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 is the only one we’ve done every year since we started in 2012. It’s the oldest and in some ways, still the biggest holiday boutique in Santa Clarita. It’s a PTSO scholarship fundraiser for Saugus High students. All of our kids graduated from here, and one even won one of these scholarships. So, it’s never a question of if we are going to do this event. We will, as long as we are making. And they’ll have us.
“Us” is a euphemism for the business, officially named Mrs M’s Handmade. Mrs M (remember her???) actually outsold me most years at this event, but I’ve had to bring my solo set up since covid cancelled SoCal events for more than a year … & Mrs M’s inventory expired. She is yet to replace it. I have high hopes that she will return to making & be there next year. Stay tuned.
High hopes.
But back to business. How was 2025?
First, it was stressful. I have not done an event since April … and I’ve emptied a house, moved, and remodeled the new house since them. Along the way, I have scattered tools, inventory and display pieces all over the place. The shop only became fully operational (though with no storage) last month, so getting ready for this show was … challenging. I did (finally) make new cutting boards & side tables, so it’s clear I haven’t lost all of my skill. But perhaps I have lost my marbles. Mrs M was certain of it.
What’s different this year (other than our address!)?
I decided to not use the cargo trailer, in spite of the double booth I was setting up. My inventory was light … and I just wasn’t feeling it. So, I shrank from my traditional 10 display tables to only 7 and enjoyed a booth that was easier to walk though.
I took a truck load, then Mrs M was convinced to follow on with a car load of inventory. This was basically how we did events 10 years ago. The more things change….
This event is always the first Saturday/Sunday in November, and this year it fell on the earliest possible dates, November 1 & 2. When they turned on the background music before the 10am opening … the traditional Christmas songs offended my ear. The songs were the classics. My ear, unfortunately, was still processing Hallowe’en, gone for less than 12 hours. It definitely seemed early for Christmas shopping (foreshadowing, that).
Biggest surprise: I arrived at 6:05am, and was so deep in line that I couldn’t get the truck into the Saugus High parking lot. First time that has ever happened. I was unloaded by 7:15am, though, so all was well. I was set up by the 10am opening.
Biggest sale: A lady bought a side table + several ramekins for her charcuterie presentations. That was the singular side table sold … and honestly, I sold several single items from across my inventory. 1 cheese slicer. 1 cutting board. 1 ampersand board. And so on. It was a good weekend, but it was not because of overwhelming sales. I was, in fact, never ‘whelmed.
Biggest pleasure: Oh, so many people come to visit me and assure me they are still using/enjoying the cutting boards, serving pieces & such that they have bought from me over the years. I truly love that. OH. And visits from 2 Cub Scout families were a treat, too. Apparently some of the silly songs I taught Pack 575 live on at family gatherings to this day, decades later.
I did apologize. Apparently the ditty about fast food brands (it is called “Pizza Hut.” Remember it?) is still a favorite.
Most vendors I talked to, with a broad array of products from jewelry to decor to personalized gifts to handmade stuff … all complained about how 2025 was not good for craft fairs/boutiques/etc. Sales have been down 25% for just about everyone. Now, vendors always complain, sales are almost always down, and the reasons cited range from the economy, the political landscape and the cost of electricity. I prefer the reason to be the phase of the moon. Who knows what is going on? But, sales were down this year, which is always a sad thing.
But, I am once again making. I am back in the vendoring game. And I have one more event to prepare for this year: Santa’s Art Shop in Ridgecrest, CA. Hope to see you there, December 6 & 7. Meanwhile, here’s what the booth looked like this year:
I really got waylaid on the way to 2025. Mrs M went bionic this year, and got 2x new knees. We bought our new forever home in February while she was still fresh from surgery # 1 … and sold the home where we raised our family in May, right before surgery # 2. We stayed in the Santa Clarita Valley, but we moved about 8 miles to the wilds of Castaic.
