Showtime!

Well folks it's here. Months of preparation. Hours of work. And realizing I have the most supportive friends and family. In a few minutes I'll leave to head to my first "real" show. 4 days, 30 hours, 1,000s of people. Too say I'm nervous is an understatement, I'm terrified. I know I'll make it through and this first day will be the hardest.

Here are some photos of how the booth turned out. I'll post some more photos later in the week too. Hope you all have a fabulous Thursday, send some good vibes and courage my way!

xoxo

Booth Design Finds

Tuesday afternoon I drove about 20 miles away to a large antique mall. About two hours later here was what I left with, I really picked through and shopped around the different booths. I ended up only purchasing from two different sellers, one was having a 70% off sale and the other was just priced right. 

The dish I ended up getting at 70% off and fits well with my other milk glass pieces, think I paid less than $8. The wooden slate box was $12 and it folds up too. I'm going to use this to display either my necklaces or earrings.

That train case was $10. Couldn't pass it up although I don't think it will serve much more than a visual in my booth. The two crates are in bad shape, I need to reinforce them to insure they hold up through the show. I got one for $13 and the other was $24. I spent a little more on these because I can use them in my apartment afterwards.

The wooden mail divider I actually got at a thrift store for $3. I'm not sure how I'm going to use it yet or if it will make its way into my booth design. Any ideas??

And that was my haul. Spent about $75 which was more than I was hoping but I'm done with the large pieces I need. Now I'll be shopping around my mom's house and our basement for the remainder of the materials. What do you think? These fit the Indie & Chic look? Any other ideas?

Vintage Organization.

Vintage Organization. Like music to my ears. I'm a very visual person and I'm an extremely organized person. So when I can find organizational pieces that have their own personality, I'm pretty smitten. I've really loved old metal pieces for a long time and I'm making that my centerpiece for my booth design in October. Here is what I've been drooling over on Etsy.

here & here

here

here & here

here

here

Tomorrow I'll share what I've found so far for my booth design :)

Farmer's Market Shows & What's Next.

Since June 28th, I've set up a table six times to share my line with the community. One large scale event and five farmer's markets. This past Saturday was the last farmer's market of the season and I've learned so much.

 The markets have made me realize that this dream of mine is doable. I feel like for the first time I'm on the right track with my business. Balancing the books doesn't make me want to cry anymore and I've found a way to not just rely on internet sales. New plans and goals have been made and larger investments are ahead.

I'll never forget the last 6 weeks, feels like much longer, but it flew by. I did my first show in Baton Rouge, LA. A co-worker pushed me to get a table and just go for it. I felt like I was jumping off a cliff. The experience of having people buy my line in person was like no other, I wanted to do more. So I took off two months of work and hit the markets. That first market in my home town I had butterflies in my stomach. Seeing people I've known my whole life ask me about my business just didn't come easily, I was embarrassed. About three markets in I really gained confidence, I wasn't embarrassed to be selling my handmade jewelry, I was proud. I started to think about how hard I've worked to get to this place and then my insecurities just kinda faded.

I have one more large show in August, it's two days long at a state park. My goal? To sell out and not pass out from heat exhaustion. Aim high right?

What's next? More shows. I've applied to a pretty large show in October. It's very expensive to get in, but it's 4 days long and I've been told most small jewelry booths sell out in two days. So I'm over here planning, planning, planning and crossing my fingers I get accepted.