Nassau Goes Pink!

click on pix to enlarge

Yesterday's First Annual Nassau Goes Pink Festival , while somewhat disappointing in various ways, was nonetheless a fun and uplifting event.
Always mindful of how long it takes to completely set up a booth and prepare my wares for display, I was the first vendor on the scene at 8 a.m. No one else was there when I first arrived, but soon one of the "official" ladies from NGP arrived and said she'd be picking up the founder Chrissy Branch soon.

I hung out in my car, enjoying the sea breeze from the nearby Atlantic Ocean at Main Beach Park until Chrissy arrived to show me where to set up.
Unfortunately, my good helper Dakota got a "real" job and was unavailable to help me. Try as I might, I never could find anyone to replace him so I went into this alone, with assurances from Chrissy that there would be folks around who could help me set up my tent.

The guys who were inflating the bouncy house lent a hand and soon my tent was pitched and I began preparing my booth for what I hoped would be a good crowd.

There were supposed to be 12 vendors but only 7 showed up. Now, I don't know about you, but to me, letting someone down at an event like this is tantamount to a slap in the face. C'mon, people, we're raising funds for charity here---raising funds for folks who have cancer. How could you back out at the last minute like that? It boggles the mind, I tell you!

Anywho -- I'll climb down off my soap box and relate the day's events.

Despite a vast army of biting gnats during the early hours, the rest of the day went very well. Entering my third year doing craft booths, I think I've about got it down to a science now. Of course, I usually manage to forget at least one major thing and yesterday was no exception. I had to call home and wake my sleeping spouse to ask him to bring me several items. Among them, my other cell phone and the 800 number for ProPay in case someone wanted to spend over $100. Hey, I was thinking BIG, okay?!

My phone had full charge the night before but by 10 a.m. yesterday, I was down to one bar. Weird, that, because my little phone usually holds a charge very well.

I've often said I'd like to have a dollar for every compliment I receive from non-purchasers and again, yesterday was no exception in that department either. It's lovely to hear praise for my work but I'm even happier when folks buy it!
I'd committed to donating 50% of my sales to Nassau Goes Pink and by day's end, I had rung up a commendable amount.

One table was set up with nothing but Pink Ribbon Items.

I sold almost all of my pink ribbon bookmarks-both large and small- so I'm going to have to re-order those silverplated shepherd's staffs and get busy making more.
Only sold two of the purse charms so I'll hold off making any more of those for awhile. It's amazing how people balk at paying $10 for something that takes that much work. I've seen items made the same way with regular beads and no pink ribbon charm selling for twice that. SIGH

Anywho -- of the booths that did show up, two which caught my attention were the tie dye lady
and the haircutting booth. One fellow with a ponytail donated his hair to Locks of Love. Check out the before and after:













I always hold a drawing at every event to give away a pair of earrings. Nothing like FREE in big red letters to draw people to your booth. My drawing slips have a place for people to check to join the mailing list. This is a great way to build a clientele base. I held the drawing at 5 p.m. and wouldn't you know, the name I pulled was one of the NGP gals. She was thrilled with the earrings and danced back over to their tables across the field wearing them to show the other girls.

As the hour grew later, I knew the doggone biting gnats would return and I wanted to exit before their arrival. Once again, experience has taught me the best way to break down a booth methodically so I was ready to leave in record time.

With almost everything in the car, I walked across the field to give Chrissy my donation. At first she didn't want to accept half my profits but I insisted and she hugged me and said a hearty thank you. She enlisted her son and another fellow to help me take down my tent and they thanked me for showing up and sticking with it.

Check out video HERE.

On the way home, exhausted and sunburned, I felt good. There's nothing like being part of something larger than yourself to bring on a warm fuzzy feeling.

My next two events - back to back the next two Saturdays - are both indoors so I won't have to contend with sunburn and bug bites, thank goodness, but they're just regular arts + crafts fairs and don't have the added incentive of raising funds. Still, it was my first show of the year and I was happy with it. Here we go again!!