This was a big idea … before we could move we needed to process the 37 years of, uh, accumulation that didn’t have to go to Castaic, but could not stay in Valencia. In addition, we decided to do an extensive remodel to our new home … and I acted as project manager. And with the shop in Valencia closing as we moved, I stopped making until I could get the shop back up.
And, tic toc. What is only the second event I am doing this year is coming at me like a freight train. This event is the ONLY event that I have done every year since Mr M’s Woodshop began in 2012. I couldn’t miss supporting this neighborhood scholarship fundraiser, so it was time to get on with the making. Or else there would be a fairly empty booth at the Saugus High Boutique Fantastique, and that was just not OK.
Here then, are pictures of 13x cutting boards that are the first made with my new table saw in my new shop. See them – and more! – this weekend, Saturday & Sunday 10a – 4p in the Centurion gymnasium. You’ll find me at the end aisle booth I’m always at: #222.
All of these cutting boards are made from hardwoods, both domestic and exotic. Those exotic woods come from Central & South America as well as Africa, and include Purpleheart, Zebrawood, Iroko, Brazilian Cherry and more.
First up, eye candy for you. The big end grain boards. All are approximately 16×22″, give or take an inch. Thickness is 1-5/8″. All come with 3/4″ wide juice grooves, non-skid rubber feet, weight as much as 15 pounds and are made for robust use.
Next up are 2 smaller, simpler cutting boards. These edge grain boards, perfect for smaller kitchens are 13×17″ and 16×19″.
Finally, I have eight new “Juicy Boards” which are perfect small cutting boards, or perhaps the best way to serve that steak Mrs M is promising me. These are all 11-1/2″ square and 7/8″ thick. I make them in pairs, but you can buy just one! That’s good, because one of the “brown blend” boards, the 3rd picture, is already sold.
It is GREAT to be back in the shop. I will be making new stuff all through November, including special orders … so for everyone I have disappointed this year because I was not available, now is the time to tell me what you want!
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.
The Saugus High School Boutique Fantastique is the oldest holiday boutique in Santa Clarita. Now in its 26th year, the Boutique is produced by the PTSO to raise scholarship funds for students. In 2014, over $10,000 was raised.
All 3 of our kids graduated from Saugus, so OF COURSE we want to do this event. Further, this was our most profitable event in 2014. OF COURSE we want to do this event.
I love local. We’re in.
Last year, this was the first ever event that we did 2 booths at instead of just a single. We were so jazzed in 2014 that we were hitting the big time. Sales were $1,439, but we felt we had upsides in 2015, as we had a more complete line of products that were more pleasingly displayed. We thought.
New Ideas
Four new products from me:
37 Building Blocks premiered this weekend (at all 3 events!)
A clipboard was on display here; my first one
A magic bottle opener was on display
The first California Bear cheese board was on sale here, too.
The 2 Mrs M’s were otherwise engaged on Saturday, so Miss M, AKA Little Girl, took their place. It’s her alma mater, after all, so she agreed to help us out this weekend.
On Sunday, I went to another event at Canyon High, so the elder Mrs M joined Miss M to cover the 2nd day at Boutique Fantastique.
Mrs M took her 2-year-old, well-used edge grain cutting board on Sunday to show how well it is holding up. She wanted to combat the idea that these cutting boards are too pretty to use; she demo’d how to put on mineral oil and showed the result of how it revitalized the look of the board.
Good news: Mrs M actually oiled her cutting board. Win, win.
Observations
This event is a machine. Follow the rules. Get in line. Lots of students to help you load in and load out. Happy to support the event, but you must follow the rules. Just be patient!
# 1 request, again: a backgammon board. Sorry, not gonna do it.
Saugus High has a woodshop program. Part of that program has the kids making “cutting boards and chopping blocks” to sell as a fundraiser at this event. Those funds go back into the program, helping kids buy lumber so they can learn to work with wood. I am 100% in support of this as a local resident, and as a vendor at this event. I mean, if I can’t compete with the boards built by a teenager, then what am I doing?
