another event and some shop updates

On Sunday, PJ and I sold at our last event of the year (unless you know of some awesome Christmas Fair that is far enough away for me to prepare for and also a guaranteed money-maker). It was a tween girls fashion show, to benefit the St. George Theater on Staten Island, and it was pretty much the best group ever for all my pretty headbands and hair bows.

Thats us, loving it!

Our table was full of beautiful things, which always makes me feel good. AND the event was only a few hours long, was indoors, did not require packing the car with a tent and tables, there was no wind... awesomeeee.

Anyway, its all over now but I do have plenty of items made and ready to head out the door!  I did a bit of shop updating on Monday and will hopefully keep it up until the shop is FULL!  

In the meantime, check out the goods:

I hope you find something you love!

<3 barb

back on track

You may have noticed that last week I unintentionally passed the blog writing over to PJ, who did a pretty nice job posting about both music and fashion... or cars... what I really wanted to do today was post this morning while I took the ferry into work, but my iPad had other ideas about what I would be able to do, and my BlogPress app just wasn't in the mood.  Either way, I'm here now.
As PJ mentioned, I spent most of last week stressing out about a fair that I sold at on Saturday... which sadly, was not a great success.  However, since I had this guy to keep me company, I still had fun.

PJ diligently sets up my display

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but PJ is a pretty special guy.  Not only did he post on my blog last week (I didn't even ask, he told me he had a few ideas he wanted to try out) when I was too distracted to do it myself, but he also checked the forecast for Saturday (windy... very very windy) and made sure our table was totally prepared.  We were wind resistant!  He was really proud of his wind resistant solutions, and so was I.
After the fair, he was positive, even though it wasnt a great day.  And it didn't take long for him to start nagging at me about the blog:
PJ: You need to write a post NOW.
B: I'm tired... I don't want to blog right now.
PJ: If you don't do it now you won't tomorrow either.
...darn him always being right!

Anyway, he's awesome... and times like these remind me how lucky I am to have someone who encourages and helps me whenever I need it.  Thank you PJ!

<3 barb

PS- Now I'll stop with the mushies and see if I can't get back to a regular schedule this week, or something that resembles one at least.

we did it again!

This year was definitely different than last year. For starters, I wasn't nearly as stressed out or worried this time around. I prepared quietly and slowly, supplementing an inventory that I had already built up, and I never really thought about not having enough. I also didn't need to invest as much money this year, since I already had all my display materials from last year, and I also had a crazy amount of supplies. I just didn't feel the need to buy anything, besides my Square credit card reader, which actually ends up being free once you activate it! (side note: it was totally easy to use and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to accept credit cards during craft fairs or flea markets, you can even send your customers digital receipts)
Anyway, the last major difference was the distinct lack of picture taking... we probably should've taken more, but that's ok. Amazingly, the weather held up all weekend and we really enjoyed ourselves. Here's what that looked like:

the setup... day 2 (i think)

"act natural"

we were directly across from the magic show... AWESOME!

PJ demonstrates why every time I walked away, he made a sale

see? I caught it on camera

pretty things

more pretties

my helpers and me

in the background here, you can see PJ chasing me with a water sprayer... by day 3, we needed a break!

more shenanigans: PJ tried to put Katie in the garbage pail...

I love these two so much

Well, it's over now... But I DID get invited to two other events this fall, so I have lots to look forward to! And I also started to re-stock my shop, so keep a lookout over there.

Hopefully I'll be back later with some friday faves... enjoy your day!
<3 barb

this weekend

I do eventually plan to show you the Irene Pics (which, thanks to PJ, are mostly of my sister puddle jumping, and literally no pictures of the minimal damage that we saw), but I have some news about this (Labor Day) weekend:

I will be selling at the Richmond County Fair again!!  Last year was my first time selling at any kind of event, and we had a blast, so PJ convinced me to give it another go.  

