Fiesta was moooeeee funnnoooo

OK, so I need to brush up on my Spanish. I know. But you get what I mean.

This fiesta was so much fun! Setup began at 8am and the Fiesta started at 11am. Who knew I would need all three hours to setup? But we did it, and I am very pleased with the way everything turned out. My mother was a great helper and a trooper for sticking it out until 9pm. I am bribing her with jewelry. Shhhhhhh. My family and friends all stopped by and it felt good to have all of their support.

Me in my booth with my lovely banner

So everyone who is near me, including the Etsy community, knows that I have had the toughest time getting a banner made. Let's just say my original printer (big company) fell through and decided they were not going to provide me the product in the time they promised.

Thank goodness for WilsonGraphics on Etsy. (Also has a website) I put an alchemy request on Etsy for a banner to be here in less than a week. And he had it in the mail in two days! The quality is excellent and he replied to all my emails super fast. I highly recommend him and will be using him for my other banner needs in the future!

I think the fresh flowers helped a lot. Having the color pop off of the black was great and they were so pretty. Plus I get to have fresh flowers on my desk for the next few days. BONUS! Only problem was the wind monster kept visiting and it blew over the tall vase three times spilling water on everything. Easily fixable. Have to figure out how to make that not happen. I NEED flowers.

The displays were made by my father the carpenter handyman superhero. No he doesn't wear his underwear on the outside of his pants. Well I hope not at least. They were great. Heavy duty so they didn't blow over when the wind would blow. Well almost. The earring stand ended up needing a basket of rocks behind it and we tied it to the pole with the electric cord.

I did discover that when the wind would blow, sand would come with it. Black tablecloths show sand very well! Thank goodness for lint rollers. One customer said I shouldn't even bother and that I should put sand on my tables on purpose. How funny! We started joking saying we could build sand castles and put sea shells out. I draw the line at sand crabs.

I held a drawing for a beautiful pair of sterling silver charm earrings. Got a lot of responses and can't wait to see how many people have signed up for my mailing list. I called the winner today and she was so excited. Made me fell good. And I remember joking with her about the way you fold your entry makes a difference. I showed her my technique. (I can't share that with you, it is a secret. Come to my show and ask me to show you). And to keep things fair, I didn't draw it. We shook the bag up real good and my fairy nieceee drew the name out with her eyes closed. Guess the fold worked!

I was so pleased with the crowd and how friendly everyone was. A woman, towards the end of the night, stopped in and had to let me know that she thought my items were just beautiful and that I am very talented. Even though she didn't buy anything, that meant a lot to me! She didn't have to say anything and she did. So thank you lady if you read this. She did get a business card so you never know.

Throughout the day they had Fiesta related activities. The first big one was the pinata breaking.

It was so cute to see all the kids dive to the ground to get that candy. No sissy kids there. None of that breaking up the candy so every kid gets it. It was primal. Kids ripping other kids apart. Limbs and clothing everywhere. Well maybe not, but it was fun for the kids. Personally I don't trust a blindfolded kid with a bat.

They also had dancers come out and put on a show. Very lovely and very talented. (No sound - bummer - stupid camera) (Or is it stupid me...I am blaming the camera!)

My good friend Heather from Adagio Beadcrafters also had a booth. I wish we would have been closer. Her setup was so nice and elegant. We will be at the Rock Shrimp Festival in St. Mary's Georgia on October 4th. Stop by and see us!

All in all it was a great experience. I met a lot of people, handed out a lot of business cards and made quite a few sales. I am taking today to recoup.

My booth neighbors where a set of gentleman selling cork purses and accessories. A real neat idea! It was so funny to look over there and see the booth PACKED with people pinching the purses. Yes, folks pinched them and rubbed them. The boys shared with me that a customer actually asked if he could use them as flotation devices since cork is water repellent. We were imagining a fellow duct taping a bunch of the purses around his body and jumping in the ocean. Had a good chuckle. (I had their postcard with their website but have seemed to of lost it - guys if you see this please let me know your website and I will post it here)

Things I learned from this fair...
Make a sign that says "All items are handmade".
Wear comfortable shoes because as a craft seller you should be standing whenever you have a customer - no exceptions - well unless your leg doesn't work then I will let you off the hook.
Wear a cruddy shirt when setting up. I wore my favorite sheer top and it snagged on the Velcro of the tent poles three times and now it has snags all over it.