How to Be Successful At Craft Fairs

Whether you are brand new to the world of selling goods at fairs and craft shows, or if you are a seasoned expert, today’s economy dictates that just a bit more legwork is required in order for crafting to be profitable.  Here in our neck of the woods we have our share of craft fairs, which seem to be growing in popularity.

This last weekend the kids and I jumped both feet in the water with a relatively new craft fair and vintage flea market called Humboldt Junkies.  One Blessed Acre joined forces with Bluebird Mom - Chalk Couture.  So, in addition to all of our great goat milk bath and body products, we had custom chalked signs on rustic wood boards and vintage windows.

In order to properly prepare for our booth, a couple weeks ahead of time we got together and ran through a trial set up of the booth.  This is a must if you want to be prepared on set-up day at the actual fair.  While it still took us three hours to completely set up the booth, it would have taken us several more hours if we hadn't done this pre-preparation.  When we got to the fair, we found out we had the front booth, the very first booth everyone would see as they were walking in.  As soon as we saw this we realized we needed to adjust our layout to allow for the side entrance for customers to walk right into our booth.  Being flexible was essential to our success.

Tables are a must for craft displays.  Think outside of the box for display tables; not only functional ones but unique pieces.  Risers and displays need to be creative, varying heights and textures. This allows a customer's eyes to wander and observe your entire booth. We also combined products to show our customers possible gift giving ideas or ways to display their bath products at home.

Did you know you have 3 minutes or less to impress upon someone to walk into your booth and actually engage with your product?  This is not a big window of time, so make sure your displays are sharp and easy to view.   The "Rule of Seven" applies here;  The Rule of Seven is an old marketing adage. It says that a prospect needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action and buy from you.  So, above all have great signage.  We had not only two large banners, but individual signs telling price, sizes, scents and product names.  It's important to have your business name and website displayed so customers will see it.   

The day of the fair everyone was in a good mood.  Make sure you are thoroughly rested and have a smile on your face.  You only get one chance at a first impression and you want it to be a good one.  How could you resist this adorable face asking you to try our goat milk lotion?  Trust me, NO ONE did!  Be sure to wear comfortable clothing and comfortable shoes!  Standing on your feet all day can be quite painful.

Creating a theme for your booth is another way to be successful at craft fairs.  This was the first year we attended this craft fair so we wanted to make a lasting impression upon our customers.  A coherent stall with strong branding is helpful in getting our customers to remember our booth.  If you can, carry your branding into your packaging so that when a customer buys something they will be taking it home in one of your paper bags with a business card included.  Think about who your target market is and tailor your booth to this clientele.

At the end of the day, a successful craft fair means that you had a great time at the craft fair.  It also means that contacts were made with people that you'd never met before.  These can lead to potential sales at future craft fairs.  The learning experiences that our children were exposed to over the weekend are innumerable and invaluable.  Just a quick few to mention; making change, writing receipts, product merchandising, customer service, product knowledge and sales.  Never underestimate these skills and how important they can be to learn.  When I evaluated our results for this craft fair, we came right in at successful!

A Little Behind the Times

Barn # 7 is finally finished and up on the wall.  Being quite the critic, I noticed one of my pin wheels did not line up. . .  you can probably even see it in the picture.  After piecing together these tiny 2 1/2 inch pin wheel squares, I decided that it wasn't worth tearing out and re-doing it.  Here's hoping when I have it quilted the stitching will hide my error.

We are packing for a trip out to Yosemite National Park this week.  We are meeting up with friends from Florida who are on a month long cross country journey this summer.  Hannah is about bouncing out of her skin with excitement to see her best friend Carolyn.  If I had a nickel for everytime one of the kids has asked if we are leaving, I'd be a millionaire!  I love having happy children anxious for family time.

Our first stop tomorrow will be Pier 39 in San Francisco so that the General Manager can get a bowl of clam chowder and fish and chips for lunch.  We will not forget to get our National Park Passport stamped on our journey.

I almost have barn #8 complete, but I had to stop sewing to prepare for the trip.  If I could take my sewing machine along, I probably would. .  . alas, I must wait until we return.

Have a blessed weekend.
Michelle

My favorite barn . . so far. . and a little teen social

 

This has to be my favorite barn fabric combination yet!  I just love how my sunflower block turned out.  Really, my photo does not do the colors justice, so you might have to wait until the quilt is done to get a better peek at this design.  As we move into summer gardening, finding time to sew is becoming challenging, but I'm very thankful that Lori gives us two weeks to complete the barns.

