It's crunch time!

Now that the holidays are over and the Christmas rush is behind me, you would think I get to relax, right? Wrong!! In a few days, Greg and I will head to Atlanta for the Atlanta Gift Show to set up our wholesale booth and sell to retailers all over the world! This is the third time I've done this show and I already feel like a pro, which translates into even more procrastinating than usual! A few of the things on my to-do list:

~ make one of everything (I'm a little over halfway done with this)
~ attach all jewelry to my canvas displays, type labels with item numbers and wholesale prices, then attach to displays
~ plan a modified booth layout
~ find everything that needs to go with us and pack car
~ finish website orders from last week and mail

It doesn't sound too bad, which is probably why I'm procrastinating but making all that jewelry takes time! At least I know my catalogs are ready to be picked up. I forgot to put a few things in motion before I left for Utah, such as ordering extra postcards (I have less than 100 I think), and get jewelry images blown up to hang in the booth. Neither one is devastatingly important but it's the little things that make you stand out.

Greg & I in the booth last January - bright eyed and bushy tailed!

In the meantime, for Christmas I just (finally) got a copy of Craft, Inc by Meg Mateo Ilascoalong and 500 Tips for Marketing Your Crafts by A.B. Petrow. I am going to enjoy looking over those for the next few days as a kind of pep talk to having a great show!

Cheers to an exciting 2010!

Bad Form

In the four years I have been doing craft shows, I have only received one bad check... until last month. The first bad check was no big deal - it was for about $35 and even though the check writer wouldn't return my phone calls, the bank said to just check her balance every day and when she makes a deposit, run to the bank and cash it. Which I did. Crisis averted.

Then last month, a guy wrote me a check and I just knew it was going to bounce. His demeanor totally changed when I told him I accepted checks. He wrote his drivers license and phone number on the check without my asking. He bought too much. He was a bit too eager. He acted ever so slightly on edge - he even broke my mirror by dropping it while trying necklaces on. Yes, he tried necklaces on.

Not only did this guy write me a bad check for $230, he wrote it from a closed account. That, ladies and gentlemen, is fraud. It is theft. And he stole money from little old me. A small home-based business just trying to make a decent living. What an A-hole. Capital A. My bank called me and they have this lovely FREE service of trying to get your money back for you for 60 days, so we'll see if they can track him down. If they can't, I just may post up his name on my blog for the world to see what a jerk he is. If that even was his real name...

By the way...

Did I mention I got in to the New York Gift Fair?

Holy crap!!!

Super scary, cool, awesome, all kinds of things rolled into one! It's also scary expensive so I'm also very happy to announce that I'll be sharing my booth with Amy of Olaria Studio - her beautiful jewelry rocks! And she's pretty cool, too.


That's our ad she designed for the New York Show Planner. I can't wait to see it in print! Bless her for agreeing to jump in with me! I will update the progress of sharing a wholesale booth and the challenges I'm sure we will face. At the very least, we will have a great sense of humor and have a fabulous experience!

Back from my last craft show of 2009

We hit the road this morning after a pretty disappointing show in Decatur, GA. It was my third time doing this particular show, and definitely the slowest sales-wise out of the three. I have decided to play the blame game:

I partly blame my lack of time to send out an email to the Freshie fans in Decatur that I was going to be there.

I partly blame something called "football" - I'm not too sure what that is but apparently there was a big football game this weekend that most Southerners were interested in watching instead of craft shopping.

I partly blame the fact that there were a million jewelry booths at this show - seriously show planners - trim down the jewelry vendors - it hurts all of our sales when there is too much in the same category!

Finally, I partly blame my location. I'm not much to put a lot of weight on show location, but my location at this show was pretty much near the very back, after people had already walked by the other million jewelry booths and had completely glazed over. It was by far my worst show this fall/winter. I didn't even take one picture to share with you - it was that boring. Luckily, the vendors in my room were very nice and we all chit chatted the time away, which helped a lot.

Oh well - Cyber Monday is still kicking my ass and I HAVE to ship the rest of those orders tomorrow, then I can start on last Tuesdays orders! And then the wholesale orders that must also ship this week, of course. Next year, this mama needs an intern, yo!