Last weekend I celebrated my first craft fair, making one of my biggest goals for 2011 come true!

I can’t believe it’s come and gone already.  Oh my gosh, where do I even start?   Last time I blogged about craft fair prep, it was about a week before the event.  Here’s what’s happened since.  But if you just want to skim ahead to the pictures, it’s ok. :)

The week before the event was supposed to be spent with straight up sewing and prep.   Every night after work I came straight home and just dove into work.  Unfortunately, the theme of the week seemed to be “If it can go wrong it will.”     I took off work Thursday and Friday so that I could finish up sewing and then get all the other stuff ready.

But Thursday and Friday were spent cleaning up my sick dog’s disgusting messes (and I’m not talking vomit), force-feeding him water and gatorade (he wasn’t drinking), dealing with workmen in the house,  oh – and sewing!  It was so not productive.   It was too hot for me to leave the dog outside all the time, or believe me – I would have.  And Ryan was out of town.

The Day Before

By the time my family arrived Saturday, the house was a wreck, and I was racing furiously from room to room, trying to get things done as fast as I could.  Fast-forward to Saturday night.  A few of my friends came over to help with miscellaneous tasks, since I was – get this – still sewing.  My friend Carolynn made my shop banner, her fiance did assorted tasks, including making my fabric sample binder, my mom cut out all my product tags, and my dad stamped my logo on all the tags as well as the shopping bag.  And Alyssa, one of my best friends on the planet, helped me hand-sew my cat pads and tooth fairy pillows closed.

Funny fact:  My dad is very risk-averse and exceedingly pessimistic.  He made various amusing comments throughout the night, like “You don’t want me to stamp your logo on these bags, because then you won’t be able to return them after you only sell 2 things!” And he was dead serious.  For many people, this could be upsetting.  But when my dad says it, it’s just funny.

Somewhere between 1 and 2 am, I sent Carolynn & her fiance home, and my parents to bed.  Ryan finished loading my car, then hit the sack.   Alyssa and I stayed up all night finishing everything up, and I managed to squeeze in an hour’s nap at 5 am.

Honestly, I felt so guilty letting my friends & family help so much at the last minute, but I also knew that I couldn’t pull it off without them.  Looking back at the last few months, I can see places where I made mistakes that impacted my productivity and readiness, and all I can do is learn from that and be ready sooner next time.  And I can not stress enough just how appreciative I am for these amazing people in my life.

The Big Day

Fortunately the adrenaline got pumping through my sleep-deprived body shortly after my dad and Ryan and I arrived to set up the booth.  Soon after that, my mom came down to help, and Ryan went home to take a nap.

Here’s the booth on Sunday morning (the first day):

And here it is on Monday morning.  You can’t tell from the photo, but it’s only 10 am and I’m already drenched in sweat!

Photo by Crys.Perkins.Photography

Looking back at these photos, I can see ways in which I want to improve my booth setup next time around.  For one thing, my last-minute hand-written product signs are not ideal, and are even less ideal when printed on bright teal cardstock. But I was out of white cardstock.  Also, I just don’t feel like the white table side of my display was nearly as captivating or fabulous as the other side with the pillows.   But I guess I was bound to find room for improvement after doing it once.  You don’t know until you try, right?

I really wanted to try and evoke the feeling of a “room” with my booth, to tie into the product line but also to make it stand out and catch people’s attention.   I draped curtains (actually $1.90 bedsheets from Ikea) around the sides and back of the tent.  Additionally, I put my favorite kilim rug on the ground and filled the vintage steamer trunk with the pillows.   Both the rug and the trunk are items that I love, yet Ryan absolutely hates, so I don’t usually get to decorate with them.   And remember that bookshelf that my dad built for my entryway, but which I finally admitted didn’t work in the space?  Well, I was super excited to find that, after a few coats of white paint, it was just perfect for displaying pillows and other items in the booth!

Speaking of my pillows, I absolutely loved how fabulous they looked in the display.  I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but at times I’d look at them and think “holy cow, I can’t believe I made all of these!”  It’s one thing to make a few for your sofa, but then to see a huge pile of them that people are admiring and purchasing – I’m not gonna lie, it’s super exciting.   One woman, who lives right down the street from me, purchased a few for the chairs on her front (covered) porch.   It was so awesome to hear her say that she thought my pillows were so much “fun.”  Because that’s exactly what I was going for – unique and absolutely happy and fun products.

I tagged each of my pillows (as well as the other items) with labels that included washing instructions on one side, and a stamp with my logo and website address on the other. The custom stamp is from Sugarskull7 on Etsy.   If you ever need a stamp, she’s awesome.

