Our First Craft Fair!

Whew! It's over, now I have a sense of peace in my heart again. Sarah and I finished our very first craft fair yesterday. We had tons of fun and learned quite a bit. I thought I would share some pictures of our booth and a little bit of what our Friday and Saturday was like.

I don't know about where you're from but around here the Fall craft fair is the big one. It gets so crowded at all the venues that you basically have to stay in line to get from booth to booth. Considering that I didn't even know we had a craft fair in the Spring until Sarah asked me if I wanted to apply, I assumed it wouldn't be as busy. I assumed correctly. It was busy enough but not like we had hoped. I'm happy to say that we came out on top and we have enough inventory left to get us started for the Fall if we decide to go for it. 

Sarah and I are both introverted so we aren't the type of crafters that finagled people into our booth. I hate being guilted into looking at items I'm not interested in. I'm not sure what the common courtesy is but I'm sure not a fan of being trapped into a conversation with someone. Instead we stayed out on the edges of our booth and greeted everyone who did come in to look. We offered assistance when needed and stayed out of the way the rest of the time. When I shop, I like to be left alone to carefully consider my purchases so that's what we tried to do for our customers.

I have a confession to make, we never did a practice set up for our booth. We're both procrastinators as I'm sure I've mentioned before in previous posts. I'll stop procrastinating when procrastination stops working for me! We even had to have Sarah's husband Curtis run to get another table cloth for our back table at the literal last minute. He arrived with it as the doors opened and we had it on the table in two seconds and ready to go.

This is what our booth looked like the first day.

My friend Kim who works at a Salon let me borrow a few of their practice heads to display headbands on. Our metal headbands were displayed on a multiple picture frame that I spray painted blue and removed the glass and backing from. 

Aren't these flower clips adorable? They're so fun because you can wear them in your hair, on your shirt, on your shoes, on your bag, the possibilities are endless! Check Sarah's etsy out if you're interested in these little lovelies.

I brought this lovely lady the second day of the fair after we realized that people weren't really noticing Sarah's teething necklaces. I think she wore it well, don't you?

We did some rearranging on Saturday. I brought one more practice head in to display one of my bloom headbands on. What do you guys think of using heads for display? Creepy? Cute? A good idea so people see how the headbands are worn? Personally, I like them.

Here are a couple of my clutches. I'll be adding a few to my shop in the next couple of weeks.

Here's a couple more..

I thought this shadow box that I found at goodwill would be a cute display for my earrings. The earrings were pretty popular. I'll also be adding some of these to the shop.

We talked with a lot of lovely people who genuinely enjoyed our items as well as our booth as a whole. Our sweet friends came by to visit with us and purchase items, some even came both days. My friends are such a blessing to my life! I'm sad that I was too tired to attend the girls' night they were having Saturday evening but I'm so glad I got to see them anyway! :) <3

All in all the past couple of days have been really fun, and I have to say, doing this craft fair was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done. 

Happy Mother's day to my fellow moms! 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. 

<3 Mandy

Love

source

I just want to say that

I LOVE

all of the blogs I follow.

Behind every single one of them is a creative woman with wonderful ideas and a great heart. 

So, that's all I have to say today.

<3 Mandy

Time Moves TOO Quickly

{source}

I

Am 

FREAKING OUT.

I need more time. :-/

I'm setting up for my first craft fair Thursday evening. The fair is Friday and Saturday and I am not even close to ready. I'll have approximately 200 items and my goal was double that. And you know how when you see something you've made over and over again that you start to not really like it anymore because you're a perfectionist and you pick at it to death? Well, that's where I'm at right now. I'm a mixture of emotions: excited, scared, overwhelmed, helpless, happy, and nervous, all rolled into one. 

I know that I'll do fine and even if things don't work out the way I had hoped at least I did it and I will have learned a few things along the way. 

-Mandy

What I Wish I Wore Wednesday

Have you noticed the grey and yellow trend? I have and I simply adore it. I stumbled upon these adorable grey wedges at Ruche and was inspired to look for something to pair with them. I googled yellow dress, searched Forever 21, and this is what I came up with.

