the aftermath....

OK, busy busy BUSY weekend!
I was at 2 fairs this weekend and had fun, but golly, was I tired Sunday evening. I delight in sharing the behind-the-scenes with you, so let me lay it out for ya:
--I realized that since this was 2 days and 2 events in 2 locations, the reason I was so tired at the end was the complete set up and take down--twice. Usually if you have a 2 day fair, Saturday evening you just leave your stuff and come back Sunday. So this was a first for me: double schlepp! Worth it though, and close to home.
--I do very few fairs now compared with when I lived in New Hampshire. But people have invited me to do some events, so I have tried it out this year. It goes back to the vagaries of the marketplace with fairs, like weather, crowds or no crowds, advertizing, distance, booth fee, and let me explain how this factored in recently: the Saturday event in Ithaca was beautiful and wonderfully well organized and there were delightful people everywhere, but there was an expensive booth fee, but I thought I would try it out. You always wonder "OK, it cost this much to be here, how many mugs do I sell to pay for it?" and for example, the lady with pictures across from me Saturday did not sell a thing all day.....she was very nice but looked a bit depressed...I do not know why the fair was only so so. There were muscians playing carols. Luckily, at the end of the day, they switched to jazz. I read recently that people really get tired of Christmas carols and decorations, people are like ENOUGH ALREADY!
ANYWAY, just to compare Saturday's so-so numbers compared to the booth fee: I came home and had internet orders from strangers adding up to MORE than what I had made all day. The internet is a very friendly place for me :) THEN I went to a synagogue for a Sunday fair. They had invited me and I have never been to a synagogue before, for any reason. There was NO fee for Sunday, none at all, they just collected a small percentage of your sales after. I figured "how can I lose? and the car will already be packed with stuff!" and HOLY CATS it was a blast! First of all, NO CHRISTMAS carols, obviously, yaaaaay! But it was the most lively indoor festival I have ever been to, with singing and dancing everywhere, food, blahblahblah, it was the most fun I have had in a loooong time. And get this, remembering I did not have to put up any money, I made more than twice the sales as Saturday.
So, as I say, you try this and that, see what happens, work hard, hope for the best.....above is me Saturday, below you see some of my buddies, like Werner who is a physicist and sculptor, and Tommy a potter and you will recall is also an old drinking buddy, and Leslie too....