Craft Fairs | MowryJournal.com

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.

Once you embrace the idea of doing big events, you have to get out of town.

So, knowing that I had to do something over the holiday weekend, I decided to go a-vendoring in Arizona for the second time. But, since Mrs M claimed to have to work at her “job,” I was a solo act.

And I went far afield.

Prescott (rhymes with biscuit) was the original territorial capitol of Arizona. It’s the county seat, and the courtyard lawn hosts many vendor-driven events throughout the summer & fall: the city has an elevation over 5,000′, so Phoenix comes here to cool off.

I’m told.

I wonder if they need cutting boards?

Faire on the Square is produced by the Chamber of Commerce, and features 150+ vendors. Many “professional” vendors do this event. At this point, I think I’m in that group. One thing is for sure: I won’t be considered a local at this event.

New Ideas

I’m driving the trailer across the desert with my big Trimline canopy. I’m told it does rain on occasion. I’m ready for anything.
As I drove into Prescott, I heard a loud sound … cicadas, I thought. But, it’s been a while since I have been around them, and it was SO LOUD, I actually rolled down the car window to make sure something wasn’t wrong with the car. Lots of cicadas in the pine trees here!
I’m picking up temp labor at the event to help me put up & take down the canopy. I’m told there are homeless people around to help.
2 new items here: cribbage boards sets (I have 4 prototypes), and I’ve actually made stands for sale. They are here. They are available.

Observations

Wait, what? I’m supposed to hire homeless people?
Come to find out, I did find some helpers, and they were underemployed but not homeless. Nice people. Of the 5 that I talked to about helping me, I actually had 2 show up as promised. I made it work.
This event has a couple of quirks you have to deal with:
- Check in is 4pm Friday, and set up can begin after the last judge leaves the courthouse at about 6pm.
- No vendor displays, canopies, etc, are allowed to touch the courthouse lawn. Wooden blocks (2x4s suggested) must be between every canopy leg, table & product container so that the grass can be allowed to breathe as much as possible.
- I dealt with it.
Set-up was fine, and I ended up having 3 people help. One helper was great, one was good, and one was annoying. Such is life.
Parking is a bit of a challenge for loading/unloading, but the COC reserves the parking around the square for vendors. I was there early for check-in, and parked the trailer in the perfect spot. After load-in began, I was yelled at by a vendor for parking my trailer in 5 parking spots so no one else could use them. Not accurate: I was in 2 spots, not 5. And I was actively unloading, as I was supposed to be doing. Why she was entitled to the parking spots that I had, I’m not sure, but she was ticked at me.
And, vice versa.
First sale on Saturday: one of the new 5-section servers.
Second sale: one of the new cribbage boards.
Third sale: Can I have a stand with that? Why, yes, yes you can.
I know I’m in the west. Cowboys are here. And … one lady saw my 3D carved cribbage board top, and wanted to buy it. Just the top. I eventually got 2 requests (and no sales at my quoted price).
We take shop towels to events to clean with. I dust off my boards. Mrs M cleans her soap (think about it). We use a few towels; I typically stick a few into a cutting board container; there are a few in our bag of bags as well. At the last event, we had towels everywhere. Mrs M was offended, I guess, and she, uh, got us better organized. This time, there were zero towels. None. Good thing Mrs M didn’t need one to clean her soap, since she was at her “job.”
Most common question of the weekend: “Did you write these signs?”
Hmmm. I didn’t write the quotes from Julia Child, Mark Twain, Shakespeare or Miss Piggy, no. I did write some of the others; I researched some and made them my own. One thing I do know: my signs amuse people passing the booth, and I think that’s a good thing. Maybe someday they’ll stop passing by and begin to look around to buy stuff. Maybe.
A woman walks into the booth:
- “Are these canvases marked full price?”
  - “Uh … well, they are marked at the only price. Yes, that’s full price.”
- “But there was a booth across the square that said all canvases are half off. So are these half off?”
  - No. Just no.
A man walks into the booth:
- “Do you have any cat signs?”
  - “No, no cat signs.”
- “What, you don’t like cats?”
  - “Uh, no, all of my signs are food-related. I’m all about food here.”
- “Maybe you’ll have cat signs next year.”
  - No. Just no.
A woman walks into the booth:
- “You know what sign you should make?”
  - (this will end badly, I know) “What?”
- “Make ‘I laughed so hard that tears ran down my leg!’ Ladies will love it!”
  - No. Just no.
A couple walks into the booth:
- She said, “What’s a trivet?”
  - “It’s to protect your table & counter from hot stuff. When you have hot stuff, it needs protecting.”
- He said, “I tell her that all of the time.”
I have 2 plaques, “Family” & “In This House,” that I often display on a front table. I had them there on Saturday, and then moved them on Sunday to put a pig-themed display in their place, as Mrs M did last week. Changing things up can be good, right? Monday, a lady walked by with her friend and I overheard her say “It serves me right for not buying it when I saw it!” I asked what, and the Family sign was what she liked. I showed it to her around the corner, hanging on the wall, and she was surprised she hadn’t noticed that WALL OF SIGNS when she walked by them. Eventually, she bought a different sign from that display.

CNC Sign 18 – 46. Cherry. 12″ x 16″.

CNC Sign 18 – 50. Cherry. 13″ x 16″.

Oh, and 2 pig signs did sell. Family & In This House? Nope.
It rained a bit on Sunday evening, but after the event was really over at 5pm. It rained again on Monday after load out was in full swing … I was soaked by the time I was loaded. Soaked. Happily, I was going back to the AirBnB so I could dry off and have a nice dinner. Driving home, soaked to the skin … would not have been fun.
Requests were for wooden crosses, a magnetic chess board, a 2-player cribbage set (coming!), very small cutting boards, a smaller Lazy Susan and a board to cook a fish on (no, I don’t sell raw cedar planks to burn in a fire).

The Food

Best Meal: Frozen meals from the microwave were my dinner each night. I had Velda’s spaghetti, Chicken Marsala, and a travel-ready lasagna she put together.
Worst Meal: Driving across the desert, I couldn’t find suitable nourishment, so I settled for a gas station cheeseburger & chips. High living.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 891
Booth cost: $550
Food cost: $49
Travel cost: $530
Total sales: $2,439
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $1,310
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 3
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 1
Saturday alarm: 5:30a
Sunday alarm: nope
Monday alarm: nope
# transactions: 29
# soap & lotion vendors: there were a couple I saw, but I only saw about half of the vendors
# woodworking vendors: there was one guy making wooden acoustic amplifiers for smart phones … very interesting little creations featuring brass horns.
Edge grain vs. end grain: 37:4
Returning next year? Probably

Boards sold: 41

Trivets: 11

CNC Signs: 6

Word Blocks: 5

Cheese Boards: 3

Cutting Board: 2

Coasters: 2

Custom Orders: 2

Hearts: 2

Large Cutting Board: 1

5-section Server: 1

Lazy Susan: 1

Large Serving Piece: 1

Cribbage Board: 1

Serving Tray: 1

Bread Saw: 1

Charcuterie Board: 1

Cheese & Cracker Serv-er 18 – 203. Jatoba, Hard Maple, Jatoba, Mesquite, Bloodwood, Cherry & Black Walnut. 14″ square x 1-1/8″ thick.

Cribbage 18 – 03a detail.

Cutting Board 18 – 724. 18 species are in this board! End Grain. Chaos Board.

Serving Tray 17 – 04. Honey Locust, Yellowheart & Purpleheart. 12″ x 18″ x 3/4″.

Heart 18 – 927. Jatoba, Hard Maple, Purpleheart & Bloodwood. 11″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

Cutting Board 18 – 720. Black Walnut, Mesquite & Hickory. End grain. 17″ x 21″ x 1-1/2″.

Large Serving Piece 18 – 08. Purpleheart, Cherry & Hard Maple.

Lazy Susan 18 – 14. Woods include Black Walnut, Goncalo Alves and Jarrah 18″ diameter.

Cheese Board 18 – 120. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Purpleheart. 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

Coasters 18 – 18. Purpleheart, Cherry, Hard Maple & Padauk.

CNC Sign 18 – 44. Hard Maple. 11″ x 16″.

