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.
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A note about my absence. After a few months of getting more and more behind … I still haven’t caught up.
I will, just not today. In the interim, here’s the latest installment of The Board Chronicles for all of you that have been missing my missives.
Enjoy, and thank you for your patience!
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In California, the “professional” vendors that do handmade goods exhibit at the Harvest Festivals. There are 8 or 9 of them (depending on the year), with one in Las Vegas, and then the remainder split about evenly between northern and southern California.
Everyone says it: the Harvest Festivals are great. But be ready: you sell a lot of stuff. Biggest events of the year. Be ready.
I was ready.
In our 5th year of vending, I committed to 2 of the Harvest Festivals: San Mateo and Sacramento. Neither are close to us, of course, but they fit on the calendar.
I was ready.
Then, we had the Camp Fire: the deadliest, most destructive wild fire in California history.
Paradise got most of the press on how bad things were, and Paradise is 200 miles from San Mateo. I thought we’d be OK … not knowing the wind patterns in the bay area took the smoke right to my destination. While we were having our event, there were warnings to stay indoors.
That’s no way to have a good event that requires patrons to drive at least some distance to come to the event, y’know?
New Ideas
Harvest Festivals require Thursday set ups, and the events run Friday – Sunday. I drove up Wednesday for an early Thursday set up. I stayed in the least expensive motel I could find in or near San Mateo … and you can use your imagination. I can assure you while in my room I was doing my best to NOT imagine what was around me.
This is the most expensive event I have ever done: $1,490 for my double booth.
Bright yellow signs were available to me: NEW VENDOR. I appreciated that.
The event has prominent entertainment: there’s a Santa on stilts. There are cowboys riding horses … well, there are guys in cowboy costumes walking around with a horse costume around their waist like they are “riding.” Definitely a lot to see here.
Observations
This is a professional operation. 200+ vendors. Some pay for cartage to have their display pieces and inventory delivered to the aisle in front of their booth, event to event. Some are newbies like me … but the bar is very high here.
Some of the requirements for these events:
no handwritten signs
cover all metal poles
all handmade
focused booth lighting is required: they turn down the general illumination in the hall
One of the veterans introduced himself to me … and said, “you know the new guy brings coffee, right?” The promoter provides the coffee, incidentally!
A neighbor said she’d been vending her whole life … “my Mom was selling tie dye shirts at Dead shows.” Welcome to San Francisco.
Heard from a young Miss walking by: “Who’s Julia Child?” That’s not my audience!
I had requests for spatulas, collapsible wooden baskets (I HATE those imports, and they all are!), a checkerboard cutting board (no thanks), more boards with “crumb catchers,” small Lazy Susans, bowl-shaped Lazy Susans, tea towel holders, round cutting boards … lots of requests from a crowd that didn’t buy that much!
In the end, this event was destroyed by the fire. Attendance was down, I was told. This was never one of the larger Harvest Festivals, but with the fire, the event was just devastated.
Final analysis: with the high booth fee, high hotel and travel costs … I actually lost money doing this event.
The Food
Best Meal: Nope. I went out; fast food & burgers.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 727
Booth cost: $1,490
Food cost: $128
Travel cost: $780
Total sales: $2,708
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 2
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
# transactions: not enough, but I did stay busy
# soap & lotion vendors: several. Not many have it going on like Mrs M does with her cold process soap, but pricing was *very* competitive
# woodworking vendors: Several, doing all manner of work. The craft is well represented.
Returning next year? No … regardless of the fire, I lost money. I won’t return quickly.
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.
** ** **
A note about my absence. After a few months of getting more and more behind … I still haven’t caught up.
I will, just not today. In the interim, here’s the latest installment of The Board Chronicles for all of you that have been missing my missives.
Enjoy, and thank you for your patience!
** ** **
This Home & Garden Show is held at the LA County Fairground in Pomona. I thought it was worth a chance. It’s not the largest Home & Garden Show – but it is in LA. Since it’s just over an hour from home, I’ll be sleeping in my own bed each night. I just have over 2 hours of freeway driving each day. What could go wrong?
The event was held March 8 – 10, 2019.
New Ideas
This is the same set up that I did last week in Fresno at that Home & Garden show. This one is in one single hall … but the hall is big enough that the designated parking area for my trailer is inside of the hall, down by the stage. Its. A. Big. Building.
Observations
Oh. So. Boring.
On Friday, I had one sale, for $45. I’ve got a bad attitude, and I’m just getting started here. The traffic … no. Not at all.
Nice enough event, really, but there was not enough there there to keep me interested. Home & Garden Shows are a numbers game, I believe, and this one isn’t big enough to support me.Lesson learned!
The Food
Best Meal: Still saving money. Have you seen how low the sales are in the first quarter?
