Category: Knicknaques Festivals

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Vintage Market Days of Charleston, from a vendor perspective

The Vintage Market Days event has been a thing for years and I have seen their advertisements for venues all over the southeast. This year I decided to try a “new” festival and get out of the Atlanta market. I felt fairly confident that I could do well in any environment that was geared totally around the vintage vibe and Knicknaques Vintage Boutique was instantly approved as a vendor for the VMD in Charleston, SC.

I originally chose a 10×20 booth simply because that is the size I am used to working with at the Cotton Pickin’ Fair, but the more I started to think about it, the more intimidated I became. What if I scale back a bit for my first event here? I mean, I had no idea what kind of area I would be working with. Was there going to be a wall on any side? Was there a way to hang my lights and ladder from the ceiling? I knew nothing and honestly had a very hard time getting information about the event and even less about the space I was working with. I immediately contacted them and asked them to change my booth from a 10×20 to a 10×10. So, yes, I chickened out a bit. It was weeks before I finally got a new contract for the 10×10 booth and I found out at the same time, that this particular event had a change in management. That could be good and bad, but went ahead and signed my contract for the 10×10 booth with someone informing me that they would honor my request for a booth with a wall at the back. I breathed a “small” sigh of relief and began prepping.

I wanted a boho inspired look, using white, gold and green colors with natural rattan and wicker. I had the rattan and wicker in stock at the store and set to work painting a couple dressers and a chair. Can you tell I’m obsessed with gold leaf? So pretty, and they both tie in with the look I had in mind. This chair came as a last minute thought. She has been in my basement for years and I was ready to see her transform. I had some leftover white faux fur for recovering the seat and decided on gold spray paint for the frame and cane. She is totally glam now and ready for a new home. But, I will be honest and tell you that I will not be disappointed if she doesn’t sell and I have to bring her home!

I felt more ready for this show than any other and moving day came quick. With the help of my fabulous husband, Greg, we had the trailer packed up and ready to go Wednesday night and we left around 7:30 am on Thursday. The four hour ride left me plenty of time to plan and to worry. I still had no idea about the 10×10 space I would be working with and was told we had 30 minutes to unload, which is no where near enough time for me to figure out what was going in and what was going to have to go back in the trailer. We got in around 12:30 and found we could leave the truck and trailer right outside while we unloaded everything. My booth was so small. I had no way to hang anything from the ceiling and I had NO walls. I was going to have to “make” my own walls using the furniture I had on hand. No big deal…we got this! We managed to cram as much as we could into my little area. Maybe a little too crammed, but I was happy with the end result! We finished setting up around 7:30pm and headed for our little Airbnb Whispering Pines cottage in Summerville. Adorable! After a comfortable night’s sleep, we arrived on at our booth around 9:00 am ready to go! The first 25 people in line received a free goody bag and it was super busy until about 2pm. Sales were great and I was struggling to keep up with restocking my sold inventory. My smalls were flying out the door, but my large furniture was staying put.

After closing, we moved some things around and finished restocking in time for the vendors to be treated to a tasty BBQ dinner. We headed back to our cottage and changed clothes to visit Saltwater Cowboys on Shem Creek in Mt Pleasant. They were recommended to us by a customer and their Trash Can Nachos came in a big tin can that they empty onto a plate. So yummy! I had a Pitt Street Lemonade…or two and Greg had a local Sweet Josie beer. We were full and ready to head back to get to bed.

Saturday sales were half of what they were Friday and my furniture was still sitting which is SO very unusual. Normally my furniture is the first to go! But the vendors around me weren’t selling furniture either. I marked my dressers way down hoping for some action, but…nothing. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Sunday is always SALE DAY. Make me an offer to keep us from having to load it up and take it back home! Sunday was slower than Saturday and I couldn’t sell my dressers. I did, however, sell my giant wooden lockers and a mid century chair that I never even took out of the trailer. One of the friendly vendors we met, Maureen, saved us from having to load up those lockers and when I brought the doors out of the trailer to show her, she spied my mid century lounge chair. She, thankfully, spared us a little more space❣️ Check out her awesome instagram page at Rustic Attitude.

