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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 Summit is a development in Valencia with many gated neighborhoods; a friend produces a pair of holiday boutiques in the Summit’s clubhouse as a fundraiser for her designated charity, Bridge to Home. That charity funds efforts to help the homeless in Santa Clarita.

This event raised several hundred dollars for that charity. That’s worth something.

The event repeats in a month on December 19, with Santa Claus in attendance. Looking forward to it!

New Ideas

• After so long doing outdoor events where you drive to your booth, it’s a real switch to prepare for indoor events with a folding wagon to haul product over sidewalks.
• Splitting inventory to cover multiple events on the same day is a challenge. If you don’t actually count everything … you don’t know what you’ve got. That always leads to containers of products you don’t need, and containers of product at another event that you wish you had.

Observations

• This event felt a bit like a home boutique: it appealed to a specific set of friends, and drew many people from the neighborhood.
• There were about 20 vendors; a mix of handmade and buy & sell.
• I did hear from one vendor that sales were down significantly from their appearance at last year’s event … it’s always a crap shoot, as one wise friend of mine likes to say.
• More and more events, it seems, expect a raffle item contribution for them to extend their fundraising to selling raffle tickets. I need to start adding that expense to the actual cost of the events.
• This is the 3rd event that we’ve been next to the door, and had less than spectacular results. This was a small event, but boards were next to the door, and I only sold one item from Mr M’s inventory. Superstitious? Getting there.
• In the end, the event achieved my goals for the event. Expectations were met, and funds were raised for a deserving charity. Win, win.

The Food

Saturday Breakfast: McDonald’s # 4. It’s a habit.

Saturday Lunch: A peanut butter sandwich. High living, this vendor thing.

Saturday Snack: hahahahahahaha

Saturday Dinner: Linguini at Marston’s. It’s a habit.

The Facts

• Total miles driven: 10
• Booth cost: $80
• # of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
• Total sales: $543
• # containers of product taken: 13
• # boards available: 45
• Saturday alarm: I woke up first
• # transactions: 19
• # soap & lotion vendors: one soap vendor
• # woodworking vendors: just me
• Edge grain vs. end grain: 1:0

Boards sold: 1

Here are the first few sets, bagged up!

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 city of Santa Clarita hosts one show each year dedicated to handmade goods. The Fine Craft Show is in Old Orchard Park; the vendors’ shade structures are set up under the trees in a grassy area. Very nice location.

I love local, as you may know. This was our third best event last year, with sales of $1,137.

We were so young then. In the last 12 months, we’ve had 14 events with better sales than this event last year.

This was also the site of the iconic moment of me being overwhelmed at an event. Last year, I was working the event solo (mistake # 1), and had the walls down to help shield the booth from a windy day (mistake # 2, it seems). Add to that the fact that I was doing Christmas gift bags for lotion purchases in quantity with a booth full of folks … and all at once, I had the wall of my shade structure start to flap and blow away while people were 3 deep waiting on me to take their money.

That had to wait a minute while other customers joined me as Windblown Wall Wranglers. We saved the wall, and customers were (fortunately) very understanding of my gift wrapping speed, or, rather, the lack of it.

On to a (hopefully) much better 2015!

The logistics of this weekend were daunting, with the elder Mrs M covering two smaller events, while Little Girl & I covered the Fine Craft Show. Happily, it all worked out … with emphasis on the “worked” part.

New Ideas

• With great pleasure, we welcomed the Intern, AKA Claire Bear, to the Mrs M’s family. I don’t know how she got whitewashed into helping us this weekend … I would have thought a UCLA scholar would have been familiar with the plot of Tom Sawyer.
• Last year, we had a single 10×10 booth, and this year we moved up to a 10×20, of course. There was only one other 10×20 here … also for a woodworker. Who knew?

Observations

The Intern enjoying our Bear. Of course! Go Bruins!

• I left home on Saturday without my cellphone (which I did retrieve), without my key to the cash drawer (oops), and without my stylus for people to sign for transactions on my smartphone (double oops). An inauspicious beginning for this important event, to be sure.
• Whenever a show promotes itself as “handmade goods only,” then I get perturbed when the promoters don’t enforce that simple rule. Most of the vendors were fine, but a couple were clearly just reselling imported merchandise, and they were not asked to leave. I very much regret they were allowed to stay.
  
