Bottle Hill Day 2015 Review

It was a cold, grey day.  Wind was steady and frigid.  We arrived at our spot on Waverly Place around 8:15 AM.  Getting out of the car and immediately feeling the cold gave me a bad feeling about the day.  It took no more than 5 minutes for those feelings to completely fade away and be replaced by joy and excitement. 

There was not one person who did not have a smile on their face.  Regardless of the temperature, every vendor was setting up with an infectious happiness.  It took us about 20 minutes to get everything set up.  Our location could not have been better.  We were smack in the middle of Waverly Place, which is the primary road that intersects Main Street in downtown Madison.

Fuzzy Wuzzy Design was in the heart of the action.  There were many vendors and many happy patrons eagerly wanting to check out the wares despite the cold.  There were a wide variety of vendors. Not so much arts and crafts, but more retail merchants, assisted living services, schools, local community organizations and businesses.  Another aspect of this show we took note of was the amount of giveaways and games that were conducted by other vendors.  And the cold weather was to our benefit because we sold a good deal of sweaters and hoodies. 

Overall this was a great show, we would defiantly do it again next year.

Westfield FestiFall 2015 Review

We’re heading into the Holiday Season with the craft shows and our other venues, so its definitely getting busy here at Fuzzy Wuzzy Design.  There are a lot of new happenings going on here in the studio. One of those things is that we’ve decided to add Craft Show reviews to our Blog Topics. 

The latest craft show we took part in was Westfield’s FestiFall.  It took place on Sunday, September 27th 2015 from 10am to 5pm, and was located in Downtown Westfield, NJ, on three streets: Elm Street, Quimby Street and East Broad Street.

At first it was hard to find exactly where we were supposed to sign in, but we did get that settled in a timely manner.  The event was well organized and the staff was very helpful.  Everyone was assigned a space and you were even given a clear map as to where your space was located.  This is more ideal then the ‘first come, first served’ methods most craft shows have.   You don’t have a choice in a space, but at least you don’t have to worry about arriving very early in order to grab the best space before another vendor does.

It was little slow in the beginning, as with most street fairs and craft shows, but picked up substantially around noon.  Lots of foot traffic, especially in our area.  We were lucky to be strategically located midway on East Broad Street, just far enough from the food vendors and the live music for it not to be a distraction, but close enough that we got a flow of people who were walking from that area.  We were also lucky to be located between two popular booths. To our left, a vendor who sold hand-made American Girl Doll clothes.  They were really cute; you should check them out at sewcutedollclothing.com.  And to our right was a MaryKay booth ran by a lovely lady who we had a great conversation with about her experience with consultants who had a disability of one form or another.  See her website at www.marykay.com/Igaulke, we hope to meet those extraordinary ladies someday.

There was a great deal of diversity amongst the vendors: fiber artists, photographers, potters, painters, jewelry-makers, locally made food as well as food trucks, and so much more.  There was also diversity amongst the patrons of the event – fellow artists, returning customers, and a group of students who were studying ASL.  Christian and a young lady named Sarah had a lively conversation in ASL.  

Overall, Team Fuzzy had a great time and we made a small profit from this show.  We will definitely do this again next year.