Craft Booth Experience.

Let me start off by saying that this weekend did not turn out as expected. Don’t get me wrong… I don’t regret it. I had a lot of fun and I think we got some really good exposure. First of all… It is hard to sell stuff. Very hard. Second… it doesn’t help that not that many people even came to the show! Courtney and I were both under the impression that this was a big event and that tons of people were going to come. That did not happen. 

Here is a list of things I did not like about the show.

Cons: 

We had to buy a carpet because it was “mandatory” (why you ask? I have absolutely no idea. The floor was concrete) and then come to find out that maybe 40 percent of the vendors did not have said carpets… 

We registered for a booth closer to the front but apparently they didn’t get our registration… So when we didn’t get our vendor package we called and asked about it they told us they didn’t get the registration but the got the money and they never cared to see where that mysterious money came from. So we got the second to last booth to the end because ours had been reserved later. 

They had these hideous red and white curtains for the back drop. Sooo sick.

It smelled like horse crap until the guy selling roasted nuts started mixing up a batch.

They played the same song like 50 times and each time the CD skipped at the exact same part. You would think they would learn. Actually… you would think they’d be past CDs…

We were under the impression that this was a craft fair. But it wasn’t. It was a commercial made product fair with some crafts… A lot of the other handmade vendors were pretty upset about this. One lady was particularly mad to the point that she did crazy things and yelled while customers walked by. She was insane…

We were also under the impression that tons of people were coming. Not that many people came.

It was cold in there.

90% of the stage performers were bad.

Pros:

We didn’t do that bad. We got back what we paid for the booth and then some. 

We met some really nice craft vendors. Who said that this was a crappy show and that they normally are not that slow.

We had fun decorating and manning our booth.

A bunch of our friends came by and saw us! Thanks everyone!

We got to try some incredible dip. I went back to this guy maybe 10 times.

We gave out a ton of business cards. 

People were in love with our stuff.

The guys in the booth next to us were so weird… but incredibly funny.

This little 5 year old boy did a performance. He played the drums and sang at the same time. 5 YEARS OLD! He was so precious. He had the sweetest little voice.

We will never do that craft show again… but we are looking forward to doing another one in the not very near future. Right now we are going to focus on our Etsy shop.

Bellow are some photos from our booth!

We love our business cards.

Thanks to Jana (book wreaths) and Melinda (Ornaments & Knitted Bows) for letting us sell some of your lovely handmade things things! 

Carli

4 Very Short Days...

I have dreamed of selling my handmade crafts in a craft show for so long. I have always wanted to travel the country and sell for a couple days and then explore. It would be so lovely to take road trips that don’t eat my wallet if I was able to cover the cost of it with my booth. Would that not be amazing? It would.

In 4 short days this dream of mine will come true. Courtney & I are taking Hello Wallflower to our first craft show! We will be at the South Jordan Christmas Boutique. Click HERE if you live in the Salt lake area and woul like to know when and where it is! We would love for you to stop by!

We have absolutely no idea what this is going to be like. We have no idea what we are doing. And we are freaking out. All we are hoping for is to get some experience, learn the do’s and don’ts, meet new people, and have FUN! If it is not fun then I doubt we will do it again… because let me tell you. It is hard work!

Cheers to making dreams come true.

Carli  

Today I Flew.

My last blog post I talked about how I would choose flying as my super human power. Today I experienced flying & I definitely have not changed my mind. 

I have always had this fear of falling. I am not afraid of heights (hot air balloon rides have cured me of that), but falling really scares me. So this year when Courtney, Ben, & I bought season passes to Lagoon; Courtney made me promise that I would go on the Sky Coaster with her. The Sky Coaster is one of those rides that you have to pay extra to go on. Basically they harness you in and pull you up to the top of this 150 foot tower and you pull a cord and you just drop and then swing. I did NOT want to go on this ride, but somehow Courtney tricked me into promising her that I would. So today we were at Sizzler’s eating dinner and Ben mentioned that tonight was the last night of the Lagoon season. I was sad because I hadn’t been since the middle of the summer. So we decided to go!

We get there and I am seriously feeling like I am about to vomit due to a combination of dry mouth, anticipation of going on the Sky Coaster, and anxiety from the meanest prank Courtney & Ben have ever played one me. Jerks! We buy our tickets and wait in line for two hours. Finally they get us strapped into our suits and we are standing on the platform and I turn to Courtney and say “What the heck are we doing??!?!?!?” by that time she was thinking the same thing. The people that went before us were being taken down and were talking about how completely awesome the ride was. I did not believe them. They hook us up and drop the platform and we fall forward and Courtney seriously begins to cry. Ben is just hanging there all quiet, and I am yelling stuff like “Oh man this hurts! Why are we doing this?! I am freaking out! COURTNEY ARE YOU SERIOUSLY CRYING??!?!?!” They start to pull us up slowly and I watch the ground get farther and farther away. My eyes got wide with fear, my heart was pounding so hard I could feel it throughout my body, and I was yelling at Ben not to pull the cord. He did. 

What happened next was the most magical thing that has ever happened to me. I flew. I threw my arms out and yelled “This is the best ride of my life!!!” and “I am flying!!” and “This is so fun!” It was dark out so we could see all the lights in the valley. I wished that I could release myself from the harness and fly on my own like a bird in the night sky. I wondered what the worker would think when my harness came back empty. I thought about how I should probably fly down to the workers and tell them I am alright and that thanks to them I discovered that I could fly. I probably would have flown back to Texas just to tell my parents the news. Then skimmed across the ocean because I haven’t felt the salty water in far too long. Then I would have slept in the clouds. 

I was sad to get off the ride. I wanted to fly forever. We then left Lagoon. It was almost 10 and the park was closing. I don’t care that we only got to go on one ride. It was so worth it. 

Carli