Though I have been back from the Stationery Show for a good couple of weeks now, I have not had time to do much talking about it! This year marked our 8th year in business and our 7th NSS (I took a year off for my wedding). We had to get a slightly larger booth this year, and moved at the last minute, which is always a little nerve-wrecking but landed in a really good spot (right behind American Greetings!) and right out in the open with some great neighbors.
We tried a new booth set up this year, trying to keep it fresh and also trying to make the experience as fun and easy as possible for our customers. We set up the “bar” (people kept asking us what we were serving!) so that folks could come on in, take a load off and go through a “deck”. Jury is still out as to whether or not this helped sales, but for Molly and I, who set up the booth, it was a much easier and more beautiful arrangement.
Some years everything goes your way, some years nothing does. This year was right in between. Our crate was actually there when we arrived and in one piece (this has not been the case in years past!) but we had no carpet and something got lost in translation on the color of our walls…they were supposed to be pink, and looked more coral. When investigating the carpet situation, we found out that they were 'out' of the red carpet we had ordered. Out?? Ok, we will roll with it… what have you got? “Grey.” ooooookaaaay. Grey it is. SO, with the very real possibility of having a Halloweeny tradeshow booth at hand, I dragged poor Molly about 20 city blocks to the fashion district in New York in search of the fabric that would “tie it all together”. Two hours or so later, we found it. I did some quick math in my head (not my strong suit, as you know) and told the man that I needed 6 yards…which was EXACTLY what he had left on the bolt. Phew. With a little craftiness and a little velcro we made our bar a little skirt and brightened up our mis-matched booth just in time to start the show in working order.
Here are some photos of how it all turned out!
xoxo