At 4pm when the event closed, I was feeling much better about trailer space and we set to work breaking down the booth and reloading the trailer. This process normally takes us a few hours and we were on the road to go home by 6pm.

It felt good to sleep in my own bed and I’m looking forward to getting my store back in order. We met some great people at this event, but I am not sure if I will participate in another VMD show. The contract that I signed was very specific about all the vendors at this show being vintage or at least vintage inspired. The gutter company that was highlighted twice on VMD Facebook page and the skin rejuvenation booth just didn’t align with what I thought this show was going to be about. I also feel they had every opportunity to highlight each vendor through Facebook and instagram, but there were only a select few that they chose to post and some of them were advertised more than once. I may look into the Atlanta area shows to see if they are any different.

Stay tuned, but for now only 5 more weeks until the Cotton Pickin’ Fair! Visit my Facebook page Knicknaques Vintage Boutique for more information and updates.

Jayme

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Cotton Pickin’ Fair

We had such a great time at our first festival in Monroe this spring that I couldn’t wait to try another one. I searched fall festivals in the Georgia area and the Cotton Pickin’ Fair in Gay, GA came up for October 3rd and 4th. It was my first experience with a juried show and after sending in an application and pictures of our spring festival, we were accepted! Knicknaques was approved for a primo spot in the Warehouse barn. That meant an inside booth and we didn’t have to worry about a tent and the weather. 

I had a short list of things I wanted to finish and the rest of my inventory came from an extra booth I closed at Pickers Paradise. I was doing a pretty good job of keeping it low key and low stress, until about a week before the fair. My appraisal business got busy, cars broke down and Dylan decided that he needed to be picked up everyday from school instead of riding the bus. The tiniest thing threw me in a tizzy. I had chair shelves that wouldn’t hang on the wall, dresser knobs that wouldn’t stay on and burns on my fingers from paper cone wreaths but….it was getting done. The impending hurricane Joaquin was only a blip on my stress inducer. I was going to be inside and not in a tent. How bad could it be?

Wednesday, everything was finished, in my garage and ready to be loaded in the trailer. Only one problem… I’ve never driven a trailer further than the driveway. My sweet husband took time out to show me how to drive the trailer and I was feeling pretty confident. Until I tried to back it uphill into our driveway. Let’s just say I hope I don’t ever run into that problem again. 😁 Thursday evening the trailer was loaded and Friday we were on the way. Tonya’s husband, Todd and Greg were able to come help set up. There are no words for our gratefulness! They carried all our heavy furniture in, Greg unhitched the trailer and even Todd wanted to help “decorate”. Our booth neighbors were friendly and helpful, letting us borrow their ladder and helping to heave a chandelier and a birdcage over the rafters. 

After our muscle left, Tonya and I decided to take a break and go find our accommodations for the night. I found a quaint little place (supposedly somewhere near the fair) called Americus Farms. They have several buildings that they rent out for equestrian events and also for vendors from the fair. It’s like a bed and breakfast, only no one to actually to cook the food, etc.  I had NO information other than an email confirmation. No address, no directions and no phone number. I put the only address I could find from the website in my GPS and we head out. Now Gay, GA is small. Very small and very remote. As we headed up the winding driveway to the farm, I began to get a little nervous that I had no idea where we’re staying and it was going to get dark. We eventually saw a family out walking and asked them if they knew where we could find The Bunkhouse. Katiana knew exactly what we were talking about and said she’d show us how to get there by taking the “shortcut”. About 15 minutes into the “shortcut”, the dirt road started to get muddy and very narrow.  

 We were convinced we had uncovered a secret location and Katiana was going to take us to a secluded location to be tortured or killed, where no one could hear our screams.  Big sighs of relief when we finally pulled up to the building otherwise known as The Bunkhouse.  