Photo credit: Crys.Perkins.Photography

Above the pillows I displayed my flour sack towels on a clothesline.  I absolutely love flour sack towels, and was pleased to find that they were a pretty popular item with my customers as well – especially as gifts they were purchasing for others, it seemed.

Photo credit: Crys.Perkins.Photography

The other side of the table held my reusable produce bags, tooth fairy pillows, sunglasses cases, and my email sign-up sheet.  Yep, this side definitely needs to be more fun in the future.  Any suggestions?

My tooth fairy pillows are made from new fabrics and old felted sweaters or suit jackets.  They all have little pockets on them for the child to leave their tooth, which the tooth fairy then replaces with a dollar or whatever the fairy does these days.  :)   I chose not to put any tooth-related decals, etc on them because it leaves them open to be used for other occasions, such as a surprise reward, etc.

I especially loved the ones made with my school bus fabrics:

Photo Credit: Crys.Perkins.Photography

One display idea that I was pretty stoked about, yet which turned out not to be ideal, was my cupcake-stand-turned- produce bag display.  My friend Lisa piled all the bags on so nice and perfectly…yet it didn’t seem to catch customers’ attention.

So the next day I tried displaying a few sets of bags in little piles tied with twine.  That seemed to go over better.

You may notice a bit of a sign in the background.  I decided early on that I would always donate a portion of my profits to a deserving organization, because I believe it’s important for companies to do their part to help others.  For most of the year I’ll donate to the homeless shelter that does an awesome job helping families in our area, but in honor of Memorial Day Ryan and I decided to donate to the Walter Reed Foundation, to help returning sick or injured service men and women.

Next to that sign I had my email sign-up sheet, so that people could sign up to be alerted when my online shop launches (hopefully tomorrow)!  I offered a random drawing for a $30 shop credit as an incentive, because I know that many people are reluctant to sign up for email lists.    Um…in retrospect $30 seems like a lot – but that’s what happens when you make these decisions on 1 hour of sleep. :)

I displayed my catnip purr pads in a copper bucket at the front of my display.  I think next time I need a better approach – perhaps up on the table, or on a shelf?  This didn’t seem to catch people’s attention very well.

Oh, I almost forgot a peek at my sunglasses cases!  These guys are guaranteed to fit even the fattest sunglasses.   In this shot they’re over on the shelf with the pillows, because on the second day I tried mixing things up a bit.

And with that . . . I think it’s a wrap. In the end, despite it being nearly 100 degrees each day, I had a blast meeting tons of local people and showing off my stuff. :)  Many of the vendors closed down early on Monday, because it was so bad with the heat and humidity, but with the help of Ryan and my friends I stuck it out ’til the end.

And before I end this, I have to say it again:  I have absolutely amazing friends and family.  I knew this before the past week, but now I am officially overwhelmed with how they pitched in to help me make this past weekend happen.

And if you’re wondering why it took me a whole week to post this, here’s why.  Not only did my house look like a bomb hit, but I ended up falling asleep around 9 pm the first few nights after.  I guess I really wore myself out!

The post-craft fair disaster in my living room.

Now I’m off to photograph my products so that I can launch my online shop by tomorrow night.  And don’t forget, to celebrate the launch I’m having a whole week of fun giveaways from Monday – Friday, so don’t forget to come back then!

Branding and logo design are key to a successful company.  You can have the best products in the world, but if your brand and logo don’t represent you well, you may not attract the customers you want. Because this is so important, I plan to eventually I’ll hire a graphic design & web design company to create a super professional branding and website package for both my blog and the shop.  However, for the next few months I’ve got to go the budget route and DIY it.

With this in mind, I’ve chosen to re-name and re-brand my shop to make it suit me and my products better.

The new shop name: Janery

Why? When I launched my Etsy shop before Christmas, I chose the name Flourish Pets and Home.  That wasn’t the name I wanted.  Months before, I’d come up with the name Flourish!, which I imagined would be written in a fun, whimsical, yet classy font.  But after some internet research, I found I wasn’t the first to name a company Flourish.  That domain name, and several other websites, all existed for companies named Flourish this or that.

Tips for choosing a Company Name & Web Address

When you’re creating and naming a company in this day and age, you want to check and see if the domain name is available before settling on a company name.  Not only do you need the domain name to match your company name (so people can find you online), you also want the domain name to be short, easy to type, memorable, and not easily confused with other companies’ names.   And if the domain name for your business name of choice (and all its cousins) are taken already, then you probably should develop a different business name.

Random fact:  Experts say a domain name of 20 letters (0r 4 words) is pushing the limits of “too long.”