The Facts
Total miles driven: 368
Booth cost: $800
Food cost: $65
Travel cost: $0
Total sales: $1,650
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 1
# transactions: 14x in 3 days. Horrible. Did I mention the event is 23 hours long?
# soap & lotion vendors: Yes, there were a couple.
# woodworking vendors: My neighbor installed wooden doors. Does that count?
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.
** ** **
A note about my absence. After a few months of getting more and more behind … I still haven’t caught up.
I will, just not today. In the interim, here’s the latest installment of The Board Chronicles for all of you that have been missing my missives.
Enjoy, and thank you for your patience!
** ** **
This was my 3rd appearance at the Fresno Home & Garden Show: you can read about my previous successes in 2017 and 2018.
This event isn’t great, and the 3 day event does require some patience to get through. However, the crowd is significant, they aren’t stopped by a bit of rain, and the event always delivers a good result. So far.
You bet I’m going back to Fresno! The event was March 1 – 3, 2019.
New Ideas
This is my first year at this event with signs. I took the Trimline frame, put up the mesh walls, and did what I do these days.
Observations
This event is worth my time, but it just has no sex appeal for me. I’m in building # 6 (not that you can find that designation anywhere but on the vendor map). The building does have some handmade vendors, but it’s mainly buy & sell. Want stretchy plastic bowl covers made in China? Got ’em. Want a set of pots & pans? Got ’em. Want a vacation to Lake Tahoe to see time shares? No problem. There’s also a big vendor selling patio furniture, another that’ll do your roof. It’s a pretty crazy environment.
Vendor parking is in a remote lot, but they provide a shuttle service in tricked out farm wagons. That’s appropriate for a county fairground, right?
A vendor in my building, “Would you like a hand spa? 30 seconds to wash away your dry skin?” He said this over and over and over and over. That’s not my idea of a good time. I’m sure he sold something, but yuck.
I didn’t spend much time doing walkabout at this event: I can only do this before the gates open at 10a, since I’m solo for the weekend in Fresno. There were a couple of other woodworkers that do similar work; one has a CNC and does cribbage boards. No one has the wood variety that I do ….
Another vendor in my building was selling bottle openers with an under-powered magnet hidden under a decorative tin that was glued to the cheap wood that mounted the bottle opener. I think they were $15 each, or 3 for $30. Something like that. Note that I had no Magic Bottle Openers to bring … and I haven’t made any since, either.
The thing about this event is … the crowd just keeps coming, and there are enough buyers mixed in that the event works for me. It’s a numbers game, and this first quarter event is just good enough to stay on my calendar.
The Food
Best Meal: nope. This is about saving money. If there are good restaurants in Fresno, I haven’t found them. I haven’t looked.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 408
Booth cost: $1,000
Food cost: $92
Travel cost: $432
Total sales: $2,542
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 0
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 0
# transactions: 19, spread over 3 days and 22 hours of the event
# soap & lotion vendors: there were at least a few, a couple were handmade
# woodworking vendors: everything from redwood exterior signs to wine barrel patio furniture to pallet wood signs
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.
** ** **
A note about my absence. After a few months of getting more and more behind … I still haven’t caught up.
I will, just not today. In the interim, here’s the latest installment of The Board Chronicles for all of you that have been missing my missives.
Enjoy, and thank you for your patience!
** ** **
For 2 years running, I’ve been approached at the Claremont Village Venture event in October to do this event in March. Last year didn’t work, but this year the event did fit on the calendar, so ….
It’s always seemed like foodie events should be a natural for me. I haven’t found success at drinking events (the Winter Wine Walk in Ventura comes to mind), and the results from the Chili Cook-off and Bar B Q events have been spotty, to say the least.
But I like pie. I’m going to Claremont.
New Ideas
Not new … more of a back to basics idea. I’m doing a 10×10 booth with no games. Only cutting boards, serving pieces and a few signs.
Observations
The vendor info packet announced that a fire extinguisher was required in the booth. A check will be done, it promised.
’twasn’t.
Very nice little event, it seems. Maybe 40 vendors. I’m in booth 201, right next to the alleyway exit from the Wells Fargo parking lot, I’m told. Sounds like a corner space.
It was, but only until they set up the canopy, tables & sound system for the bands that played next to me all day. They were acoustic with some amplification, but I did have to talk over the, uh, music.
One performer was a ukelele band. They were the loudest. Kind of fun, actually, once you got past the pronounced amateur status of the performers.
The event was on a pretty tight side street … Once booths were up on both sides, there was only room for about 4 people to walk down the aisle side by side. Or, that would be a couple going in each direction. That’s it. Baby strollers, Roll-ators, motorized chairs … it got interesting when the crowd thickened. Which it did: good crowd flow all day long.
