The Jackson's Mill Heritage Jubilee...

I came home last night double-dog-dead-tired. The Jubilee had ended after 3 days and I was tired. Bone weary. The fair wasn't close by - we had to drive nearly an hour each way to get there and we had to be set up and ready to roll by the time the gates opened, and we couldn't close up shop until 7pm. BUT! Our little group of four Stampin' Up gals had done well. We had lots of lessons learned and the money we earned covered the expense of entering the Jubilee as an Arts-and-Crafts group. Kudos to the Country Roads Stampers! We learned last night at the end of the fair that since we've now been vetted (so to speak) we can apply next year for a booth at the Jubilee. I know if we do decide to apply next year, we will do some things differently. I need to type a "lessons learned" document for our group as none of us had done a fair of such magnitude - 4 FULL days, setting up and closing down, re-arranging tables to better suit customers who want to browse, answering questions, looking at other booths and trying to find what setup works and what doesn't. For me, I had thought I would have time to sit and actually work on some items I had in mind, but I found myself losing focus with patrons browsing, and trying to answer questions. I had to stop myself from griping about not finishing a project - I was there to sell!!!

We were surprised at what sold and what didn't sell. Of course, candy always does well, especially at Halloween (I know - it's next month, but the theme of the Jubilee was fall so we did halloween candy boxes!). One of our gals did hand stamping with halloween stamp sets for a quarter and racked up nearly 20 dollars in 1 day - mostly from children, but some adults liked it, too!! Still, beautifully packaged party-in-a-bag items hardly moved and they were gorgeous!! Decorated gift bags were a hit, but cards hardly moved. We had a small basket filled with the peppermint candies and put a "free, help yourself" sign up. One of our gals also put out a ginormous bottle of hand sanitizer next to the candy basket - we had LOTS of "thank you's" for that! Nice touch.

One nice thing did happen. A customer had bought several items and while I was bagging her items, one of the decorated bags fell out onto the ground. We all missed it until later and all I could do was send up a prayer that she would return for any reason! And she did! She said she had gotten lots of comments on her bag in which we had placed her items and she wanted to tell us that she had pointed a lot of people to us. (Yay!) She had not realized even then that she was missing an item! God answered my prayer and I gave her the missing item. Honesty is always good. Satisfied customer....returning customer. Priceless.

My biggest lesson for me was patience. It's been two years since I retired and I've had few opportunities to work in committees or groups. (Marriage doesn't count!) I had forgotten that committees and groups have more than one opinion or idea and mine doesn't always count!! Whooo!! Lesson learned! Be patient. AND NICE because nice matters most.

Oh, yeah. Last night I swore I'd never do this again, but a good night's sleep has changed my mind (or what's left of it) and I just might do it again with lots of changes!! No more 12 hour days - share, share, share that wealth!!

Have a good day and thanks for stopping by! I've got a ton of housework and a kitty that's been sadly neglected the last few days!

TTFN,