When I couldn’t get the website Flourish, or Flourish Home, I eventually settled on FlourishPetsandHome.com.  And that’s how I sold on Etsy as well, becuase I couldn’t get Flourish on Etsy either.  But the more I typed and saw my company name, the more dissatisfied I became.  It felt stodgy and complicated and just. not. me.

Then one night, just a few weeks ago, I was pondering new names. Suddenly the word “Janery” popped into my head.  It’s not a word, it’s not a name, but I knew then and there it was going to be MY shop name.  The idea was a combination of the words Jane & Finery . . . and then later we realized that it was also Jane & RYan, which is just fun.

A few weeks later, as I was trudging through some spreadsheets at work, a tagline popped into my head: “A celebration of fabric.”

Why this tagline? It incorporates the key element and inspiration behind my designs – fabric – without limiting me to a niche market.  My love of fabrics, of mixing and matching them, and of creating things from them, is what started this whole journey.   And I’m happiest with sewing when I’m mixing and matching, pulling pieces of fabric together and creating something random with them. And if  creating and sewing lovely, useful, durable items isn’t a celebrating fabric, then I don’t know what is!

Now that you know the back story on the change of name, tagline, and logo – here’s a rough draft of where I’m going.

Before I move on, I’d like to give a shout-out to Jen at iHeart Organizing, who created the logo with shop name and buttons for me.  I love it!!   (Btw:  I’ve also ordered some customized product order forms from her Etsy shop so that I can take custom orders at my booth in a professional manner!  Have you seen the fabulous forms and calendars and checklists she creates?  Jen is such a multi-talented girl!! )

But I’m constantly changing my mind, so when I thought up the “celebration of fabric” tagline, I decided I wanted to add some bunting across the top of my logo.   You know, to evoke that celebratory and fun feel.

Here’s where I’d love your help:

The bunting / pennant sketch that swings across the top of the design is only a rough draft.  I mocked it up using Sumo Paint, but I’m not a graphic artist and could really use some help from someone who knows enough about graphic design to create a high-resolution version.   Ideally, I’d love to fill each little triangle with patterns, to mimic the look of a fabric pennant.  But I have NO clue how to do that. If you know how, and are willing to help, I would be BEYOND appreciative!!  (And would definitely send some gifts your way as a thank-you . . .)

Can anyone help me make a better bunting? Drop me a line, if so.  borrowedabode@gmail.com

So what do you think?   I’d love to hear your thoughts on any or all of this. :)

And . . . I’m back, with the second installment of “Ramblings from a first-time craft-fair seller.”

Product line.  It goes without saying that this is kinda important, considering products are what I hope to sell my customers, right?  Right.  Well, it’s totally stressing me out.

I’ve got a million ideas, but not enough time to make them all happen before Memorial Day Weekend.  And to top that off, in the last 6 months or so I’ve learned a lot about what not to do. Yup.  A LOT of lessons learned tucked under this sewing fanatic’s belt.

This week’s concern was that I had 25 days until the festival, and now that I’m registered as a business and have my tax ID#, I had to make some final purchases.  In some cases I’m now able to use that tax ID# to make a bulk purchase at a discounted wholesale price.  I was terrified of making those purchases.  Order $500 of supplies in one fell swoop is a scary thing to do!

But back to that product line that I’m struggling with.   The initial idea behind my line was to create coordinated pillows,  cat purr pads and dog beds.  Over the last few months I’ve been buying fabrics, but forgot to think through the fact that I needed to have multiples of each product in each fabric.  (Duh!)   I could have spent my money better in past months if I hadn’t bought so many single yards of fabrics I loved.

Here’s what NOT to do, when launching a product-oriented business:

Do not – I repeat, DO NOT get excited and go out and buy random fabrics just because you like them.  If you do, your product line will have total style ADD.  And I’m no business expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s a big no-no in the product design world.  You want your shop to offer a cohesive feel, with groups of items in similar styles.  Yes, you you want variation, so that your products appeal to more people, but you want to choose the different variations in a thoughtful way.

Want a peek inside the head of Jane, when shopping for fabric on a whim?

“Ooh! Pretty blue and brown quilting fabrics.  Coool, I’ll get a few yards of these.  Hmm.  Maybe 1.5 yards.  Oh what’s that?  Pink and brown oversized floral?  Cool, I’ll snag that too.  And maybe one yard of this black, brown, and cream Ikat print.  Hmm, I like this green geometric upholstery-weight fabric.  Oh, I’ll need more heavyweight fabric.  How about this Michael Miller floral print in pinks and aquas?  And these Joel Dewberry fabrics in garnet, gray, and green.  I’ll get a yard or two of each of them.”

