fresh from the Makery: quitting while I'm ahead

Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but I will say, less than a day after my second and most recent craft fair, I'm done with in-person sales for awhile.  The East Bay Mini Maker Faire was great. Despite some last-minute shuffling due to the rain and a $75 outdoor canopy I didn't end up needing, I thoroughly enjoyed participating in such a richly geeky event and felt that my mostly niche market products did better there than at the more general purpose craft fair earlier this month.  I sold seven phone cozies and a fair amount of both the Mother's Cookies notecards and the chick flick stationery.  I was much happier with my display this time around, not only because I had a lot more space to spread out but thanks to a few cardboard displays I purchased (laying either the phone cases or stationery flat didn't work very well at all last time...I mean, really, what was I thinking there?), a lot more signage, with information and pricing clearly marked, and a couple of quirky details, like the old-school rabbit ears antenna I used as a mini clothesline for a few phone cases and the QR tag I created for prospective customers to scan with their Android phones (or iPhones, as a few did, just because they could) to take them right to the custom listing in my Etsy shop.

In addition to the products I had at the last craft fair, including a few additions to my inventory of phone cases, a few of which didn't sell and are now in the shop (here, here, and here), I put together a portfolio of wedding invitations.  Time will tell if the event will produce any new wedding stationery clients. In the meantime, that's where my focus is going to shift because these felty crafts, as enjoyable as they are, don't exactly pay the bills. As my brother would say, bacon bits. Just bacon bits. (Not that the other shop brings home the bacon, exactly - maybe turkey bacon - but you know what I mean.)