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.
Time to shake it up.
We started at events like this: table top displays in a large room. A charity fundraiser. Local, local, local.
We still do events like this … but, rarely. We’re traveling to big events more than staying home and doing small & simple events.
We’ve done 3 events at the Elks Club in the past, and Mrs M opted to spend her day off doing their Craft Boutique (and Car Show and Chili Cook-off) this year. This is a low impact event for us … it’s harder to decide what products & display pieces to not take than it is to set up.
Simple can be nice occasionally, y’know?
New Ideas
- Old ideas seem new when you haven’t done them in a while. A table top event? Sure, why not.
- I did the heavy lifting, set up my stuff, and then left the Lady to handle it. I returned to the
garagewoodshop for the rest of the day, making, until it was time to load out. - More heavy lifting, you see.
Observations
- Great to see old friends at an event. Familiar faces are a wonderful thing.
- Though this event was not as successful for us as 2 of the previous ones, it was still fun to shake the cobwebs off and wave the flag in our home town. We used to do events in Santa Clarita multiple times a month; now we’re down to doing just a few events a year. “Progress,” we call it.
- Check out the photos, below. I’m going to say Mrs M’s smile says it all.
The Food
- Best Meal: I had a ham sandwich for lunch, of course. No clue what Mrs M brought for lunch, but I know it was keto. It’s her thing.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 64
- Booth cost: $50 + 2 raffle gifts for 2 tables
- Food cost: $0
- Travel cost: $
- Total sales: $173
- Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $88
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: several
- Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
- Saturday alarm: nope
- # transactions: too few, unfortunately.
- # soap & lotion vendors: just Mrs M
- # woodworking vendors: just me
- Edge grain vs. end grain: 3:0
- Returning next year? Maybe, if it fits on the calendar
Boards sold: 3
1x Cheese Board
1x Coaster
1x Trivet
Leave a Reply