Rockridge Street Fair was a total hit!

Today was my first time as a vendor at a street fair, and believe me, I have a new respect for those people! Ruby's Garden had a booth at the Temescal Street Fair last summer but I was out of town so Mary and Robbie did the set up for that one. Fair vendors make it look simple, because by the time you get there to have fun at the street fair, the stressful part is over!

I had done what I thought was plenty of planning, but setting up this morning I was still totally flustered. I had sketched a floor plan of our 10'x10' space and decided what to sell from the shop, what prices to sell them at, and what furniture to display them on. I had packed most of the merchandise and supplies and made signage the night before. We met at the shop this morning at 8am so we could be all unloaded by 10am and setup by the time the fair started at 11am. Mary, Judy and I loaded up the stuff in all three of our cars, found our assigned spot, unloaded most of the things and parked. Then I was really thrown for a loop: I had planned for our booth to be back to back with another vendor but it was apparent that we were a single row of vendors which would mean we'd need to greet people from two sides, or that there'd be two fronts. Besides, I was seeing all sorts of things I'd forgotten such as Ruby's Garden front door signs that would read from far away, more pricing signage, a work table just for sales supplies, and balloons. Cue sound effect: thought processes coming to screeching halt. I stared at our piles of unloaded mess for about half an hour while Mary went back to the shop two more times getting what I'd forgotten. Suddenly it was 10:40, I had to finish unloading my car and park it off the street.

The bad news is that setup brought out my inner grouch (this is what stressed-out + feeling dumb for not doing everything perfectly looks like on me). The good news is that we were setup (enough) just in time for the fair to start and it ended up being a great day for us. We told hundreds of people about our shop, gave out about 200 postcards ($10 off coupons + invitations to our Pumpkin Patch Party this Friday 10/3), and even raised a little cash so I can buy more new fall merchandise! We also saw tons of friends and customers since Rockridge is so near to our shop. Ruby had a great time playing with Quinn and Tess, daughters of Elizabeth Falkner of Mariposa Baby, and Fiona, Judy's daughter. She ended up with a decorated cupcake (cute but eaten immediately) and a decorated pumpkin (cute but no longer edible).

Besides the lessons learned, I'm so glad we did this street fair, even though it was SO much work. I'm also glad to finally be off my feet after about 12 hours from start to finish. Maybe next year I'll actually leave the booth and walk the fair!