Selling at a Private School's Homecoming

This turned out to be a great show, despite some slight issues in the beginning. The weather prediction for Saturday was cold and rainy, so when we were given the choice of setting up inside or outside, we chose inside. We were also told that the bounce house and crafts were going to be inside, so we figured that would be where the most people would be. Not so.

But before I go on with the story, here are some pictures of my booth setup. We were in a gym, across from the entrance, and Mom had the idea of setting up my tent in order to draw people visually.
I was happy to finally use my tent. We'd gotten it for the Braddock Bay Redtail Days show, but didn't end up using it since it rained and we had the show inside.

It never fails...before every show I do, I'm concerned about not having enough product, but I always have more than enough!

So on with the story. After about an hour and a half, the bounce house was having problems and they had to shut it down. Then NO ONE was coming in. So we were told we were going to be moved outside. Sure, it was going to be a bit of an inconvenience to move everything outside after I had everything set up just how I wanted it, but if it would get more people to come look at the booth, I was cool with it. Plus, it was hot in the gym and it had turned out to be pretty nice weather outside. Well, a few minutes later, we're told that the soccer coach said we couldn't move outside because of the soccer game. What??? Well, that stinks! The vendors were considering whether to just pack up and go home, when we were told they WERE in fact going to move us outside (where there was PLENTY of room for us to set up, by the way.)

And here's our setup outside! It didn't change much. And moving my stuff wasn't that much of a pain. They had some guys and some of the teenage students help us move everything. I was glad we moved outside. And once we did, I didn't even bother to sit down, since there was almost always someone in the booth, either wanting to talk or wanting to buy.

The only other weird thing was that kids kept asking how many tickets it took to buy monsters. I guess you could buy tickets, either worth a dollar each, or you could buy 15 for $10...and these tickets were used to purchase the food and use for the other activities. Well, no one made it clear to anyone that the vendors weren't accepting tickets. (and no one even told me about the ticket thing) So I had to keep telling these poor kids that I only took money, not tickets. But despite the ticket confusion, I made lots of actual sales.

This kid was SO adorable! I loved his hoodie! (they're supposed to be kangaroo ears). It looks just like my monster-ear hats! He was a little shy, but he was kind enough to let me take a picture.

This girl was SO thrilled to buy this sweater monster! You would have thought I was her best friend in the whole world. After she gave me the money she gave me a BIG hug and was saying "Thank You! Thank You!". LOL. Girl, you're paying ME....thank YOU! ;) He was one of my favorite sweater monsters, I'm glad he went to someone who is obviously going to love him so much! Hmm... he was the one that broke 3 sewing machine needles...I should have charged more for him! (just kidding!)

We stayed until after the soccer game was over, and made a bunch of additional sales when all the people were walking by the booth as they were leaving the game. (that was Mom's brilliant strategy. I don't think I would have done nearly as well at this show without her!)

I sold so much that we only needed to make one trip back to the car (instead of the 2 trips we took when we got there!). Mom was joking that she felt like she was coming to Ellis Island (referring to the steamer trunk). I am SO glad she thought to bring that little dolly cart! It made life SO much easier!

And now I need to get sewing to have more product ready for my next craft show on November 6th, Mayday Underground!