One Season Down

Yesterday was the last Craft Fair that we will participating in for this year. It's been quite an experience over the last few months. I haven't stopped moving in a very long time! The days of the events are long, but it's very encouraging when people come out and buy our items. We've learned how to set-up, various ways to best display our items, and what necessities you must always have with you. It's fun to see which other vendors will be at various events. All of the organizers were incredibly kind and always willing to accommodate our requests to be next to Quinn Bags which was a huge bonus.

Fitting into a very small space! Stacy and I got as much on those little tables as we possibly could.

This event was our easiest set-up because we only had signs.

 Tis the season!

Finishing with a flourish!!

It will be nice to have the weekends back for a little while. For the most part anyway. We have Braeden's birthday coming up and then three weekends in a row of Christmas parties. But that's all fun stuff and doesn't require packing and unpacking the car at least twice. Now we move on to concentrating on our special orders. I couldn't be more thrilled with how many people are letting us create special and unique presents for their holiday giving. Now maybe with a little more time on my hands, I'll be able to have the energy to blog again. Thanks Jen for going on this adventure with me. I'm looking forward to seeing where this crazy idea takes us!

Craft Fair Success

This past weekend Jen and I set up The Little Giraffe at our very first craft fair. The whole experience of making and selling is still very new to us as we only decided to try and do this about 3 months ago. We both have made gifts for friends and family in the past, but neither of us have ever tried to produce large quantities to sell. And then, because we don't know when to say uncle, we added a few more items that we had never even tried to make before! But I must say, after several different attempts, we figured out how to make beautiful wooden signs. I'm pretty proud of this particular endeavor because it is something we completely figured out and created in the last month. 

I know it's not a great picture, but it was under a tent

We had to be on site at 7:30 Saturday morning. I know this is normal, but it's still early for me. But I was there on time with Dunkin Donuts in hand for the rest of the ladies. Really, can a long day be started without a DD beverage? Not around here I assure you. Anyway... we started with one tent that didn't have all of the pieces (oops), but fortunately Jen's husband Brad ran home and brought back their screen house which became our home for the next two days. 

We were very happy to see that our request to be assigned a spot next to Stacy was granted. We set up our two booths so that people could walk through from one to the other and I think that helped us a lot. At this craft fair in particular, there are people who come specifically to buy Stacy's bags, so it was great for us to be able to be connected to her to gain some exposure. 

Jen and I actually made some profit which is very fortunate for our first craft fair, so we will now push forward and be participating in a few more before the end of the year. We really wanted to feel out the reception for our items to see if we would continue. It was really heartening to have so many people come by and even have a few people talk to us about custom orders! Now we will have until the end of October to get our supplies replenished and add some items to our stock. I'm honestly surprised how easily it all went, but I am very, very grateful to all of the other people who have helped and supported us as we decided to walk into such a time-consuming endeavor. We even have a  The Little Giraffe Facebook page now. That must mean we're official right?

Our First Craft Fair

Jen and I decided a few months ago that we would try setting up a booth at a local craft fair, The Gill Arts and Crafts Festival. Progress was a bit slow in the beginning, but over the last few weeks we have been in overdrive getting ready for our big debut weekend. I can't believe it's already here! I'm excited and nervous. I know that we have created some beautiful items, but will people buy them? Will our personal tastes translate to what potential buyers like? We have both been working like crazy to take care of all of the details of getting our tent (thanks Matt and Melanie for the loaner), putting together a display, and having enough inventory to not look bare, but not too much out at once so that it looks messy. We're very hopeful that the people in charge assign us a spot directly next to Stacy and her Quinn Bags booth.

Our focus was originally on baby items, but as so many projects do, we've morphed into a few other areas as well. We will definitely have baby quilts, bibs and changing pads, but we've also added wooden signs, magnets, cards and vinyl crafts. My pictures aren't great, but here's a few of our favorite items that will be for sale.

If you're local, we'd love to see you there! It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend and the Festival features lots of great local artisans plus great food. It's a win no matter how you look at it.