The Board Chronicles: VHS Choir Holiday Boutique 2016

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.

Valencia High School is about 3 miles from our house. Our kids didn’t go there, but it’s in our neighborhood.

The choir stages a holiday boutique as a fund raiser … and the choir director’s parents were both involved with teaching The Engineer in his formative years.

It’s local. It’s good people. You bet we’re doing it.

Here’s what happened last year: 2015’s VHS Holiday Boutique.

New Ideas

We haven’t done a table top event since April, and we haven’t done a split event since last year. On Saturday, I covered day 2 of this event while Mrs M covered day 1 of the Summit Holiday Boutique. We like both *local* events enough that we double booked ourselves for our last events of the year.
Haven’t used this table top, stair step display since we brought out Mrs M’s purpose-built display early this year. It’s been months since we used it; that qualifies as a new idea, right?

Observations

Event # 10 of 11 events we’re doing in the 4th quarter this year.
I love local.
Since we were doing a split event on table tops, neither event got full inventory. This event didn’t get MBOs, large cutting boards or Lazy Susans. I only got one request at this event … for a Lazy Susan. Sorry!
Every holiday boutique should have a choir perform. Valencia High’s choir is available for bookings, I am told.
Since I was solo at this event, that means I did the lotion bar demo many times this weekend. Benefit: my hands are now soft and plyable.
When you’re used to doing 100+ transactions at a 2 day event, it really feels wrong to only do 38 transactions at this event. I know it was slow, but, geez.
Sales were down from last year … but we really don’t do this event just to make money. We’re waving the flag, building brand awareness, and supporting a local high school’s music program. 100% of vendor fees go to support the choir program. What’s not to like?
What’s it like doing a local event?
- 4:00pm – event ends. Packing.
- 4:16pm – choir carries *everything* to the Jeep
- 4:27pm – loaded and going home
- 4:34pm – home
- 4:35pm – stow boards, lotions, soaps & display pieces in the trailer (storage), garage (long term storage), dining room (for Mrs M to sort) and Jeep (one container, going to tomorrow’s event)
- 4:53pm – bourbon in hand, writing this blog
I love local.

The Food

Friday Breakfast: Bad bagels & cream cheese. Even bad bagels aren’t that bad.

Friday Lunch: A ham sandwich & chips, at home. Of course.

Saturday Breakfast: A ham & cheese omelette @ Jimmy Dean’s.

Saturday Lunch: A protein bar & trail mix. Vendor lunch of champions.

Saturday Snack: Nope.

Saturday Dinner: Blackened Ribeye at Marston’s. Yum.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 13
Booth cost: $180
# of people we met during the event from the producer: Just the choir director & teacher … but every single choir student came by the booth!
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: many
Total sales: $778
# boards available: about half of the inventory … no big cutting boards, MBOs, or Lazy Susans (sigh)
Saturday alarm: 5:35am
Sunday alarm: nope
# transactions: 38
# soap & lotion vendors: there were a couple of anti-aging vendors selling an array of, uh, stuff. And another vendor was selling essential oils.
# woodworking vendors: just me
Edge grain vs. end grain: 5:0
Returning next year? Maybe. If it fits in the schedule!