Craft show craziness is OVER!

Over for this year anyway. And what a crazy year in the craft show biz it has been too. The one show I had anticipated being my biggest yet, ended up being a slow stinker for me (kinda). And the 2 "little" ones ended up being busy happy surprises!  I have some orders in the works that I need to get going on too, so I'm still staying busy with stuff. And that, my friends, is good too!

I have to say that I've gotten so many wonderful words of encouragement from people at these shows about how I should have my own shop, that I'm actually trying to figure out something in my head to get one started. My husband has actually been my biggest supporter with that. Truth be known, secretly he's hoping to become my full time "picker." Who can blame him either? I mean, who hasn't dreamed of being another Frank & Mike from "American Pickers?" Can I have an Amen here?

So anyway...I had my 3rd and final craft show this last Saturday and it was pretty good. Well, the show itself was a tad on the slow side, but since I made a huge sale during the set up the night before, it's considered a good show.

 {image source}

I made some of these cuties (NO-this is not mine, I forgot to take a photo of them) and all 4 of mine sold to the first 3 customers of the day. And to think, I've had these mugs for about 10 years waiting for some kind of inspiration to use them.

Then, I made these pretties

 They drew a lot of attention, but I only sold one of the small ones.

This is a chalkboard I made, but even though it was pretty enough with that cute frame, I couldn't/wouldn't leave well enough alone. Oh. no.  It needed a special title - to be worn like a necklace on a pretty dress. Unfortunately, it didn't sell either, but I did sell a magnetic chalkboard that I did in all black. And, of course I didn't remember to take a picture of that one, did I? Geesh. You'd think this was my first month of blogging wouldn't you? I keep thinking one of these days I'll get good at this whole blogging thing, but I can't even keep my kitchen cleaned up after every meal. What makes me think I'd be good at keeping my blog up to par? 

One can only hope!


 
I'm linking up to these parties:

Craft Show #1 - Done

I had my first craft show of this year on Nov 3 and I can't decide if it was a success or a failure. The show was busy the entire time, so that part was very good, considering it was in a very tiny town.

I apparently was not all together that day because I forgot to take my camera for pictures of my booth. I know, my bad. I hate when I forget stuff like that and it happens more these days. Blaming it on the aging process.

The part that makes the show a success for me was that I made pretty decent money. Not nearly as much as what I was working my butt off for, or even as much as last year (with less stuff), but still good (I really shouldn't even complain). The part that was terribly disappointing was that I only sold 39 items and about a 1/3 of that was small things that I didn't even make, like placemats and table  runners. I had purchased TWO spaces this year for all the stuff I was making and bringing, and yet I packed practically every bit of it up and brought it back home. As for the furniture, I only sold one chair first thing in the morning. People LOVED the stuff, but must have thought they were at a garage sale...did they feel the prices were too high? I've seen higher prices on Craigslist for scratched up junk... I know a craft show isn't where people go to get furniture, so honestly, it wasn't really a let down in that dept.

My husband tells me I need to forget that venue and move on to someplace that has bigger spenders. LOL! The problem with those shows is that everyone else wants in those shows too and they're booked up early with long waiting lists of other vendors. Besides, I can't even get return phone responses from the administrators in the first place.

Oh well, enough of my whining, crying, snortin' and ballin'. I know there were people at that same show that didn't even make their booth rent. Now THAT'S a heartbreaking day! I guess this buttercup better buck up!

I thought for sure this black & burlap lamp would sell at the show(s), even though it was admired by many, it didn't sell. It wasn't until I posted it on my Facebook page that it finally went bye-bye. I painted it black, even though it looks kind of blue-ish here. It was sanded to distress it and I found a lampshade that I recovered in a printed burlap. I added some coordinating black trim to it to finish it off.

I did sell this birdhouse. I didn't make the birdhouse, but did add it to the wooden candlestick and bottom base that I painted to match closely.

I will admit that I pretty much copied this shutter idea from one that someone else sold on Ebay and mine did sell too. I liked it enough that I was tempted to keep it.

This is a picture frame that I removed the back off of & painted just the frame red and made the quote with red vinyl. I'm learning that I don't have any luck selling these kinds of items, so I guess I need to figure out how to use them with other projects so they don't go to waste.

