Saturday, October 16, 2010

2010 Mandarin Craft Festival

Click Pix for closeup

Aside from having to make two 112 mile trips (56 mi each way) back and forth to Jacksonville, I'd say Mandarin was worth it.

I made back my booth rent, plus gas money = sold about $220 so that was pretty decent.

Michael and I drove down Friday after I got off work. I was pleased to learn that I had a complete 10 x 10 space but I'd only brought one table because I was led to believe that's all the space I was allotted.

We set that table up, put on the tablecloths, etc. and set out all the velvet busts. We put tablecloths over the big plastic tubs to signify our intention to utilize the full 10 x 10 space.

When we came in this morning I was quite dismayed to see that the people next to us - who had the equivalent of TWO booth spaces had situated their tables so that I couldn't set my space up the way I usually do with two long tables on either side and the short table in the back as my check out.

The lady on the other side was quite miffed about this situation and came to my defense.

"You know, that's not really fair. Now she hardly has enough room for people to come into her space," she told my two booth neighbor who appeared nonplussed.

Anywho - rather than spend the day in a huff, I just changed my booth configuration around and put the smaller table on the left so the two booth lady could have her lane. You can see in the picture how smushed everything looks. I hated that but whatchagonnado?


People had to be patient and wait until others finished browsing my space before they could come in but for the most part, it all worked out.

I was VERY glad that I had the ability to take credit cards because I had five charge sales and quite a few cash sales. Plus there were two ladies who are going to buy items from the website after I make them.

One is a breast cancer survivor who wanted earrings. There were a goodly number of survivors there today and I was able to sell some pink ribbon items to raise money for Susan Komen foundation. One lady told me how her sister had just had a double mastectomy, has no insurance, and the Susan Komen foundation had taken care of everything. Stories like that really warm my heart and reaffirm my continued support for this organization.

When the lady came around to ask how we had done, I said we had done well and would like to come back next year.

More pix are here

1 comment:

  1. You are MUCH nicer then I would have been. I would have just taken up my entire area so that the people that were next to me would have had to rearrange or not get any customers into their booth.

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