First off, I will say that I am venting, and I am sorry. I have had an extremely frustrating weekend. I received information about the 12th Annual "Bear Creek Festival" in Hampton, Georgia that averages 10,000 attendees. Sounds like a pretty good festival, right? 12 year holding it (so everyone in the area should know about it); near the race track (with an event going on this weekend, so lots of people in the area); 10,000 people sounds like a good number too. MAYBE they have had 10,000 if they combine the 12 years of the festival (if other years are like this one!) What a bust! I took Caitlin with me to help for the weekend, and she was a huge help, but that meant another person to feed for the weekend too. The booth cost $60, and of course, it took gas to get there. I had bought a 6 pack of water and a couple of bags of chex mix (around $7.00) to take with us. Between us we spend $19.00 that day for lunch, and the splurge of the weekend, $5.00 of that was spent on getting us some "potato ribbons" to share that afternoon. On Sunday, we only spent $8.00 for our lunches. So, in all the weekend cost me $94.00, plus gas for the van and explorer. (Dad came over on Saturday morning to help set up, then came back on Sunday afternoon to help with take down) Of course that doesn't take in the cost of fabric, etc. of any item. On Saturday, we brought in about $85.00. On Sunday, we brought in a grand total of $3.00! We did make one $15.00 exchange - a girl who had an air brush booth, traded a purse for a shirt for Caitlin. I had planned on paying Caitlin something for helping me, so that made me able to give her something even though I didn't really have the money to give her. So, I guess that brings my income to $103.00 for the weekend. What a waste!
It makes me question if I should even be doing this. I enjoy so much making the bags and other items. You know me, I have to be doing something, I can't just sit and watch tv. It's my daddy in me, I think. Anyway, sewing is pretty good therapy for me, and I don't want to stop sewing. I KNOW that I am not charging too much for my bags. If I factored in how much I spend on making them, on some I would be losing money. But, since I buy a lot of fabric and supplies from yard sales, I figure it balances out.
What am I doning wrong? Am I the only person who likes these bags? (I know you'll say you do, but you're my family, you're supposed to like them) Should I figure a way to make them cheaper?
We'll see how the Honey Bee Festival in Hahira goes this weekend. It is supposed to be a good festival.
I have been advised to bite the bullet and spend a little more and hit the big shows. So, for next year, maybe I will try McDonough's Geranium Festival, Mossy Creek in Gay, Ga. and the yellow daisy festival at Stone Mountain. I need to start looking into those, I guess. That kind of scares me, if I am being honest, because if I go to those, and still fail, do I stop altogether? Maybe deep down, I don't sign up for those because I don't want to admit I suck at this and give up entirely.
Sorry I'm being so negative after Carrie has been trying so hard to get me to write a blog. LOL - Bet you won't ask me again will you?
Oh Mom! Like I said to you before its just a bad time in the economy for crafts shows because people don't feel that they have extra money to spend on things that aren't necessity. However, if you started a web page or joined that site Carrie and Mandy were talking about, you would open up your crafts to more people than just small town struggling families who come to craft shows. I love your bags and your aprons and your dogs stuff and all of it and there are plenty of people out there looking for unique hand made items. So don't be afraid to try a new frontier, the world wide web! And yeah, I think give a few of those more upscale popular shows a try! Love you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for passing all your creativity and work ethic on to us!
From now on you should post pics of some samples of stuff that you are going to have at an upcoming show on a blog post here a few weeks beforehand. I think I will also set you up a twitter id / account that is specifically for crafts, rather than personal, and show you how to "tweet" from that. Then you can post a link to the blog on there and all of your twitter followers will see it and hopefully spread the word / come and see your booth. I use twitter to advertise myself all the time and it is really effective for getting something out to lots of people.
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