At this moment I am preparing for my FIRST EVER craft fair. Luckily, I’m not entirely on my own. A few talented members of the arts and crafts group I belong to are also participating in the event. Also lucky for me, a few of these members have hundreds of  craft shows under their belt, so they’ve helped me maintain my sanity. (Somewhat)

I’m both nervous and excited. Mostly, I am nervous about bringing the team down. I feel a little like a neglectful homeowner – the one with the unkept yard in the nice neighborhood of well maintained lawns, like I’m bringing the property value down.  I have no huge goals of selling much. Really, I’m just in it for the experience. I figure if I don’t sell a thing, at least I’ll have enough inventory for my  Etsy store to get me through the rest of the year and with that done, I’ll have more time to focus on other projects .

So, all month I’ve stressed about this craft fair. For one, I had to build inventory. I kid you not, I have a lifetime supply of Altoids in my closet. My son thought I’d become an Ecstasy dealer. Remember back when I joked about eating Altoids for dinner? For another, we’ve been having gorgeous weather and I had a few projects in the yard to get to. Needless to say those projects have been put on hold so I can get prepped for this fair.

Anyway, this is just a quick peek into what I’ve been up to lately. My blog has suffered the most through all this, so I thought I’d do a quick post just to breathe a little life back into it.

Since Altoids tins are small, I knew I’d have to find a way to display them so they wouldn’t just be lying around, I needed something to give them height. With so many of us (10?) sharing a booth I only have a small space to display in and I have about 40 boxes to display (running behind schedule!) .  I Found this jewelry box at the thrift store. Flipping the drawers made for a nice tired unit, just needed a little face lift.

Of course, I had to make my business card holder out of an Altoids tin DUH…

For my sign, I used a piece of wood I found in the garage ( I’m guessing it was up for grabs…) I really wanted an industrial, funky look so I used screws to create the crown of the sign. I feel like I went totally overboard with the glitter, but  I LOVE glitter – I think we all could use more glitter in our lives. OMG I sound like such a ditz right now. LOL (yes, please imagine inserted hiccup laugh – with a head tilt.)

Ha – did I suggest I was maintaining my sanity earlier?

OK, that’s it for now. I am off to assemble more tins…but just wanted to share something before my blog totally keels over from lack of attention.

I know it is craft fair season for a lot of you and I wish you all the best of luck and would love for you to share your experiences and tips with me!

TTFN

Cheers!