The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.
St Clare’s Catholic Church in Canyon Country hosts multiple services on Sunday mornings, and parishioners are encouraged to extend their fellowship and have breakfast either before or after their service at the Church’s snack bar. Once each year, the Church hosts a holiday boutique in the room adjacent to the snack bar. Some vendors are faith-based, but most are selling holiday-themed decor or gifts for the holiday season.
Set-up had 2 options: 6-8pm on Saturday night, or 6-8am Sunday morning.
We took the Saturday night option. We loaded in, and then went to dinner after our busy Saturday. Sunday morning … well, avoiding 5am alarms is always a good idea.
For the event itself, the elder Mrs M was once again solo, as I was otherwise engaged at the Fine Craft Show across town in the Old Orchard Park.
Last year, sales were $569. Have we saturated the market? How will we do this year?
New Ideas
- Limited product for this one day, table top event. There’s only so much space!
Observations
- Lots of positive comments from repeat customers. Love that!
- Best comment of the day was from a 9 year old boy, who asked if he could buy one building block … he didn’t specify which one. Alas, we’re not set up to do that.
- Another Mom didn’t allow her 4 year old to take a bite out of the lotion bar testers. Good move, Mom!
- We almost ran out of the Christmas gift bags, but we had just enough.
- This is a great little event!
The Food
Sunday Breakfast: Huevos Rancheros at the church snack bar, a fund raiser for the youth group. They delivered to the booth!
Sunday Lunch: Pizza, from the snack bar again. One slice of cheese, and one slice of supreme. It took about an hour to eat it; too busy to eat.
Sunday Snack: nope.
Sunday Dinner: Leftovers: Bacon Corn Chowder, as inspired by Souper Dip. What do you expect after a weekend this busy?
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 24
- Booth cost: $60
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
- Total sales: $557
- # containers of product taken: 12
- # boards available: 42
- Sunday alarm: 6:30a
- # transactions: 23
- # soap & lotion vendors: there was a buy & sell lotion vendor; perhaps 2.
- # woodworking vendors: just us
- Edge grain vs. end grain: 3:0
Boards sold: 3
1x Large Sous Chef Board
1x Sous Chef Board
1x Cheese Board
