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.
The Carpinteria Valley Museum of History hosts a monthly swap meet-style event on their grounds in their city. In November, the event transforms into a handmade-only holiday boutique. We’ve done the event for a couple of years, and have thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of this community event.
Here’s the Board Chronicles from last year: Carpinteria Holiday Faire 2015.
OK, so doing an event on a holiday weekend is a bit crazy.
OK, so doing an event on a holiday weekend when we could be making product for next week’s biggest event of the year might be a bit crazy.
But we like the feel of this event! It’s community. It’s handmade. It’s what we do.
We’re in.
New Ideas
- We asked for a booth on the front side of the museum (the city street) instead of our traditional booth on the other side (the parking lot, which is cramped quarters). No double space was available on the street, but the museum director assured us he would help us get the trailer through the unloading/loading process. We’re in.
Observations
- We checked the forecast Friday … and it was bad. Rain was forecast throughout the event. In fact, the forecast said it would rain 10a – 3p … the entire span of the event! Rain would continue through 6pm, so we would not have any respite for the load out.
- I just did a wet event last weekend.
- Velda’s recovering from a bad cold.
- We became 2 of “those people.”
- I learned the phrase when I was running marathons: DNS DNF. Did Not Start, Did Not Finish. We stayed home.
- We made product.
- And the weather was awful; raining as predicted. We made the right call, IMHO.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 0
- Booth cost: $150
- Total sales: 0
- Returning next year? If we continue down the path of not doing one day events….
You did the right thing – get over the cold, don’t get another one, don’t fight the rain and work on stuff for next weekend and have a relaxing evening to boot!!
That was a smart choice to stay home. I’m sure you’re feeling better already! The factors were not in your favor and I fear you would have stressed more than the event was worth.