This year, they had more “chopping blocks” (end grain cutting boards, approximately 12″ x 15″ x 2″) for sale than last year, and they sold out of all boards on Saturday. They had better products available than last year … but they still are using soft woods, poor cutting board hardwoods that are cheap, and the boards themselves are unfinished. They’re selling wooden platforms for cutting without the finishing touches needed to make them better boards. In my opinion. However, every relative & friend made sure to buy their student’s work, as they should. I directed several people to the booth of the woodshop to do exactly that. I also bought a wooden mallet made by one of the students that I brought into my shop one afternoon to teach him a trick or two.
He stole my packaging ideas, per his instructor. That’ll teach me.
Kidding! No worries at all. I am happy that the local school has an all-too-rare woodshop program. Mrs M told me that one of the students spent a long time in the booth on Sunday looking at my work and oohing and ahing over the boards. Perhaps I’ve helped add a little bit of love for the craft.
One Mom had her 4 year old in a stroller. He was watching his smartphone video screen, plugged into an earphone while Mom went shopping. He was 100% oblivious to his surroundings, and Mom was pushing him around. I am not a fan of plugged in kids.
Mrs M talked about taking knives and vegetables to demo on her cutting board; I observed that taking sharp knives to an event, much less an event at a high school, was probably a bad idea.
Load out was as easy as load in, though one vendor was sitting on the curb trying to reserve a loading space for his wife that wasn’t through the line yet. Mrs M was directed to park there, which the man took exception to. Mrs M and Miss M actually took 2 spots, and were gone before the man’s wife was through the line. He was impatient. However, follow the rules and all will be well.
The Food
Saturday Breakfast: Bagel & cream cheese.
Saturday Lunch: Jersey Mike’s 4″ mini sub
Saturday Snack: none. It was a late lunch.
Saturday Dinner: Bella Cucina, because the younger Mrs M is the boss of me and she wanted Bella.
Sunday Breakfast: Pumpkin Latte pumpkin shake (can you tell that this was Mrs M, not Mr M?)
Sunday Lunch: Jersey Mike’s 4″ mini sub
Sunday Snack: none
Sunday Dinner: Welik’s, our new favorite family-owned Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 24
Booth cost: $265
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
Total sales: $1,311
# containers of product taken: 19
# boards available: 94
Saturday alarm: 5a
Sunday alarm: 7:30a
# transactions: 43
# soap & lotion vendors: two others that we saw
# woodworking vendors: there were a couple of others, plus the high school woodworking class that sold out of their “cutting boards and chopping blocks.”
Edge grain vs. end grain: 9:1
Boards sold: 10
4 Small Sous Chef Boards
3 Lazy Susans
1 Bread Board
1 Cheese Board
1 Cutting Board
Lazy Susan # 15 – 029. Goncalo Alves & Black Walnut. 17″ diameter x 3/4″. Sold in its first showing.
Sous Chef # 15 – 44. Black Walnut, Yellowheart & Jatoba. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″. Sold in its first showing.
Cheese Board 15 – 041. Quilted Walnut. 12″ x 8″ x 1-1/4″. Sold at its first showing.
Bread Board # 11. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Padauk. 5″ x 15″ x 3/4″. Sold at its first showing.
Lazy Susan # 15 – 019. Red Oak, Black Walnut, Purpleheart, Cherry & Hard Maple. 17″ diameter x 3/4″.
Cutting Board # 15 – 040. Cherry and Hard Maple End Grain. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/4″.
Sous Chef # 15 – 42. Black Walnut, Yellowheart, Hard Maple & Padauk. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Sous Chef # 15 – 40. Yellowheart, Hard Maple, Black Walnut & Teak. 12″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Sous Chef # 15 – 43. Hard Maple, Black Walnut & Jatoba. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Lazy Suan 15 – 033. Cherry, Black Walnut, Jarrah … and the center piece of Black Walnut is quilted. 17″ diameter x 3/4″
