We did it! We successfully hosted my mother's booth in her place.
When thinking about how I would carry on my mother's work, it only made sense to kick it off with a craft show booth. This was her bread and butter; how she connected with patrons. And it is important to me to connect with people that loved my mom and her work.
So last week, I hosted my mother's booth at the River Run Craft Show in Ottawa, Kansas. She had already signed up for it before she passed away, and I couldn't imagine NOT having her booth there. A huge thank you to my Grandma Bush and my Aunt Teresa for going with me to help set up and then hanging out with me all day.
Right away, my number one takeaway from the whole experience was "Holy crap, this is a lot more work than I ever thought." Luckily, I had helped my mother with craft shows several times over the past few years. So I had somewhat of an idea of what to do, but I had never done it start to finish on my own.
There are so many things to think about. It's definitely more than just showing up with products to sell. You have to think about how to display them AND make sure to bring that with you. I did bring enough racks/shelves to place products on, but then I over analyzed exactly how the items should be organized. (Shocker, I know.) But I think we did alright!
Another thing I never would have thought of was you have to make sure you can take payment. Definitely gave myself a crash course on how to use a Square card reader the morning of the show. But I forgot to get change for cash payments. Luckily, my Grandma was there and ran to the bank for me!
Despite a couple small hiccups, we got everything set up and ready go in time for the start of the show that morning. Within an hour, a few of my mom's friends had already stopped by. I can't express how grateful I was to see them. They knitted with her every week and it filled my heart with happiness to reminisce with them.
I even had a great time talking with ladies that didn't know my mom. Being able to share her gift with total strangers was surprisingly cathartic. It's incredible to see how her products will continue to have an impact on people. My mom always said that people appreciate high quality work, and I found that to be true here. Everyone I talked to was impressed and appreciated that skill and time that went into creating the pieces. I mean, I've always thought they're amazing, but it was good to hear it from people who didn't know her.
The energy I got from this experience has given me an extra boost to get started on the projects I outlined in my earlier post. And spending the day with my grandma and aunt definitely made me realize how special it will be to carry on my mom's artwork.
Check it out for yourself!