Craft Fairs vs. Toddlers & Tiaras

Many of you know that I attended a craft fair last Saturday, and some of you have asked how it went. Here's the break down of how things went.

• For starters, I have been out of the craft fair circuit for quite some time since I did no fairs last year because I was huge preggo with Henry. That being said, I have been looking at a page on facebook that is for craft fair displays and such and I felt ok about my set-up. 
• I had never attended this event so I didn't really know what to expect. 
• The event was outside and I didn't have a tent. Now I thought about buying one, but that's a big expense and I already had to shell out the money for tables and table cloths and a really cool display stand so I thought I'd chance it. This sort of worked out I guess. More on that later. 
• I really wasn't prepared with product for this craft fair. This year has been off on the whole creating thing due to said baby and trying to figure out my new normal. I spent the day before the show running the machine, enlisted the help of my fabulous hubby, and we worked until 11 p.m. that night. 
• I also somehow failed to tag things and/or make pricing signs. 

By now you can tell that things are not working in my favor. This is all my own fault, but still it's a cluster in the making. Henry can't go with me because he has to watch the kids, Joy is far far away, so I have to go alone. I get my directions, load up my car, and head out. The drive isn't bad, but I miss two turns and have to turn around. No biggie. I get there and start to set up. This is where I see the serious need for a tent. Everyone else has one. I feel a little like a gypsy. I look like a rookie. I am, but I don't wanna look like one. It's a small town, and everyone is saying hi to each other. Now I feel really alone. I get half way through setting up and the check-in people come by my spot. They can't find my application. Great. One of them remembers talking to me through email and I keep setting up. Now the weather starts to get a little windy, and it looks a little cloudier. I'm a little concerned due to this whole lack of a tent thing.
The booth/tent next to me is selling rugs, wooden signs, and some wreaths and such. That's nice, I won't be competing with them. Then the booth on the other side of me shows up. They had "requested the corner", which I didn't think was a big deal until they showed up. They apparently had a little boutique store in town and started unpacking their pretty striped tent and all their grids and such from the store. Then they roll out their wholesale purchased (likely made in China) stuff. It's super cute and I'm not really bothered by this. I admit that when you have custom made things next to commercial things it does make you feel like a schmuck sometimes, or at least it does me. I start wondering if my stuff is good enough and does it look like crap, and honestly lots of people gravitate to the big flashy booth and skip yours but anyway, I try to keep my chin up.
This is where the T&T comparison comes in from the title. In the past I have thought of craft fairs as sort of like glorified yard sales. People bring their creations and display them in a pleasing manner in an effort to sell them and make a little cash, nothing wrong with that. Friends, (and others) this is simply not the case anymore. It's no more like that than putting little girls in a pretty Sunday dress to take them to a pageant. Those days are GONE ! You have to have them in frilly dresses with petticoats and their hair all curled and make-up on them that makes them look like a twenty something girl going to a party. The same is true of craft fair booths/displays. Gone are the days of tables covered in sheets and handmade stuff spread out on them. I will add here that I feel a little bad about having machine embroidered items since they are not technically hand made. Anyway, you have to have fitted table cloths and grid walls and tents and shelving and sometimes lighting and rugs on the ground so that you appear to be a retail store that sprang up in the middle of a field! The owner of the store sounds like typical, how do I put this nicely, she sounds really southern and frou frou and a little snotty. She's talking to her partner's husband about how her "little hourly employee" is at the store working so that they can attend the fair, etc. Whatever. 
After we get all set up she comes over and looks at my pitiful booth. She's looking down and she should, I am so in over my head and totally out of place. She checks out my stuff and looks at my embroidered kitchen towels and makes the following statement, "Aww, are these your little crafty things? Those are cute." Now I'm not sure if she meant to sound like a condescending ass when she made that comment, but it bothered me for about .001 seconds. At first I was a little hurt by the fact that she thought I was so basic that I had to make things to sell at a craft fair. I really wanted to say "Those are cute items you have over there, did you get those wholesale to resell? That's some talent you have there, I tell you what!". I also wanted to say that I do what I do because I want to and because I'm creative and have skills and because my husband makes good money that allows me to stay at home with my children instead of sending them to some daycare while I pretend to be somebody at my store. I wanted to tell her that I have ten thousand dollars worth of equipment that is paid for in my home that I use to "be crafty". I wanted to say that I'm not in debt for any of my stuff, and I wanted to ask her if she could say the same. I know that makes me sound condescending and I'm not even sure if any of my assumptions are true, and we all know what they say about assuming. Like I said, these are the things that went through my mind in the moments after her comment, and they allowed me to not feel totally defeated.
Now the wind starts gusting. Lots of products from different booths start blowing around and people are clinging to their tents like squirrels to a bird feeder to keep them from toppling over. Great. Some of my stuff blows around and I go get it. This gusting and retrieving happened about 3 more times before I made the executive decision to pack it in. People had to lower their tents over their products to keep them from blowing away. You can't sell your stuff if it's in someone else's booth, or if you have to lower your tent over it to keep everything put. I tell the booths next to me that I'm just not that hard core and I'm packing it up. I'll spare you the drama of how I had to drive like 2 miles to get back to the booth that I parked 100 yards from due to one-way traffic since the show opened, and how I had to force myself to abide by the directions of some little ROTC boys and make that drive instead of just hauling across grass to avoid said drive. Anyway, I get back to my booth and start packing my stuff up. I drive a mini-van, and I have my shelving unit in one piece to avoid having to assemble and disassemble it at the show. This thing is big and takes up the entire back of my van with all of the back seats either removed or stowed, but it's lightweight and I can totally pick it up by myself. The snotty girl is watching this and says to her husband, "see, we need to think about getting a van so that I can haul my stuff to shows". Who's the schmuck now? mwahaha! He says something like he'd rather be hit by a car than drive a mini-van but he'll consider a big SUV. I'm not sure what they drove there, seems like it was a small suv or van, but I obviously don't remember. The show coordinators come over and apologize for me wanting to leave. I tell them that it's totally not their fault and that I was really not prepared for the show and I thank them for the opportunity. She says she'd love for me to come back next year and I promise to do so. She was so sweet. I tell her that I hope that weather improves and that they get lots of visitors. As I drive off in my van full of hastily packed cargo, I wave to the snotty corner booth people who are sitting huddled and cold from the wind in their chairs outside their tent lowered over their stuff and think "suckeeeer".
On the way home, warm in my car, I thought about what I learned that day. First off I will likely never do a show, any show, alone again. I will also cough up the money for a good tent with sides. I will be contacting my neighbor who used to do the staging for Kirkland's and get her to help me up my display game yet again, since obviously what I originally thought looked pretty good was not. I'm also not sad about the booth fee that I paid since it went to support those ROTC boys that I almost hit with my car. I'm a little sad that the weather sucked since the show had huge potential. Next year I'll probably take the whole family because I think there was something for everyone. They had giant inflatables to play on, a classic car show, a chili cook off, and for Pete's sake, there was a little petting zoo right across from my booth! I so wanted to pet the alpaca to soothe my soul after the defeat, but I was too disgusted and he'd have made my allergies flare up and I'd have had to drive home feeling like I had sand in my eyes. Next year I'm definitely requesting to be near the petting zoo again so that the littles will be mesmerized for hours. I might even request to be on a corner if I can get my act together. I called my mom and my bff from high school on the way home to tell them that I was a quitter but felt like a winner for not subjecting myself to that since I was ill prepared. They said "good call" and I drove home to be with my family. Yup, it was a pretty good day. ~Kellie~