Weekly update. . .scheduling events

I started making my Christmas ornaments in August this year so I would have lots of them available. 😎 I have spent months searching, researching, contemplating events, trying to decide which ones I want to sign up for. There are a lot of things to think about when considering events aside from the booth fee and space. Is it an established event, does it have good attendance history, what kind of crowd is it? 

I tend to do well at craft shows and family events, I have a variety of products that range from $5 braided leather bracelets to $100 fancy necklaces, from jewelry to paintings so there is plenty of stuff to look at for each age range in a family. 😇 So, I have selected a long running family event, a large craft show at the venue I did well over the summer, and a Christmas specific downtown event. 

Now I have less then 30 days to make sure I'm ready. The good news is the first one is not holiday themed, so I don't have to have a lot of extra "Decor" for the booth just my standard set-up. However, it will be outdoors so I will have to take my tent and sandbags and all that jazz. 😏 Probably stealing my husband's truck instead of using my little car that way I can take the 6' tall racks. I am planning to change up displays for the holiday themed shows, including a small tree to display the ornaments on, new earring displays and a new display for the pendants. 

I've had this spinning rack for years but it has issues, it blows over at outdoor events, the hooks are badly spaced, some of the hooks have broken off so it doesn't hold as much as it should, but worst is people don't spin it around to see everything. 

I'm playing with an idea and made a test version the other day, using recycled plastic trays, I think it's pretty cute. It holds a dozen pairs of earrings in a small footprint, in a way that I think people will be more likely to touch and interact with. 😉

I am hoping to have at least 3 of these little trays by the time I do the holiday show in November. I want to sort the earrings by material and style and put the little displays near the other jewelry they coordinate with instead of having all the earrings separated in another place. At my last event I had someone looking at bracelets and she had to ask if I had earrings to match because they were on the other side of the booth. But it made me wonder if other people just didn't bother to ask and I missed out on potential sales. 😕

I also plan on changing the way I display the pendants, for years I have had this big board and in some ways it was ok but the more stuff I make the messier it looks. Back when it was just the leather barbed wire, basically 1 style, in different colors it was cool but now it's cluttered and kind of a blur. 😒

I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do but it is clear that I need to replace this relic. 😅

I am leaning towards a plan that involves separating the pendants from the cords and making them more of a custom item. Only display 1 of each color of cord but have multiples made in each color in different lengths, offer the barbed wire as an $ upgrade, and have all the pendants in a tray so people can pick the pendants and then pick the color and length of cord. This way I could also offer an option to just attach a large lobster clasp directly and they can be zipper pulls or necklaces. 😎 It is currently just an idea I don't have a stand or tray or an actual plan yet.