A Pew All Our Own: Bazaars

Monday, January 25, 2021

Bazaars

We have been painting shells since we got back from the beach with such a nice haul of big, beautiful shells. The children have worked so hard to paint a whole bunch of them to sell at the Homeschool Children's Bazaar. Genevieve also has been making cards with her watercolors and hand-lettering skills. Genna's cards were blowing down a lot and we were limited in space with our card table.

Wheeling and Dealing at the Bazaar

The problem we ran into with this year's bazaar was that we didn't have much foot traffic. Nearly all of our shoppers were also selling stuff at their own tables. This was mainly due to the pandemic and people not wanting to come out just to shop. (We did have it outside for this reason.) There was a bunch of kids excited to make money off their goods and not wanting to spend all that money on other kids' tables. However, they did buy some things. Drew priced his shells super cheap and painted more shells than anyone else, so he did do the best monetarily. Bobby sold his two painted shells, solely utilizing his charm and dimples. Genevieve had him advertising for her and paying him a percentage of each sell. It was a good lesson in business!

Don't know why these pictures came up upside down and sideways, but these are Drew's shells that he didn't sell.

Judah's shells

Hannah's shells

Isaac's Shells

Genna's shells- I have no idea why I don't have more pictures of her shells. She had many, but this is all I can find.

I started an Etsy shop back in November. My shop is called CaeliEtTerraCrafts and you can see what is available currently here. An opportunity came available for me at our church to rent a table at the Christmas Bazaar. I was hesitant at first because the initial investment was high enough to make me wonder if it would be worth it in the end. I ended up splitting a table with another homeschool family to save some money and test out the waters. Here are some of the items that I brought to sell.

Our Lady of Guadalupe- I drew the angel at her feet and decoupaged it onto the wooden peg.

Blessed Carlo Acutis- He has a hand-painted monstrance.

St. Faustina- She is painted with my drawing of the image of Divine Mercy shrunk down and decoupaged onto the doll.

Our Lady of Lourdes has painted roses on her feet and is holding a rosary.

All, but a couple of my peg dolls, sold at the bazaar and most of them have since sold on my Etsy shop. I brought the kids' shells that didn't sell at the children's Bazaar and I brought my own as well. Here's two of mine.

In the end, I had very little inventory left to take home which is exactly what I wanted. The ornaments sold out early. The mugs were almost gone. I sold both of my remaining 5 nativity scenes at the bazaar; the other three had previously sold on my Etsy shop.

My table at the bazaar with my friends

My half of the table

We learned our lesson at the Children's Bazaar and put Genna's cards into a binder with their envelopes. She sold a bunch and was very pleased!

My hand embroidered, memory foam-stuffed "Our Little Lady Doll"- This one is Our Lady of Lourdes and you can see the detail of the three dementional roses on her feet in the following picture.