Strange and Happy Weekend

I am just now coming down from the high of this weekend. I had an amazing time at the Strange Folk Festival. I didn’t see much of the place beside my little corner of the pavilion but that was all I needed. I met a lot of lovely, creative people and got some great feedback about my work. And I had sales that exceeded my own expectations. I had a goal and I sailed right past it, which felt wonderfully validating.

The pictures are from Saturday. I learned a lot on this day and made a few minor but important changes on day 2, which resulted in even better sales on Sunday than Saturday. I de-cluttered the table a bit by leaving more scarves and scarflettes back. I put fewer of the wire bracelets out but put them in the front and center since I found that they drew people in but they rarely ended up buying one. I only sold one of the wire cuffs but many times people started out looking at them and ended up buying one of the yarn wrist cuffs.

I wore one of my necklaces on Sunday so people could see them in action and put them in a more prominent spot on the coat rack. I ended up selling 2 of them on Sunday to a sweet woman and traded one for my Strange Folk memorabilia item. I also kept my quilt racks much more organized on Sunday. I let them get chaotic and overfull on Saturday so I think people were overwhelmed and didn’t want to take the time to dig through them. I kept them single-file and color arranged on Sunday and put more out as they sold.

I was also much more calm and confident on the second day which I’m sure helped. I hovered a bit too much the first day and since I’d only brought an uncomfortable lawn chair I spent most of the day on my feet. Sunday I brought a stool and I was much more comfortable. I made several large credit card sales that I know I would not have made without Propay so I’m glad that I made that investment.

My favorite customer was the girl who said she had seen my wristcuffs on my website and came out that day to find me. I also loved the woman who stood at the table just taking it all in for about 5 minutes and then said I just love the way your mind works. That was the best compliment I could have asked for.