Craft Show Fun

Today my sister and I setup for a show at a local retirement village. It was the first year they offered the "marketplace" to their residences, so traffic was pretty slow. It was still fun to hang out with my sister for the day and meet some new people!

A Little Mantel Love

Today I went over to my sister's house for lunch and ended up helping her decorate her mantel for Christmas. I do have a little mantel-envy due to my lack of mantel (I know, I whine about that a lot...I'm sorry).

All of the glassware she had somewhere around the house, and we filled them with ornaments and some silver and white filler from Michael's. The cute little "let it snow" sign in the middle was in the $1 bin! Her super cute skate stockings were a gift from her sister-in-law from Canada. 

The best news about this mantel? All she has to do is take down the stockings, and it can stick around until Valentine's Day!

'Tis The Season

Christmas decorations make me happy!

Business Time.

It's open for business! Come visit me :)

www.etsy.com/shop/AbbyJanes

Decorating for Fall.

Happy Fall!

I FINALLY got a shelf up in my living room to serve as a mantel substitute. (I don't have a mantel- I'm pretty sad about it.) I threw some pumpkins up there with some leafy garland, a few mirrors with wooden frames, and a new block letter set I made. I also made the wreath below to hang on the front door. So excited to finally be able to decorate for my favorite season!

 

The Calm After The Storm.

Well, you know you've been under a lot of stress lately when your trip to the store on Monday afternoon looks like this:

But really, I'm feeling better already. I think it was just my body saying 'really, Abby Jane? 2 showers, a new job, and a craft show all in the same month? get outta town.'

So speaking of craft shows...her she is!

I realize the picture is a little small but so was my space! A few important things I wanted to keep in mind for the show:

1. I wanted to offer the majority of products I make (headbands, hair clips, tie bibs, block letter sets, and yarn wreaths) to see if I noticed any particular difference in sales. I think I would eventually like to narrow down what I have to offer, so I thought this show might be a good starting point. Unfortunately, I saw people buy a little bit of everything! No one item was particularly popular, although I did get a TON more comments about my cute tie bibs. (I did find out there was another vendor selling them. Fortunately she was in another building. And one customer told me she wished she would have found me first- mine were cuter. Bonus.)

2. I wanted to offer items at a variety of price points. My items ranged from $1-$40. I found this to be effective.

3. I also offered discounts for multiple purchases. Almost every item on my table was sold at a lower price if you bought more than one.

4. I also found that no matter how many signs you make stating your prices, people will always ask you. Know your prices very well!

5. I also value pretty packaging. I discovered that about myself in preparing for the show. So did I spend a little extra money? Yes. Did my shoppers go home with a little extra "wow" factor after their purchase? Yes! Several of the items purchased were gifts so I was able to add gift wrapping at the end. I think my customers really appreciated it! I simply bought some reusable shopping bags on Amazon (for larger purchases like wreaths) and just some plain colored craft bags at Michaels- added my business card tied on with zebra print ribbon & a little tissue paper, and that was that! 

Here is what I went with:
18 headbands ($6 or 2/$10)
10 infant headband wraps ($1 to add to any hair clip)
7 small flower clips ($3 or 2/$5)
22 large flower clips ($4 or 3/$10)
13 tie bibs ($4 or 3/$10)
10 block letter sets (varied from $4/letter or 3/$10 to $10-$20 per set)
6 14" wreaths ($40)
3 12" wreaths ($25)

And here is what I came home with:
16 headbands
6 infant headwraps
3 small flower clips
14 large flower clips
5 tie bibs
5 block letter sets
5 14" wreaths
2 12" wreaths

Also came home with custom orders for 1 tie bib, 1 onesie, and 1 14" wreath.

So excited to get product pictures taken this Saturday and hopefully having all of these items up on Etsy by mid next week!

It's Go Time.

I couldn't have asked for a better week. While each night I have still gone to bed with items on my to do list, the timing of everything has worked out remarkably well. Dinner at my sister's on Tuesday night = brother in law preparing all of my wooden blocks for me. Friends having Halloween pictures taken last night = last minute phone call to me to bring some product over for a photo shoot.

So while dinner with my nephews and holding baby Ethan while they took the pictures weren't exactly on my to do list, I couldn't have asked for things to go better.

Only two more days until the show!