Yellow Jessamine

Sarah at Yellow Jessamine. Notice I'm in the picture. Can you spot the cat on my t-shirt?! : )

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Ohmigoodness, it's really Sunday night/Monday morning already?! It's 1:18am, and I should really be in bed, since the kids get here at 6:20am.

Saturday, Sarah and I were vendors at the Yellow Jessamine festival in North Augusta, South Carolina, right across the river. What a learning experience that was! So many things went wrong!

We went out Friday night, because, well, why not?! We knew we wouldn't be able to sleep much with the growing anticipation of the show; we'd been getting ready for weeks. And why not go out when we have to be up at 6am the next morning? Haha. Bad idea. We just had a few cocktails, but the lack of sleep made the morning wretched! Not to mention we looked like crackheads all day with out dehydrated skin and bags under our eyes.

But really it didn't matter since the show was kind of a bust. A major disappointment. And I did make a few dollars. But the promoters really dropped the ball. Definitely will not be participating next year. And they probably won't invite us since we broke the rules and packed up early haha, oops.

First, Sarah and I requested to have our booths next to each other. Instead we were across from and one down from each other. And the woman next to each of us wanted to be next to each other. So they were idiots and switched us all around, no one noticing till hours after we setup.

Second, terrible wind in the morning kept knocking everything over. They neglected to tell us we had to have our tents weighed down, and since it was in the middle of Georgia Avenue we couldn't use steaks. Some people near us were kind enough to lend me some weights. For Sarah's we had to find something to weigh it down at 10am, an hour before the show. I drove around, of course, I almost got lost, in Sarah's minivan and found a Kmart (what a shithole that place still is). I bought two 10lb iron dumbbells. Hurried back downtown, and finished setting up in the wind. My sign blew over and broke; luckily Sarah had packaging tape so I taped it down.

Third, there was NO advertising! Not even in Augusta. No one even heard of the show! So, naturally, there was no one there. NO foot traffic. And the few that were there were more interested in the imported purses that would be monogramed on site (ewww!) than my wonderful handmade creations! And there were some interesting folk there, I'll put it that way and not talk badly about South Carolina people.

But, the few people that did stop, and even fewer that purchased something, were very kind and gave me the best compliments! One thing that I miss with online sales is the experience of putting a face to the bag. Getting feedback face-to-face and seeing their excitement. It makes me so happy! I met a few great people and booked a few shows even!

And my booth was beautiful! Sign out front, on a matching easel.

The sun hit the spot where I sat all day and the back of my neck was burnt. Redneck ha.

My cassette wallets on display. I bought this table for $1.99 at Salvation Army. Primed and spray painted it red like the frame of my sign, the easel, and the picture frames.

My purses out front on a clothing rack cut down about 12" for optimal purse display height (thanks to Sarah's dad and his hacksaw!).

Sarah's lovely booth! "Cribbledy Goodness." She repurposes jewelry. "Vintage made new"

Her assorted creations.

I absolutely LOVE this display! We found it at Salvation Army, the same day as I found my table, and it was a brass candle holder. Unscrewed all the candle tops, filled the holes with spackle for normal drywall, primed it, and spray painted, a few coats. Makes the cutest display for her bracelets! The color is "pistachio". I spray painted two other displays this color for Sarah last week when I watched her kids and they looked great in her booth!

More sewing in the morning. I am a vendor at First Friday in downtown Augusta this Friday! And Masters is fast approaching. Since it's practice rounds all week it's going to be busy *fingers crossed*!!

Bedtime!

Tomorrow: a new tutorial!