out & about

Whimsic Alley’s Holiday Geeky Craft Faire

Hey my little ponies! Over the weekend I got to be a vendor at Whimsic Alley‘s holiday geek craft faire with my friend Jen who makes super adorable fandom inspired hair bows and brooches @ Walrus Of the Sea. I’ve only done a few shows scattered over the span of the past 3 or so years, and this is by far the best one I’ve ever gotten to be apart of. 😀

It was a two-day show and I was in really good company with Riddle’s Tea Shoppe right across from me (also dangerous because I was basically shopping when things got slow), Crafted Cuteness off to the side, and 1138 Clothing not too far from me either. There were other awesome vendors there too like Nerdy But Still Girly and S&S Ink.

We ran into a few little snafus when it came to setting up our table — the main thing being poor lighting. We forgot that it was a wee bit dark inside Whimsic Alley’s Great Hall, so Jen went across the street and bought some Christmas lights and tea lights for us to put up around our table. While she was gone, a customer came by our booth and said, “I wish there were lights at this table.” Luckily, Jen came back and we had it all set up by the time they came around a second time! After the show I bought another string of Christmas lights to put on the bottom boarder of the table. It really helped bring everything out!

Unfortunately, the spots for next year’s holiday craft faire sold out already. But doing this show put a spring in my step and gave me more confidence in what I’m doing with my Etsy store. 🙂

Speaking of which, I’ll be opening my shop up again this week with my brand new Star Wars necklaces!! And Jen’s shop will have more listings for her adorable fandom hair bows and brooches, so check out her stuff too!

For those that stopped by and checked out our stuff, thank you!! ♥

cheers

shoppin'

If at first you don’t succeed…

Well… I didn’t find much success at yesterday’s craft faire. To be honest, my expectations weren’t too high. I had never been to Rio Linda before until after dropping off my application in person at the Community Center last week. It’s a small town, from what I saw it kind of had a Pawnee (from Parks & Recreation) vibe. I wasn’t too sure if there’d be many geeky folks in attendance, so I made tons of Downton Abbey necklaces just in case since that’s the least geekiest thing I have in my inventory.  I still hoped to sell at least a few necklaces there… five at the least. Technically, I did reach my goal. Tim and his bff/roomie Sam bought two necklaces each the night before when we were doing inventory and then I sold one at the faire — the 10th Doctor with a kitty cat >^__^<

I don’t feel completely defeated by it though. I don’t think all the prep work I did days beforehand were for naught (holy crap, did I bust my ass working on getting things ready for this faire!). It was an interesting experience, and I did get some interest from a few  people that actually knew where my things were from (Once Upon a Time, Doctor Who, Ron Swanson, etc)!

I’m still surprised that only one person took me up on my free candy offer though. Just take my left over Halloween candy, people! o__0

I’m hoping to open up my Etsy store again this coming weekend. I’ll let you all know when it’s ready to go! And in the meantime, I’m going to look into vending at places where my goods will appeal to a bigger majority of the audience in attendance. 🙂

Cheers,
Nina

PS: A big ‘ol shout out to Tim and my mom for helping me out! Thank you both immensely for supporting me and my crafty endeavors 😀