CNC Sign 8 – 35. Hard Maple. 6″ x 18″.

Trivet 18 – 735. Purpleheart, Jatoba, Hard Maple & Bloodwood.

Trivet 18 – 724. White Oak & Padauk.

CNC Sign 18 – 51. Hard Maple. 6″ x 22″.

Trivet 18 – 738. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Goncalo Alves & Purpleheart.

Trivet 18 – 740. Black Walnut & White Oak.

Cheese Board 17 – 323. Purpleheart & Hard Maple. 9″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

CNC Sign 18 – 52. Hard Maple. 10″ x 14″.

Bread Saw 18 – 06. Hard Maple.

Trivet 18 – 734. Black Walnut, White Oak, Padauk & Hard Maple.

Heart 18 – 932. Jatoba, Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Cherry & Bloodwood. 11″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

CNC Sign 18 – 22 Wonderful. Hard Maple. 14″ x 12″

Cheese Board 17 – 309. Chaos Board. 9″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

Cutting Board 18 – 722. Hard Maple, Black Walnut & Cherry. 13″ x 17″ x 1-1/4″. End Grain.

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 will be our 4th consecutive annual trip to the mountains in southern Kern County for the 55th Annual Tehachapi Mountain Festival.

We love this event. You can read about our previous visits: 2017, 2016 and 2015. Note that when Mrs M’s Handmade was just 18 months old, the 2015 event was our Best. Event. Ever.

We love Tehachapi.

Great community. Park atmosphere. Handmade vendors are in the vast majority – and we get to set up on the grass. Live music. Oh, and there’s a carnival, a car show and fair food (we didn’t do any of those!).

We’ve been surprisingly successful at this event over the years, and got a large special order last year that really put me over the top. That’s not expected this year, of course, but we still expect to have another nice jaunt north.

New Ideas

After putting up our Trimline canopy last year, we return to pop-ups this year. That saves about 30 minutes or so on the set up and the tear down … and since we’re driving home Sunday evening, we thought that was a good idea.

Observations

Set up began at 3pm Friday afternoon. Heat of the day. We took our time, though, and worked the process until we wanted to quit. Mrs M got most of her product up, but I elected to do my product set up on Saturday morning. Opening was at 10a; we were ready.
This community comes to the event, and they walk the booths. There’s traffic here, and you just need to find your audience.
A lady came into the booth and wanted me to do a replacement board for her Hoosier. Huh? Come to find out, this is an old, freestanding kitchen cabinet that has an integrated flour mill below the upper cabinet. I have seen these, but never knew they were named after the state’s nickname where so many of them were made: in Indiana. Who knew?
A side note: when I write these blogs, I have an opportunity to have the website check them before publication. Basic spelling is checked (I have trained the checker how to spell Padauk, Bubinga & Morado, by the way). Grammar is checked. And, every time I use the word “lady” the checker accuses me of using biased language.
I’m not biased. I believe people are good, and every female that enters my booth is a lady until she proves otherwise. If that makes me biased, then so be it. I’m not changing. And I calls ’em the way I sees ’em.
I got a few more chaos boards finished for this event (I had been out for 6 weeks). Those boards are a stopper … but they always inspire people to tell me that they see what I do with my scrap wood. Here’s the board:

Cutting Board 18 – 724. 18 species are in this board! End Grain. Chaos Board.

Please note I do not make my boards out of scrap. I start with lumber, and I end up at the finish line. Each board is hand selected to be a part of the cutting board. Scrap is what I burn or recycle. Good lumber is what I use. I do get rather insistent when people tell me that I use scrap to make things.
The price tag on this board is $200. It is not made out of scrap. Nothing I make is out of scrap.
Rant over.
We expected this year to be down from the record-setting event last year, and we were not wrong. We didn’t want to be this wrong, however: Saturday was down about 50%. Several other vendors reported similar numbers, unfortunately. Temperatures were in the 90s … the ice cream vendor had a line all day long. Cutting Board sales? Not so much.
Sunday is another day.
A pair of ladies (yup) walked by the booth. One observed that it might be fun to get a pig cutting board. Or a bear cutting board. I pointed them both out to her (win!). Come to find out, her family had a cabin complete with a shaped cutting board from the ’30s (!) that was shaped like a pig. Or, probably a bear. They really weren’t sure which. Interesting; I told them how rare a vintage bear board is. Pig boards are out there, but bears? Not so much.
No sale for me, however.
This event is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. During the course of the event, 5 different board members came into the booth to introduce themselves and thank us for our support.
Promoters, take note. It is nice to feel appreciated.
We love this event.
Sunday sales ended up being much better than expected. It didn’t make up for our oh so slow Saturday, but our ending total was much more respectable than we feared the night before. We were down, as expected, but we had a very respectable event. We’re already planning for next year … and we’re going to get bigger.
Requests were for cribbage boards (2x. I am so over not having these done yet!), more boards with juice grooves, more smaller boards & a sign defining a chicken, since I’ve already defined a pig (hmmmm).

The Food

Best Meal: Dinner with friends. Does it matter what you eat?
Honorable Mention: Dinner with friends. See above.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 148
Booth cost: $300
Food cost: $104
Travel cost: $77
Total sales: $2,107
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $1,626
# of people we met during the event from the producer: several
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
Saturday alarm: 6:15a
Sunday alarm: nope
# transactions: 95
# soap & lotion vendors: there was one other
# woodworking vendors: there was one maker and 2 importers
Edge grain vs. end grain: 17:1
Returning next year? Definitely

Boards sold: 18x

Trivets: 4

Large Serving Pieces: 2

Cheese Boards: 2

CNC Signs: 2

Coasters Set: 1

Charcuterie Board: 1

Bread Saw: 1

Clipboard: 1

Custom Order: 1

Small Board: 1

Cutting Board: 1

Heart: 1

Trivet 18 -723. Hard Maple & Padauk.

Coasters 18 – 21. Sapele, Cherry & Black Walnut.

Large Serving Piece 18 – 03. Cherry, Hard Maple & Black Walnut.

Cheese Board 18 – 117. Jatoba, Yellowheart, Cherry, Padauk & Purpleheart. 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

Heart 18 – 917.

CNC Sign 18 – 54. Hard Maple. 10″ x 16″.

Charcuterie 18 – 701. Birds Eye Maple. 9″ x 20″ x 3/4″.

CNC Sign 18 – 45. Hard Maple. 10″ x 14″.

Bread Saw 18 – 06. Hard Maple.

Clipboard 18 – 816. Letter size, 1/2″ clip.

Small Board 18 – 213. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Jarrah, Purpleheart, Bubinga & Bloodwood. 7″ x 12″ x 1-1/4″.

Cutting Board 18 – 725. 18 species are in this board! End Grain. Chaos Board.

Cheese Board 18 – 118. Purpleheart, Hard Maple, Cherry, Bubinga, Bloodwood & Jarrah. 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

Large Serving Piece 18 – 15. Cherry, Purpleheart, Bloodwood & Hard Maple.

Trivet 18 – 729. Cherry, Hard Maple, Jatoba & Black Walnut.

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’ve never done an event in Pasadena, and that seems like a mistake.

Time to fix that.

Jackalope is a promoter that does events in Denver, Phoenix & Pasadena. It’s a partnership between 3 friends in those cities, and their efforts have been on our radar for a while. The calendar hasn’t worked before … but this time, it did, so I’m going to Pasadena.

Mrs M is staying at home – well, not really. She’s not going a-vendoring because of her “job.” And the summer heat. Or something.

I am breaking a rule or 3 to do this event: it’s a first-time event, and those are always a risk. Doing an event in the summer heat is always a gamble, of course: no telling what the weather might do to attendance.

Just like life. Time to roll the dice.

New Ideas

This is my first outdoor event under the lights in a very long time. We use the lights at Santa’s Art Shop every year, but we don’t do nighttime events at this point.
The Jackalope team is very social media savvy. They shared multiple graphics with their 200 vendors to use on social media, which was much appreciated. And used. Given the attendance on a Friday night, I believe their efforts were successful.

