Lawn Festivals and Giveaways

I had my first booth at a festival yesterday... For the first time this year, it broke 100 degrees here in Nashville. All that preparation and it turned out to be way too hot which meant 2 things: lots of people stayed indoors and all us vendors got to sit out in the sun for a few hours. Which was great fun. Me and the lady behind me were the only 2 vendors there who didn't have a tent, so luckily the people who were sponsoring the festival took pity on us and found an extra one for us to use. Thank God! I think my skin might've melted off otherwise! So I had 2 sales... which means I almost broke even for the day. A little disappointing, but at least quite a few people seemed to look and take a card when I said I had an online store they could check out. Oh well...

The good news is that I met with the shop owner the other day and she's going to carry some of my pieces!! I was really excited, the shop is opening this coming week and it's sooo cute. She's going to carry random antique furniture, children's consignment clothes, lots of local artwork and crafts, handmade candles... just about anything you can imagine. She's going to do a 60-40 split, but thinks some of my prices can be priced higher than in my Etsy shop. And she's working on getting her computer system up and running, but the idea is that any artist can login to their online account and see what items of theirs are selling. Such a great idea! So I'm really excited- she seems to have a lot of great ideas for the shop and I'm hoping it'll be a big success!

Also, Barefoot Mommies blog is giving away a pair of my Yellow Jade Spiral Earrings

You can view the giveaway and enter here: http://www.barefootmommies.com/2009/06/pick-me-up-boutique-review-giveaway.html

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cute stuff!

I was so excited yesterday to receive my giveaway prize from Scaftypaperlady. I won a set of 20 gift tags that are so cute! They're simple little one-sided tags that have been embellished, and they will be a perfect addition to include in my packages to customers!

I've also been a little crafty myself. As I said in my previous post, I went shopping for some gift bags for craft show customers to carry away their purchases. I couldn't really find any that I liked and I had an idea to make some. Here's how they turned out...

I took plain white lunch bags and cut them down with scallop edged scissors. I then punched some holes in the top and strung hemp string through them, knotting the end to hold them in place. They were looking a bit plain, so I was so happy to see that my package from the Scraftypaperlady included little butterfly confetti! I glued them on, tied on a ribbon, and included my business card. All of the material probably cost $5 or $6, and I imagine that I'll be able to make about a hundred bags. A nice little recyclable bag with a little bit of a handmade touch! They'd be perfect for party favors too!

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Crazy week

I'm having a little bit of a crazy week... but good crazy! Thursday is going to be a big day. First, I'm meeting with a shop owner (the one I was supposed to meet with last week but it got postponed). So that should be interesting, I feel like I've had a little bit of time to prepare for it now. I bought this spinning thing at GoodWill a few weeks ago that I have fixed up and put new hooks on it- it will be used to display bracelets. And then I've also got all of my styles of earrings hung on earrings cards so I can show her. I'm not really sure what I'll do to transport/ display the necklaces to keep them from getting all tangled... any ideas?

Also on Thursday, Barefoot Mommies blog is beginning a giveaway for one of my items. I'm really excited about this, it's been in the works for a few months! The giveaway will go for about a week, I'll share the link with you when it starts!

And then Saturday is this lawn festival I am taking part in as a vendor. (Except I hear it's supposed to rain (sad face)). I've been busy getting some display pieces together for it, and I just went to Walmart and bought white lunch bags which I'm going to make into gift bags for those who make purchases. I just couldn't find any cute, semi-cheap bags that I liked, so I thought this would be an economical solution, with a little bit of a handmade touch! I'll share some pictures when I make a few!

Meanwhile, there's a tornado warning here in Nashville and sirens are going off! I should probably shut down the computer...

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I'm a winner!

I forgot to mention in Friday's post that I won a giveaway! It was on EtsyExpo's blog and it was given away by ScraftyPaperLady. I had forgotten that I had even entered, it was my first entry into a blog giveaway! Just one of those times when I said to myself "Well those are cute notecards, wouldn't it be fun if I won?!" So I was so excited- I got to pick any of the thank you tags from her shop, which I am going to use in my packaging for sales. I just tried to grab a picture from her shop but I think she's removed the listing, so I will take pictures when I get them and post them here. I'm so excited!

I also had a great day on Saturday for kind of a silly reason. I went to the Goodwill Store to see what I could find to help display my jewelry and decorate my table at the craft fair that I signed up for. And as I pulled into the parking lot I saw signs that they were having a 50% off everything sale!! I figured everything would be picked over and falling apart, but I got so many great things I was so excited! I got 5 little plate/ platter things that I'm going to fill with (raw) white rice and black beans and place my earrings on. (btw- I stole most of these ideas from a thread in the Etsy forum!) I got a vase that I'm going to place spray-painted sticks in and hang my necklaces from them. And I got a spinning wooden thing with hooks on it that I'm going to paint and fix up and put my bracelets on. AND I got 3 tablecloths (2 of the same color and 1 accent color), a mirror, a pair of barely worn Bandolino dress shoes, and a little lawn chair for my nephew.. all for about $24!! I was THRILLED!

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