Grey wedges from Ruche

Anthropologie- blogged about here.

Anthropologie- blogged about here.

Forever 21

Oh and two of the blogs I follow are doing a Ruche giveaway today, go check them out and enter to win! Selective Potential & Down and Out Chic.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

-Mandy

The Clutch

I've decided I've about had it with making headbands so I came up with a little clutch design. I've only made one clutch before and I followed the same steps when it came to putting it together but mine is a bit bigger (the dimensions are completely different), the outside piece isn't ruffled but the panel is and I didn't include a divider as I didn't think it served much of a purpose. I also squared the bottom corners so it seems to have more room and can stand up on it's own. Also, mine has a handle. 

I'll have a limited supply of these at the craft fair. I hope they sell!

I think I'll move the panel up a little on the next one. 

I'm hoping to make some canvas clutches, and possibly some iphone holders as well!

Please let me know what you think!

The Camera is on Manual. EEK!

This past weekend we planted a little garden in pots. We planted herbs, tomatoes, strawberries and flowers. I was so excited about it that when I found this tutorial on Little Miss Momma's blog I decided I would use my beloved potted plants as subjects to practice my camera skills on. I have little to no camera skills...just thought I should mention that. I used my Canon Rebel, in case you we're wondering. :)

such pretty herbs :)

I need mint for my new love of mojitos! I'll be making strawberry ones as soon as those little berries are ready. :)

mint, cilantro, and sweet basil

I love hanging baskets.

mmm! Strawberries! You can't see it but there is a tiny little one in the back that's already turning red.

And here's Noah playing with his new bowling set.

haha! Love this face!

I wasn't too concerned with composition at this point. I was practicing getting the color and the white balance right. I didn't even know I could adjust the white balance on my camera until I discovered this tutorial! Now instead of cold blue hued photos I can have warm colorful photos. :) I'm excited to learn even more about my camera and take lots of awesome photos. I'll keep documenting as I gain more knowledge! Cheers to being able to take our cameras off auto and onto manual!!

So now that I'm going to be using my camera a lot more I think I'll be making some really cute camera strap covers as a new crafting adventure. Maybe a couple will even end up in the ol' shop.

If you're a little rusty when it comes to photography I challenge you to check out the tutorial I mentioned, practice, blog about it, and share a link in the comment section below!

-Mandy

Can I get a break?

I've been making headbands in my spare time nonstop the past few weeks. I dream about them, I can't fall asleep because of them, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about them, I'm tired. It's official, I think I've burned myself out. I'm taking a break after the craft fair and not making anything craft related for a week. When that week is up I'm going to make the bag I bought a pattern for weeks ago as a gift to myself. Then, on to more crafting adventures. I need a little variety though, not just hair accessories, but bags, kitchen towels, and definitely more crochet items. The possibilities are endless!

Here's another sneak peak of the items I've been working on.

Ivory Chiffon Flower Bobbies: 

Could be worn by a bride or bridal party.

And to change the subject...because I love to do that...

Have you ever shopped at your local Goodwill? I haven't been since high school but I went the other day hoping to find some decor for our booth and I actually found quite a few awesome things! They had a boutique section where I found two beautiful Fossil dresses but they were both size Large. :( But on the bright side I found a brand new, still in the package wine bottle opener! Score! We've been using our broken one for uh...years. 

I found this mirror to use on my table at the craft fair. I'm going to spray paint it ivory and then use my friend Samantha's leftover charcoal antique gloss on the crevices. This is a horrible picture! The mirror is really ugly too but I'm hoping the paint will pretty it up a bit. 

I decided on this color for the mirror. I've never spray painted anything before...EEK!

I also found a shadow box that I failed to take a picture of to display my earrings in at the show.

Oh and I found this little guy hanging out in a random spot...and I had to have him. I gave him to my husband and he loved it.

Isn't he cute and strange? My grandmother told me that she has a friend who collects owls. Apparently they're good luck if you're the superstitious type.  

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

Mandy