 Katiana went on her way and we were left all alone in the middle of nowhere in front of a big brown barn and no idea how to get in. While walking around the building to find some sort of sign pointing us to the entry, we came across this small graveyard with two headstones.  

 Creepy. And way too close to where we are suppose to be sleeping.

After finally just picking a door and entering a stairway, we found our living quarters.  

 A cute little area with a kitchen, dining and living room. 6 locked doors surrounded the big room and we opened door #2 on our key that we found in the mailbox. Our little bedroom had two twin beds and a cruise ship size bathroom.  

  

 
The beds were tiny and Tonya quickly referred to them as our doll beds. The bathroom wasn’t as clean as we would have liked but we had found a place to lay our heads and our doll beds were clean. 

Before returning back to our booth to finish tagging, we made the 8 mile trek to the nearest grocery store, in Woodbury GA. The very same Woodbury in The Walking Dead, which only fueled our fears of being alone at The Bunkhouse. Ghosts and now zombies were surely going to be our demise. We grabbed some food, wine and beer and headed back to the fairgrounds. Tagging took longer than expected and it was dark by the time we made it back to our haunted house with the doll beds. Still with no one around and very little lighting, I went first up the dark stairway, gun in hand. Now I know to shoot a zombie in the head but where do you aim at a ghost? After an “all clear”, we unpacked and while enjoying our dinner, our first roommate showed up. A nice lady named Donna, who was just as freaked out as we were. She was also there for the fair and had a booth selling bottle cap art. Soon, two more couples joined us and we felt more at ease. There’s safety in numbers when fighting off zombies. 

We had a big day ahead of us and getting ready was going to be a long process in the morning, with only one small bathroom. So, we called it a night and fell fast asleep in our doll beds. 

The weather held off and Saturday turned out to be a great day. The sun was out for a little bit and the temperature stayed mostly cool.  Our booth was open and ready for business!

    
   
The crowds were crazy and at times there was a line to get through our booth. I had made my rent back in the first hour! We were able to take quick breaks and enjoy some of the fair food. My favorite, by far, was the bacon fried green tomato sandwich but the sweet potato fried pie and apple dumpling were pretty darn good too!  

 
5 o’clock came quick and our booth was a mess. Large pieces of furniture, baskets, linens and even my chandelier hanging on the front rafter had sold. Recovery would have to happen in the morning and a total makeover was not out of the question. So we left to get some takeout from a nearby restaurant and went straight back to The Bunkhouse. A quick dinner and a glass of wine later, I was sound asleep in my little doll bed. 

Sunday’s weather was a little more wet and crowds were a little slower that morning. That gave us the time we needed to get our booth back in shape. By lunchtime it was getting busier and before we knew it it was time to think about packing up. Greg, Taylor and Dylan came down and were there to help at closing time. I am fairly certain that if I was left to hook up the trailer by myself that we would still be there. The fields where we left the trailer, were not only muddy, but all the trailers that came in after ours were stacked very close together. Maneuvering, even for pros like my husband, proved challenging. Then there was the giant mud pit at the back gate entrance.  

 If you happened to stop in the middle of that? Let’s just say one truck and trailer stuck in that mess would ruin the entire procession of hundreds of vendors trying to get out of there. My hubby did fabulous and soon we were loaded up and on our way! 

This show was another huge success for us and an even greater learning experience. I’m going to practice driving the truck and trailer and do better research on hotel accommodations. 😜

We didn’t have much time to check out the rest of the fair and didn’t get to see much more than what was right around us. The Cotton Pickin’ Fair is huge and draws people from all over. Other vendors told us that a nice fall weekend can bring in more than 30,000 people. It’s a great family event, with even things for kids to do and I strongly recommend going if you get a chance. Knicknaques will be there if we get invited back, but if we aren’t there with our booth, I will definitely be there to enjoy the fair!