At the Holiday Brocante

Thank you all for your kind words about Bookie.  I'm sorry for all of your losses too, these furry little guys are always a big part of our lives and our hearts. No matter how smelly and old they get, they are always our babies, aren't they?

 

My email problem is getting worse. I'd say close to half of all emails I send are returned as undeliverable due to a "fatal error."  (Bobbi, Robin, Chloe, Diane, and dozens of others got bounced back to me, addresses that I know are good and I have used numerous times!)

Which is not a good thing when you have an online business… But I can READ all the emails and comments that I get, I've just given up on trying to answer until I get this problem fixed. There were so many moving comments about our love for our pets, and I appreciated each and every one. 

Last week at this time, I was unloading the truck from Miss Frenchie's Holiday Brocante, and piling the tubs up in my studio.  They are still not unpacked yet, and I realized I also still hadn't posted the photos of my booth. 

Please excuse the slight blur, the lighting was not the best, and even though I splurged and got the dream come true camera- its still only as good as its owner!  Actually, that's not completely true, I use it mostly in point and shoot mode and it makes adjustments all by itself for my lack of skill.  But these photos would have been better if I'd figured out how to use the ISO settings.

 

The peacock feather fans were popular, and so were the foofed putz houses, and the pearls in this photo.  Funny, I had the same things at Silver Bella and they didn't get a second look, here they about sold out. I had tons of those little cottages and all sold but a few that were kind of tucked away. I have three in my Boutique right now, along with a couple of fans that are left too. 

My table arrangement for this show was sooooo much better than what I did for Silver Bella.  In Omaha, I ended up with only 9 feet of space, instead of the expected 10 feet, and when you try to fit a U-shaped display into only 9 feet, you create a closed in little spot. If I'd been smart, I would have just given up my third table instead of making it all squeeze in. 

For Miss Frenchie's, I was very pleased with the spaciousness of using an elongated L-shape for my 3 tables.  I don't do a lot of shows, but try to learn a little from each one, and from this season, I discovered that while it is good to have a LOT of stuff to sell, it is not good to squeeze it in to too small of an area.  You would think that would just be something I'd already have figured out at my age and all the shows I've done, huh?  

A big plus about our Miss Frenchie's venue, is that we have solid wood walls that we can hang things on.  I used my winter white velvet curtains from my living room (and from Target before that- I adore the Shabby Chic department at Target!!!).  Then cut down some mini trees from the woods behind our house and dusted them with white spray paint, and screwed them to the wall above the curtains and draped them in white lights. 

It was simple and easy, but got a lot of compliments. Which is always a wonderful thing!

 

These pieces were meant to hang above my booth, but I used them to decorate this corner by the stairs instead.  It saved me from a few more nail holes in my living room curtains, too!

Even though I was chilled for most of the event, it was a wonderful sale and such fun.  And I doubt that the customers were cold, only parts of the building were chilly and shoppers were moving around.  My problem was that I was sitting still in a drafty area.  But the cold was worth braving, the weekend was sure worth it.  I get so much out of these shows beyond just sales.  I love meeting so many like minded people who enjoy the same little pretties that I do. 

What do I not enjoy about shows? Unpacking.  Ugh. I've put it off for a week, its probably about time to face the piles. But before I do that, I have an even more enjoyable task to tackle. My email problem!  Double Ugh.