Monday we had a great start to the week when he let Max escape out the front door before everyone else was out of bed (she figured out awhile ago that she can jump over the baby gate across the front steps and I haven't had time to replace it with a taller gate). Thankfully she didn't run around the neighborhood for too long before returning home. We no longer chase after her. We just call her name, whistle, shoot balls out of the nerf launcher (it has a distinctive sound and she loves chasing balls from it), etc and practice patience.
I went to the chiropractor for a much needed adjustment after so many hours sitting at my sewing machine last week. Then I ran a few errands getting last minute stuff for my booth, stopping at Costco, and getting road trip snacks.
Sunshine had an orthodontist appointment in the afternoon, which was fortuitous. Her expander broke on one side Friday afternoon so we bent the end out of the way, but it wasn't optimal. Since we already had the appointment scheduled for Monday, she just toughed it out till then. They were close to removing it anyway, so at her appointment, they removed it, much to her delight. She inherited her father's long tongue, and the expander cut down on the available space in her mouth for her to tongue to be, which was uncomfortable for her.
Afterwards, I cut straps for pockets and sewed buckles on those straps. I also cut and punched the stitching holes on bucket handles. Then I sewed two flat sheets together to use as a cover for my display stand for when I'm not at my booth. And lastly, I installed hardware on the bracelets leftover from camp.
Tuesday we had music lessons and the boys and I went on a short hike during Sunshine's lesson.
I had finally finished up everything that had to be done at home, so then I prepped everything to load in the car first thing Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning we loaded the car (fuller than I'd hoped), and my friend C and her daughter came and we headed out at 8:30. It was an 8 hour drive to Cincinnati and we switched driving back and forth every two hours. When I wasn't driving, I sewed handles on buckets and trimmed and melted threads on pockets.
We arrived in the early evening and went to our hotel room, where I finished trimming and melting pocket threads. The others prepped tags for my bags and pockets.
I spent Thursday morning updating my sales page and website product listings, then we headed to the convention center. I checked in and found out where to unload my stuff (the loading dock on the back side of the building), then went back to the hotel and drove the car to the loading dock and unloaded. C and the girls took everything to the booth while I parked the car (after first driving the wrong way on a one-way street when I exited the loading dock).
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| when there's only one escalator in town back home, you take advantage of the escalators in the convention center |
We got the booth all set up, then drove car back to the hotel and walked back and were ready and waiting when the vendor hall opened at 4:30. We stayed till 8:30, then walked back to the hotel.
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| cool art deco details on the ceiling of the entryway of our hotel |
Friday I was on site all day, from 9:30 to 8:30. It was long, but not as bad as I thought it would be. There was lots of peopling, but it wasn't as intense as at camp. C went to some of the presentations, and the girls ended up going back to the hotel to hang out and watch Food Network in the afternoon.
Saturday I was on site all day again, but only from 9:30-5. At 5 we packed up the booth and loaded the car. I had to wait in line twice since my stuff wasn't on the loading dock, waiting for me, which was never communicated to us, so frustrating. Afterwards we drove back to the hotel.
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| my booth was on the very last row in the back of the above pic |
Sunday we were up and gone by 8. After an uneventful drive home, we unpacked the car and started some laundry.
Thoughts on the convention:
There was sparser attendance than I'd hoped for, but a lot of people already have their curriculum picked out by the middle of August (it was moved from March to August because of crowd limits in place at that time), and I was told by several people not to judge convention attendance based on this particular one (it was short on vendors, as well).
Despite not making as many sales as I'd hoped, I did sell pockets and buckets, got a registration for my course, and added a number of emails to my email list via my giveaways. Those are all successes, in my book.
I prepared quite well (attention to detail pays off!), so I didn't really miss anything that I needed. I did do a few things I didn't need to, that I won't do in the future. I need to figure out a better way to display my course tools and materials so they're a little more photogenic and don't take up quite so much space. I want to improve my signage (giveaways, pricing, etc), which I knew I wanted to do, but wasn't sure what to beforehand (I brought some neon card stock and hand wrote some signs, which worked, but didn't look as professional). I might rearrange how I setup the booth area, but I'll need to think about what exactly I want to do with it. My stand looked good, but takes up a lot of space when traveling, even taken apart (those hooks keep the planks from laying flat). I'm not sure what to do about it, but I have till next March to think about it, so I'll let it sit in the back of my mind for now.
Despite not having the number of sales I wanted, it was a success. Lots of people liked my pockets and buckets, even if they didn't buy them (they are not for bargain hunters), and I had two companies stop by and ask about stocking my products. One is a shop located in Ohio, which looked like it carries an eclectic variety of products (not sure if I want to pursue anything there). The other is a homestead supply company that wants to highlight my products this spring. They're super excited about carrying my products and I'm looking forward to working with them.
We all hated downtown Cincinnati. There's no free parking anywhere (I think I spent about $100 just in parking fees in the four days we were there), there are too many one way streets, and there was construction everywhere. The convention center was a block and a half away, but we had to drive 7 or 8 blocks in a round about route to get there because of the construction and one way streets. Also, there were too many people. And our hotel (an older, historic hotel with the potential to be cool, but which is slowly sliding into semi-genteel decay) was right next to an open square that hosted nightly concerts from 4 or 5 pm to 10 pm weeknights, 11 pm Friday and Saturday. We were on the 14th floor and we could hear the music a lot louder than we'd have liked. It was also hot and humid and gross the whole time we were there. Thank goodness for indoor air conditioning.
My sleep wasn't too bad. I wore ear plugs and laid on the bio mat every evening after returning to room before sleeping, which helped a lot with keeping me from feeling like crap while we were there.
Weekly Mileage
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