Vintage Fair!!

                                                                     My stall at the vintage fair

This weekend, my mom and I hit the road so that I could sell at a vintage fair in St. Louis.  I've had an Etsy shop for about a year but had never taken my show on the road (tee hee!).  

I tried to rent a van to haul everything since my little car wouldn't hack it space-wise.  When I got to the rental place, they told me that they didn't have any vans so instead I got one of the biggest SUVs that I have ever seen.  It was comically big but surprisingly not that bad on gas mileage.  We spent ten minutes at the gas station trying to get the little door to the gas cap open, thinking that there must be a button release inside.  There wasn't.  Finally, something compelled me to tap the door and it magically opened.  Off to a great start.  ;) 

The trip to St. Louis was uneventful and we stayed at a Drury Inn.  I give two big thumbs up to the Drury Inn's free food!!  We had a free dinner and breakfast there which was fantastic.  Neither one of us have cable or satellite, so we watched HGTV for hours.  I LOVE that channel.  Good thing I don't have it at home or I would never get anything done. 

We made a practice run to the site of the fair thinking that would help us get there quickly the next day.  It was only a few miles away and a pretty easy trip.  The day of the fair, we noticed lots of little girls in pink t-shirts and tutus eating breakfast at the hotel but didn't think much of it...until we tried to start down our tried-and-true path to the fair and found the road was blocked for a 5k which the little girls were all running in...UGH, OF COURSE!!!  A nice gentleman tried to give us directions for three different ways to get there, but all were very complicated and I am directionally-challenged. Thankfully, God and the GPS on my phone somehow got us right where we needed to be but I have to say that was a very sweaty ten minutes.

Next was the hustle to get unloaded and set up by 9:45.  I was sweating and out of breath but parking was pretty close by and it helped that I rolled my double rack full of vintage clothing down the street rather than trying to carry armloads of clothes.  It held up fantastically.



There was a good turnout with lots of lookers and some buyers.  I sold $100ish, including that giant sunflower crewelwork hidden behind the lamp.  I was really glad that I didn't have to haul that massive thing home!  My stall was beside Amy from Amy and Angie Vintage- I really enjoyed talking to her and hearing about someone else's vintage selling experiences.  The weather was odd- sunny, windy, and cloudy threatening rain at times.  

I'm glad that I went, but I doubt I will do another fair so far away.  I'm hoping to find some closer to home or to start my own locally.  Next up, I MUST refresh my Etsy shop!!!  I have loads of items that need photographed and listed and am hoping to start work on that this week... 

Comments

Lisa said…
Congrats on taking your shop "on the road", haha! I love the story of the little kids in the tutus mucking up your already-planned-out-and-trial-ran day of the sale route. Ah, well! Glad you were successful at finding the joint and making some moolah, too!
Thanks, Lisa!! :D I thought it was pretty hilarious that the kids were running on the same path we had so carefully planned!

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