Observations

The event is in Pasadena’s Central Park, and there is artist loading zone parking on 3 sides. I drove right up and got to unloading.
There are a large number of rental tents here, it seems. I’m next door to one … that is a shared booth. Two strangers are sharing; one makes dog collars and the other makes greeting cards. Much of the vendor community at this event seems to be young, relatively inexperienced with outdoor events and etsy-driven. I’m none of those things. Hmmmm.
I only recognized 2 vendors at this event, and only 1 of those is known to me to be successful. Lots of newbees here, I believe. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not a recommendation, either.
An afternoon set-up in 90 degree heat is not for the faint of heart. It was hot, hot, hot. The cart had to be drug uphill. No fun was had.
First event I’ve ever been to where the promoter zip tied the canopies together. Every front leg was zip tied to its neighbor. This is an order from the Fire Marshall of Pasadena, I’m told.
Part of a nighttime event is that I’ll have lights … and electricity. Why wasn’t I smart enough to bring a fan?
Live entertainment is part of the event … and I was located in the nexus between 2 competing vocalists. Nothing good happens when I must hear 2 vocalists from 2 directions at the same volume.
Back to the shared booth: 5 people are in the booth, plus a dog who is post-surgery and can’t use its hind legs. Too many things going on in a 10’x10′ space, and that’s before you realize that 2 different vendors are competing for that limited space to try and sell something.
I met a Backer from Kickstarter! Brian sought me out at this event so he can choose design of the “Best End Grain Cutting Board” that he wants me to make. Great chatting with him, and a total surprise to have a person come into my booth and lead with “I’m one of your Backers.” Wow!
Friday sales were underwhelming, for sure. Traffic was good for a 1st time event, I thought. Sales, though, not so much.
Our lights are the best (compare the booth shot below showing my booth as well as parts of the neighbors on each side. See what’s brighter!). I was complimented on the booth lighting by other vendors and customers. Lighting is important: people will only buy what they can see. When electricity is provided, there’s really no reason for a vendor to have bad lighting.
Saturday, I brought the fan. Life was better.
Given the heat, I thought I probably wouldn’t sell anything until after 6pm.
I was right. Too right.
Unfortunately.
My neighbor with the paraplegic dog created dog clogs all weekend. She put a dog watering bowl in the aisle, well out in front of her booth … resulting in dog/dog owner/dog petter assemblies in front of my booth, as well as her 5′ half booth, all weekend. The inter-species gathering didn’t completely cut off traffic, nor access to my booth, but it was not an asset for me. For her dog collar sales, perhaps.
Dog enthusiasts rarely buy cutting boards, in my experience. They walk their dogs, talk about their dogs, and generally enjoy the canine community. And, they do so in the public space in front of my booth, often for extended periods.
Load out was just as bad as load in, because I had to drag the cart uphill again! You’d think I would catch a break, but nope. I was sweating at 11:30pm, loading the Jeep.
Vending is a glamorous thing.
Requests were for chess sets (which I left at home due to space limitations in the Jeep), a chess table, wooden tool holders from a leather craftsman as well as a potter, platters for a restaurant & a wall art display.

The Food

Best Meal: Nothing good happened this weekend.
Worst Meal: Yup, had those.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 86
Booth cost: $326
Food cost: $0
Travel cost: $45
Total sales: $377
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $6
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 2
# transactions: 7
# soap & lotion vendors: Oh, so many. I saw more of them than I did jewelry vendors, which is just unheard of. I’m glad Mrs M wasn’t here!
# woodworking vendors: There was a turner, and a hobbyist who had a couple of cutting boards mixed into the display with his wife’s ceramics.
Edge grain vs. end grain: 7:0
Returning next year? Nope.

Boards sold: 7

Cutting Boards: 3

CNC Signs: 2

Bread Saw: 1

Coaster: 1

CNC Sign 18 – 39. Hard Maple. 11″ x 17″.

Bread Saw 18 – 04. Birds Eye Maple. Sold on its first showing.

Cutting Board 18 – 318. Hard Maple & Jatoba. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/2″.

Coasters 18 – 06. Chaos Coasters. Yellowheart, Jatoba, Bloodwood, Cherry, Hard Maple, Jatoba, Purpleheart & Cork. Shown with Black Walnut holder.

CNC Sign 18 – 20. Hard Maple. 12″ x 12″.

Cutting Board 18 – 319. Purpleheart, Hard Maple & Canarywood. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/8″.

Cutting Board 17 – 137. Jatoba, Honey Locust & Hard Maple. Edge grain, Juice groove. 14″ x 11″ x 1-1/8″.

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.

Once upon a time, a friend told me this was a good event.

Not sure I still believe her.

Last year, I didn’t pass $1,000 in sales with my solo effort. On my birthday. That’s not a good thing, truly.

This seems like a good community event, though. Free music. Beer gardens. Carnival rides. Vendors. 30,000 in attendance projected. What’s not to like?

It’s not like there are many better events in July that I’ve found, after all.

So, I’m in for another year. I want to see if I can do better with some legacy working for me. It’ll be just me and a couple of hundred buy & sell vendors offering imported goods….

New Ideas

This event was marginal last year, really. It was barely OK. So what did I do? I doubled down with a double booth. I have room for everything this way. Still no Mrs M, though. She might melt in the heat. Oh, wait, I mean her lotions & balms & such might melt. That’s it.

Observations

I left home at 5:08a on my way to the Golden State Freeway … and my ramp was closed. No problem; the GPS will get me there on the 126. I’m told. I arrived at my booths at 6:18a, and was unloaded 30 minutes later. Same location as last year, so it’s easy.
This event does not send out formal confirmations, maps, booth #s or anything to help you find your booth or your customers to find you. Things may change up until the last minute, they say. At check in, they don’t give you a map, they just show you about where your booth is on a spreadsheet that has business landmarks on it that are years out of date.
No clue why they think that’s OK. It’s annoying, in my not-so-humble opinion as a well-seasoned veteran.
Canopies were up at 7:30a, and the booth & products were set up at about 9:30a. I was still putting pricing up at the official opening, 10a.
I looked across the street at 10 booths, most of which were community businesses (bath remodel, new windows, insurance agent, etc). Of the 10 booths, 8 had canopies that were totally unweighted. 1 had 20 pounds of weight, total. One had sandbags of undeterminate weight. I hope there’s no wind this weekend.
11:40a: first sale of the day. I try to not every make duplicates of the same cheese board blanks, and I did make 4 of the same pattern in the last go round. Finally, finally, I sold one of them in this sale.
1:03p: second sale of the day … and it’s another copy of that same cheese board. Huh?
I’m a monkey in a cage. Seems like it, anyway. Since I’ve added the signs on the mesh walls … people stop in front of the booth, look, point & laugh. And I just sit there looking at them.
Me. Monkey. Cage.
I did not expect that to happen.
Saturday ended barely ahead of last year … but I doubled my booth size. Did sales double? Nope, they were basically unchanged.
The drive home was an adventure. I followed the GPS, and it sent me through farmland. I drove a canyon to get to Fillmore. Why has the GPS forsaken me?
Sunday opens at 12n for some reason. I arrived a bit after 10a, and was open by 11a. I had walkers immediately.
No buyers though. First sale was at 12:45a.
But something did happen early: the insurance agent across the way brought a sound system. They turned it up so they were broadcasting to a 100′ radius above speaking volume, and proceeded to chat to everyone about their raffle.
I was that guy. I called the organizer to complain. She showed up 15 minutes later and had them turn down, thankfully. For some reason, they shut down the sound system & it left at 2p. No problem from my perspective.
A lady walked into the booth.
- She said, “I have a cutting board. I got it from your competition. I love it. It’s my favorite thing. I got it from your competition.”
- I said, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s good to have a favorite thing.”
- She said, “I got it from your competition.” And then she left.
- Before I was unkind to her.
At the end of Sunday, sales were barely ahead of prior year, and far, far below my expectations for a 2-day event and my double booth. Very disappointing.
The drive home was another adventure, but I at least drove a different canyon. Why is Camarillo so hard to get home from?
This is my last July event before the end of my Kickstarter campaign, and I did mention it to several customers in the hopes of garnering a bit of support. The campaign is currently at 93% and just $329 away from goal! I know that I’ll bring it home, but it is oh so close. Here’s the link: Handmade Cutting Boards & Wooden Serving Pieces.
Requests were for bigger chess pieces (nope), a cheese slicer (on the list!), a cookbook stand, a horse tack shadow box, a coffee table top, knife cases and the 10 Commandments on a plaque. Bilingual, too. Oh, and a chicken shaped cutting board. That’s a trend. And I still haven’t made it.

