Faith Lutheran Church & School
Lincoln, NE
I spent all day Saturday, October 25, 2014, vending at the Faith Lutheran
Church and School Fall Arts & Crafts Fair. I was one of 57 vendors.
I had expected a disappointing day, because the Huskers had a home
football game beginning at 11:00 am. But I was pleasantly surprised!
Although there was (as predicted) a 4.5-hour
“dead zone” from 10:30 am until 3:00 pm, where there were virtually no
shoppers, early birds turned out in force, and business was BRISK from 9:00 am
until 10:30 am. In fact, I averaged 1
sale every 90 seconds!! Yowza! And there was another little spurt of
activity from 3:00 – 4:00 pm, when the after-the-game crowd straggled in. Unseasonably mild weather possibly helped boost the turnout.
I used the down time during the Husker game (when I should have been taking photos to share with y'all) to embroider
faces on finger puppets that I’ll be taking to the office on Thursday for
little trick-or-treaters. (The children
and grandchildren of faculty, staff, and students at the UNL Law College will
go from office to office trick-or-treating.
I normally work mornings, but I’ll come back that afternoon to help with
that fun activity.)
When I did the final tally today, I learned that despite the BIG LULL this
actually turned out to be my best craft fair to date for 2014, in terms of
gross sales, number of items sold, and number of customers reached! Who knew?!
Most of the sales were for "impulse buy" items priced at $5.00
and under, although I did sell a few oven mitts. I handed out lots of business cards and 20%
off coupons for my Etsy shop --- and I landed three custom orders!
Sadly, the organizers gave notice that this would be
their last year for hosting the craft fair.
They’ve held Spring and Fall craft fairs every year since 2004.
This week, I’ll be regrouping and restocking-- preparing
for the Cotner Center Craft Fair this Saturday,
November 1, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm, and hopefully adding a few new listings
to my Etsy shop. The Cotner Center Craft Fair is a relatively small venue. This is the first year I'll be vending at that show.
I know some of my Etsy teammates are also vending at
craft fairs this Fall. How do you manage
to juggle Etsy holiday prep and craft fair participation and still get more than four hours of sleep?
TTFN
LeAnn
So happy for you, LeAnn, that the craft fair was a success! But too bad the organizers have decided to withdraw their venue. The office trick-or-treating sounds fun and I bet your finger puppets will be a big hit!
ReplyDeleteThat is so weird about the fake FB personal page...how did you find out?
I got an email asking me to provide a profile picture, but it led to a fake account. When I logged out and tried to sign in, I was zapped to the fake account. I was able to Report and Restore--so I can now access my "real" account, but it concerns me that some puppeteer is operating that fake account. Creepy.
DeleteLeAnn, sorry to hear about all those hustles with you FB account :( I'm glad you fixed that. I always feel funny about FB and only lately start using but still with a hesitation...
ReplyDeleteSo happy to know your show was a success... and better than you anticipated!
Thanks, Lana. Glad to have my "real" FB page back, but a bit nervous that the phantom is still lurking out there in cyberspace.
DeleteWhoa, that fake account is creepy! I hope you can get a hold of somebody at Facebook to get it taken care of (when you have time, that is).
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the show was better than expected! Yay!
I used the Report link (hidden under the 3 tiny dots in the lower right hand corner of the banner) on my "real" page--reporting as if I were a Friend, because I couldn't directly access it. And one of the Options under Report was Restore or Delete -- so I chose Restore. And now I DO have my "real" page back. But I'm a bit unnerved that the phantom is still lurking in cyberspace.
DeleteThat's great that the show was good despite that darn Husker game. How dare they schedule games when we're trying to sell :)
ReplyDeleteThat's crazy about your FB account! I got a request from someone I was already friends with this week. Scary!
Best of luck getting caught up on restocking and custom orders :)
Thanks, Edi! You've experienced that BIG LULL during the Huskers games! At least I came prepared this time!
DeleteNeed to sign off and sew....
finger puppets! a great idea! photos?
ReplyDeleteThat's awful about facebook.
I nearly sold out of finger puppets and cord keepers. I'll have to take some photos of my finger puppet display at the Dec. 6 show.
Delete