• The Intern needs a name tag. But should it say “The Intern” or “Claire Bear?” Claire Bear is the preference of Granddaughter # 1, so I have to give that all due consideration. Decisions, decisions.
• The Intern is a Freshman at UCLA, and her first blog post was just published by The Daily Bruin. I highly recommend you check out her article, here.
• Love having customers pulling last year’s product out of their purse to show us as they replenish with more from Mrs M.
• I have fans! Two guys sought me out in the booth to tell me that they loved reading The Board Chronicles. Who knew? It came to light that they were both woodturners, and since it’s known that all turners are crazy, I began to understand.
• Why are they crazy? Turners take a perfectly good piece of wood, put it on a machine to rotate at a very high rate of speed, and then they stick sharp tools into it to see what flies off. Crazy, every one, and the good Dr H is at the top of the list.
• We were busy all day on Saturday. Steadily. Busy. It was a lovely day, and people came out to buy both lotions and boards. The result: sales of $1,587. Better than last year’s entire event, and

Best. Day. Ever.

• We almost ran out of $1 bills on Saturday – the only time that has EVER happened. We only had 5 singles left at the end of the day. At dinner that night, I asked our waiter for help, explaining that we were vending at a nearby event and needed singles. I bought all of the singles the wait staff would sell me, and ended up with $40 in ones to replenish the till.
• We rely on the kindness of strangers.
• Don’t mistake the reference as support for Tennessee Williams, as we continue today’s literary theme. I don’t care for his work, even if he was a Missouri Tiger in the ’30s.
• Tom Sawyer was from Missouri. Tennesse Williams was from Missouri. The Intern is from Missouri. I’m from Missouri. M I Z
• Sunday had poor weather forecast, and we did have sprinkles for about an hour in the early afternoon. A freak wind gust blew through and knocked over the display in the booth of a wonderful ceramicist. I understand all of her product on the display was lost, unfortunately. That was a significant weather impact.
• The rain was not that big of a deal, however. Customers continued to wander through … but vendors, fearing they would melt, scurried away. At least 50% of the vendors were gone before 1pm.
• Our best hour was after 2pm.
• Good thing we stayed open. One of our final customers drove out to see us from West LA, after first meeting me at the Simi Valley Street Fair in May. She needed more product from Mrs M. And a cutting board. So she drove out just to visit our booth, and was most appreciative that we were still there.
• In the end, this event had great sales for us. When you combine it with the 2 smaller events hosted by the elder Mrs M this weekend, the total sales resulted in the …

Best. Weekend. Ever.

The Food

Saturday Breakfast: Bagels & cream cheese

Saturday Lunch: Jersey Mike’s Italian sub, Mike’s way.

Saturday Snack: I saved the chips from lunch … and had no time.

Saturday Dinner: Linguini with chicken, sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms at Marston’s. And it was as good as it sounds.

Sunday Breakfast: Bagels & cream cheese

Sunday Lunch: Chili cheese dog from the food truck. After a long, long absence, this is my second chili cheese dog in a week. Welcome back, old friend.

Sunday Snack: Chips & Dip (courtesy of Souper Dip!) when we got home

Sunday Dinner: Leftover chicken pot pie soup (courtesy of Souper Dip!). And bourbon. Don’t judge me.

The Facts

• Total miles driven: 90 (There was set-up with the forgotten toolbag. Then there was Saturday morning, with the forgotten cellphone. With the intern, 3 people worked the event, and the miles add up … even when the event is in our hometown. Local, indeed.)
• Booth cost: $300
• # of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
• Total sales: $2,353 (more than double 2014!)
• # containers of product taken: 19
• # boards available: 86
• Saturday alarm: 6:30a
• Sunday alarm: none
• # transactions: 62
• # soap & lotion vendors: 3 others, though one didn’t return on Sunday. All left early, except us
• # woodworking vendors: 3 others (!), including an intarsia artist, a scroll saw expert and a company that does giant-sized Lincoln Log-styled building pieces made with a CNC router out of Baltic birch.
• Edge grain vs. end grain: 20:4

Boards sold: 24

Cheese Boards: 10

Lazy Susans: 4

Cutting Boards: 2

Large Cutting Boards: 2

Small Boards: 2

Bottle Openers: 2

Sous Chef Board: 2

Lazy Susan # 15 – 030. Birdseye Maple (a uniquely figured Hard Maple) and Teak. 17″ diameter x 3/4″.