The Food

Best Meal: I tried to order take out ahead of arriving back in Santa Clarita … and a lousy cell connection resulted in a bad order. Oh well, I guess we will eat 5 side Caesars. Eventually.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 220
Booth cost: $500
Food cost: none
Travel cost: $114
Total sales: $1,092
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $478
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 1
Saturday alarm: 4:20a
Sunday alarm: nope
# transactions: far too few
# soap & lotion vendors: no clue
# woodworking vendors: no clue
Edge grain vs. end grain: 23:0
Returning next year? Nope. Nope. Nope.

Boards sold: 23

Word Blocks: 5

Cheese Boards: 3

Magic Bottle Openers: 3

Cutting Boards: 3

CNC Signs: 3

Trivets: 2

Heart Board: 1

Coaster Set: 1

Wine Bottle Coaster: 1

Sous Chef Board: 1

Cheese Board 18 – 117. Jatoba, Yellowheart, Cherry, Padauk & Purpleheart. 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

Cutting Board 18 – 320. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Padauk. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/8″.

Cheese Board 17 – 320. Padauk, Cherry, Black Walnut & Jatoba. Chaos Board. 8-1/2″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

CNC Sign 18 – 29 Steak. Hard Maple. 9″ x 12″.

Wine Bottle Coaster 18 – 503. Cherry. 8″ x 11″ x 1″.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 118. Wall mount.

CNC Sign 18 – 51. Hard Maple. 6″ x 22″.

Sous Chef 18 – 706. Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Jatoba, Cherry & Bloodwood. 11″ x 20″ x 3/4″.

Cutting Board 18 – 323. Hard Maple, Bloodwood & Purpleheart. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/8″.

Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 202. Black Walnut, Yellowheart & Hard Maple. Double Magic.

CNC Sign 18 – 52. Hard Maple. 10″ x 14″.

Carnivore Board 18 – 905. Hard Maple. 14″ x 19″ x 1-1/8″.

Trivet 18 – 713. 8.5″ square.

Trivet 18 – 715. 8.5″ square.

Heart 18 – 918.

Coasters 18 – 07. Jatoba, Hard Maple, Bloodwood, Purpleheart, Yellowheart & Black Walnut. Shown with Black Walnut holder.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 109. Wall mount.

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.

It’s become our tradition.

This is our 4th year celebrating our nation’s independence through vendoring on Main Street in Ventura, CA. Read about the first 3 events here: 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Ventura’s a beach community, about an hour due west of our home in Santa Clarita. History has taught us that it’s definitely a great place for us to go a-vendoring.

We don’t do fireworks on the 4th, but we do watch the parade of Red, White & Blue go by our booth. It’s a wonderful thing.

New Ideas

I’m embracing my inner foodie. I’ve made a new batch of signs that are all food themed, and I’m going to put up all of my mesh walls so I can hang them. That means my traditional open corner that allows 2-sided viewing of cutting boards will go away … now, I’m using the open corner for sign display on the outside of the booth. That’s how a traditional 2D artist displays their work. Just sayin’.
The new worry: will curbing the cutting board display hurt those sales? Is trading sign display for cutting board visibility a bad thing?

Observations

Why do events always start at 4 in the morning?
On the road shortly after 5a. We can do this. We have done this.
We’ve got the routine pretty much down at this point. We arrived at the event at 6:10a, and both of our neighbors were already well into their set-ups. We were able to load in with a minimum of trouble. From there, it was a rush to set-up, because we know this is an early crowd. The 10am official start means nothing.
The signs are an immediate hit. 3 are sold before set-up is done.
I have no inventory to replace signs when they sell (sigh).
My neighbor, across the aisle, is a direct competitor for Mrs M with bath bombs, lotions, and such. Direct competitor. Apparently the promoter (the city of Ventura) does not care.
At all.
Such is the case at many city-sponsored events. They may know how to stage a vendor event, but that doesn’t mean they know/care about the subtleties of managing vendor relationships.
I had a manly encounter with a woodworker:
- He walks into the booth.
- He fondles a board.
- He fondles another board.
- He looks at me, smiles, nods.
- I reciprocate with a smile and a nod.
- He leaves.
- We communicated everything we needed to communicate, right?
The stream of humanity by the booth was impressive. People are definitely here … but here to shop? Vendors always try to count shopping bags as they walk by the booth … and there are never enough, it seems. We were busy throughout the day, thank goodness.
Lady holding a plaque: “Can you cut on this?”
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
For reference, Mrs M’s all-time favorite question, from a customer holding a boar of soap: “How do you use this?”
When appropriate, I did mention my Kickstarter campaign to anyone that might care. Former customers, walk-in prospects … I did talk about supporting my Kickstarter campaign. Wasn’t this a good transition for my naked pitch? If you’re interested, see the video & read all about it, here.
We never had time to go walkabout, which is a good thing, I guess. Therefore, we have no idea who else is at this event beyond our small circuit for lunch & such around the neighborhood. We did hear that there are a lot of soapmakers.
Woodworkers? No clue.
We began tearing down at 4:45p. Banners. Price tags. A “soft close,” which is totally against our nature. Sales, though, had largely stopped before 4pm. We had no late surge on this day.
Sales were down a bit from last year, but far beyond the 2 years prior. Not a record setter, but definitely worthwhile.
Requests were for a rooster board (sigh), smaller Lazy Susans (sigh) and a dachshund board (NO. Why do people want to cut on dogs?).

The Food

Best Meal: Velda bought sushi for herself & teriyaki chicken for me from a nearby Japanese restaurant. Very well done: not fair food.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 115
Booth cost: $385
Food cost: $41
Travel cost: $60
Total sales: $2,099
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $1,613
# of people we met during the event from the producer: none
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several by the anonymous “block captain”
Wednesday alarm: 4a
# transactions: 71
# soap & lotion vendors: Many, we were told
# woodworking vendors: No clue
Edge grain vs. end grain: 33:0
Returning next year? Yup

Boards sold: 33

CNC Signs: 9

Coasters: 5

Trivets: 4

Hearts: 3

Magic Bottle Openers: 3

Cutting Boards: 3

Custom Orders: 2

Cheese Board: 1

Sous Chef Board: 1

Clipboard: 1

Lazy Susan: 1

CNC Sign 18 – 28 Pig. 9″ x 12″. Hard Maple.

CNC Sign 18 – 30 Bless The Food. Hard Maple. 10″ x 14″.

CNC Sign 18 – 22 Wonderful. Hard Maple. 14″ x 12″

Coasters 18 – 27. Hard Maple, Honey Locust, Black Walnut, Bloodwood & Canarywood.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 105. Wall mount.

Cheese Board 18 – 118. Purpleheart, Hard Maple, Cherry, Bubinga, Bloodwood & Jarrah. 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 116. Wall mount.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 101. Wall mount.

Cutting Board 17 – 145. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/4″. Hard Maple, Padauk & Bloodwood.

Sous Chef 18 – 706. Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Jatoba, Cherry & Bloodwood. 11″ x 20″ x 3/4″.

Clipboard 18 – 819. Letter size, 1/2″ clip.

CNC Sign 18 – 24 Family. Cherry. 12″ x 16″.

CNC Sign 18 – 11. 6″ x 22″.

Trivet 18 – 721. Jarrah, Bubinga, Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Padauk & Hard Maple.

Trivet 18 – 727. Purpleheart, Mesquite & Black Walnut.

CNC Sigh 18 – 33 Why Limit Happy. 9″ x 12″. Hard Maple.

CNC Sign 18 – 26 Family. Cherry. 12″ x 16″.

CNC Sign 18 – 12. Hard Maple. 12″ x 16″.

Lazy Susan 18 – 19. Purpleheart, Hard Maple & Bloodwood. 18″ diameter.

CNC Sign 18 – 27 Family. Cherry. 12″ x 16″.

