Thank you to all my great customers who stopped and shopped and talked and bought!!
Southtown Mall in Bloomington, Minnesota is a nice little mall with a good mix of shops and nearby restaurants. With Kohls across the parking lot and Herbergers to the east, the parking lot is always full.
I've been doing this show for 15 years now (hard to believe!) and I always feel like I've come home, despite living on the opposite end of the city. Fellow crafters have become like family and catching up with them after the summer months is always a joy.
There are times when lots of people come through the mall looking at crafts, and there are also times when we crafters joke that the aisle looks like a bowling alley and the only people we see are fellow crafters. If it weren't for those "dead" times, I would never get to eat (McDonald's) or go to the restroom, so I do appreciate the slack as well as the busy times.
I also make use of the quiet times by pulling out my tools and supplies and making new jewelry pieces. This time I pulled out a few necklaces that I made this past year that I saw could be improved with a few changes. I'll get some pictures up soon to show them off. I do have a couple of before shots of one so you can see what improvements I made.
What I like best about doing Arts and Crafts shows is seeing what pieces people like and being able to customize them as far as length and color. Like taking a pair of earrings and changing them from silver to gold, or adding a bead or removing a crystal, or lengthening a bracelet or shortening a necklace. All of those variations are easy to do at a show. I bring a small portion of my supplies with me to shows, and sometimes I can make changes right then and there. Other times I might have to bring something from home but will have it ready the same weekend. Still other times I mail a finished piece or have it ready for the next show.
The other reason I love doing shows is being able to talk and socialize with my customers. I'm not usually an extrovert, but there's something about sitting in my little booth in the middle of a shopping center that makes me want to chatter away with all the people who came out just to see me. It seems for those 3 show days I have an abundance of energy and a mission to be as entertaining as possible. It certainly is not the life for everyone!!
So after a long, lonely summer with no shows, it sure is great to be back visiting and selling as a vendor.
Here's to the greatest customers a girl could ask for!!
Hope to see you at the mall!
Laurel
