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.
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
