Monday, November 13, 2006

it was a beginning

Well, Friday was the big day for the vendor sale. A neighbor of mine held it in her home. (Brave!?!) There were around 20 vendors who sold everything from jewelry to pampered chef and tupperware. Interspersed were people like me who sold custom artwork or stationary, monograming. Apparently the traffic was much slower than last year due to conflicting events at the school. The other vendors who made a killing last year were sitting around bored this year. Maybe that was better for me though...I stayed up all night on Thursday night to finish getting ready for the sale and might not have been able to speak coherantly to more than one person at a time. We did have lots of people in the afternoon. Now the good news -- while I did not sell astronomical amounts I did make a few sales. Those will help cover my cost and I actually think the word got out that I did special things for baby gifts and bedrooms. I've gotten lots of comments since the sale indicating that I may have future business. I have no illusions about making a fortune off of my doodles, but I do know that not everyone is creative. Sometimes creativity sells.

Here is what the booth looked like. Dave helped me cut a half sheet of plywood and then cover it with a remnant that I bought. I nailed the picture hangers into the board and then hung the samples up on those. I also had some of Dave's hand turned "Southern Baby Rattles" and snowman ornaments on the table. I would have loved to have more items for people to pay for and carry home, but the sales I did make all wanted customization. You have to take orders on things like that.



This was the biggest seller of the day. I tried a very loose and happy style and most people seemed attracted to it.


Here is the mermaid painting. All the little girls commented on it. The final size of these pieces once matted was 16 " X 20 ".


On Friday night I was beat, but we managed to take advantage of free babysitting by the church teenagers. We went to dinner at a favorite cajun place with some of our best friends. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Maybe I was just delirious from the loss of sleep, but I laughed so hard that it hurt. It was great fun. I hope to be better rested next time. It was a rare weekend because we had another social engagement on Saturday night. Our neighbors hosted a "Totally 80's" night and we had a blast. Everyone dressed the part so it was that much more fun. It was a potluck so there was lots of good food. I'll have to post more about it tomorrow (photos, too) because there were some great neighborhood moments. Everyone submitted 80's photos to the hosts and they created a big collage for everyone to look over. Honestly the 80's don't seem that long ago, but that was high school and college years for me. Our babysitter was rolling in the floor laughing when we left so I guess we did look ridiculous in the 80's after all.

3 comments:

Caroline said...

Hi Ann, Do you do creative memories? Sounds like fun.

Ann said...

No, but they do neat stuff. To be honest I'm not really too hip on the pyramid marketing setups. I must have attended a million parties while we were in the military. Military wives are really big on selling things like pampered chef and discovery toys. I like all the products, but don't really like the process.

Scrapbooking, however, is very cool. I wish I had more time to do it. I keep buying the supplies with good intention. How about you?

BTW, I was just scolded for putting mediocre photos of my work on the web. Those are totally snapshots and not tripod/portfolio quality pictures.

Caroline said...

I personally am not exicted about the marketing but do like the products. I have a hard time finding time to do anything like that. I am always amazed at the mom's who have like 6 kids and can still scrap-book, sell candles and still have time to do all these activities. Me I just go to the parties and think wow I wish I had that much time