What a fabulous looking booth & beautiful stuff! And those birdhouses rock oak deer, nothing short of amazing! I am the next person in line to agree with the others when they say to mingle with your customers in a sort of chatty, neighborly manner. Sometimes some things need a little explanation in either the design or thought behind it & some things just almost sell themselves with just a bit more of a nudge from you the seller. You can bet that if you are selling something that is different & a good seller, someone next year will be copying your stuff & they'll be at the same show. I like to try to change things up from year to year, but still do some of the same things, just kickin' em up a notch, if you know what I mean. Some of the reasons that one booth might do better than another is if you can find your stuff cheaper & sell it cheaper, your gonna make more sales. That's why I love refurbishing junk & GS finds. You have next to nothing in it & can turn it around & make a good chunk of change off it if you can think of the right thing to make it into. One year, me & DH made some unique signs & was selling them for $20. No one bought a single one, but I had 3 men literally taking measurements & notes on how they were made. I never seen them being sold anywhere else, but I didn't sell them either, only to friends & personal acquaintances. i wish everyone that's doing craft shows this year all the best of luck - we're gonna need it!

I think you did great & that took quite awhile! I think she strung beads on the yarn & then added as she went along like you do on the beaded socks. Nice that few boutiques still have a community feel to them. I went to 1 church 1 & no food & nobody working said a word to me except person checking me out & she seemed distracted. Hope your sale goes well Sat.! Jan

I sew, mosaic, and paint/distress small vintage wood items for the house (shelves, foot stools, cabinets, etc). To be more specific, my theme is cottage, and or shabby, whichever you prefer. Lately, I have been into pillows. I buy vintage Wilendur tablecloths in rose patterns and strawberries as well. I have scraps left over that are still good enough to make more pillows, but had them up on Craigslist, hoping to trade for pieces of vintage chenille. No bites yet. Would love to trade them if I could find chenille. I love vintage fabrics. I also make curtains out of feedsacks, and chair covers, and more pillow cases. LOL As for Mosaics, I have over 3 dozen items I have made over a period of 3+ years, using fine china. As for painting and distressing. I just love finding old items to re-purpose. I also crochet. Mango Princess

Regular shredded photocopies and junk mail etc will compost fine, esp with your mix of other stuff. Don't worry about making it 'nutritious', the various fungi and bacteria and bugs and worms will help. I put pretty large amounts of cardboard through my compost pile. It will eventually help with your clay soil. But you may need a fair bit of it - read, a lot, applied over time, probably more than your junk mail and household paper after composting. I've found wood chips, wood shavings, leaves (composted on their own or mixed with other stuff) to be most helpful and available in quantity - along with just chopped garden waste or whatever's left over from mowing/mulching everything growing. The lignin in woody wastes and leaves and to a lesser degree paper and cardboard (varies) breaks down more slowly and leaves more behind - both to feed the soil organisms and bind to clay particles, opening the soil up from the tight packed clay. Will depend on climate and other factors - and it won't loosen up your compacted clay overnight. So go for it. And if you can get loads of wood chips (for example from utility crews or when trees are taken down), it's great. Your soil may not need fertilizers added (clay holds a lot). Also just casting various cheap seeds of the green manure and similar cover crops, some flower types, some radishes and mustards (the cheap type) seems to help - most of them don't mind clay soils and their root growth does the work of penetrating the clay on its own. I've got patches that were more compacted where not much was growing; compost, mulch, woodchips, shredded or composted leaves and casting these types of seeds about has made the soil nicer, and the yard more pleasant and prettier. (But it's not a manicured yard, tends more to the wild looking). In a lot of spots you can feel how springy the soil is (although not necessarily that deep to clay).