My First Craft Show Experience and Other Stuff

It's been a couple of weeks since I blogged, things have been so hectic with the holiday season. Last Saturday I participated in my first craft show with the local Etsy team. It was a great experience! I only made 1 sale but not very many people sold that day. Most of the people that showed up were more interested in seeing the antique train display upstairs and of course Santa. I learn A LOT and asked so many questions. When I first arrived I immediately noticed how professional other seller's tables look. I kind of wanted to bolt out the door with my little crappy looking card table, plastic green tablecloth, and trays of jewelry. But I made do and everyone there was so nice and the customers were very friendly and had nice compliments:D I lost out on a couple of sales because I didn't accept credit card but I did give them my business card. That is one thing I am looking into is a credit card reader. I read on the Etsy forums of a slick new card reader that you plug into your cell phone called SQUARE UP. Here is the website: https://squareup.com/ Right now it only runs on iPhone and Droid phones.

Overall I had a great time at the craft fair and would definitely do it again in the near future. There is another Christmas show coming up on the 18th which I am thinking about doing but not sure yet. I am more prepared now, I made my own necklace stand and bought a cheap ring display. I have attached a pic of the necklace display. I used an old canvas painting and painted it over with acrylic paint and then I added eyehooks on top to hold the necklaces.

Things are starting to pick up again in my Etsy shop. I had a great October but then things started to slow down for a couple of weeks as my attention focused more on the craft show. One thing that helps keep me motivated is using all the money I earn in my shop to buy goodies off Etsy. I get to buy stuff for myself and my family that I wouldn't have considered buying before I started selling. Also, I want to keep the energy flowing to support the handmade community. I am going to start reviewing some of my favorite items in future posts. Until next time!:D

Preparing for Show

Wow I can't believe it's the middle of November already! These last few months always seem to go by fast. Last blog entry I talked about attending the house party event. It was a nice experience and I learned a few things. I ended up selling 5 items within 2 hours and so did my sister but she made a lot more money than I did because she sold her items in sets. I admit I wasn't prepared and didn't bring my best stuff. I sold mostly my wire wrapped rings and got the most compliments on my bottle cap pendants. There were 4 other sellers there besides us and about 20 to 25 guests showed up. The host got her free coffeemaker but didn't give a presentation on it like I thought she was gonna do. Overall it was a good learning experience and we got to munch on desserts and drink coffee! I would definitely do something like this again in the future. I also highly recommend houseparty.com and think it is an excellent opportunity to get free gifts while throwing a themed party:)

The house party experience has given me the courage to sign up and participate in our local Etsy team Christmas craft show. There will be 2 events but I only signed up for the first one to see how it goes, there are about a dozen of us signed up so far. It will be on Saturday Nov. 27th so I only have 2 weeks to prepare, what was I thinking?! So I probably won't have much time to post new items in my shop and I'm sure it will suffer a little because of it. I'm nervous and excited about participating in the show. I'll be observing other sellers and taking a lot of mental notes because that is how I learn best. And then using what I learn to figure out a way I can incorporate that into what works best for me. Gotta go crank out those items, have a great weekend everyone!:)

Thinking Local

This week I finally made myself apply for the local Etsy street team in my city. I guess the whole Twitter Bot fiasco made me rethink where I should be promoting my items. I'll still be using Twitter but will delete/block all spam accounts. The local street team (Idaho Indie Works) participates in local craft fairs/festivals and they have a boutique downtown. I was invited to participate in First Thursday which is a monthly event showcasing shops and galleries in downtown Boise. I had to decline because of a time conflict with work. Plus I wasn't quite ready yet. But I will be participating in the one next month. I am excited but kinda nervous because I don't know what I am doing but I have a month to prepare and ask lots of questions:) This is a big step for me because I feel more comfortable hiding behind my computer!

I have decided not to open up another Facebook account at this time. It is too much for me to handle all these social networking sites in addition to being a Mommy and having a full time job. My son always comes first!:D So instead I will "share" new items once a week on my regular FB account. I also made it to where anyone who views my profile will see the "My Etsy" tab and links to my blog & shop. This is a nice feature to have for people who happen to view my profile that are not on my friends list since my profile is set to private.

Everything is happening so fast. I am actually surprised that I am putting so much effort into all of this. It started out as a fun hobby and now it has turned into this mini side business. I have learned so much in the past 3 months but I know there is still so much more to learn!