Sous Chef # 15 – 53. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Jatoba. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″. Sold in its first showing.

Lazy Susan # 15 – 028. Cherry and Hard Maple. 17″ diameter x 3/4″.

Cheese Board # 15 – 044. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Padauk & Yellowheart. Edge Grain. 10″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

Cheese Board 15 – 020. Hard Maple, Padauk, Walnut and Yellowheart edge grain. 10″ x 12″ x 1″.

Cheese Board # 15 – 035. Black Walnut, Yellowheart, Bloodwood, Padauk, Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Canarywood & Honey Locust. Edge grain. 9-1/2″ x 9-1/2″ x 3/4″.

Cheese Board # 15 – 048. Cherry, Hard Maple, Jatoba, Honey Locust, Jatoba, Purpleheart, Black Walnut & Yellowheart. 9″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

Lazy Susan # 15 – 036. Jarrah & Canarywood. 17″ diameter x 3/4″. The colors are just about perfect in this photo: this piece is colorful!

Cutting Board # 15 – 083. Hard Maple, Cherryt, Yellowheart, Jatoba, Bloodwood & Canarywood. Sold in its first showing. End Grain. 16″ x 20″ x 1-1/2″.

Cutting Board # 15 – 081. Cherry, Bloodwood, Canarywood, Yellowheart, Padauk, Hard Maple, Jatoba & Purpleheart. 15″ x 18″ x 1-1/2″.

Cutting Board # 15 – 082. Black Walnut. End Grain. 12″ x 15″ x 1-1/8″.

Small Board # 15 – 058. Purpleheart & Hard Maple. 9″ x 12″ x 1-1/4″.

Small Board # 15 – 011. Hard Maple end grain. 6″ x 13″ x 1-1/4″.

Cheese Board # 15 – 012. Hard Maple, Cherry and Yellowheart. 8″ x 7″ x 1-1/4″.

Cheese Board # 15 – 014. 8″ x 11″ x 1″. Black Walnut, Honey Locust & Hard Maple.

Cheese Board # 15 – 050. Yellowheart, Padauk, Hard Maple, Black Walnut & Jatoba. 9″ x 11″ x 7/8″.

Sous Chef # 15 – 56. Black Walnut, Yellowheart, Jatoba & Hard Maple. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″.

Cheese Board # 15 – 042. Black Walnut, Cherry & Padauk. Edge grain. 8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.

Lazy Susan # 15 – 031. Hard Maple, Black Walnut, Yellowheart, Padauk and Canarywood. 17″ diameter x 3/4″.

Cutting Board # 15 – 031. Cherry and Hard Maple. 12″ x 12″ 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.

St Clare’s Catholic Church in Canyon Country hosts multiple services on Sunday mornings, and parishioners are encouraged to extend their fellowship and have breakfast either before or after their service at the Church’s snack bar. Once each year, the Church hosts a holiday boutique in the room adjacent to the snack bar. Some vendors are faith-based, but most are selling holiday-themed decor or gifts for the holiday season.

Set-up had 2 options: 6-8pm on Saturday night, or 6-8am Sunday morning.

We took the Saturday night option. We loaded in, and then went to dinner after our busy Saturday. Sunday morning … well, avoiding 5am alarms is always a good idea.

For the event itself, the elder Mrs M was once again solo, as I was otherwise engaged at the Fine Craft Show across town in the Old Orchard Park.

Last year, sales were $569. Have we saturated the market? How will we do this year?

New Ideas

• Limited product for this one day, table top event. There’s only so much space!

