Holiday baking and other stuff

It is that time of year again. I have now participated in 5 craft fairs and all but 2 were a complete bust. My friend Nikka has been a blessing as my helper. When you work an actual craft fair with actual paying customers, it helps to have 2 people. I can work on making more items or making custom items while the other person sells and does customer interactions. All of the other vendors agreed that this year has been a bad year for homemade crafts. Food booths are doing better then anyone else, as you can always seem to justify a box of cookies or a jar of homemade jam. It is a sad state of affairs when you are THRILLED to "make the table" (cover the cost of the fee to sell that can vary from $15 to $125). It is an accomplishment when the cost of the table is $50 but if ALL you do is make the table and the fee was $15, it is a very sad show.

I have one more show to do this season, unless someone knows of a group doing a craft fair the weekend of Dec. 18, and then I pack it away for the winter. I will gear up now for spring and summer, but I should absolutely work on my Etsy sight.

www.blythespiritsjewelry.etsy.com

My biggest hurdle is the pictures for my sight. My camera does not want to cooperate and keeps eating batteries. My roomie has a camera but I do not want to play with the settings. The pictures for Etsy need to be smaller in size and so you are better off with a low end camera. I am working on it, but I acknowledge that it is my biggest hurdle.

My last fair was a last minute one. The church across the street from my apartment on Granville provided me with a last minute table and so I was able to make enough yesterday to fund the basics for holiday baking. Not sure how many boxes of cookies I will wind up mailing this year, the cost per box is about $10-15, but the locals are safe. My mailing priorities are based primarily on the speed at which prior recipients have acknowledged receipt of their previous packages. In other words, those who couldn't be bothered to respond without a follow-up email have been chopped from the list. Sorry, I can't afford to be ignored this year....LOL

This year, it is looking like all my gifts will be handmade items. So, expect jewelry, baked goods, ornaments, etc. I already know that baked goods is the number one request, so don't bother with the tons of emails suggesting I give more baked goods.