Heart 18 – 921.

Coasters 18 – 11. Hard Maple, Bloodwood, Cherry & Canarywood.

Heart 18 – 923.

Cutting Board 17 – 144. Hard Maple & Padauk. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/4″.

Cutting Board 18 – 314. Goncalo Alves, Hard Maple & Jatoba. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/8″.

Trivet 18 -723. Hard Maple & Padauk.

Heart 18 – 922.

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.

Ojai is a community in the mountains above Ventura. It is a little over an hour west of my home, but I’ve never been there.

Their annual Lavender Festival has been on our radar for a while (this is the 15th edition), but Mrs M has always opted out since her products are temperature sensitive and … well, it’s summer. It’s hot out there. Or, can be. Might be.

No matter.

I have a more robust product, so summer heat doesn’t scare me. Time to leave Mrs M at home and get to it. I wonder what Ojai will have for me?

New Ideas

I got a single booth, which is unusual these days. I’m driving in the Jeep with my hitch carrier, so no trailer. No rolling cart. Just me and what I can fit in the Jeep.

Observations

This is our 15th event of the year. It’s my 5th solo event and the 3rd one-day event that I’ve done. I’m not sure I can say not doing one day events is a rule if 20% of the events have been one day only. Hmmmm.
I so overpacked for this event. I barely fit into the Jeep. I had to leave the 16×20 photographs at home: no room. I thought I brought the smaller photos & signs, but that container got left behind (sigh). Limited signs in the booth, unfortunately.
Lavender Lemonade. It’s a thing, apparently, and was all the rave at this event.
The setting is really great. It’s a city park, filled with large oak trees. I was in the shade all day. There’s a gazebo; they had live music throughout. I really enjoyed the bluegrass … but then they went to local folk artists and the music went dark. Take the bad with the good, apparently.
The day started very well; the first transaction was for a large custom order. It all ended, though, when an immigration protest took over Main Street. I didn’t sell another item after 1pm. Other vendors had sales, but several reported down sales from prior years. The protest took the life out of this event.
The reality is I paid money to be a vendor at this event, and the protest interfered with my small commercial opportunity in Ojai. I am dead certain that I paid money to be there, and the protestors did not.
Free speech has a cost, and on this day I was made to pay it out of my pocket. It’s hard for me to feel good about that.
Good news, though: my Kickstarter campaign had a good day, and is now 41% funded. On my way!
Requests were for a cribbage board, boxes, a cook book stand and a board with bread hooks.

The Food

Best Meal: Lunch was a ham sandwich from home. High living in Ojai.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 103
Booth cost: $185
Food cost: $0
Travel cost: $54
Total sales: $640
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $401
# of people we met during the event from the producer: none
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: none
Saturday alarm: 5a
# transactions: 7
# soap & lotion vendors: several, but no Mrs M
# woodworking vendors: I know there was another cutting board maker as well as a toy maker. I didn’t see the whole event, though; there may have been others.
Edge grain vs. end grain: 9:1
Returning next year? Maybe

Boards sold: 10

2x Cheese Boards

2x Trivets

1x Custom Order

1x Medium Surfboard

1x Lazy Susan

1x CNC Plaque

1x Small Board

1x Clipboard

Small Surfboard 17 – 507. Hard Maple, Padauk & Yellowheart. 7″ x 16″ x 3/4″.

CNC Sign 18 – 05 – Family. Cherry. 12″ x 16″ x 3/4″.

Lazy Susan 18 – 11. Purpleheart, Hard Maple, Yellowheart & Bloodwood.

Cheese Board 18 – 118. Purpleheart, Hard Maple, Cherry, Bubinga, Bloodwood & Jarrah. 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

Cheese Baord 18 – 106. Chaos Board. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Goncalo Alves.

Trivet 18 – 713. 8.5″ square.

Trivet 18 – 709. 8.5″ square.

Clipboard 18 – 807. Letter size, 1/2″ clip.

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 went to the 2016 edition of the Lompoc Flower Festival and loved it. At the time, that Flower Festival our 3rd best event ever, with sales over $3,000.

Lompoc was good to us … except for that first night restaurant. But, I digress.

We definitely wanted to return to Lompoc when it fit into the calendar, and 2 years later, we’re returning for the 66th Annual Lompoc Flower Festival.

It’s a classic event in a city park. It’s truly a community get-together, with many high school reunions keyed to the event. Once you get there, it’s a paid gate (increased this year from $3 to $5), live music throughout, and a beer garden. Food booths are for local charities. It was a good time in 2016 …

New Ideas

This event sells booths that are 10′ wide x 20′ deep. We bought our typical double booth … so we had our first ever quadruple booth, 20′ x 20′. We brought 2 pop-up canopies and the Trimline 10′ x 20′ canopy. 4x mesh walls. We were stylin’.
We got there Friday morning for set-up, and asked the organizer if she knew of any teenagers that might want to help us. Her 2 teenagers just happened to be nearby….

Observations

We had low expectations for Friday; 2 years ago sales were only $245. No worries … but sales this year were only $119. Board sales were $0. Yuck.
We had family in town, and Aunt Sis (maker of Aunt Sis’ Exfoliers) and Dr H (author of the Harbstreit method of routing fingerholds on an end grain board) came to visit us in Lompoc. We had a great couple of days with them … the event, not so much.
Saturday started slow, as expected: no one comes to the park until after the parade is over. Once it’s done, the people flood into the park to set up their lawn chairs, see their friends, and enjoy the music.
Oh, and shop. We hope.
Unfortunately, Saturday stayed slow. Sales were less than half of 2016.
This has never happened to us before. Sales down more than half? Well, there’s Sunday. We hope.
Nope.
Sunday sales totaled $200. Total sales were 40% of 2016. Our neighbor reported their sales were 42% of prior year. 2018 was just way, way off.
Vendors always talk about how it used to be better. Nostalgia is always a positive thing, right? People always enjoy talking about the “good old days.” At this event, we heard some of that … but we heard it from the customers, as well. We were told that the Flower Festival used to have many local artists vending at the park: good, handmade artists like Mrs M. Multiple customers told us this. They also told us that in the last few years, the purveyors of cheap imported merchandise have seemed to crowd out the good vendors.
Yup.
In the artist community, there’s a lot of chatter about how “non-artist vendors will always ruin an art event.” When the likes of solar power companies, LulaRoe & vendors with cheap imported merchandise are allowed into an event, the crowd-sourced wisdom goes, then the quality of the art will always decline. Perhaps that’s what happened in Lompoc. I don’t know – though I will say that their vendors of cheap imported merchandise are hardly the equal of credible multi-level marketing companies like Pampered Chef or Origami Owl.
In the end, it doesn’t matter. This was a lost weekend.
Requests were for a backgammon board (sigh), anything with a dog on it, a Word Block I didn’t have in stock and both larger and smaller Lazy Susans (sigh, sigh).

The Food

Best Meal: Mrs M loved her Pork Belly Tacos at the Solvang Brewing Company.
Worst Meal: A treat we looked forward to was La Botte in Lompoc, a wonderful Italian restaurant we enjoyed in 2016. We made a reservation for 8p, and arrived to find the wait staff was ‘whelmed. We were barely acknowledged for 10 minutes, and then the busboy (who was funny) became our waiter because the real wait staff was still ‘whelmed. Food was pretty good, but the service was truly insulting.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 268
Booth cost: $394
Food cost: $151
Travel cost: $789
Total sales: $1,249
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): -$85. We lose money for the first time ever.
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
Saturday alarm: nope
Sunday alarm: nope
# transactions: 59
# soap & lotion vendors: There was one other … making medical claims. Did you know soap could cure hair loss? I sure hope the FDA catches wind of these snake oil sellers.
# woodworking vendors: There was one turner, and a couple of vendors of import, uh, crap.
Edge grain vs. end grain: 23:1
Returning next year? Nope.

Boards sold: 24

Trivets: 7

Word Blocks: 3

Hearts: 3

Cheese Boards: 3

Small Boards: 2

CNC Signs: 1

Lazy Susan: 1

Coaster: 1

Soap Deck: 1

Clipboard: 1

Medium Surfboard: 1

Trivet 18 – 706. Purpleheart, Hard Maple & Jatoba.

