Craft Show Today!

This morning was the Welland Lions Community Center craft show to raise funds for the Welland Humane Society and Hope Center. The event was only my third show; the two previous I had done were both for schools; one for Park Public School in Grimsby and one for St. Thomas More Elementary School and both went very well, despite how nervous I was!



I was up at 7am after four hours sleep (I was up making soap, I can't help it!) and ignoring the very brisk weather, we were on our way to the show. It went from 10am to 5pm, with set up beginning at 9am, and there was a great treat when we got free coffee, tea, biscuits and donuts before the start of the show. A very appriciated touch, I may say. Like I said, I've only just started doing the shows, so its always new and I'm never quite sure what to expect.



The show started out slow, but there were some really great vendors. The organizer of it all went to great lengths to make sure all of the vendors were actual crafters, which was great to see; while its convenient for some people to have Avon and Tupperware at shows, I think its a lot better to see what people have to offer that they've made themselves. At this show though, there were bakers, painters, scrapbookers and more; I was the only soaper so I lucked out; though the organizer tried to keep away from booking tables with the same product, so I felt honoured to be the first to be able to nab the soaping spot!

Sales were slow for most people throughout the day; about noon it started to rain and the wind was high and completely chilling, and it drove a lot of people away. Always good to keep high spirits though, and I had a great neighbour next to me that not only had great products (sandblasting boulders with terrific artwork on them, including Chinese proverbs) but we had a lot to talk about when it was slow.



All in all, it was a good day for me, though overall it was slow, probably due to the weather. Of course, shows are always hit and miss, and I think the organizer did a terrific job advertising (two radio stations, newspaper, television, flyers and in a Santa Claus parade) and I was glad to hear that they got three large boxes full of food for the Hope Center and a couple hundred dollars to buy pet food for the Humane Society. Unfortunately, not everyone was very happy and turned to the organizer and were very rude about the whole situation. The table fee was donated to the Humane Society, so it was a great cause but some people were still very bitter, left early and gave the organizer a piece of their mind. I understand that its a gamble doing shows, but I have fun whether I'm making sales or not; its all about networking!

That's all for now though; I will try to get some photos of my table up soon. I am also going to be hosting a contest too, so look out for that being posted later tonight! I also have to make some more soap; I am starting up a new dog line so I have to get on that, and I almost sold out of all my lip balms at today's show, so I have to make more of those too. So busy!