How it went....

The Distractibles

Last week, Cassandra and I posted about the trunk show we were participating in on Saturday. I thought that, today, I'd give you the "post mortem" (as it were.)


Friday night, at 10pm, the last bit of work I needed to do was put button holes on 15 notion bags and sew on the buttons. The car was packed and I was ready to go except for that last thing. Aaaaaaand.... my button-holer decided not to work. I was so tired and frustrated at that point that I was, quite literally, cross-eyed. So, I resigned myself to the fact that the notion bags might not have a closure and I went to bed.


Saturday morning I was up and running at 7a.m. I sent a text to Cassandra and asked her to stop at the craft store and pick up some elastic to make a button/loop closure on the bags. In the end, we figured it would be true-to-form if we were sewing at our table during the sale. I had a massage at 8a.m. (GREAT way to start the day), then home to clean up, run the last couple of errands, and get to the show by 10:30 or 11. Smooth as silk.

part of our display

I rolled up to the house at 10:30 and started unpacking the car. By the time Cassandra got there at 11, all we had to do was arrange everything and make it pretty. The craft shop didn't have elastic but Cassandra picked up some grosgrain ribbon that was just the right color. Aaaaaaand.... then I realized that I'd never stopped to get change in case people paid in cash. Yikes! Out the door I race, trying to get to the bank before noon.


I managed to get to the back and back to the show-house by noon. A little frazzled but ready to go. *whew!*


All day long there was a steady stream of people browsing and shopping. The crowd was wonderful and seemed to be into the spirit of the event. Cassandra and I got to do what we do best - talking and making friends - while we sewed buttons on the notion bags (which sold surprisingly well!)

sewing buttons at the last minute (not surprisingly)

Overall, we sold about 25% of the stuff we took with us. We're going to put up an Etsy shop in the next couple of weeks and will hopefully sell the rest of the stock. And, if certain items are particularly popular, we may be convinced to continue making them!


We had a great time although it's a lot of work for two, inherently lazy souls such as us. We learned that we have a strong brand that's well received by strangers and that "making physical product to sell" is not really our forte (unless we can just manage the process and have other people do the actual work! LOL)


Keep your eyes peeled for an Etsy announcement soon.

Alex


PS - I hope that the people who invented the Square are making $10 BILLION dollars. If you don't know what Square is yet, check it out. Best.Invention.Ever!

Peek #2

As Cassandra mentioned on Monday, we Distractibles are participating in a trunk show this weekend. It's kind of a funny thing because, while we are (we suppose) artists of a sort, we don't actually make "product" like most artists.


The bonafide artists that will be at the show include a potter, a photographer, an illustrator, and others of that nature. We bloggers had a tough time figuring out how to represent ourselves at this shindig.

In the end, we settled on the idea of providing people with things that would allow them to "make" the way we "make" - things to encourage creativity. So, on our table you'll find:

1. Embroidery kits based on our Woodland Series embroidery patterns
2. Custom hand-dyed yarn from a local farm
3. Recipes from the Mighty Distractible archives
4. Knitting patterns
5. Tote bags for the fashionable crafter

It's been a bit of a bear, pulling all this together. We tried not to get in over our heads but, when you don't do this regularly, there are lots of loose ends that have to be dealt with. Personal crafting and, frankly, personal life has taken a back seat to getting this stuff done. Hopefully we'll have lots of attendees at the event and we'll sell out of all our cool stuff! If not, you'll be seeing a Mighty Distractible Etsy store soon after. LOL!

If you're in the Madison area, please stop by on Saturday. It's sure to be a lot of fun.

Alex

Peek #1

Hi everyone! The Indie Art & Design Trunk Show that Alex and I are participating in is happening this coming weekend. Yeah! Can't believe the date is finally here. We have been spending so much time preparing our kits and other goodies in the last month we seriously haven't been crafting anything else.

This week on the blog we are giving you a sneak-peek at some of the stuff what we will have for sale on Saturday. Today, we introduce the embroidery kits...

Template printed directly onto fabric.

You may already be familiar with the free embroidery patterns we offer on our site. Well, we made some modifications to the animal designs and had them printed on a medium-weight cotton/linen blend. No transferring needed! The designs are now smaller (6-inch) and circular. Absolutely perfect for quilt blocks, pillow fronts, or wall art.

A sample I've been stitching up.

And, these kits are great for the beginning stitcher because they are smaller and include a far more robust set of directions than our free downloads offer. Each kit includes:

• fabric with printed embroidery template
• cotton floss (for a monochromatic design)
• embroidery needle
• instruction booklet
• copy of the design to use to transfer it to another piece of fabric if you want to try it again!

This is just peek #1...check back this week for more! And come to the show on Saturday and say hi!

–Cassandra