I found a pattern called bead netting, which I embellished with Swarovski crystals and created several pretty spectacular bracelets and a necklace. I also finally got around to doing some cross stitched plant pokes. I did 5 butterflies and 1 heart. By the time the beginning of farmers market season began, I had a really good amount of stock. Oh, by the way, here's a picture of the baby dress:
The Momence Farmers' Market didn't officially start until 7/11, but I got word that one of the vegetable vendors was going to have product ready early and wanted to start early, so as many of us that could did several weeks of a pre-market. We had set up at our new location, which, while pretty noisy due to the big trucks, was at least very accessible on the main drag. Unfortunately, there was a development in early August. The property had been sold and the new owner was going to be tearing down the old building and ripping up the parking lot that we met on. So, we got moved to another parking lot right next to the river. The nice thing about it is that there is plenty of parking for customers and we vendors get to keep our vehicles right behind our tents. Anyway, the market has been fairly successful monetarily this year.
As far as craft shows, my first one of the year was once again the Pilcher Park Fairy Fest. Since I had gotten an application really early this year (end of February), I was able to spend some of that crafting time when I was ill making Fairy headbands, Fairy wands and Fairy bling. While I didn't sell out this year, I did make a whole bunch of money. That show is always a lot of fun, and I love seeing all of the little fairies and wood nymphs dancing through the woods around the Nature Center. As long as I'm able and they continue doing the Fairy Fest, I'll continue to do that show, despite the 64 mile drive.
I added a new show this summer, too. It was the Clifton Fun Days. I got an invite to this show from the young lady who was the vendor organizer. There are only a few craft vendors and they have all been personally invited to apply. The organizer got to see my things at a craft show in December for the Food Pantry. She told me who she was and asked if she could have my card and if I would be amenable to attending such an event. I told her, sure, so in late June, I got an e-mail from her with an application attached. I sent it back in and looked forward to doing a 2-day event in my own hometown! The event was scheduled for the first weekend in July (after the 4th).
The biggest problem with the Fun Days event was the heat. When I got to the park to set up on Friday afternoon about 3pm, the temperature was about 95. I had hoped that it would cool down somewhat as the day went on. Wrong. Someone said that the temp hit 98 at around 5pm. Unfortunately, between the heat and all of the activity of setting up my tent, my blood sugar crashed. I had brought my normal emergency supplies, but they weren't enough to get me back to normal. Luckily, I had my cell phone with me and called my niece. She arrived shortly with some snacks to help me get my blood sugar back up. She also hung around and helped me get most of my display set up. With her help, I was actually open for business on time (6pm).
The crowds started arriving about 6:30, and since my tent was near the attractions for the kids (small ferris wheel, bouncies, climbing wall, etc.) and right across from the bingo tent, I had a really good flow of traffic all evening. Jill and her kids stopped by to see how I was doing at about 8pm. By that time, I had already doubled my booth fee for the weekend and had been getting to visit with a whole lot of family and friends. At 9pm, I packed up my jewelry (I never leave any of my jewelry in my tent overnight), put the walls up on the tent and lowered the legs to lock everything up for the night. Went home, had a snack, took a double dose of pain med and went to bed. I had to be back to the site at 9:30am on Saturday.
Got to my tent on time on Saturday morning. Took down the walls and raised the tent legs. Reset my displays and put out my jewelry. This was going to be the long day. Supposed to stay until 9pm, and I did. Early in the day, there were very few people out and about. The temperature was even higher on Saturday than it was on Friday (topped out at 104 with a 112 heat index), which we think kepts the crowds away. It started cooling down by about 2pm 'cause there was a storm front moving in. I had a steady stream of customers and sales were good. I got to see a lot of friends and family again and got tons of compliments on my stuff. At about 8:45, I started packing up. My great nephew, Dylan, was there to help me. We got everything packed up, so I went to find Jill. I drove my car down to an area near my space and Jill and the kids carried all of my stuff to my car and packed it in. I hugged them all and headed the four blocks to home. Locked up the car and went inside to kick off my tennies. I sat down in my recliner and put my feet up and fell asleep. When I woke up four hours later, I took the time to finally count my money and to enter my sales into my ledger. I had ended up with sales that had quintupled the entry fee (YEAH!) and was feeling pretty good. Only problem was that I was going to have to go to work to replace stock before the next market day. What a great problem to have!
Anyway, I have continued to attend the farmers' market every week, and some weeks are good, others not. But the market gets me out of the house (and my recliner) and has allowed me to expand my customer base. Now, as I start into the fall craft show season, I'm looking forward to selling my winter and holiday things. Hopefully, my body will let me continue doing craft shows for a lot more years. I'm not really ready to stop doing them yet.
