Fair Diddley 2009- part 2

Well, all the prep work was well worth the effort.
This is the first time I feel like I was totally organized for a show.
I had everything priced and set up ahead of time in my living room, all ready for an impromptu home show before the fair.




The night before the show, everything was carefully packed into the car, pieced together like an intricate puzzle.
I can't believe what fit into my little Eclipse! Neither could the policeman at the fair when I packed it all back into my car at the end of the day! Hey buddy, I ain't no amature. You should see what I can fit into a suitcase!

Our fair space was so jammed between two others. The green picket fence is part of the display for the booth next to ours. But the fence provided an interesting back drop and the color matched our table runners so we left our tent sidewalls off. And thanks to Larry and Marianne who owned that booth and helped us get our tent up that morning. They no doubt saved Marcella and I from a long drawn out Lucy and Ethel moment!

These were the table set-ups in the early morning. We rearranged a few things after the pictures were taken. We moved "Headless Jane", the mannequin, to the outer edge of the front table and switched the flower hair combs to the back table. It evened out the tables and gave each a little more interesting first impression. I would have liked to have a "Little Brown Bird" sign hanging in the tent, but I didn't have enough time with what I had to deal with last week.

The fair went as well as could be expected with this crappy economy. I am glad, though, that I was able to accept credit cards at this show. It helped tremendously with sales. Thanks to all my Jewelry on Etsy Teammates for their help and suggestions! I did my best in my little part of the world and pimped Etsy and the JET team! Hope it leads to some more traffic.

As I thanked them for their purchases, I reminded people that their support of independent artists means they are directly helping the small businesses that are so greatly effected by this economy. So many commented back that they hadn't thought of it that way and instead of heading out of the fair, they actually turned back to go purchase some things they had seen earlier at other booths! It felt really good to know that some of the other artists were able to benefit from a simple, humble statement.