 

Last weekend another home school mom and I planned a Teen Social for the Jr./Sr. High students in our home school group.  The teens went to dinner at a local restaurant, onto bowling, and then to a very fun and yummy place called Ultimate Yogurt.  It was fun to watch them all get acquainted and interact.  Next year, we'll do this again, only the kids will be wearing more formal attire.  We just didn't have the time this year for everyone to go shopping.  Anne picked out and assembled her whole outfit with online shopping.  In my mind, that takes a lot talent to match colors.  She looked beautiful!

 

 

 

 

What a great start to spring. . . .

I love this time of year.  When we drive anywhere the first thing my kids say is, "Look Momma, it's marshmallow season again."  I love to see the fields lined with all of the marshmallow bales of hay.  I almost want to gather them all up and jump from bale to bale.

 

 

We have officially been here in Northern California for three years now and I have never seen weather in May like we had last week. NEVER!  It was in the upper 60's for over a week and several days reached the 70's during the hottest parts of the day.  All I can say is it was amazing! 

So, if you are a kid and it's hot outside, what kind of experiment do you automatically want to attempt to try - yep, you guessed it - fry an egg on the sidewalk, but in our case it's more like fry and egg on the gravel driveway.  And, no, it did not fry, but the chickens and ducks really enjoyed the meal after the kids got bored waiting for the egg to cook.

 

Our Anne, turned 15 this last week with a wonderfully hand decorated (by her sister) cookie cake.  She was showered with many presents.  Thank heavens the clothes I picked out for her passed the can-I-say-incredibly- picky- teenager standard.  She looked rather cute in her new mint green polka-dotted baby doll shirt and leggings.

We spent the entire weekend putting in the garden.  The General Manager helped out by roto-tilling the entire right side of the garden which does not have any raised beds.  He finally was so exhausted with the hand-push roto-tiller that he just asked where the rows were going to be and only tilled those areas.  We have all of the same favorites from last year, in addition to some new varieties we are trying.  A friend of mine bought me the most beautiful tomato and pepper plants so just as soon as the greenhouse gets assembled I will have to post some more garden pictures. 

No, that is not the General Manager standing out in the middle there, but rather our scarecrow.  He actually worked last year to keep the birds out of the garden - I didn't think it could be done, but he was worth his weight in gold.

We have three new additions to our flock - meet Sarah (the red one on the left), Grant and Xavier.   They are a Red Production, Black Sex Link and Araucauna breed.   These three just happen to share the names of our second oldest daughter, her new husband and their little one which is due to be born next month.  I'm not sure how our family feels having our flock of chickens named after them, but sometimes I think it rather strange?

 

And for my fifth barn in the Quilty Barn Along - here it is.  The next set of barns will have brown roofs and windows.  Since Lori just put up the instructions for barn #6, I guess I better start pulling fabric.

 

Have a wonderful week!

Weekend Inspiration

One of the best parts of my weekend is spent reading my Saturday morning "weekend inspirations" from many of my favorite blogs.  They list great links to recipes, family, faith, crafting and lots more.

~Blogs~

Frugal Granola

Raising Olives

Recently, I have been feeling very burdened with feeding my family better food; whole foods, natural the way God intended us to feed our bodies with nourishment.  This burden was spurred on by an accidental placement of Joel Salatin's book, "Folks This Ain't Normal," into my Amazon cart by my dear hubby.  What was suppose to be a "wish list" book until I read some of his other books that our library holds, has turned into a diving board, so to say, into very deep, deep waters. 

Food is daunting to me.  My overwhelming feeling of ineptness, encompasses everything from what to grow, how to grow it, how to harvest it, how to store it, how to cook and process it and what it does to my body.  All I know is that I can't keep feeding my body corn, in the form of sugars, syrups, meat, and processed foods, nor can I sit idly by and feed my husband and children this junk.  The only way to make an impact is through my pocketbook - I determine what I buy and from where. I have a long uphill learning curve when it comes to food, from garden to table, but the results will be worth it. 

So with all this said, I came across a wonderful blog last night after reading (of all magazines) Martha Stewart Living.  I'm loving the look of the parsley root fries and cannot wait to try some of her other recipes. 

My New Roots

Enjoy your weekend!

Weekends are for pedicures

She may be eight, but she'll always be my little girl.
She smiled from ear to ear while her feet were soaking.
It was a day out with momma.
The massaging chair tickled her back, but she really enjoyed the tapping motion.
She didn't even flinch when he scrubbed her feet.
Her toes were a vibrant, sparkly purple.
And afterwards she said, "When can I get a manicure?"

Weekends are for baby ducklings. .

