5.27.2006

May 26- Mayfair Festival Of the Arts- Day 1

I was just anxious and antsy- wanting to get this show on the road. I had some minor set up to finish today before the show opened and I was worried about the impending rain situation. So once I got up, finished packing my stuff, I got going. First I stopped and grabbed some sandwich stuff for lunch and dinner, then I ran to the drycleaners, before heading to the show. About half the people were setting up, taking advantage of the hours before opening, rather than setting up on Thursday which is what I did. As it started raining hard and I was safe and dry in my tent, I was happy I set up on Thursday.

Unfortunately, the negatives of the day far outweighed the positives. I’ll start with the positives. The people who stopped by the booth were very supportive. It’s the first show I’ve done “local” this year and many of the usual suspects came by. One of my favorite new fragrances seems to be a crowd favorite too. I hope this keeps up because I’d love to bring it into the regular line for next year. I got lots of positive feedback on my new labels as well and my new display. I also got to see a bunch of friends- wood man, tile guy, candle dude…and some of those I expected to see, I don’t think are here this year.

As for negatives….well its Mayfair…it rained cats and dogs for about an hour, leaving a trail of mud in its wake. The garden market has about 10 crafters- three of which sell some type of hammock or suspended swing seat. I can’t get any farther from the road and am jammed between these hammock people with another handcrafter, lost in the sea of . My one neighbor is just a pain in the you-know-what. I’ll admit I’m pretty antisocial (although C would say otherwise), and I just wasn’t in the mod to talk yesterday. Sales were half of what I wanted them to be (I thought maybe I was lucky and they were 2/3rd, but no…) and based on this I don’t think there is any way that I’ll meet last year’s sales, bummer.

We did get to play a fun game though- I called it the “Nick or Bo game”. See the headliners for the night were Bo Bice (of American Idol fame) and Nick Latchkey (of Jessica Simpson fame). Two entirely different demographics. So if the t-shirts didn’t make the selection obvious, we (C and I) had fun people watching and guessing their musical preference. Let me tell you, some were quite obvious- I never knew that Nick had such a fan base of young metrosexual and homosexual men- and all the girls are doing their best to be the next Jessica, LOL! And Bo fans were pretty easy to spot as well, although a few surprised me (and I would have liked to have the chance to see him too). Ah the things we do for entertainment when we are stuck in a 10x10 space all day!

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