Digesting the Sunshine City show

It took several days of recuperation following the 2 1/2 day show. I guess we're out of practice. Bob was plum worn out - Friday he put in a full day at his regular, paying job, while trying to set up. It was maddening. I'm thinking that if another show requires a Friday set-up, we'll hire a porter (that would be the young, strong types at the venues, usually provided by the promoters for hire) to do the hauling and Bob can help me as he's able. As it was, I didn't handle the two-fer career day well at all and showed no grace under pressure, I must say. Feeling sheepish? Baaaaahhhh.

Of course, we were set up in plenty of time and the booth looked fantastic. Of course!! It must have been my artist's tantrums that did the trick there. Er. Or not.

We were in a very good traffic spot, in the aisle straight ahead from the entrance. I do wonder what the official door numbers were for the show. There were a couple of moments during which the place felt great and mobbed, and others when we were wondering where everyone had gone to. Another marker that I make note of is the appraisal fair - we've been at this show when the appraisals have been so stacked up that they've had to assign waiting numbers to people with items, then call out on the P.A. where they are up. That hasn't happened for the last 3 Sunshine City shows.

Which is my overall way of saying that, once again, we didn't do spectacularly well here. Comparatively, though, we did just as well as last year and the year before; so, given the economic picture, that is very fine indeed. It does feel, however, that we can't seem to get the "mix" right. This time, we tried bringing more jewelry and less glass, ceramics, and porcelain, yet our sales figures were exactly the same.

One thing of note: the value of our higher sales is way down. We didn't have a single transaction over $30.00, whereas in the past we've had much higher single item sales. So people definitely are spending less money in our booth this year than they did last year, but we are doing more transactions. (Aren't math and statistics fun?? I'm so glad I didn't flunk out of high school altogether!)

I did enjoy the air conditioned environment by being able to dress up a little bit. I wore a dashiki that I'd brought back from a vintage clothing store in the Haight in San Francisco on our last trip out there, and a filmy beach cover-up (with plenty underneath, thank you) along a similar vein. I thought the outfits really captured the vintage theme of the show, and I had many positive and admiring comments about my wardrobe. I tried walking around the show like a Pied Piper, but didn't get any rats to follow me back to the booth...

Today I'm revamping the jewelry display at our Patty and Friends booth to try to glam it up. Never a dull moment, specially when you're working with rhinestones. Ah!! Pun alert!