Observations

• Lots of positive comments from repeat customers. Love that!
• Best comment of the day was from a 9 year old boy, who asked if he could buy one building block … he didn’t specify which one. Alas, we’re not set up to do that.
• Another Mom didn’t allow her 4 year old to take a bite out of the lotion bar testers. Good move, Mom!
• We almost ran out of the Christmas gift bags, but we had just enough.
• This is a great little event!

The Food

Sunday Breakfast: Huevos Rancheros at the church snack bar, a fund raiser for the youth group. They delivered to the booth!

Sunday Lunch: Pizza, from the snack bar again. One slice of cheese, and one slice of supreme. It took about an hour to eat it; too busy to eat.

Sunday Snack: nope.

Sunday Dinner: Leftovers: Bacon Corn Chowder, as inspired by Souper Dip. What do you expect after a weekend this busy?

The Facts

• Total miles driven: 24
• Booth cost: $60
• # of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
• Total sales: $557
• # containers of product taken: 12
• # boards available: 42
• Sunday alarm: 6:30a
• # transactions: 23
• # soap & lotion vendors: there was a buy & sell lotion vendor; perhaps 2.
• # woodworking vendors: just us
• Edge grain vs. end grain: 3:0

Boards sold: 3

1x Large Sous Chef Board

1x Sous Chef Board

1x Cheese Board

Sous Chef # 15 – 46. Birdseye Maple, Yellowheart & Jatoba. 10″ x 22″ x 3/4″.

Sous Chef # 15 – 43. Hard Maple, Black Walnut & Jatoba. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″.

Cheese board. Black Walnut, Cherry, Hard Maple and Jarrah. 8″ x 11″ x 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.

This event was a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, held at the unfortunately named church, Santa Clarita United Methodist (AKA in some circles as SCUM). It was called “Relay For Life,” but there was no actual running or relay on this day. That was back in the summer … and, apparently, the excuse for this Boutique.

This event was hosted by the elder Mrs M, as I was doing Santa Clarita’s Fine Craft Show at the Old Orchard Park, which you’ll read about in a couple of days.

New Ideas

• Mrs M had to set up, run the event, and load out without assistance. First time that has happened this year. Quoth m’lady, “Thank God for the wagon.”

Observations

• Don’t walk in front of a wagon hauling cutting boards downhill.
• No food at this event. Starvation is not a good option.
• Being right inside the door may not be the best position. People go into the room, and then survey. They don’t look at a table inches from the door. Or so our experience has been at 2 events this fall.
• Difficult to fit even our small display on 2x 6′ tables. The indoor season presents new challenges.
• We’re beginning to find happy local people when they see us this holiday season. People are showing us Mrs M products in their purses from months ago, and they are happy to be able to restock. We’re happy to help!
• The lady selling 12″ Christmas trees … with one that was decked out in USC colors, was far too prominent in Velda’s visual field. No UCLA tree was available, which was a strategic error on this vendor’s part.
• The flyer said 10-4, but people left at 3p. That’s what the vendor confirmation letter said … so the paperwork was not in order.

The Food

Saturday Breakfast: Peanut butter toast and a glass of milk, and not enough coffee.

Saturday Lunch: Jersey Mike’s turkey with provolone, add bacon. Mike’s way. Delivered by Little Girl & the Intern when they were fetching cutting boards needed at the far busier Old Orchard Park event.

Saturday Snack (pre-lunch): The Christmas Tree Lady shared her Pringles with Mrs M because she knew she was starving.

Saturday Dinner: Marston’s was the perfect end to this busy day. Garlic Chicken & a Caesar salad.

The Facts

• Total miles driven: 4
• Booth cost: $110
• # of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
• Total sales: $327
• # containers of product taken: 14
• # boards available: 40
• Saturday alarm: 6:30am
• # transactions: 15
• # soap & lotion vendors: Just us
• # woodworking vendors: Just us
• Edge grain vs. end grain: 1:0

Boards sold: 1

Lazy Susan: 1

Lazy Susan # 15 – 027. Black Walnut, Mahogany, Yellowheart & Hard Maple. 17″ diameter x 3/4″. The Mahogany has a hint of turquoise in it!