The first craft fair

So there I was surrounded by headbands. A funny sentence to say or write but it was true. I had become obsessed with buying ribbon. Michael's and JoAnn had back to back sales and I came home with more than I should have. So most nights while watching my favorite crime TV show I was making headbands. Like I said before, I had a buzz in my brain that maybe I should start selling these. I knew I wanted to sell on Etsy.com but I didn't even know if anyone would buy them. So one day at work, during my beginning of the day planning, I was looking through our email server at the district announcements. My friend Katie's school caught my eye so I opened the email. It was for Deerwood's Multicultural  Vendor Fair and they were looking for people who sell homemade things. "I do that!" I thought or I possibly said out loud to no one. So for $15 I could have a table and a spot. I was so excited and emailed the woman in charge. A day later I was in.

I had no idea what to expect. Would we be indoors or would be outdoors? Would it would lots of tables or just a few? I had never even been to a fair like this so my head was flying with ideas. Because I wanted to prepare (and because I love a reason for it), I took the Friday off before it and got myself ready. I bought a table cloth, clips to hold it down, frames to put my prices in, foam glitter letters spelling out headbands, and a tote to put it all in. The day of the Vendor Fair came and with Bonnie by my side we woke up ridiculously early for a Saturday. Red Bulls and a plastic tablecloth from her house in hand we headed out in the cloudy day. When we got there, we found not only were we outside but we were out in the open. As we set up our table, suddenly the rain started. Thank god for Bonnie and her tablecloth. We would cover it as it rained and take it off when it stopped. We did this pretty much every hour on the hour for the five hours we were there.

In the end, I sold three headbands. The first two were regular sales of my sequin headbands. The third was to a little girl, probably 8 years old and her older brother, maybe 10. They first came and scoped out the table picking out their favorite one and then asking for the prices. "Ok, we will be right back." The two ran off and came back with $2. I pointed out the ribbon headbands which were $2 and asked her which one she liked. She told me the sparkle one and as I tried them on her, they were all too big. I know she had been eyeing the $3 sequin ones before so I said to her, "Since these don't fit, how about you pick out one of the other ones for $2?" The older brother got so excited. She pointed to the one she wanted and it fit perfectly. Brother paid me and they ran off to their parents who were nearby. "SHE GAVE US THE SPARKLY ONE FOR $2!!" he screamed and proceeded to tell rapidly how they got the more expensive one while the little sister jumped around. It was the best part of the day.

 Was it a financial successful day? Not at all. I didn't even cover my $15 fee. That didn't matter. I had made something that people were actually interested in possibly buying. It was something I made that wasn't a complete mess that would die in my closet because I'd never let it see the light of day again. Like my Mom kept saying, it was a hobby and a good one to have. It wasn't too expensive, it wasn't crazy or took up too much time, it was something that made me happy. But keeping close to 50 headbands for myself was not an option so selling them was something that would be just that much better. The Vendor Fair was only once a year and I didn't want to wait a whole year before doing it again. A week later I was scouring the internet for the next opportunity and in two weeks after that I had my next fair booked. Things were looking up, but that's a story for next time.