Trivet 18 – 721. Jarrah, Bubinga, Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Padauk & Hard Maple.

Trivet 18 – 704. Jatoba, Hard Maple & Sapele.

Trivet 18 – 725. White Oak, Purpleheart, Bubinga, Bloodwood, Hard Maple & Black Walnut.

Trivet 18 -726. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Purpleheart & Jatoba.

Small Board 17 – 226. Cherry. End Grain. 7″ x 11″ x 1″.

Small Board 17 – 234. Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Jatoba & Pau Ferro. 5″ x 11″ x 1-1/4″.

Cheese Board 17 – 345. Black Walnut. 9″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

Cheese Board 16 – 054. Purpleheart, Birds Eye Maple, Goncalo Alves, Jatoba, Bloodwood & Yellowheart. 9″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

CNC Sign 18 – 09 – In This House. Hard Maple. 13″ x 16″ x 3/4″.

Lazy Susan 18 – 12. Hard Maple, Cherry & Sapele. 18″ diameter.

Coasters 18 – 18. Purpleheart, Cherry, Hard Maple & Padauk.

Heart 18 – 917.

Heart 18 – 925.

Heart 18 – 923.

Clipboard 18 – 821. Notepad size, 1/2″ clip.

Cheese Board 16 – 04. Birdseye Maple & Purpleheart. 8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

Trivet 18 – 711. 8.5″ square.

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.

There was a time that I was staging promotional events on the road. It was a big idea. I hired a staff in 7 markets and we created over 200 night club music events during a 6 month period. After that project ended, I rolled right into another promotional project that was staging music events in 35 markets. All told, I saw a lot of this country, visited several states for the first time and logged 180 hotel nights in 1 year.

What did I learn? I don’t want to travel for a living. No amount of points or free stuff from Marriott or American Airlines or whatever could compensate me for the tough travel time.

So, here we are, at the glorious end of the 4th Annual Spring Fling. we’ve had some great events – and a couple of clinkers. We’ve gotten wet more than once. The main thing I’ve learned, though, is that doing 10 events in 11 weeks while balancing a real job is not for the faint of heart.

But, we still have one more to go. What’s in front of us?

The Palos Verdes peninsula is a landform between Redondo Beach and Long Beach. The event itself is in Rolling Hills Estates. It’s not easy to get there from here – I have to brave the Friday commute on the 405 again! – and we’ve never been to this event. We booked it kind of blind … it’s a big deal in the community and it’s a pretty nice neighborhood. But do these people need lotions & cutting boards?

New Ideas

This is an event “in LA,” but we still opted to get a hotel & avoid the 90 minute commutes to and from the event. It was a good decision.
We’re using our pop-up canopies for this Saturday morning set-up, but we are now adding mesh walls to the pop-ups. Made by Flourish who also made the Trimline canopy and its mesh walls, these new walls are sized to fit the pop-ups. Sta-Bars – rigid bars at the bottom of the legs – are added as well. These add to the structural strength of the canopy, stretch the mesh walls, and provide a nice unobtrusive place to put our weights. Importantly, artwork & signage can now hang on the walls at every event.

Observations

This is event # 10 of 10 in our 4th Annual Spring Fling.
Quoth Hamm in Beckett’s Endgame, “Finished. It’s finished.”
The Fling’s over, and I get a week off from events. Thank goodness.
This is not a cheap event for a spur of the moment kind of booking. Our double booth cost $700, plus a city business license of $39. I sure hope these people want some handmade soap….
We arrived Saturday morning to find a stainless wash station & big water tank in the middle of our booth. “Oh, that was for last night,” the volunteer told us. What in the world were they doing last night?
After I helped move the leftover infrastructure, we set up … right next to the entrance to the carnival. We were on the midway next to a carney thrill ride. We were in ‘tween central, and just downhill from the Domino’s Pizza trailer and its diesel generator. Pop music was booming all day. A perfect location … for what, exactly? Not selling soap. Not talking to customers in a relaxed setting. Not for Mrs M’s sanity.
Set up took a long time today … 4 hours later, we still weren’t done. Having to move the trailer to one location and then park the Jeep a block farther away didn’t help. Not an auspicious beginning.
The head of the Chamber of Commerce visited us first thing to verify we had a Rolling Hills Estates business license! Apparently, the city had threatened the COC if they didn’t police their vendors. The city didn’t have the staff for enforcement … so the Chamber of Commerce was responsible? Very odd.
A lady walked into the booth. “Excuse me, do you have a petting zoo?”
Uh….
Something I never expected to hear from Mrs M: “I guess you get used to the screaming after a while.”
I have 2 carved plaques right up front, and a nice moment was when a Mom was reading the sentiment on “In This House” to her brood and using it as a teaching moment. Very cute.
Dad asked the price … no sale, unfortunately. But I was entertained.
This event has a lot going on in a very compact space. It’s all parking lots and roadways, but they cram in a carnival, a concert stage, a beer garden, an “International Food Court” (AKA Fair Food) and 150 vendor spaces. Activities, drinking, music, people … but this year, there wasn’t much shopping. An excessive number of vendors were first-timers, too, and that’s never a good sign. If vendors don’t come back, there must be a reason.
A couple was in the booth shopping in Mrs M’s, uh, department, and the discussion turned to beard oil. Before long, I had the lady – and the guy – fondling my beard to see if it was soft. I was objectified while minding my own business. In my booth. That I paid for.
The things I must do to support Mrs M’s totally out-of-control hobby.
Saturday ended with an underwhelming number. We were OK … but not impressed.
And the screaming. Oh, the screaming.
A lady admired the product shots hanging on the wall. “Do you have this piece?” she asked. No, I’m out of that one. “How about this piece?” No, I’m out of that one, too.
Great. Now I have to manage my cutting board inventory because of the photography.
A guy walked into the booth. “I think you’re the guy my wife told me about.”
Uh….
A shade stealer (you know, a person more interested in the shade of your canopy then the products it shelters) came into the booth and started talking to me, then switched to Mrs M. He was a former biochem major, and they talked soap. It was a highlight of Mrs M’s day, actually. Later, his wife & 2 daughters showed up and they bought some stuff. Not all shade stealers are bad … you just never know who you need to be nice to … sometimes you just want to say “get out of my booth.” But, it’s better to be polite, every time. In my experience.
The weekend moved Oh. So. Slowly. Was it the screaming? Was it the engine fumes? Was it the long hours? Was it that most people were not there to shop? I don’t know. The final tally was really OK, but we certainly didn’t have fun at this Street Fair. Unfortunately.
Requests were for Cribbage boards (2x) (sigh), Chess pieces (2x) (sigh), a Pegs & Jokers board, larger Lazy Susans, lighter cutting boards and more photographs to be on sale.

The Food

Best Meal: Saturday dinner was at Gaetano’s Restaurant in Torrance. It was simply fabulous. Mrs M had found the place on Yelp … “I knew we were coming to the right place when one of the reviews said they use too much garlic.” She had the seafood special; I had the Marsala (naturally). We even had the bruschetta and a dessert. Exquisite. The best event of the weekend, by a country mile.
Honorable Mention: Sunday breakfast was at the Pinwheel Cafe & Bakery. Again, fabulous. French sourdough to die for.
Worst Meal: Friday dinner was at a horrible iteration of Mimi’s in Torrance. The only good thing was that parking the trailer was easy. Maybe that shouldn’t be how we choose our restaurants.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 164
Booth cost: $739
Food cost: $275
Travel cost: $283
Total sales: $2,202
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $905
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 2
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
Saturday alarm: 4:15a
Sunday alarm: 6:15a
# transactions: 77
# soap & lotion vendors: There was a booth that had mainly bath bombs, but no one else.
# woodworking vendors: There were a couple of buy & sell guys (imported crap). One turner might have been a real woodworker instead of an importer, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. Not sure. Certainly no other cutting board makers.
Edge grain vs. end grain: 28:2
Returning next year? As a solo act, maybe. Mrs M won’t touch this event again.

