Art Star Craft Bazaar: The Aftermath

The Art Star Craft Bazaar was this past weekend. I have to say that, as my first time being a vendor at a craft fair EVER, it was an amazing experience.

All of my family and friends have been asking me what it was like now that it’s over. And, this may sound funny, but as great as it was there’s almost an emptiness now that it’s over. That sort of sounds bad so I guess I should explain.

I mentioned here that I was sharing my booth with the lovely Sarah-Maria from Meerwiibli and she couldn’t have been any cooler. Or sweet. She gave me so much advice and answered my (never-ending) questions about being a vendor at a craft show. As did my lovely booth neighbors, Jordan and Chris from Horrible Adorables. They seemed to answer my questions about their own experiences as eagerly as I was asking them.

The two days of the fair seemed so intense and full of energy. And being a part of it with four other people so closely involved and related (Sarah-Maria had her husband Brian with her) allowed us to all get to know each other a good deal in such a short period of time. Maybe it’s just me, but the connection between these four people felt instantaneous so it was sad to end Sunday and say goodbye to these new friends who, unfortunately, are not local (Sarah-Maria and her husband are from the Woodstock, NY area and Jordan and Chris are from Cleveland).

The two months leading up to the fair were also intense and hectic. Preparing for my first craft show brought on a lot of questions in which the answers were not always so clear cut. Researching, hunting down and purchasing materials, cutting fabric, sewing handmade hobo bags and bow totes, coming up with displays and merchandising, and prepping for the launch of this new site and blog kept not just me, but also Steve, extremely busy. And then trying to do all of this around being new parents and a stay-at-home-mom…well, there were times when I wondered if completing this task right through to the end would even be possible at all. And now that this deadline has passed, it feels strange not to have a huge list of things that need to get completed.

But I did it!

And that’s what’s so great about this whole experience. I did a ton of work preparing for this weekend, I made it through (with some learning experiences along the way, such as the wind blowing my bags off the table literally every 5 seconds), and I feel SO accomplished. I didn’t sell the amount of bags I had hoped I would but getting my name out there, getting exposure, and meeting some great people at the same time is something that you can’t put a price tag on. So, would I do it again? Absolutely.