Wow, Street Fest is a month away!
Street Fest is an annual event in East Aurora, NY, home of Fisher-Price toys. They close down two blocks of Main Street to traffic and have vendors lined up both sides of the street. I first did the show in 2018 with my friend Joanna, who has a tent. She sells cute earrings, so she had her table on one side of the tent, and I had my stuff on the other. We did very well that day. It was the first time I had over $200 in sales from one show. I had a few bottle slings hanging from the frame of the tent, and a young man stopped and pointed at them. "If you had a ton of those in different colors, you'd sell out." I kept that in mind for 2019. That show moved to the top of my spreadsheet ranking shows by net sales.
In 2019, I had a rack with over 40 bottle slings at the front of the tent... and a sign saying that with each purchase, you got a bottle of cold water... I sold over half of them... and for the first time, I had a show with over $300 in sales. That bumped Street Fest 2018 out of first place.
Then came 2020... when lockdown came, and they said we should stay at home for two weeks to flatten the curve, I worked on bottle slings for Street Fest 2020.... but it didn't happen. I ended up with 67 bottle slings...
Street Fest returned in 2021, with a different format. Main Street wasn't shut down, and vendors were at a local ice rink, under a roof, with wi-fi, nice restrooms, and a lower fee, so Joanna and I each had a 10x10 space. I was able to set up two tables and multiple racks in my space. I was overwhelmed by how well the sale went... for the first time ever, I had over $500 in sales at one show, and that show quickly rose to the top of the spreadsheet!
So, now I have a month to fine-tune my plans for Street Fest 2022. We're back on Main Street, so it's back to one table and a rack or two. I want to make sure I have a full slate of my best sellers... so I made up a little grid for July projects. The first line is for a custom order I've been working on... I need to clear that first... then I'll work on finishing off the rest of the grid.
Having a grid in my day planner, where I can color in blocks, seems to be a good way of keeping myself on plan!
I was posting my newest make on Facebook and Instagram, and had a local person say she hoped I would have my sunflowers at my next show, so I have ten boxes designated for sunflowers. I'm hoping I can squeeze one into my schedule every three days... They work up in less than two hours and are a great to-go project, so those boxes should get filled in... and I have so many ideas for colors. I googled Sunflower Color Varieties and got an eyeful!
Then there are the best sellers I want to restock:
Dress-up turtle
Ankylosaur
Dachshund
Beagle - Done
Tree Frog
Mini Pup - Done
Anemone Hat
Veggies in Bag - Done
Ramen Cup
Mr. Ugly - Done
I'm currently at 48 bottle slings....so I think I'm all set. Although it is tempting to add a few more bottle slings to the agenda. I'm trying to work down a collection of crochet cotton given to me years ago. I think I started out with about thirty pounds of crochet cotton. I'm down to 158 ounces (yay, under ten pounds!). I'll have to weigh the next bottle sling I make to see how much each one uses up... I'm guessing an ounce and a half... so that means I have enough cotton thread left for over 100 slings! 😝Yikes... I probably shouldn't have done the math! (Math update... bottle sling takes 1.9 ounces of yarn, so I have enough left for 83.)
So, the best case scenario is that I have all my boxes filled in by July 29th, and glorious weather brings out the shoppers in droves on the 30th, leading to a new #1 show... let's see how it goes!
Filling in some squares.
A few sunflower squares are filled in, too!
7/6 update... I have two orders (six items total) to work on, three new design ideas, two unfinished projects, and a guest room to clean up because company is coming! I have been playing with the "Veggies in Bag" square... I have a basket with a tomato, carrot, potato, and green onion. I'm half done with an ear of corn, and I think it needs a beet, too. Then I'll do a photo shoot and get it on Etsy.
And color in the square, of course!
Market Veggies finished and listed on Etsy!
Not on my list, but an entry for prizes in a crochet along... a parasaurolophus or something like that... I don't have the pattern with me to copy the name.
I was sorting out my scrap yarn tray and decided I had so many small cakes/balls of yarn that I had to make something scrappy, so Mr Ugly, Big and Sassy came about. I used three strands of yarn held together, so he's over 14" tall and extra squishy!
Still plugging away at orders, hoping to catch up in the next day or two. I have an idea for another veggie basket (a salsa basket: tomatoes, onion, peppers) and more colors of sunflowers, but I really need to focus on getting the orders completed!
7/13 - Had to make a hedgehog for an order. Still have a cat and three flowers to finish for orders... but not making much progress! Oh, could it be because I snuck in some more veggies (the salsa basket is almost done) and some treats (and ice cream cone and a baby carrot) for the outgoing Etsy order? Here's how the sheet looks now:
I'm making these fancier flowers for a custom order. Customer doesn't want a stem on them. I'm going to count them as sunflowers on my page. Eventually I'll make up a few with stems and add them to my Etsy listing.
7/24 - wow, one week to go... I haven't made much progress on my list.
A gecko wiggled onto my to-do list, because I wondered how it would look with a strand of dark green yarn with a strand of thin variegated yarn. I think he looks pretty cool..
On the 23rd, we had a family picnic about 90 minutes away... I took cotton yarn for bottle slings and a pattern for a cute little turtle. By the time I got home, I had four slings and two turtles to sew together.
Oh, well, I don't get to fill in a block, but I love the way they turned out!
Black cat is done, and on his way to his new home today... so I'm caught up with orders and can knock the stuffing out of my list! I have a sunflower almost done.... in a non-traditional color scheme, and I love it! Pic coming soon! It needs a stem.
Red Sunflower
Well, I joined another crochet along, just an express with four quick projects... I got them done by the deadline, but I didn't fill in all my squares!
Summer Express Crochet Along
The final grid.
Street Fest went very, very well. I thought my sales from 2021 couldn't be beat, but I beat that show by 10%. I have a lot of restocking to do!
