The good, the bad, and the uber excellent

Yesterday was the bazaar. I've been mulling it over in my head for the past 24 hours - thinking about what went well, what didn't go according to my hopes and expectations. My thoughts are jumbled. Overall it was a success. We had 14 ladies participating this time and my living, dining and Japanese rooms were packed with a huge variety of handmade goods.

By opening time, we had a line of about 70 to 100 ladies outside my garden gate. They filed in slowly taking their time to look around. I stood by my table full of watch bands and necklaces trying to explain what they are. I had several display sample watches and even a little explanation card written in Japanese, but still the ladies seemed confused as to what they were looking at. So I stood there, trying to show. I felt like one of those product spokesmen you see on infomercials selling their wares. (It slices, it dices. You need this!)

Did I mention that the elementary school in my neighborhood is (numbers wise) the largest one is all of Tokyo? .... you may be wondering where this is going. That means there are a lot of other mothers just like me who are stay at home moms but whose kids don't need their constant attention. That gives us all plenty of time to make handmade goods if that is our cup of tea. And plenty of time to go to craft bazaars to buy these things as well.

Getting to the point now. There are two other craft bazaars in my immediate neighborhood this week - one today and another one tomorrow. So that means just within a 1 mile square area there are three craft bazaars in three days. Tis the season... We were the first one yesterday. I am thinking that we didn't sell as many of our things as we would have hoped because at least some of our guests were going to one or both of the other local bazaars this week and were holding on to their money. Okay, so I may be rationalizing, but indulge me.

As for me personally, I learned some valuable lessons, both good and bad, and had one very uber excellent experience.

Good - yesterday was the bazaar
Bad - we didn't sell as much as we hoped
Good - we sold a lot
Bad - we have a lot left over
Good - many of the left over items can still be sold or given as gifts to our friends and neighbors

Good - I sold 12 Scarlet Lime watches yesterday
Bad -  I made 35 Scarlet Lime watches
Good - I have an incredible stock of beautiful Scarlet Lime watches. I will still sell them either at the spring bazaar or in a local consignment shop. Or maybe.... I'll keep one or two.

Good - I almost broke even - sales and expenses
Bad - I didn't make any profit
Good - I don't have debt because of unsold items
Bad - I won't be able to buy the Silhouette cutter I've had my eye on quite yet
Good - I can always buy it later

Good - I bought a few extremely cute items from my friends
Bad - There is nothing bad about this

And finally the Uber Excellent.
Good - One of the ladies who I do the bazaar with is good friends with Maiko Kosugi, a 2011 Prima Flower Girl. I am a huge admirer of Maiko's pages and projects. I briefly met her last April when she stopped by our spring bazaar to pick up a preserved flower arrangement she had ordered from my friend. At the time I was starstruck - truly.
Excellent - Maiko came to the bazaar again yesterday. For our second meeting I wasn't quite such a spaz.
Uber Excellent - Maiko brought along her project that she had made last week at a class she took from Irene Tan - another incredible and famous scrapper. She brought along her project just to show me! Little old me. How cool is that!


Overall it was a positive, learning experience for all of us. I think we had fun and now we can look forward to December, Christmas and New Years and all the joys of the holiday season.

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