Well, my friends, I did it! I survived my first  experience in trying to peddle my wares! Who speaks like that?! I’m just kidding. But, really, the key word there is trying because that was exactly what I was doing.

In case you didn’t hear, I participated in a Fourth of July Festival in the very small, rural town of Fountain, CO, which is a good half hour south of me. I shared a booth with my new friend Shaina (I speak about her here in a blog post from earlier in the week).

It was my first time packing up my button flower arrangements and bringing them outside of my home. The first time the public would see them…and I was mostly super excited, but also a little nervous!

I was able to borrow some of these great boxes with square dividers from my mom (thanks, Mom!). They worked like a charm!

Then, my loving husband with whom I trust 100 percent, packed them all in the back of the car.

I do trust him…even though for the first five minutes of the ride I grilled him about this thing or that and if this other thing made in the car or if we forgot something else…

We arrived at the Fountain City Hall and, well, I set it up-for the first time. I think they came out really nice! My pride and joy…next to my children, of course!

Oh yea, and there’s me.

It’s funny because yesterday morning my kids had set up a little “store” with their Legos and I was to be the customer. They had made little price tags for each Lego design and even a sign for their store. As I approached them, they were so welcoming – providing lovely customer service.

Well, I began feeling like what they were doing wasn’t so different from what I would be doing later that afternoon! I made my goods; I made tags for my goods; I made a sign for my store; and I would greet my potential customers warmly in the hopes that they would find great happiness in what I was selling!

Interesting.

Anyway, I didn’t make any sales on the arrangements yesterday. I did sell two rings-so Yahoo!

I don’t feel sad or discouraged. I learned an awful lot from the experience. Here’s a few things that I learned:

1. It makes me painfully uneasy when people pick up my arrangements and handle them! Hah! Isn’t that ironic because most sales become final after the customers have the items in their hands. I learned that at Starbucks. And, well, maybe that is truer of coffee because it didn’t work last night. I need to relax.

2. I will make individual Button Flower stems. A woman asked me if I sold them individually and I realized that is a wonderful idea! I’m working on that as we speak (seriously…I have wire and buttons next to me on the table! 🙂 )

3. I need to be less afraid to tell potential customers about the arrangements. I don’t want to be pushy and they are pretty much self explanatory…but maybe its nice to discuss where the vases come from, etc…What do you think?

I have another opportunity to try to sell my arrangements this Saturday at a farm and art market. My friend Shaina asked me to join her since she has a regular booth there. She is so gracious to offer to help me in this way. I accepted her offer and am very excited to see if my luck changes with this crowd.

And, by the way, you see me using the word try a lot. Well, I know better than that. My mom always taught me that the word try is a non-word and also, Master Yoda (of Star Wars fame) always said, “Do or do not, there is no try.”

Here’s hoping for great success on Saturday! I will let you know!

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