AppleUmpkin 2015

The AppleUmpkin Festival in Wyoming, NY was this past weekend, and I had the opportunity to set my booth up on a friend’s front yard and participate!

The weather was absolutely perfect. One day of the festival is usually too hot or rainy, but we lucked out and had two absolutely gorgeous days.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this festival; I hadn’t done a two day festival before, so trying to figure out how much inventory to have was problematic, as well as wondering how my stamina would be. I had a bit of a cold, and I’m usually exhausted after just a one day show. We were also at the very edge of the festival, and not everyone who attended the festival would enter from our side. We were also on the opposite side of the road, so only a fraction of the fraction of people who would attend the show would actually come see where we were set up. Pete also was unable to help me this weekend run the booth, so I was alone all weekend. However, there were three of us selling our wares at this house, so someone was always available to watch my booth when I needed to step away.

I’m really happy with how well the show went, and could write all day about all the fun things that happened over the weekend.

My favorite stories from the weekend are:

Being asked to inscribe and autograph a print

A customer searching me out because she saw my AppleUmpkin Festival Facebook event (that went viral locally!) and wanted to see what I was about

A customer coming to my booth, recognizing my work from a previous event, and then telling me she wants to see me everywhere next year because she thinks my work is amazing

Friends, family and repeat customers coming by to support me, either by visiting or making purchases

People coming in Sunday (when it was really really slow) because they wanted to make sure I didn’t feel left out, and then making purchases because they fell in love with my work. One woman only came in because she was concerned no one saw me because I was behind a tree!

Hearing stories of people buying my jewelry and not being able to wait to put it on (or even putting it on in the booth after purchasing it!) and hanging up art as soon as it gets home ❤

New changes and additions to the booth:

The new style of earrings debuted, and they were a huge hit! I think I sold fourteen pairs!

New displays for jewelry, note cards, and the Christmas items. This made it so much easier for people to find exactly what design they were looking for.

Another table! I ended up ordering a table identical to what I already had. All the longer tables I found either didn’t fold or didn’t change heights, and I like having the higher tables. Even with the extra table, I was still cramped for space, and I wasn’t able to have all the products I intended to have.

Things I want to change:

Possibly get yet another table. The corner with the prints was a little cramped, and once Boathouse Mouse books are out, I’ll have those as well.

Maybe work on layout a little bit more. If people came from the left side, they only saw the originals and walked past. People walking from the right side saw all the jewelry and prints and were more apt to stop because they saw smaller items.

New ideas for products:

I always get feedback about new products that people would like to see. I got two great ones this weekend, and I’m definitely going to be looking into them:

Non-holiday gift tags. Gifts are given for more than just Christmas, so ones for birthdays would be a great thing to have. The woman who suggested that actually came back and asked me to make apple gift tags for teacher gifts, so those will be coming soon!

Adding an optional non-porous backing to my necklaces. I was really confused when this was first mentioned to me, but this would allow them to be wearable essential oil diffusers! I think it’s a great idea, and as we love essential oils in my family and I know they’re popular with a lot of people right now, I think it’s definitely something to look into.

This was my last outdoor show for the season, and only have one more indoor show scheduled. Thank you all for your support this year; we can’t wait to see what next year brings!