once in awhile, things work out exactly as planned.
the craft show this past weekend was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!
two weeks ago, i was thinking about how frustrating it is that i didn't have a show to be a part of here in san diego. i mentioned this on twitter, and someone replied with a "me too! maybe we should start our own?" -- less than 12 hours later, she and i were standing in the space that our show was going to happen in, making a to-do list and trying to mentally gauge what we just committed ourselves to!
so when my new pal dain and i set out to organize a show, we sat down and talked about it realistically: ok, we only have two weeks, so if this is a total flop, what do we want out of this? and we decided what we wanted was a friendly room where at the very least -- even if no one comes, the artists selling at the event could walk away as friends & feel like they're part of a larger community. we put the word out to see if anyone was interested in being a part of this, and the enthusiasm with which the idea was received told us: other people are as excited about this possibility as we are!
in the span of two weeks, we found a kick ass venue for the show as part of a larger event, and crammed 14 amazing crafters into a pretty small room, gathered enough volunteered baked goods and apple cider to feed a few hundred people, garnered some amazing press/buzz, hung about 20 strands of christmas lights around the room, had SO MUCH HELP from amazing and selfless friends of ours who baked/cleaned/moved furniture/hung signs/etc, passed out a few hundred fliers for the event in the week before, and...lo and behold: it was an unbelievable success.
it exceeded our hopes!
we had a GREAT mix of vendors -- and everyone was sweet/kind/friendly! people came, shopped, talked & ate -- and seemed to be having fun doing all of the above! we as crafters totally felt like we walked away with new friends, and we raised a good chunk of money to donate back to the venue (which is a non-profit art space i adore called space 4 art) but i think it was also really profitable for everyone who took part (especially since we didn't charge our artists anything! we suggested a $20 donation to cover costs but not everyone did that)
aside from christmas lights and signs falling down the morning of the show (very fixable!) and my table disappearing at the end of the night, everything went down smoothly, and i have to say, knowing dain and i built the show ourselves felt really good because it was HARD WORK and it could have been a disaster!
we put our hearts into it, and it paid off.
the best shows i do feel like a party where time flies by. this was one of those!
just feeling really happy about all this and felt i should document it. i know my amazing friend renee took photos, so i'll share those as soon as i have them.
this time of year can be hard, and this year has been particularly hard, so it is just really nice to be reminded that once in awhile, things work out exactly as planned.
two weeks ago, i was thinking about how frustrating it is that i didn't have a show to be a part of here in san diego. i mentioned this on twitter, and someone replied with a "me too! maybe we should start our own?" -- less than 12 hours later, she and i were standing in the space that our show was going to happen in, making a to-do list and trying to mentally gauge what we just committed ourselves to!
so when my new pal dain and i set out to organize a show, we sat down and talked about it realistically: ok, we only have two weeks, so if this is a total flop, what do we want out of this? and we decided what we wanted was a friendly room where at the very least -- even if no one comes, the artists selling at the event could walk away as friends & feel like they're part of a larger community. we put the word out to see if anyone was interested in being a part of this, and the enthusiasm with which the idea was received told us: other people are as excited about this possibility as we are!
in the span of two weeks, we found a kick ass venue for the show as part of a larger event, and crammed 14 amazing crafters into a pretty small room, gathered enough volunteered baked goods and apple cider to feed a few hundred people, garnered some amazing press/buzz, hung about 20 strands of christmas lights around the room, had SO MUCH HELP from amazing and selfless friends of ours who baked/cleaned/moved furniture/hung signs/etc, passed out a few hundred fliers for the event in the week before, and...lo and behold: it was an unbelievable success.
it exceeded our hopes!
we had a GREAT mix of vendors -- and everyone was sweet/kind/friendly! people came, shopped, talked & ate -- and seemed to be having fun doing all of the above! we as crafters totally felt like we walked away with new friends, and we raised a good chunk of money to donate back to the venue (which is a non-profit art space i adore called space 4 art) but i think it was also really profitable for everyone who took part (especially since we didn't charge our artists anything! we suggested a $20 donation to cover costs but not everyone did that)
aside from christmas lights and signs falling down the morning of the show (very fixable!) and my table disappearing at the end of the night, everything went down smoothly, and i have to say, knowing dain and i built the show ourselves felt really good because it was HARD WORK and it could have been a disaster!
we put our hearts into it, and it paid off.
the best shows i do feel like a party where time flies by. this was one of those!
just feeling really happy about all this and felt i should document it. i know my amazing friend renee took photos, so i'll share those as soon as i have them.
this time of year can be hard, and this year has been particularly hard, so it is just really nice to be reminded that once in awhile, things work out exactly as planned.