Yeah, I did that, when I should have been ordering fabric swatches instead.  And now, less than one month before d-day, I realized that I would have the most bizarre collection if I didn’t do something differently.  I’ve got this random jumble of completely unrelated fabrics in 2-yard increments.  So yes, I’ll be using up those fabrics that I purchased on a whim, but I ordered a few other fabrics to try and round things out and create a few collections:

• The popular modern patterns & geometrics in a few bold colors as well as neutrals
• Super fun and unique Japanese Echino prints that are my favorites
• Ikats and traditional prints for the more classic customers

But I could only afford to order so much fabric, so to round things out I’ve decided to have a fabric swatch book at the booth, and offer custom orders to customers.  This will also come in handy with the dog beds, because frankly the cost of supplies is quite high (they’re made with really supportive upholstery-grade foam) and they’re bulky to stock up in the house.  By having samples of them, and selling them only as a custom item, I can hopefully keep life  a little more simple and keep up-front costs down.

Another comment in regards to fabrics:  I was going to purchase these fabulous zig-zag fabrics, but it appears that a ton of people are already selling zig-zag pillows on Etsy. I’m not sure I want to try and compete with all of them when there are so many other fun fabrics to play with.  Which brings up another good question to consider: 

How will my pillows stand out in the ever-expanding handmade pillow market?

This is something I need to be able to discuss with potential customers.

• My pillows are made with the same (or coordinating ) fun fabrics on either side.  I won’t add a plain white back to keep costs down, because I don’t think that looks as good – and it would keep the customer from being able to show off both sides of the pillow.
• My pillows are made with invisible zipper closures on the bottom seam, not made with envelope closures in the back.  Envelopes are easier to sew, but they don’t look as good on the pillow – and again, prevent the customer from alternating sides of the pillow if need be.
• Finally, I’ll offer both types of pillow form:  a 100% hypo-allergenic poly fill that feels as fluffy as down, or real down pillows.  Bonus:  All of my pillow forms are made in the USA.

I love invisible zippers!

So, in conclusion, if you’re planning on creating a fabric-based product line, here’s how I recommend you do it:

1. Look carefully at many fabrics.  Save images of ones you like.
2. Create image collages to categorize the different fabrics that appeal to you.
3. Order swatches so you can see all the fabrics in real life, and see how they mix and match.
4. Decide what aesthetic you are going for  with each collection, and carefully select a few complementary patterns, in several colors.
5. If finances and time are an issue, only do one style of collection the first time around, so you can afford to have several options in that category.
6. Then, once you’ve settled on a cohesive collection, order the fabrics, and order enough to make multiples of each pattern.

I guess that’s it for my business-related ramblings today.  Are there any patterns you think I must absolutely stock?  What colors do you think are must-haves?

There’s a big part of my life that I’m not sharing much on the blog right now.  The Jane who is getting ready for her first craft fair / arts festival.  But because owning my own business is as important to me as blogging about rental home decor, I think I’d like to start sharing the process.  Oh, and I’d also like to share the process in case any of you can learn from my mistakes experiences.

So let’s get started.  I’m working very hard to prepare for the Viva Vienna Memorial Day festival in my awesome little town.  It’s scary and exciting all at once – there’s so much to do , and so much to worry about, but at the same time, when I picture myself meeting potential customers in my fun little booth that Sunday & Monday, I can’t wait.  Because it’s my first time selling my handmade products to a potential crowd of 30,000-50,000 people, in a space that I paid $275 for, I’m trying to take my preparation seriously.  When I decided sink the dough into participating, it wasn’t just from a sales perspective, but from a marketing angle as well.  The people who come into my booth and don’t purchase, but take my business card, may be future customers – or blog readers.   Therefore I need to be AWESOME at the festival.

The booth starts with a 10×10 canopy tent to protect the space from the sun and [hopefully not] the rain.  That’s a key item that I need to purchase soon.

In reading reviews on Overstock and Amazon, I’m becoming apprehensive about making this purchase.  It seems that people have complaints about every model out there.  Some do not handle rain or wind well, others don’t pop up as easily as they claim to, and yet others aren’t tall enough, so people have to duck to enter.  Budgets are important, especially with a new business like mine, so I need to make the best possible purchase.  And I’m hoping to get the tent for around $100 or less.  Ryan’s doing the research for me now, and hopefully will have a suggestion for me by the weekend.

Do you want to hear more about the steps we’re going through to prepare for the festival? I think I’d like to blog about the process, because when I’ve googled things to find advice or suggestions, I just get a bunch of lame search results from fake sites that are just trying to make ad revenue.  I think it’s about time we took back the Google.

Once we get the tent, we’ll be setting it up in the basement and doing a few run-throughs with the displays, to get your opinions and be sure I’m ready to go on the big day.

If you’ve got any suggestions on which tent canopy to buy (or not to buy), please let me know!