For those of you keeping up on the news from my last post, I am happy to report that the Mistletoe Market was a great success. It was well-organized, well-attended, and I made many sales.
The week leading up to the market, Jake was out of town, and I took an extra day off work to give myself time to work on my booth. It’s a good thing I did; many of the things I worked on last-minute ended up being my best sellers (like my moon journals and my wood slice ornaments). My note cards and stickers were also popular, which was fun, and I sold some prints and other handmade books too. One of my good friends helped me set up at the market and ended up hanging out with me the entire day, which was a life-saver — she helped me answer customer questions and got us lunch at the nearby co-op. (She said she enjoyed the people watching; there were definitely plenty of people to watch!) It was actually busy enough that I didn’t really have time to step away and see all the other vendor booths, which was probably the only downside to the day.
I didn’t manage to take any photos of my booth at the market, but I did do a “dress rehearsal” the night before to plan out my table arrangement. Here’s what that looked like:
I saw several people I knew, including a couple of folks who did the Writing with the Moon webinar back in January. One of them has since bought a few more moon journals from me, both for her self and to give to friends, which I just love. I only have one left, which means I have to delay listing them on Etsy once again, but I have several that are almost done — I’ve just got to get more cardstock to make the inserts.
One of the fun side effects of my last few markets is that my sales tend to increase before and after the actual market, too. (I’ve started thinking of them as “satellite sales” — they come around market time, sometimes directly related to market advertising and sometimes just coincidentally.) I made several Etsy sales the same weekend, and had a few people approach me afterward about buying some of my art. I even have a painting commission for Christmas! It feels like Fairy Tree Studios is starting to gain some real momentum, which I’m excited about.
This was quite likely my last market of the year; I’m painting a few more wood slice ornaments and am hoping to finish my handful of moon journals before Christmas so I can list them and some other things on Etsy. After that (and my commission), I’m going to take the end of the year and January “off” to do some experimental projects and some art just for me, and to plan some next steps for FTS. I learned a lot from these recent markets, and it’s given me some good ideas to work on for future events.
Fairy Tree Studios 