Boards sold: 30

Magic Bottle Openers: 6

Trivets: 5

Coasters: 4

Cutting Boards: 3

Small Boards: 2

Lazy Susans: 2

Chess Boards: 2

Cheese Boards: 2

Carved Signs: 2

Clipboard: 1

Medium Surfboard: 1

Chess 17 – 310. Birds Eye Maple, Black Walnut & Purpleheart.

Trivet 18 – 711. 8.5″ square.

Cutting Board 18 – 716. Cherry, Black Walnut & Hard Maple. End grain. 12″ x 15″ x 1-1/4″.

Clipboard 18 – 812. Letter size, 1/2″ clip.

Cheese Board 18 – 101. Honey Locust, Purpleheart, Bloodwood & Yellowheart. 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

Coasters 18 – 27. Hard Maple, Honey Locust, Black Walnut, Bloodwood & Canarywood.

Small Board 17 – 245. Hard Maple, Padauk & Yellowheart. 10″ x 11″ x 1″.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 119. Wall mount.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 402. Fridge Mount.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 403. Fridge Mount.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 117. Wall mount.

Lazy Susan 17 – 19. Sapele & Caribbean Rosewood. 18″ diameter.

Lazy Susan 18 – 10. Chaos Board. Purpleheart, Bloodwood, Hard Maple, Black Walnut & Yellowheart.

Small Baord 17 – 237. Purpleheart & Hard Maple. Edge grain. 7″ x 13″ x 1-1/8″.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 106. Wall mount.

Cheese Board 17 – 347. Hard Maple, Padauk, Black Walnut & Canarywood. 9″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

Cutting Board 18 – 317. Purpleheart & Hard Maple. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/8″. Edge grain.

Trivet 17 – 06. Jatoba. 8.5″ x 8.5″ x .75″.

Trivet 17 – 09. Hard Maple, Jatoba & Yellowheart.

Trivet 18 – 703. Padauk & Hard Maple.

Trivet 18 – 713. 8.5″ square.

Magic Bottle Opener 17 – 669. Padauk, Hard Maple & Honey Locust.Double Magic.

Chess 17 – 309. Ash, Black Walnut & Cherry.

Cutting Board 18 – 717. Black Walnut & Cherry. 13″ x 15″ x 1-1/4″.

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.

How do people measure success?

My experience is that success is often a product of your own state of mind. If you thing that “X” is being a success, and you do “X,” then you think you are a success. In your mind. If you only do “X-1,” though, then you may feel that you failed.

It’s about what you think.

We had been highly recommended to do the Montrose Arts & Crafts Festival for 2 years before we finally got there. We’ve done the event twice now (2016, 2017), and it has proved to be a consistent event that’s slightly better than average for us.

Slightly better than average. That sounds marginal, doesn’t it? Who wants something “slightly” better than average?

However, average events are a good thing … it’s the below average events you want to avoid. This event has averaged over $2,100 in sales for us for the last 2 years, so we should be happy with that.

*Should be.*

Getting ready for the event this week, it was hard to work up much enthusiasm. I felt like I knew what we were doing, and it would be average. Hard to get excited about that, I found.

Success, you see, is all about what’s in your head. Could I fix that and enjoy Montrose?

New Ideas

This year’s event had rather temperate weather forecast, with Saturday in the 70s and Sunday in the mid-80s. That’s a refreshing change from the last 2 years which were both in the 90s – and 2 years ago visited triple digits. In spite of that, both years delivered … uh … slightly above average sales. Maybe we have an upside this year.

Observations

This is event # 9 of 10 in our 4th Annual Spring Fling.
Drove right to the booth, and unloaded the trailer by 6:45a. The event starts at 10a, but you have walkers long before that, of course. We were ready.
Mrs M had a good day on Saturday. Consistent sales – much more than me. It’s a good thing someone had a good day … and the sales kept going. I finally had a multiple board purchase in the final hour (of course) that made my numbers more respectable. We ended up with our best 1 day total at this event in 3 years of experience.
“Slightly above average.” Humans plan, God laughs.
Due to the odd curation of this event, my booth is right across the street – perhaps 25′ away – from another woodworker that does similar pieces in a different style. We each have unique products, but we have many similar ones. He sent people to me for larger Lazy Susans; I sent people to him for smaller coasters. I don’t think either of us contributed sales to the other, but we are very collegial and friendly. Good people, but it’s still odd to be neighbors. Both of our customers commented on that odd placement all weekend long.
As they do each year.
We both like our locations, though – he’s at the end of a block in a highly visible “middle of the street” kind of location, and we’re under a giant tree that keeps our booth 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding booths. I’m also on a corner, next to a walkway that’s the best access to the neighborhood ice cream store. Win, win.
I am concerned about this event. It’s a nice community get together, but promotes itself as all handmade. There seems to be fewer handmade vendors each year. My neighbor sold clothing (the rack next to my booth had a sign: “Sale! Everything Under $10.” There was also a dump bin selling flip flops. Handmade? Not so much.
A legacy customer from 2 years ago came by to pick up a board care kit. Back in the day, I made an end grain Bloodwood board they purchased, and they LOVE it. Those conversations are the best! Paradoxically, they only cut vegetables on their Bloodwood board, but they are adults. They get to choose.

Cutting Board 16 – End 004. A spectacular board in daylight when the wood flouresces. Jarrah & Bloodwood. End grain. 16″ x 21″ x 1-1/2″.

Sunday started slow, but did pick up right at the end, of course. Today it was 2 multiple board purchases at the end of the day, so my numbers ended OK. Mrs M had a good day, as well, with lots of legacy customers talking about how they came to the event just to find her. Sunday ended not better than Saturday, but we were both happy with the weekend in the end.
We were up 15% from prior year, with our best results ever for this event. So, our slightly above average event became … a little better.
Requests were for a tofu press, a backgammon board, a gravity-based locking towel holder, a stove-top board and … wait for it … chess pieces (on order).
We were packed & I was in the Jeep in 1 hour 49 minutes. It’s been a while since we were that quick; the Spring Fling has made us get better at what we do. I think. After all, what’s the alternative?
I sold 11 different items at this event, and 6 of those items were touched by the CNC. I’m going to call that a win for technology.

The Food

Best Meal: Dinner at the Grand Panda after a surprisingly good Saturday. This is the best Chinese restaurant in Santa Clarita, IMHO.
Worst Meal: We wanted a breakfast burrito from Jimmy Dean’s Sunday morning, but, alas, they don’t open until 7:30a and we had to be on the road. We had to settle, and it was disappointing.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 138
Booth cost: $650
Food cost: $118
Travel cost: $72
Total sales: $2,589
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $1,749
# of people we met during the event from the producer: none
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: none
Saturday alarm: 4:15a
Sunday alarm: 6:00a
# transactions: 104
# soap & lotion vendors: at least 4
# woodworking vendors: 4 cutting board ~~makers~~ sellers, including 3 makers, I believe. Many other sellers of wood products.
Edge grain vs. end grain: 24:2
Returning next year? Almost certainly. We like above average events.

Boards sold: 26

Coaster: 10

CNC Plaques: 3

Hearts: 2

Medium Surfboards: 2

Small Board: 2

Cheese Board: 2

Trivet: 1

Cutting Board: 1

Lazy Susan: 1

Clipboard: 1

Wine Bottle Coaster: 1

Clipboard 18 – 808. Oversized Legal size, 1″ clip. Commissioned piece.

Trivet 18 – 708. 8.5″ square.

CNC Sign 18 – 05 – Family. Cherry. 12″ x 16″ x 3/4″.

Heart 18 – 915.

Small Board 18 – 202. Black Walnut. Edge Grain. 9″ x 11″ x 1″.

Heart 18 – 916.

Coasters 18 – 06. Chaos Coasters. Yellowheart, Jatoba, Bloodwood, Cherry, Hard Maple, Jatoba, Purpleheart & Cork. Shown with Black Walnut holder.

Cheese Board 18 – 101. Honey Locust, Purpleheart, Bloodwood & Yellowheart. 9″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

CNC Sign 18 – 06 – Family. Cherry. 12″ x 16″ x 3/4″.

Wine Bottle Coaster 18 – 502. Cherry.

Coasters 18 – 11. Hard Maple, Bloodwood, Cherry & Canarywood.

