Catching up on the week

Once again the days slipped away and it's been nearly a week since my last entry. In my last entry I blogged about going to a couple of craft shows on Sunday. One wasn't really a craft show...there were a few crafters there, but it was mostly antique dealers and folks with spots trying to sell the contents of people's basements.
The craft show I attended was okay. There was a very good turnout and the show had vendors both outside of the building and on all 3 floors of the building. The show was held in an adult community (a 55 and over golf community) and I guess it was in the community center. The building is full of motel-like rooms and these rooms are used for visitors (I guess if the house is too small for visitors to stay, rather than go to a motel, they stay in the rooms at the center... they are very nice and quite large) The problem with the show was the vendor's weren't allowed to use the rooms for the show. Instead the vendors had tables along the wall in the hallway and the crafter had a chair to sit in alongside the table. When customers stopped at a table (or a vendor needed to get an item from storage--under the table) it left very little room to get past and with the size of the turnout, it was a major problem. The line for the tiny elevator was crazy and taking the stairs put you at the far end of the hallway, where you found a line of people waiting to get thru the crowds that were already at the tables.
Needless to say, I heard a lot of grumbling from many of the senior citizens about not being able to move, having to take the stairs and life in general. We didn't (yes I braved the show w/ my sweetie and our boys) get to see 2 of the 3 floors and breezed thru the bottom floor where there were only 2 crafters with very large items (one that I've purchased from last yr... wood picture frames-customized with names, very friendly people selling great items...I'll see them later at another show when there's much more room)
My disappointment from not being accepted as a vendor quickly faded once I saw the set-up. A few of the hand-made jewelry vendors had some nice stuff, but VERY pricey and about 60% of the "beachglass jewelry" wasn't beachglass, but craftglass.
I don't know how the folks inside did as far as sales went, but the half dozen or so that had spaces outside looked to have alot of potential customers at their tables, where they could browse w/o getting bumped by people trying to get by.
Overall, the prices seemed way to high for the items, but I guess the upper-class type golfing community had something to do with the pricing. Many items paled in comparison to crafters on ETSY in both quality and price. I only found a few tables that had business cards and none that I saw had an ETSY shop.
I'm thankful I didn't get a table, as I'd grade this show below average, as the customers couldn't get to many of the tables because of the cramped area. A lot of money stayed in the pockets of the customers on this day... hopefully, these customers will come to the show in 2 weeks at a neighboring town.

As far as ETSY... I only placed a few items in my shop over the last week, as I've concentrated on getting inventory made for upcoming shows (I'll announce the shows as they get closer) I'll be placing a few items in my shop over the next few days.
Okay enough keyboarding and more knitting!
Til next time...
R