To read about my experience on Day 1, click here.
Sunday morning was stressful. I hadn’t slept much the night before, and I was battling a headache. As I got to Brockport, I drove through campus slowly and just reminisced.
I then went to the festival, parked and took my tubs of product to my booth. It was still standing and perfect, which was a concern as us vendors weren’t sure what the weather was going to be like overnight. There were a couple of tents that were twisted up or opened, but the majority of what I saw was still in perfect condition. I set my product up quickly, and then went and treated myself to my new best friend:
This beautiful thing is an iced cappuccino double with chocolate. Pete got me one at the coffee shop before he left Saturday, and then I ended up getting a third one before we tore everything down at the end of the festival Sunday. I don’t like cappuccino or chocolate with my coffee, but seriously, this was heaven.
I got to chat with vendors before the festival started, as well as helped Bridget setup before customers started arriving, and it was just nice encouraging each other and helping each other out. I haven’t experienced that at any other festival yet!
Fun stories:
I had a woman come into the booth, looked at the jewelry, and then said she had to walk the whole festival before she bought anything and then left. She then went to another booth and got something. It’s frustrating at times hearing that, because most of the time they don’t come back. But she did come back, and was so excited to finish up shopping for three people on her Christmas list!
I had a family come in, and they were checking out the Boathouse books. Apparently the wife has an idea for a children’s book, but doesn’t have an illustrator. They asked if I worked long distance, and I said that RV was in North Carolina, so I did. They live in California! They took my card and said they’d be in contact.
I had a wonderful gentleman come into my booth who used to do festivals, but the summer heat just wasn’t good for him anymore. He recommended I get a marine battery and converter and then I’d be able to run a fan to keep myself cool! Genius!!!! He also let me know about another show in Brockport that is in December that I should look into doing, so I’ll have to consider that 🙂
A woman came into my booth, immediately bought an A Bastion Against the Darkness print as a gift, and then left. She then quickly came back in and got a Gryffindor Deathly Hallows necklace as a gift for herself 🙂
A woman came into my booth and said we were Facebook friends. I had no idea who she was until she said her name! We met through a mutual friend, who was the receptionist for the Physics department when Pete and I were in college. Melinda messaged me, asking if I was related to Dick Apps, and that they were cousins! Dick is my father in law, so that makes us family as well. We’ve been friends on Facebook for a couple of years, and as she lives in Brockport, she thought she’d come out and meet me! She also had to get the Boathouse books as well 🙂
I fell in love with these pendants that Bridget made and had to have them! They’ll go on our Christmas tree, but I’ll find a place to hang them all year round as well!
Highlights of the day:
There were times that the booth was so full of customers, I had people waiting outside to get in to check things out!
A woman came in, took my card, and introduced herself as a member of the Batavia Society of Artists. They look for artists to come in and lecture or demonstrate their work, and she’s scoping out artists for next year and would love for me to come in and talk about/demonstrate my oil painting technique. A little while later, her daughter came in saying her mom was so excited about my work! Woo hoo!
My daughter has been begging to let me allow her to work in the booth with me, so Pete brought the kids early for tear down so she could work for an hour and a half with me! She has a lot to learn, but it was so nice having an extra set of hands and just being able to spend time with her.
Do you remember me telling you about Christopher and Stacey from when I did the Attica Founders Day last year? They both work at Michael’s, and I get to see them from time to time when I go in for supplies. Well, Stacey bought one of my necklaces last year, and has really liked my new earrings. They came out just so she could get a pair and say hi! They also brought me this AMAZING peanut butter fudge ice cream topping from another vendor at the festival before they got to my booth. They are awesome, and just having people come to see me is so humbling, and I’m honored to have any sort of following!
The weather was so much better! Not as humid, mostly sunny, and cooler! No rain!
Being missed. The kids were super snuggly with me, and when I was going through inventory and making sure my cash box balanced out on Monday morning, our dog Mason wedged himself in between all of my bins so he could be close to me 🙂
Hard parts of the day:
Oh man. This was so horrible. Across the street from us someone was putting an air conditioner into a third story window and it fell out onto the sidewalk. I saw it come down, but thought it was just something flying from a booth as the breeze was strong at that point. But then I heard the crash. It hit a woman on the head, and it was so horrible. They were able to get her sitting up and bandaged and took her off, but the mood for a while was so somber and scared. Trying to be cheery and happy when customers who didn’t know what had happened was really hard. I had a pit in my stomach for quite awhile after that.
How I did:
Sales were definitely up on Day 2, and there were times I was so busy it was stressful (in a good way!). There were also some slow times, but nothing like Saturday. I sold mostly jewelry, but also did a couple prints, note cards, and books. I was definitely more encouraged at the end of the day!
Overall thoughts:
Will I be doing this show again seems to be the big question. At this point, I don’t know. Probably? I told Debi I’d do it again only if I was guaranteed to be next to her!
But in all seriousness, I did well enough that I could see doing it again and consider it a good show for me. But there’s something about the show that I just didn’t like. I didn’t like how the judging was done, how the festival chair never came to greet new vendors, or how things were changed without telling us vendors or even some of the festival volunteers. I got to meet a lot of wonderful people, though, and made some fantastic contacts. Thankfully I have a long time to think about this, so there is no rush 🙂
And now it’s time to prep for AppleUmpkin in September! I’ll also be finishing up some commissions that have had to be put on the back burner for awhile, as well as starting Boathouse 3 illustrations! Woo hoo!!!!
Back to the Drawing Board 