I'll be the first to admit that I have totally been slacking in the Bands & Bows Shop area of my life, but it's been fun preparing and my plan is that whatever doesn't sell at the fair will go directly into my now-empty (WOW that's embarassing) Etsy shop as ready to ship items.  If you'd like to get an idea of what I'll be selling, check here and here, but there will be some new stuff in there as well!

<3 barb

PS - Peep me on the August Sponsor Roundup and check out the pretty redesign of SrslyLiz.com today

a change of plans... and a shop update!

After the success of my first fair back in September, I decided to participate in my high school's Holiday Fair.  I thought I could take my leftover stock from the last fair, make a few new things in some more festive colors, and maybe even get a few custom orders, since November 20 is plenty early to complete them and deliver in time for Christmas.

This is a bit of what the fair looked like:

My always loyal #1 employee PJ

Dad and PJ find a new use for my fabric bows

a little piece of my display... lots of pretty holiday colors

me waiting for customers...

Sadly, the customers just never came.  I think that my initial assumption of who would be at the fair (moms and grandmas of high school girls who might be looking for Christmas presents) was totally off, and there just wasn't anyone looking to buy handmade headbands (or really, any quality handmade items)  :-(

Anyway... since I now have a TON of inventory in fun, festive, holiday colors, I've decided to add them to my shop at a special lower price (since they are all ready made and ready to ship!  I'll be updating this section all week with new items... heres a look at what you'll find in the Ready to Ship section:

Another great thing about these items is that I can get them in the mail ASAP!  Just so you know, these are my order deadlines if you're hoping to get your items by Christmas:

Custom- US 12.15; Almost Everywhere Else 12.05; Africa & South America 11.30
Ready to Ship- US 12.18; Almost Everywhere Else 12.08; Africa & South America 12.01

Happy Shopping!!
<3 barb

success!

WOW, that was a LONG weekend!  My first fair was definitely a learning experience, but also a success.  PJ and I manned the Bands & Bows booth at the Richmond County Fair for 3 full days, with lots of help from my parents and my sister.  We made friends with our "neighbors", talked to lots of customers and potential future customers, and really had lots of fun :-)
Here's some of the highlights:

Early morning set-up, Day 1

my mom and I at the booth... note the awesome banner! (thanks aubrey!!)

for day 2 I decided I needed a few extra items... here is me,  finishing... something?

here's a close- up of my small stuff display... its actually a cupcake stand! i seem to like putting my accessories in/on food display items, since my headbands were hung around trifle dishes :-)

here I am with my AMAZING assistant, PJ... he's been awesome throughout the whole fair process, and he was super helpful all weekend!

just a little happy dance :-D

Security at my booth for the weekend... aka my Dad, who was a huge help with setting up and breaking everything down each day

Here is Sophia... she loved my headbands but had her own idea for something unique, SO I made a special headband just for her! Doesn't she look so happy?

Last but not least, our neighbor... the Constantly Whistling Lady! She was selling little whistles, and she was putting one to SERIOUS use all day long.  She didn't even break while she ate (noimnotkidding!)... we were impressed by her endurance

Well, that's that for the fair.  I sent out an email to the giveaway winner tonight, and I also assessed my unsold inventory (which I'm not sure about yet, but if you'd like to request an item that you were particularly in love with and may not have sold, let me know).  Talking to people at the fair has given me some good ideas for new projects, and it looks like a Bands & Bows Baby line is on the way!  Hopefully, I will have some more details on that very soon.

This first fair was awesome, but I couldn't have done it all on my own.  Thanks to Aubrey for the banner and tshirts, so perfect!  Also thanks to G and J Crif for your help in preparing my display :-)  Extra Special Thanks to my parents and my sister for helping out at the booth, and to Poppy for stopping by to see me!

Oh yea, this all would have been completely impossible without PJ, who not only told me that I MUST do it, but encouraged, helped, and supported me every step of the way.  THANK YOU!!

<3 barb