Our first batch of eggs did not make it, but yesterday, after another grueling 35 days, Vanessa, our Muscovey hen gave us our first ducklings.  We discovered the first one by accident, as it had wandered from the pen under the trailer and was peeping quite loudly for it's momma.  Vanessa had wandered off for a long overdue drink of water and food.



We are still awaiting to see if the last two eggs will hatch.  We are not sure what date they were laid so we are waiting for a few more days before removing the eggs from her cage.  My favorite is watching them follow momma in a very straight line behind her, still a little wobbly in their stride.

We are going to have to find a more permanent home for them all as they cannot continue to reside in the garage.  We would love to get them out in the garden but for some reason they do not want to cross over into that gated area.    We are not sure if we'll be able to keep both of the babies due to how much feed they eat - they eat almost double what the chickens consume.  But they have been very helpful in consuming the massive quantity of slugs in our yard, so for that I'm very thankful.

We need to decide on some names, so here is your chance to leave a suggestion!  Have a blessed week.

Blessings,
Michelle

Zucchini Pineapple

In my constant search for new uses for zucchini and alternate ways to store the abundance of zucchini, I came across a canning recipe for zucchini pineapple.  Intrigued, I had to read on.  Crystal uses this for many of her recipes that call for crushed pineapple, one being her Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe that not only is one my family's favorites, but is very quick and easy to put together.

Zucchini Pineapple

8 quarts grated zucchini (about 6 - 7 overly large zucchini)
2 - 20 oz. cans chunk pineapple
6 cups sugar
3 cups lemon juice



Combine all ingredients into a large stock pot, bringing to a boil, reduce and simmer for 20 minutes. Ladle hot mixture into hot pint jars and can in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.





I couldn't resist, so I tasted some before it went into the jars.  It is unbelievable how much the zucchini tastes and maintains the same texture as crushed pineapple.  I cannot wait to try this in all of my recipes that call for crushed pineapple.

Weekends are for harvesting lavender

Lavender smells remind me of freshly cleaned linens blowing in the breeze on the clothesline.  It's the scent that I turn to everytime I want to relax and unwind from the day.  It's the scent that I frequently put in sachets that are secretly tucked away into all of our drawers.

In a small corner of our front garden, our lavender bush sits quietly and blooms beautifully every year producing a beautiful aroma of fragrant buds.

May all your wanderings this weekend be a sweet aroma to Him who created us. . .

Ephesians 5:2     
     Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.   

Celebrating Life

She and her brother wait anxiously on the front porch as the gentlemen set up this monsterous slide for our celebration of their lives.  "Can we keep the slide forever," she asks.  "No, honey," I reply, "the men have to take it back at the end of the day so that someone else can receive the joy you'll get from it today."  The wheels in her little braining turning - I could see that she was figuring out how many times she could slide during the day before the men returned.  The child-like simplicity of life at four!

All of our precious peas due a celebration of their lives, but this year we only have five remaining at home to enjoy this celebration.  Not only do they glorify God in all they do, but they bless their parents every day of their lives.  So we enjoy celebrating once a year with so many wonderful friends.

Secretly a thrill for the General Manager, making his famous ribs and chicken drumsticks are a highlight of the party.  No one leaves hungry and all family members from youngest to oldest get in on the fun.

We pray to thank God for our blessings, not only family, but friends, our home, our food and the beautiful day that we were given.  We find that we simply cannot pray enough thanksgiving for the gifts that we have been blessed with.

Relatively warm days are a rarity here in Northern California, so to watch sunscreen being applied was quite a surprise.

At the end of the day, the gentlemen return to take down the slide, sighs of disappointment murmur in the breeze that has blown in from the ocean nearby.  The clouds are beginning to roll in, letting us know the day is coming to a close.  As some large tears are shed, I wonder, "will Tractor Boy be able to wait until next year for another slide? "

I'm not sure, but I know that the memories that God gave us today will be remembered forever.

Praise his glorious name forever!Let the whole earth be filled with his glory.  Amen and amen  Psalm 72:19

Road trips are for spending time with family

Our trip to Sparks, Nevada was filled with moments of memories for all.  The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, the heat was just right and the mountain peaks above us still had a rather large patch of snow remaining.

It was wonderful finally getting to meet "Uncle Tom" or "UT" as most call him around those parts. We'll have to make sure it's not another 17 years before we see him again.  Everyone enjoyed Uncle Steve's pool.   The ride home was filled with talk of how we could get a pool at our house so that they could keep swimming.  They keep forgetting that our 60 degree weather makes for very cold swimming water.

Our nephew's Eagle Court Ceremony

Grandma with her grandkids

We got home in one piece and everything was well taken care of - even our chickens were excited to see us!