PetsJubilee: Handmade Pet Items 8/27/12

PetsJubilee: Handmade Pet Items 8/27/12: Each weekday, the members of the Pets Jubilee Team on Etsy choose an item to promote from all of the active members. Here are last week's handcrafted items:

Mischyfpaws was included in the PetsJubilee List last week

SamsFurKids

mischyfpaws

mtcrittergear

dlkompare

anywear

Please click on the image to go to the item and click on the name to visit their Etsy shop. 

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PSM Experience - Week #9

August 19th, our 9th day of selling.

We signed in today at 84 on the fill-in list. Last week we were at 86. Our number keeps moving up inch by inch.

Today we chose a different spot again. We are still in the search for the perfect space for our booth out there. We chose under the bridge in isle 300 for this weeks trial. One of the suggestions we received from various vendors when we first started is to try different spaces out. What works for one vendor doesn't for another. 

One of the vendors next store decided to move to a brighter space since they didn't bring any lights. We decided to open one side of the tent up so the customer could see our products better. It also allowed for a nice summer breeze.

 We had a lot of people stopping and looking at our laptop and kindle covers. There was a lot of interest in those. We pasted out a lot of business cards to customers that stopped by. Customers would wonder over just to feel the laptops sleeves. The need to feel and touch is a selling point out here. I think we pulled down the messenger bags at least 10 times to show customers the inside. I'm not complaining. I'm just glad they are looking.

We talked a little bit about what our next step should be. We decided to try and get another product approved for sale out there before winter break. We would like to work on getting a bunch of them together before March opening. I will wait to tell you what it is until we decide for sure what product we will be working on.

Yay!!! Our fourth sale..... We sold an Eiffel Tower pillow cover in pink and black. We probably would have sold the rose pillow twice today, except we noticed that it was miss marked right before we broke down to go home.

That's all for now. 

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Carts and Craft Shows

The cart is the best way to transport your craft show belongs such as tents, chairs and plastic boxes full of products to your assigned station. 

We looked at quite a few types of carts and decided that this one is the best one for us. All of the sides can be folded down to use the cart as a flat bed. This cart can hold up to 1000 pounds. The handle can be removed and the cart can be hooked up to an electric lawn mower.

Cart Fully Packed

This cart does double duty as a table to display our products for the show. We don't have to take it back out to the truck while the show is going on. We use our plastic boxes for table height. We place a peg board on top to make a level table top. Then a table cloth over the top of that. This also keeps the plastic boxes up and out of the way during the day.

Other vendors use different types of carts to transport their wares. There are many types of carts out there. Other vendors use flat bed carts, dollies and rolling cages.

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What I've Been Working On

  This is what I've been working on the last couple of days. The entire design is stitched out with aqua metallic thread on a light suede cloth.

  The Eiffel Tower is one of my first designs that I created.

  I made a new Fleur de Lis border for this project.

I've also been working on two dorset buttons (not picured) to go with it. 

I hope this project gets done this week.

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Making Inexpensive Tent Weights

Milk jug bungee corded to the tent leg.

I hear you asking yourself if tent weights are necessary!  I asked myself the same thing. Let me ask you this. Are you doing a show outside? If yes, then yes you need weights. I have seen a tent flip over. The breeze caught the tent just right and flipped it. If you would like to keep your tent grounded, over your head and not blowing down the isle then you need weights on each leg. Not to worry thou, weights don't need to be expensive.

Here is an inexpensive idea how to build your own weights.

We use 4 milk jugs (one for each leg) filled with sand as tent weights. We purchased the sand at the locale hardware store. We were able to buy two 60 pound bags for $10. Some vendors use bleach jugs filled with water. We choose sand because we didn't want to be hauling water around. We had concerns about obtaining water at outdoor shows. The facility may not offer water stations or faucets. Tie rope around the handle and up around the top rail of the tent just under the canvas top. Then bungee cord the milk jug to the leg to keep it in place. We spray painted ours blue but the paint seems to flake off. I would have preferred to leave them clear or white.

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