Little side story here...At the show, I over heard a gentleman commenting to his wife that the "shabby" look is out while browsing my booth. Hmmm...I didn't really think of my stuff as shabby, but more like rustique & chic. I also thought it was rude of him to say that in such a loud voice.  I guess he was more right than I was since I didn't sell much of it. I'm obviously reading the wrong blogs. ????

My hubby has been trying to convince me that we should put up a little building and make it into a shop for me to sell out of here at our home. I have to admit that I'm not sure about how well it would go over, but I did have dozens of people ask me if I had a shop. The idea is that the money being spent is going back into our property as an investment and not someone else's pocket for rent. The back up plan is that we make this shop from a garage plan, but cuten it up (I made that word up - cuten) but if it's an epic fail, then we can convert it into an actual garage for the multitude of vehicles and equipment we seem to have. Still getting all the necessities for zoning & permit info, etc.

Enough of the boring stuff - now here's a few more items.

Painted Vintage Rolling Pin

Pinterest inspired Stocking decor (a smaller version because I'm basically lazy)

Another Pinterest inspired project - painted snowman shutter. It looks better if you take a picture looking down upon it instead of dead-on, like this one, but it's still kinda cute.

Two more shows to go and not sure what to expect at the next one, because it's a new venue for me and I've never even had the opportunity to visit it before now. I'm excited that I was able to get in this year, since they're typically booked with a waiting list! Wish me luck! 

.  
Linking up to these parties:

 

Da Dum, Da Dum, Da Dum (Jaws music playing)

Well folks, the time has finally arrived. This is the weekend of my 1st craft show. I've never gone this big before. I'm usually doing good just to fill ONE space, but now I'm doing a huge 21x8 foot space - all. by. myself. I'm also in a different location, which most of the customers that visit this show know to go to my old location that I shared with a friend. She still has that spot that is on a stage. I'm in front of that stage. I've been shamelessly plugging the show & my booth. I hope it works & I hope they like what they see.

I've had to borrow a race car trailer from a friend just to haul the furniture and the tables and a few boxes of stuff safely. Never had to do that before! Yet, there is still a ton more projects that didn't get finished in time, plus, I've been working on more while pricing, inventorying & packing what is done. 

I have no clue how to set up my booth. I had visions of grandeur by creating a darling space, but I seriously doubt that is how it will turn out. We'll see.

To help with that vision, I painted & stenciled this large louvered closet door that I found.

I intend to use it in my booth to hang lightweight items and add some interest to the space. I don't plan to sell it, BUT everything has a price (right?) so who ever would want it would have to like it better than me to pay the steep price tag I put on  it. 

The design was made using my Cricut to cut the contact paper to create a stencil.

It's the same design that I did on a ladder back chair that you can see HERE, minus the frame and flourishes.

It was a bear to do, because the contact paper didn't want to stick the first time, I had to repaint the black portions and redo because of so much paint bleed through.

It's hard to remember to take before pictures of my projects and it was a challenge to remember to even take the "after" shots as well because I've been pumping projects out & I guess I'm just not a blogger at heart to put it first in my priorities. I apoligize for my lack of follow through during this time. I have one more show in a month, but it's not nearly as big as this one, but if I sell a ton, then it could be the same scenario all over again. LOL! Even though I'm tired, I'd welcome it.

Have a great day!
 
I'm linking up to these parties:

 

Butcher Block Stand

We just got back home early Sunday evening from a weekend of camping in West Central Indiana for the Covered Bridge Festival there. It's a huge 10 day event that takes place every 2nd weekend all the way through the 3rd weekend in October. It technically just spans 2 counties, but a few other surrounding counties kinda take advantage of the all that traffic by having lots of yard sales and flea markets of their own to lure in these potential buyers - and it works! Some of those flea markets are pretty pricey too! I found some really neat stuff, but refused to pay even 50% of what they wanted & I won't even insult them with that kind of offer.

The weather wasn't the greatest, but tolerable. It was actually pretty warm, even though it was cloudy and a bit rainy from time to time on Saturday, but we went prepared with our ponchos. I was very lazy in taking pictures and only took one. 