Coasters 18 – 08. Cherry, Purpleheart, Jatoba & Cork. Shown with Jatoba holder.

Cutting Board 18 – 717. Black Walnut & Cherry. 13″ x 15″ x 1-1/4″.

Cheese Baord 18 – 106. Chaos Board. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Goncalo Alves.

Small Surfboard 17 – 502. Jatoba & Hard Maple. 7″ x 16″ x 3/4″.

Small Board 17 – 234. Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Jatoba & Pau Ferro. 5″ x 11″ x 1-1/4″.

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.

I don’t know anything about mules. Some are from Missouri, I think. Shouldn’t I know more about that?

Bishop is a mountain community on the eastern Sierra located on US 395. They have the world’s largest annual celebration of mules each Memorial Day weekend. In addition to the events at the fairgrounds (and the vendors there), a parade is held on Main Street (AKA US 395). The Bishop City Park is there, and the local arts council sponsors their annual craft fair for vendors of handmade goods at that bucolic park with a stream, a duck pond and large shade trees.

Sounds like home.

We’re in. Well, I’m in. Mrs M had to work at her “job,” so my solo act was headed north to see if a celebration of mules was the right place to sell my cutting boards.

New Ideas

This is ~~our~~ my first 4-day event. Fridays are slow and Mondays are awful, I’m told … but it is nice to not put up early Saturday morning and take down late Sunday night. Recovery is a good thing.
Carved signs make their debut on the mesh walls at this event. Booth decor is now complete, for the moment: photographs of my boards in use are mixed with CNC-carved signs with a bit of sass and quotes with a bit of historical interest.

Observations

This is event # 8 of 10 in our 4th Annual Spring Fling.
My goodness, will it never end?
I drove up on Thursday to set up, and met the coordinator, Lynn, who showed me to my booth spaces. By the time I got there in the afternoon, many of the vendors were set up – and gone. I wasn’t late to the party, but I was certainly not early.
By the time I was putting up the Trimline, the late afternoon winds had picked up. Fortunately, a dad that was watching his daughters’ very long swim team meeting at the pool nearby volunteered to help me hold down the dome as I erected the framework.
Yes, his wife got to pick out a cutting board to take home. He was a very big help!
Love our new strategy of staying at AirBnB guest houses whenever we can at out-of-town events. I was in an in-law cottage that was just perfect for a couple’s getaway to the Sierra. Too bad I wasn’t a couple.
The forecast had thunderstorms forecast for Friday and Saturday. Can I not catch a break with the weather this year?
It only took a couple of hours … I was quickly asked how much for the engraved signs on the walls. But I don’t want to sell my booth decor!
Well….
#1 question of the weekend, by a wide margin: “What’s a trivet?”
#1 seller for the last 2 weekends: trivets.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Best visual of the first day was a pair of grandparents facetiming with their daughter and granddaughter. They had bought a stick mule (like a stick pony), and the mule kept dancing in front of the camera during the call. I can appreciate grandparents having fun.
Luckily, the rain stayed away. Ended the first day over $600 in sales. I didn’t really have specific expectations at my first time for this event, but that seemed good to me.
Saturday, I was told to expect light crowds until after the parade, and then expect to be ‘whelmed. It didn’t really happen that way: business was steady all day. I never really got slammed, though there were a few times that transactions happened right on top of each other. I was busy all day.
Best t-shirt of the weekend: a lady wore a shirt that said “Don’t eat watermelon seeds.” It appeared that perhaps she had; something was growing, that’s for sure.
Ended the day Saturday with no rain! I had very good sales, propelled by selling 2x end grain cutting boards with a design I call “Chaos.” They are show stoppers.
And I’m out of them.
Sunday dawned with no rain in the forecast.
It rained on and off through much of the afternoon. I still had OK sales, though. Definitely having a good event, in spite of the rain.
Sold a cheese board that’s going to Essex, and then another that’s going to London. Must be a lot of English tourists here to get a taste of the old west. Or something.
#2 question of the weekend: “Did Benjamin Franklin really say that?”
The day ended with 2x twenty-something couples, and both of the guys really wanted to buy the meat carving boards. Somehow, their delay in making a decision became a discussion about how there was a lack of commitment problem at work here. I backed away. The couples strolled on.
And came back. I sold 2x boards. This was a very good day. Not as good as Saturday, but I got close to a good number. If I can just do a little bit on Monday….
I sputtered along on Monday; we only had 5 hours before we closed up. In the final hour (OF COURSE), I sold one more large cheese & cracker server that put me over $300 for the day. That put me over a very nice number … and yes!

Best. Solo. Event. Ever.

Requests were for a spatula, pepper mills, cribbage boards (multiple requests. I’m trying. Geez.), a backgammon set (NO NO NO), Chinese checkers (NO), a smaller “&” board, a carving board (I am out!) and a lap board for your car to eat lunch on (huh?).
Two more events in the Spring Fling. Four total events in June. Hope I can make it … I’m selling out of things!
And, yes, that’s a wonderful problem to have.

The Food

Best Meal: Mrs M opened the freezer, and I got meals – and a pre-planned menu – for the weekend. Chicken Marsala for the win. Of course.
Worst Meal: I stopped in Mojave for a Big Mac, and I was annoyed by the service. Not the best McDonald’s I’ve been to.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 504
Booth cost: $580
Food cost: $34
Travel cost: $854
Total sales: $3,532
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $2,064
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
Alarm clock: Nope
# transactions: 44
# soap & lotion vendors: there were a couple … but not Mrs M, unfortunately
# woodworking vendors: several. There was a turner & a maker of pine log furniture. Rustic furniture and decor was everywhere, it seemed.
Edge grain vs. end grain: 60:4
Returning next year? Absolutely.

Boards sold: 64

Coasters: 13

Trivets: 8

Cutting Boards: 7

Cheese Boards: 6

Word Blocks: 5

Magic Bottle Openers: 4

Small Boards: 4

Lazy Susans: 3

CNC Plaque: 3

Custom Orders: 2

Cheese & Cracker Server: 2

Wine Bottle Coaster: 1

Heart: 1

Serving Tray: 1

Bear: 1

Pig: 1

Large Cutting Board: 1

Trivet 18 – 711. 8.5″ square.

Wine Bottle Coaster 18 – 501. Cherry. Urethane finish. 9″ diameter.

Cheese Baord 18 – 106. Chaos Board. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Goncalo Alves.

Trivet 17 – 07. Cherry. 8.5″ x 8.5″ x .75″.

Cheese & Cracker Server 16 – 17. Hickory, White Oak, Cherry & Black Walnut. 12″ x 19″ x 1-1/4″.

Cutting Board 16 – End 032. Cherry, Padauk, Yellowheart, Bubinga, Bloodwood, Canarywood & Purpleheart. End Grain. 14″ x 18″ x 1-1/4″. $225.

Lazy Susan 18 – 10. Chaos Board. Purpleheart, Bloodwood, Hard Maple, Black Walnut & Yellowheart.

Cheese Board 18 – 107. Bloodwood & Honey Locust. 7″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

Trivet 18 – 715. 8.5″ square.

Cutting Board 18 – 707. Chaos board, 13 species identified. End grain. 13″ x 17″ x 1-1/4″.

Carving Board – the poultry side. The graduated ribs of the oval are perfect to hold the fowl in place as you carve.

Trivet 17 – 14. Oak.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 404. Fridge Mount.

Cheese Board 17 – 325. Chaos board, with a dark blend. 8″ x 11″ x 5/8″.

Serving Tray 17 – 05. Black Walnut, Canarywood, Merbau & Sapele. 12″ x 18″ x 3/4″.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 105. Wall mount.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 119. Wall mount.

Small Board 17 – 235. Purpleheart, Cherry, Black Walnut & Pau Ferro. 6″ x 11″ x 1-1/4″.

Cutting Board 18 – 710. Chaos board, 13 species identified. End grain. 14″ x 18″ x 1-1/4″.

Magic Bottle Opener 18 – 112. Wall mount.

Cheese & Cracker Server 18 – 202. Hard Maple. 13″ x 16″ x 1-1/4″. 2 sided use, with the flip side being a plain surface for cutting or charcuterie or ….