My first craft fair is finally over. We were in the tiny, old dilapidated church at Rockland. I thought we were going to be in the regular church, maybe in the basement. I'd have preferred that. This old one has no bathroom or running water.
There was only one light turned on and it did nothing to chase away the gloom in the room. The day was overcast, drizzling rain or raining hard, and no one wanted to cross the road from the regular church where the bathrooms, food, music and lights were to come over to the "craft/yard sale" section where we were.
To say I was disappointed is an understatement. There were 14 tables in our old drafty building. Seven for yard sale junk (why is yard sale junk always smelly?) and seven for crafters. There was another lady there with cards, for crying out loud! There were two women with crocheted stuff, one woman with all kinds of fall accessories for the house, a young lady with some kind of sign up sheet for some kind of personal care products - I think you were supposed to sign up to have a party at your house. The ladies with the handmade jewelry closed up shop at noon and went home. A couple had made some very pretty fall arrangements - wreaths, small "brooms" with flowers and ribbons - and he had brought all sorts of carnival prizes such as eyeglasses with LED lights and blinked on and off, princess wands, fiber-optic wands and a whole box of little styrofoam airplanes.
The rest was just junk.
My creations were well received. The few people who crossed over the road oohed and aahed over my cards. They even liked the prices. But they did not buy. Oh, I sold $50 worth. Six individual cards, one pack of Christmas cards, two boxed sets of note cards. They especially liked the "pull-out" cards, but they didn't buy them. I've got more cards than I know what to do with. I won't have to make any cards for several months.
I don't think I can stand to do this again. Sitting there hour upon hour with nothing to do. Nothing to eat. Nothing to drink. Remember, I thought I would be over at the regular church where all the food, drink and BATHROOMS were. My table was in the middle of the room, too. Most of the tables were over by the walls, so the dealers sat behind their tables with all the merchandise turned to the aisles. My stuff had to be turned both ways so people could see it from both aisles. I really had nowhere to sit. If I sat at the head of the table, I was in the aisle. If I sat on either side, I was in the aisle.
Around 2 pm, I started noticing some little bugs flying around. At first I thought maybe they were coming in the door (the only door in the building) that was left open for the (ha, ha) customers. When I asked where the bugs were coming from, the guy behind me said "From the floor! The termites are coming up from the crawlspace and are swarming". That's when I decided I had had enough. I started packing up my stuff and I left at 2 o'clock. When I was packing up, I noticed that all the rest of the vendors were packing up, too. No one wanted termites in their pretty things. It was getting bad in there.
Now I don't ever have to wonder what it would be like to sell stuff at a craft fair.
April 2018
5 years ago
