Saturday 3 December 2011

1st Christmas Fair

Well I thought I would post this morning since I've been awake since 6:30am this morning.

I am doing my first fair ever.  It's only a christmas fair at my sons school but it is my first.  With having CFS I can't really manage a full day fair so as this is only a few hours I thought I should be able to manage it.  Yesterday I finished the last of the santa ornaments and decided to finish off the signs I wanted for my stall - no such luck.  Wouldn't you know it I ran out of black ink.  What fustrates me the most is all of the coloured ink cartridge is full and that has black in it.  The printer just won't print without more black ink.  I even tried doing it in different colours but no the printer just won't print.  Oh well it will have to be hand written signs for today :-(

Anyway I'm off to have my breakfast and pack the car.  Fingers crossed it goes well.

Sue x

I'm back.  A bit hit and miss and learnt a lot of lessons! 

I only had a small table so tried to make the most of the space, see what you think:


I would of liked to have put less on the table but it was so small if I had put less on it wouldn't have much on it. 

I didn't sell any hats :-(  but got quite a few people who made enquiries and took my card

I sold quite a few of my christmas decorations so it wasn't a complete failure.

I think I'd have to look deeper into what type of event it is next time.

Some people even told their kids not to come to my stall because you had to "buy" things off it.
most of the stalls there were tombolas. Even though some people spent more on them than the price of what they had won they saw paying for something as somehow wrong?

I only charged a £1 for my christmas charms/ornaments and if they bought 3 they only paid £2.50

I'm not out of pocket for the table so there is one plus.

I must admit I prefer selling on the internet, buyers on the internet understand that what they are buying has taken hours to make, the yarn had to be bought and a lot of love, time and effort went into their purchase.

Where do you sell your items?  Which do you enjoy the most?
 

3 comments:

  1. Hi Susan! First let me say "Thank you" for the sweet comment you left for me today!
    Secondly, I think we should praise what we learn from such events and use the knowledge to make better next time. I think your stall / table was just right in every sense of organization and display of goodies.And you do have lovely items (especially the hats)so it is strange you didn't do good with sales. On the other hand, people expect to buy things for nothing at such fairs and this does not surprise me! You are right about internet selling - people do know how to appreciate handmade.
    P.S. I sell at etsy and a couple of local shops.
    Best,
    Maya

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  2. The best comment of the day was one mum told her daughter don't go to that table you have to buy the things off there!

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  3. Hi Susan, I did my first Christmas Craft Fair yesterday too - like for you, mine was in a school hall and lasted for four hours, but when you add on the setting up and packing away time it was more like 5 and a half. I too learnt a lot of lessons - the main one being that if it's in a school hall, people expect car boot sale prices - if it was a "proper" craft fair then people would have been happier to part with their money for homemade items made with love. I have written up my "1st Craft Fair" blog post if you want to take a look (and leave a comment!!) I think I will look into the selling online thing today as I do have lots of stock as I didn't sell much either!
    Crochet Hugs from Me to you x

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