I know, Bad Blogger, right? My husband spotted this Junk Dealer badge and thought of me. I didn't come home with it though. I was saving my money for better things. I spent all that I had and then some of his too, but he knew that would happen and came prepared. He's a smart good man. ;)

By early Sunday morning, the winds came in just a howling! Wow. Luckily, we got to the one festival in Mansfield early, but they were in discussions about closing the festival because of the 40+ mph winds, so we got we came for & split. 

We went off to find the flea markets and yard sales from there, but soon discovered that they had all closed early for the day, because the winds were just too hard to deal with. I guess it was for the best for us financially anyway, so we hooked up to our camper & headed for home. Things were going good, that is until we were only 30 minutes from home & a tire blew on the camper. It was a little scary, because the wind was a huge concern for my husband while having the 23 ft. long camper up on jacks, & it was even worse when a semi would come speeding by creating an even bigger gust of wind. Luckily, everything went OK and we were on our way. Now we just have to replace the ground wire on the camper because the shredded tire must have flew up and snapped it in two.

But having pictures for you is not a total loss, I have something else to share that I've made for my show.

This one is a little blurry.  It's a small butcher block that I added some finials as feet. Then I painted it white and added vintage looking red stripes to. Next, I created the stencil with my Cricut machine and some contact paper and distress sanded the whole thing and finally gave it a coat of clear wax.  In case you were wondering, Das Kuche is German for The Kitchen. I know, it's not French or Italian that's so hot right now. I chose German because my husband's family is German and there is a lot of that heritage in this area.

If I ever do this kind of design again, with the red stripes on white, I think I will get me a sample bottle of the red latex paint instead, because the acrylic paint smeared, so I had to make sure I followed the stripe to prevent that.

I should have stained the feet before painting them white so they would look more like the top, but I just carefully and lightly stained them in spots and it looks better in real life than in these pictures.

I did find a cute little end table for $3 and a chair for $5. Gosh, it would be great to have all that furniture painted & ready for my show, but I'm losing 10 more days for a trip to Disney World. Ugh! I also need more smaller items to fill up 2-8 ft. tables. I feel guilty about writing blog posts, but I already lost a month or more already from neglecting it. I know you can't go too long before you start losing readers and I don't have that many to begin with & I love all of you that read & comment on a regular basis!

XOXO!

Hey! THIS project was featured here!:

 

 
I'm linking up to these parties:

Sort of Pinterest Inspired....?

Have you seen this chair on Pinterest?

I think this is a really cool looking chair with the stencil pattern sort of done in reverse to let the wood grain show through.

I like the idea of letting the darker wood show through the pretty white paint.

That's where I kinda sorta maybe drew my inspiration from for this chair.

I know, the words are a little hard to see in this photo, but that's where the wood is peaking through.

Is that easier to see?

The thin letters are a bit harder to keep the paint from seeping under, but for the most part, it worked out pretty good!

And how about that boring rush seat? I didn't want it to feel left out, so I added a white star to it. 

I know, I've kinda been on a star kick lately, but I keep seeing it all over the internet and on Ebay. So, I'm hoping they're a hit at my craft show too!

Well I have many more things to get working on, so this is another short post.


Parties I'm linking to:

Recipe Card or Book Holder

I don't have anything to show you that fits into the WOW! category today, but I think it's pretty cute in all it's little simplicity.

I don't recall where I found this sweet looking stand, but you can bet it was either a garage sale or thrift store.  I just had to get it because I loved the shape of it!

I used my Cricut Expression to cut out the stencil from just cheap ol' contact paper that I get at Walmart. The frame design is from the Splish Splash cartridge and the font is from the Nursery Rhymes cartridge, and I used the Cricut Design Studio software to arrange the letters inside the framework.

It started out as just your basic honey colored wood that I went over with a base coat of black paint first and then went over that in white with a little distress sanding. I left the edge black because I think that really sets it off, although it's hard to tell in this photo (you can see it a little on the top left corner)

I like to try to make things that are functional look pretty, as well. I don't know about all of you, but I know I'm more likely to use something if it's sitting out and easily accessible, like saaaaay....sitting on the counter or a shelf. If it's going to sit out in plain site like that, why shouldn't it look pretty?! Exactly.

Now I'm almost talking myself into keeping it, but I have to remind myself that it's for my craft show & that's in just a few weeks! Ack!!

Wish me luck in getting puh-lenty of stuff done and doing great in sales. 

  
Parties I'm linking to: