The Ups, the Downs

It is Monday, and I am just about back up to moderate speed after the Point Roberts Christmas Craft Faire.  There were lots of people there, they bought lots of things, it was all decorated in a very Christmas-y manner, people sang and played various kinds of music, the food was good (especially the soup; Thank You, Seniors Group!).  That was one set of ups.

On the other hand, you have to sit there next to your table for many, many hours, tending to the selling activity.  It's certainly pleasant enough to talk to people who are interested in what you have, but a little less pleasant to be sitting there watching people come by (as many do at every table) casting a disapproving (at best) eye at your goods.  The worst is total indifference; as if you had brought bags of old newspapers for their contemplation.  I don't think I am really much made for this kind of activity, but what I would like to have is a table that sold only to kids, maybe under the age of 12, and with all goods under $5-7, and with wrapping on site so they could take things home and their mom would not see it.

The kids were the very best to sell to.  They are indeed discerning; they look carefully and then, without too much trouble, they make up their minds.  I had this tree branch with owl decorations made of felted llama, buffalo, and goat hair.  The owls had big eyes, which is an attention grabber all by itself.  I'm putting a picture here.

Grownups who were about to buy an owl would look and look; there were (at least at the beginning) 24 different owls and they had to pick just one out of all the owls.  They looked and looked and finally, mostly without conviction, settled on one or two.  Kids though, speed lookers.  They did look and then without hesitation they pointed to "that one."  And they weren't the least ambivalent.  I want to sell little things to them because they really like what they buy; it's not just for somebody else; it's mostly for their moms, who I am sure deserve every bit of that intense focus.  And they are imagining as they make their minds up to part with a little cash the exact look on their mom's face when she sees it on Christmas morning.

I remember that kind of shopping when I was 6 or 7; shopping at the dime store, not only for my mom, but also my dad, and my grandmother (for some reason, we were spared trying to figure out a present for my grandfather), and for my four brothers and sisters.  That week of shopping: the hardest week of the year, but also the week of the year that was most engaging.  I like that feeling, that remembering, about kids when they are shopping.

So maybe next year I'll just make things for kids and sell just to kids and that could be a very fun and less stressful thing.

All that notwithstanding, thanks to all those who bought from me and from all the other vendors at the weekend event.