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.
This event has become one of our favorite events. We’ve done it every year! I didn’t publish The Board Chronicles in 2014 when we first did the event, but you can read about the rest here: 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The event happens the 2nd weekend of December.
This event has what I like best about doing local events in Santa Clarita:
- It supports arts education
- I’m home after the event before the booth is struck at a typical event
- The choir members do the heavy lifting for me
- There’s an award-winning choir singing during the event
- I see a lot of friends at this event every year
New Ideas
- This is the ONLY table top event we are doing this year. We have 20′ of tables, and that’s it. In my typical solo booth, I have 46′ of tables just for me.
Observations
- There are a small number of tables at this event, so it can be difficult to get into. I’m fortunate that we’ve been here for a few years … and we get the same tables every year. I love that.
- Mrs M showed up on Saturday to help run the booth. Who knew? She had fun seeing her clients, as did I. Events like this one, in our hometown, are about legacy. It’s always good to see your friends … including those that used to be a Cub Scout in Pack 575, and now have families of their own.
- Love. That.
- In 2018, this event had record sales. We did not expect to repeat that this year, as we had just been at the Saugus Boutique, and didn’t expect to repeat the success of last year.
- We were wrong.
- Record sales. Again.
- Note that most of our sales were of new products: Cheese Slicers, Cracker Things and Garlic Dipping Boards. Innovation is key!
- This event just works for us. It’s a couple of weeks before Christmas, which makes it ideal for local people to find us for their holiday shopping. We had some appointment sales, we had people that knew we would be there because of this website … and it worked.
- You bet we’ll be back in 2020.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 12
- Booth cost: $200
- Food cost: $25
- Travel cost: 0
- Total sales: $2,049
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
- Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: many
- Saturday alarm: 6:30a
- Sunday alarm: none
- # soap & lotion vendors: 1 other soaper
- # woodworking vendors: none that do what I do … but someone was there selling signs, and another doing wine barrel stave coat hangers. A third was selling wooden animal puzzles that were scroll saw work.
- Edge grain vs. end grain: 18:0
- Returning next year? yes
Boards sold: 18
Cheese Slicers: 5
Cracker Things: 5
Serving Pieces: 3
Garlic Dipping Boards: 4
Surfboard: 1
