Show #4

Those of you who know me well will know that I am not happy that show #4 is my final show of the year. I hate the number 4. I don't eat things in 4s. I don't arrange things in 4s. And if 4 is forced upon me, I usually find some way to rationalize it another way, as in: 2 + 2 or 3 + 1 or 25 cents (the last one is instead of 1/4). There you have it. All that to say, I had my 4th show (3 craft shows + 1 exhibit...ahh, that feels better) last weekend. It was a Christmas Bazaar held at the seminary for anyone and everyone who is part of the seminary community to sell whatever they had to sell in the hopes of spreading some Christmas cheer.

In preparation for the show, I decided that I needed to have more Christmas wares. At my last bazaar, I had a lot of fall stuff, and that just would not do for a Christmas bazaar on December 5th. I had all sorts of ideas of felted ornaments I could make, cute little bags, crazy-quilt stockings...all relatively simple and manageable ideas. But not quite manageable enough. I ended up making 13 sheep ornaments with pipe-cleaners and wool and ribbons and little bells and had to abandon the rest of my equally adorable but not quite equally simple ideas. (If you click on the pictures below, you can see the sheep better.)

I replaced my tree branch display from my last show with a little Christmas tree that Jason picked up at CVS on Saturday morning while I was setting up my table. Thanks, Jason. I also used my bread box to display the jam and apple butter to raise the jars closer to eye-level, and I had samples out, both of which combined to greatly improve my preserves sales. Here's my display:
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by my sales at the show. I didn't sell as many big items as last time, but I sold more little items, which all together made it a more profitable venture than the North Shore Bazaar, which surprised me, being that this show was for the seminary community, and nobody at the seminary has cash to burn.

I picked up a few little treasures myself. I got several adorable prints from my friend, Heather. (Check out her blog and etsy page. So talented!) She traded me prints for an apron, which worked out quite nicely since I've been wanting a few of her pieces for months now. Hooray for craft shows bringing people together! And I got the most delicious peanut butter fudge I have ever tasted. Ever. Unfortunately, it's one of those "secret family recipes from grandma," and the girl who made it is leaving at the end of this semester, so I don't have time to become her friend in order to weasel the recipe out of her. The thought of going the rest of my life without this fudge is thoroughly depressing. Quite a bleak picture of this fudge-less future. :o( (Seriously, this fudge is life-changing.)

In addition to the lovely little surprise of bringing in some money, and the excitement of finally getting some of Heather's prints, and the yummy-ness of the life altering/wrecking fudge, it was quite an enjoyable show. There was live music, which was lovely, and I even got to sing a few of my songs. My guitar playing was absurdly sloppy, but it was mostly just background noise, so I'm hoping people didn't notice too much that I was playing the wrong chords and changing the tempo all over the place. Gross.

Now I'm looking forward to starting on all those lovely Christmas present ideas I have. And yes, I do realize that I have only 12 days to make oodles (literally oodles) of presents. But if I start tonight, and I make 2 presents a day--or maybe 3 or 5 (obviously not 4)-- I just might manage. But let's be honest. What's more likely to happen is that I will plan and re-plan and over-plan until about the 20th and then kick it into high gear, pulling a few late-nighters or all-nighters and getting everything together just in the St. Nick of time. So I will be sleep-deprived, but by golly, I will craft those handmade Christmas goodies!