May 5-6, 2007 Apple Blossom Festival Arendtsville, PA

9 am – 5 pm
Cool but clear weather

Set up on Friday was wonderful. When we arrived I stopped at the information tent and asked where to go. My directions not only were clear and concise, but they knew exactly where in the building my booth was (what side and where from front to back) allowing me to park and unload from the best possible place right off the bat. The show seemed like it was set up well for sure. We were lucky and out 8x10 foot space actually was a little deeper so we had more room than we figured. The building we were in was clean and laid out quite well. We also had an electrical outlet that I took advantage of and plugged in my cash register rather than having it eat batteries. Out neighbors had some beautiful, modern jewelry, and although there seemed to be quite a bit of “country crafts” it didn’t seem overwhelming.

We got finished setting up quite quickly and actually put out all the soaps and just covered everything with sheets for the night. That made set up in the morning that much easier and bought us about an extra ½ hour of sleep at least…

The hotel was about a 30 minute drive from the show, but it was located near civilization (a Cracker Barrel) and the drive was easy on some back roads and rural highways.

Saturday we arrived early to walk around. Full from a good breakfast at the hotel, we learned that there were many places that you could get good breakfast sandwiches at the show, even early in the morning before opening, and we started to plan out lunch while perusing the menu boards…however, the feel of the show took a decidedly unexpected turn…we got to take a closer look at most of the “crafts” being offered, and noticed that there was a LOT of buy sell, and a LOT of country crafts, two things that usually spell disaster for sales…Our little walk turned a quiet confidence in the show to what we call “pick a number”, or “guess our sales” for the day…This means that we have a number in mind, and if we don’t reach it, we pack up at the end of the day and go home and just cut our losses.

Well we didn’t meet our number, so at the end of the day we packed (and so did our neighbor). Sales weren’t just miserable, they bordered on non-existent. The show had a total of four soapers, and there was no way a show of this size and this number of attendees could sustain four of us. We left, ate dinner at Hoss’s and returned to the hotel to decide what we were doing the next day. I tried to watch the NASCAR race but it was rained out, and I tried to knit, but I was tired from a log day of doing nothing…

Sunday we decided to just go home rather than explore the area. About 45 minutes into the ride home I realized I left my purse in the room, so the 2 hour drive became a 3 ½ hour drive as we turned back to get it.

C and I discussed how I typically am better at picking shows than this. What an anomaly, and I think what added insult to injury I gave up a mediocre show this same weekend hoping this one would be better. But I can say, this is one of the worst in a long, long time…