I was immediately in front of my booth, talking to a customer about the Carnivore Boards, when a motorized chair ran into the cardboard trash can and pushed it into me, knocking me off balance. No big thing, really, but illustrative of the crowded conditions in the aisle.
I stayed in my booth.
Where I belong.
Lots of traffic. Sales didn’t break any records (I hate doing so few transactions in a 6 hour event!), but certainly proved to be worth my while.
The Food
Best Meal: Only left-overs for dinner. I’ll take Velda’s Beef Bourguignon anytime.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 130
Booth cost: $125
Food cost: $13
Travel cost: $68
Total sales: $1,096
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $890
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 0
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 1
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.
** ** **
A note about my absence. After a few months of getting more and more behind … I still haven’t caught up.
I will, just not today. In the interim, here’s the latest installment of The Board Chronicles for all of you that have been missing my missives.
Enjoy, and thank you for your patience!
** ** **
I like trying new events … but they are often high risk.
Such was the case with the 62nd Annual Good Old Days in Pacific Grove, CA. I couldn’t find a vendor that had tried the event, and the information I did get was primarily from the Chamber of Commerce, whose job it is to promote tourism!
I decided to take a chance.
30,000+ in attendance was promised. And that number of people may have been there. Somewhere.
Today, I can state with certainty that the vast majority of them never found my booth. As we shall see, that was no small task….
New Ideas
New events are always difficult: you have to figure out everything. This event was made more difficult because the street names changed near the downtown area where this event was set up … and every direction I received in writing as well as in person was not correct.
Observations
While I was trying to follow those directions, I got trapped with the trailer between a couple of kiddy rides … getting out was not pretty. Good directions would have been so, so helpful.
By the time I found booths 212 and 213, I was not a happy camper. But, I unloaded the trailer, parked & got to work.
My neighbor was some sort of chiropractor, I think. In any event, they placed their Honda generator right behind my booth.
I wasn’t going to catch a break at this event.
Community events can be very, very good … or they can be without value to out of town vendors like me. Such was the case here: it was a waste of my time. Sales didn’t get over $1,000, and I’m *never* happy with that.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 623
Booth cost: $570
Food cost: $124
Travel cost: $230
Total sales: $879
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 0
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 0
It’s been a long year, and in many ways, a difficult one. Not in the shop so much … it’s when I venture out of the shop that bad things happen. Sometimes.
But, good news, I’m not leaving the shop for a while. That’s good: I can do some interesting work if I just give myself enough creative time!
I’ll be working on a few shop upgrades (FINALLY) over the next couple of weeks, as well as finishing up the last few boards that didn’t make it to the finish line. I have about 30 pieces in process including bread saws, cutting boards, cribbage boards and a, uh, new piece of wall decor. They all need a bit more attention, but that’s for another day. Thankfully.
Here’s the latest, and last 2019 treats, to make it to the finish line.
The thing about making big cutting boards … is I can only make them when I sell them.
After all, if I keep making them … storage would be an issue. In my small shop, that’s no trivial matter. I have no room!
So, I’m pleased to say that I keep selling big cutting boards, and I had to make more to keep my inventory at a good level.
That’s a very good thing. I love making big cutting boards, AKA BDBs.
BDB = Big Damn Cutting Boards.
These are approximately 16″ x 21″ x 1.5″, which is the size I end up with when I start with a “blank” that’s 16x24x1.75″. Two glue-ups, 3 sanding machines, one table router and lots and lots of hand work later, these are the hand rubbed beauties that I am left with.
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.
Home.
This is the heritage holiday boutique in Santa Clarita.
The PTSO takes over the gym (after the basketball team relinquishes ownership at 5pm Friday). The PTSO then spreads tarps over the entire floor, tapes out the spaces for 100+ vendor booths and tries to get home before midnight.
The next morning, the gates open for load in at 6:30am. As vendors drive up to the gym, they are met by hordes of students there to support the event that funds many scholarships. This is the biggest school event that we’ve encountered, and it’s a joy to be there.
Our 3 kids graduated from Saugus High … and this event raises over $10,000 each year for the SHS scholarship fund.
You bet we want to be support this event. What’s not to like?
This event has really never been a slam dunk success for us (2017, 2016, 2015), but it’s perfect in every non-financial way: we sleep in our own bed. The event is 3 miles from home. We see a LOT of familiar faces, have found a multitude of local, year-round supporters, and have fostered a great number of friendships at this event.
We’re in. No doubt.
New Ideas
Velda traveled to spend a week with her mother, returning on the night before this event. She anticipated she might be, uh, challenged to stay awake during the boutique, so she elected to do a (somewhat) smaller presentation, limited to her traditional wooden display on a 6′ table. Therefore, she “gave” me the other space in the booth so I could have more than just a 10×10.
Since this was a unique set up, I did a floorplan for how we could best use the 10×20 space. I identified the number of tables we would need: 10. Then, I only brought 9. I’ve never brought too few tables to an event before.
