Lowlands Festival adventure

Lowlands festival has been and gone.... Weeks, no months of hard work have gone into it and then after 3 long days its gone, just like that. But boy, what a weekend it was!

It's been a rollercoaster ride. Ssshht, don't tell anyone, but I was actually really quite nervous. I worked hard to get lots of new products out and I had never done a market before in my life. And ofcourse I had no clue what would be succesful and what wouldn't. So there it was, a stall with all of my passion and heart right on it and just hoping that people would like it enough to buy it.

It didn't start so well. The Friday wasn't successful at all. Lots of people looking, not so much buying. On top of that loads of rain ( and yes, humidity and paper goods together are a disaster!) so to me it was a lost day. But sometime on Saturday it turned around. The sun came out and people started buying.

People's responses were amazing. It was my first experience with real life customers and someone said 'Everything on your stall makes me so happy!' ( yay!) Some other people said it reminded them of Sissy Boy and Paperchase ( Wow, I couldn't ask for more, I love them both) and many people's faces just lit up and smiled. It was great to see all these positive reactions and gave me the confirmation I really am going in the right direction.

There were some other highlights too: we had our own postman. Yes, Lowlands even had their own post office! Postman Pieter had a mobile postbox and he stopped by us a few times to pick up cards written by Lowlanders on our stall. It was a lovely service that we could offer our customers. Oh, and  up and coming music star Jake Bugg signed one of our notebooks. And a member of Dutch rap band 'De jeugd van tegenwoordig' wore one if our necklaces! So cool!

All of this hadn't been possible without my friend  A. She helped throughout the weekend and even though she could've gone out partying, she didn't. She stood by me and together we came up with things to improve our stall and sales. And for that I will always be grateful ( more than she will ever know) So A., you are the best!

Will I go again next year? Hmmm, on Friday I was convinced I wouldn't but now I'm not so sure... All in all it was a long weekend ( with very short nights) but  I came home in such a positive buzz. I'll let you know next year!

New item: Handmade notebooks

Finally, the last few tough days have come. Lowlands festival is only 2 days away and I think I'm going mad! Every single spare hour has gone into getting everything ready and perfect for 3 extremely long days on the Festival market on Lowlands.

But we're getting there! Almost all items are ready to rock and roll. I just encountered a bit of a disaster with the temporary tattoos. My normal supplier was sold out so had to buy elsewhere and it turned out the quality was really poor. So poor that I really couldn't sell them. I managed to order somewhere else but it hasn't arrived yet! And with only 2 days to go we're cutting it really fine. Fingers crossed it arrives today!

We've got loads of new products we will be selling. And this week every single day a new item will be launched in the Etsy shop. Yay! I'm so keen to find out what you think of them. Yesterday the completely handmade notebooks have gone online... just in cause you missed them you can find them right here. I'm so excited I can show them to the rest of the world. I've been working on them for months now, figuring out how to best make them. Tackling issues like: how do I punch holes in the middle of a sheet? They are entirely handmade. From assembling the pages, to punching the holes (yes, with a good old hammer), folding them, sowing them, trimming them and rounding the corners off. And I'm really happy with the end result!

Every single day of this week there's a new item launched. So stay put for today's! I will post them later on.

Lowlands festival... am I insane?

Did I already mention that I am one of the lucky 30 that will have a market booth on Lowlands Festival? No? Well, you know what... I'm going to Lowlands! Woohoo!

Picture by Grolsch

Etsy is organizing, for the second year in a row, an Etsy Bazar on Lowlands Festival (16-19 aug.). I've applied to be part of it a long while ago but since Etsy is handling a strict selection process, I've been waiting for good (or bad...) news ever since. And finally it came through... me (and a good friend of mine) are going to Lowlands!

It's going to be hard, long hours (roughly 15 hours a day, for 3 days in a row... ouch!). Not for the weakhearted! And to be honest, I've never done a market in my life so starting with something big like this is, well, madness!?! Even a few of my fellow Etsians who do do regular markets, think I'm insane. Am I? Well, I know what Lowlands is like... been there, done that a few times. I just hope that in between selling all my goodies there will be a bit of time to go and see some bands. It will be great!

Talking about goodies, what's in my shop at the moment is not nearly enough to fill a stall, let alone to appeal to a festival audience. So time to do lots of new things, venturing out into pastures new... Yes, it will all be paper goodies but it will be varied and some items only exclusively for Lowlands. I'm so excited but I'm already so overwhelmed... did I take on too much?

With my regular day job of 32 hours a week, a family and a household to run there's not that much spare time left to spend on Heedopter. And there's a lot of work that needs doing before I'm ready for Lowlands. So I've taken last week off to completely and utterly focus on the work ahead. And a lot of things are taking shape quite nicely. I've already showed you a little sneak peek and there will be lots more to show in the time to come...

But for now, just wish me luck in keeping my sanity! :-)

Picture by EtsyNL

  

Picture by EtsyNL