute to do anything. Yet they brag that they are "retail geniuses". Yeah.
This year I offered to help, but it was refused. They were not able to pack things because they were still pricing things. *pricing*?! Okay whatever.
So I had a fairly normal evening except I couldn't chew because my dentist appt had been rescheduled over and over until Wednesday afternoon. Wonderful to not be able to really eat anything before a big day of physical work.
Thursday is set up day and the buildings open at 9am. My hair appt got rescheduled so I won't be arriving until lunchtime. Thankfully my jaw isn't as sore as last night because I am starving.
Deadbeat uncle - who is supposed to help us load the truck and trailer pulled a NCNS on us. So it's up to grandmom, mom, sister and mom's bf to finish pricing and load up the truck. They arrive at 11am, I'm there at 11:30.
Of course after I show up, my mom and sister began harassing me and insulting everything. The bulk of it was "Why do you bother to get your hair done/wear nice clothes? You're ugly and you'll always be ugly and everyone hates you!" Yeah we're such a fun and positive bunch. I just buckle down and get to work, because throwing a tantrum isn't going to fix anything.
Finally unloaded my quilts and was finished setting up my things in 2 hours. I took a break after that and met some other quilters. Talked shop for a while, it was nice to get away from the family. We got kicked out at 10pm, and despite mom/grandmother only having to make displays for 2 tables and a christmas tree, by 10pm they still had 1 empty table. I have no clue how they managed that. That is some serious skills.
I also found out that my younger sister would be working the show with us this year. We have a ton in common, so we should be really good friends. However my sister prefers to purposely insult and annoy people to try to piss them off. So looks like I'll be insulted the entire weekend. But at least I look good.
Even though Friday it was cold and rainy, that didn't stop people from lining up outside. There were tons of people with very small babies out in the cold and rain. One was only 17 days old.
We had a bit of a slow start. Lots of "Oh this is beautiful! *look at tag* They want how much for this?! It's just a f
king blanket!" *dirty stare at me and then flounce off* Sold a lot of little cheap stuff though. It seems every year I get sick just before the show. Last year I had the flu and was running a fever. This year I lost my voice. Didn't stop my mom from pushing me over to talk to the customers. I have aspergers and BPD, I can answer questions and stuff, but sometimes I get really flustered. Plus I had the whole whispered squeaky thing going with my voice, so it was a disaster.
The "beautiful patina" on those glass ornaments you love so much - is from when the store burned down!
My favorite customer in the whole world came by 15 minutes to close on Friday. She was polite, kind and practially gushing about how much she loved my work and told everyone she knew to buy quilts from me. She bought 2 twin size quilts, no arguing about the price or asking for a discount. I wanted to kiss her.
Saturday was a bit slower then Friday. Usually Saturday is the busier day, but with the angry-looking clouds outside, I guess people didn't want to risk going outside.
There was a lot more of the same old "look and walk off" people. I knew that I was the least expensive quilts in the building and one of only 2 quilt booths that were not resellers. I did sell a fair amount of baby quilts though.
The staff put up a sign in the women's restroom indicating that one of the stalls was "Vendors/staff only." Of course it was one with a broken door and no TP.
I did get out of the booth and do a little walking around and shopping. We got busy enough that I had a $75 quilt stolen. A first for me, I've never had anything stolen before. There are police at the show, but they're mostly for looks and not action.
Overall for most of the vendors it seemed to be a slower show, but better then last year at least. One of the funny highlights of the day was when we were cleaning up and getting ready to go home after the show closed. The workers were emptying the trash cans and a lady came up and told them to call security because it was 5 minutes after the show closed and there were still people looking in her booth. I know that goes against a lot of what you guys say on here, but when you're paid by the sale and not by the hour, we'd glady stay open if it means you'll buy something!
Sunday was of course, cheap people and hagglers day.
Here is the list of things I was asked if I made for 2010.
duvet covers (solid colors only)
toaster cozies
diaper bags
diaper covers
and a massive quilt - bigger then a california king.
I had people who thought I was a reseller.
"Do you have a Queen in this style/color?"
"How many of the horse quilts do you have in stock?"
"Can you order a quilt with blahblah on it?"
"Can I have this for half off?"
"Is there a discount, it's really pretty but I don't want to spend *that* much."
I also had a wonderful conversation with a lady who just didn't get it.
Lady: How much is this quilt? *looking at the tag*
Me: It's $45 ma'am.
Lady: Is that the price for all of them? *gestures to the rack*
Me: No each quilt is priced individually.
Lady: So this one is $45?
Me: Yes ma'am.
Lady: And this one is $45? *gestures to another*
Me: No that one is $55.
Lady: But all of them are $45?
Me: No ma'am, all the quilts are priced individually based on how much the materials cost.
Lady: So these aren't for sale?
Me: Yes ma'am they are for sale. They're just priced individually.
Lady: You're not making any sense.
Me: *sigh* I'm sorry that you're confused ma'am. It's actually a very simple concept.
Lady: *huffs and flounces off*
Me:
Overall it was a pretty good show, I sold a bunch of stuff, passed out a lot of flyers and got a lot of emails about t-shirt quilts.
And I get to do it all over again next weekend.
I hope you know you don't deserve to be talked to by your family like that. Nobody deserves that. That's really awful. I don't think I would spend that kind of time with people who said stuff like that, about me. My Grandmother lived like that--her mom and sister said she was ugly all the time, and it really messed her up.
I decided not to go too ballistic about it because it was one of the 9th place ribbons and not a 3rd place, but I'm still miffed about it.
He is my Black Dragon (and yes, a good one) strong, protective, the guardian. I am his Silver Dragon, always by his side, shining for him, cherishing him.
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