Making their debut at this event for me were Cheese Slicers, Garlic Dipping Boards, Carnivore Boards, Cribbage Boards, CNC Signs and the just-produced, aptly named Cracker Things. It appears I’ve been busy since our last appearance at Boutique Fantastique!
Observations
This event is a well-oiled machine right now. I arrived at the parking lot at 5:45a to line up for the gate to open. There are about 10 unloading slots (and only 2 for a trailer), so you have to wait to get in. Once you’re in, there are MANY students to carry your gear to your booth space while you go park your car. I was unloading at 6:30a, parked at 7a, and began set up with Mrs M.
It took all of 3 hours this morning. We had a unique set up, with mesh walls, the Trimline framework, 9 tables … and I stacked 9 containers to mimic my 10th table. Covered the containers with a table cloth, and it worked well. Hmmmmmmm.
Back story: Mrs M hates it when I put multiple copies of the same sign up for sale. I generally do this with 2 signs: “Why Limit HAPPY To An Hour?” and “The Answer is BEER. No One Cares What The Question Was.” I put up different colors of each sign; I make about 6 versions of each. HAPPY and BEER are always gold, but the other copy could be red, blue (2 shades), green (2 shades), black or purple.
Mrs M hates it when I post all of those copies on the walls. Today, with the ticking clock measuring our set up time, she was right to observe that putting up multiple copies would spend time I might not have to get the signs up before our opening at 10a.
I put up just 2 of each.
First question of the day: “Do you have more of these?
Second question of the day: “What other colors do you have?”
Yes, I did say I told you so. Who could blame me?
Well, we know who could, and who did.
Fabulous weather for this event: mid-80s both days. And I do know that Californians love to do their holiday shopping when it’s in the 80s.
This event blew up on Saturday; I had my best day ever at Boutique Fantastique. Was it because my display was bigger? Because we were absent last year? Because all of my swell new products (which were the top sellers)? No clue. I had a good day. A very good day. Most vendors reported strong sales.
Mrs M, on the other hand, had a slow weekend. Not a good combination with her jet lag.
Were her sales down because of the smaller display? Because she didn’t put price tags up on Saturday? Because our neighbor put a big furry waterfall of clothing outside of her booth, blocking the view to Mrs M’s display? There’s no way to know. But maybe next year….
Cracker Things were a hit. # 1 comment from multiple ladies in the booth: “Those are cute!”
I take that as a win.
I generally assume I’ll sell no cutting boards this weekend, which has been basically true in the past. This is probably because the students are selling their work by the front door, and every Mom/Cousin/Aunt has to buy the board that their student made. That’s all good. This year, though, I sold 4x cutting boards, all of which were bigger sizes than the students make.
I take that as a win.
Load out was smooth. Mrs M and I got the merchandise put away, then she went home to nap. Students showed up to help me do the rest, and the work moved quickly as other vendors left and I gained more help. When I went to go move the trailer to the loading zone, 100% of my gear was on the curb waiting when I drove up. 4 guys helped me load … and I was home 2 hours after the Boutique closed.
HUGE win. HUGE.
The Food
Best Meal: The youngest Mrs M, AKA MrsMowry, joined us for dinner with her beau, AKA the Engineer, on Saturday night. The Mrs M’s collaborated and stirred up a pasta surprise. The Mr M’s watched football and drank whiskey.
Honorable Mention: I forget how good Jersey Mike’s sandwiches are. They sell 4″ subs at the Boutique, and that was my lunch both days.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 24
Booth cost: $275
Food cost: $24
Travel cost: $0
Total sales: $3,035
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 3
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 0
Saturday alarm: 5a
Sunday alarm: nope
# transactions: we had a good Saturday, but Sunday was slow. Too slow for jet-lagged Mrs M
# soap & lotion vendors: 2 other vendors were “soap adjacent”
# woodworking vendors: several vendors had wooden objects on display, but the only real “competitor” I had was the high school woodshop, which sells small student-made cutting boards to fund wood purchases for the program. I am a supporter.
I’ve been busy … but it always seems to be not quite enough.
I keep making stuff, I keep selling stuff … and I’ve never felt caught up in the 6 years that I’ve been doing this. I’m certainly not ahead, as I don’t have extra inventory to replace what I sell. So, when I have a good weekend where I sell 34 pieces (!), I have to get right back into the shop and make sure I have at least 34 more for the next event.
At least I have a goal! Maybe next year I can get ahead. Dreams are a wonderful thing….
I love it more when people actually use them. They are made to be of use, after all.
Here’s a wide variety of cutting boards that I have ready for this weekend’s event. Every person that does what I do has heard it, “Oh, these are too pretty to use!”
No, they’re not. And even if they are … I can ugly them up for you, if you like.
