Bean2Bead Recap

A little while ago, my friend Corrine asked if I'd like to share a stall with her at one of the local lifestyle markets. My first reaction was "Yes!" but I had to hold myself back and think - I didn't want to get in over my head. She had asked me at the end of October.

However, with Andrew studying and writing exams, I didn't make my decision to go ahead with it until  a month later, towards the end of November. By then, I had two weeks to pull everything together.

I spent a week, literally from the moment I woke up until the moment I forced myself to sleep, sketching up designs and making the shirts.

I'm quite proud with how much sewing was accomplished over that one week.

I'm so grateful that Andrew was so supportive these past two weeks, taking the boys to school, driving them to their lessons, getting food on the table. He took over every little thing I normally do so I could focus all my time and energy on this project.

Andrew even worked his computer magic, took my signature and designed some awesome-looking business cards, labels and tags. They looked fantastic and so professional.

I'm so thankful for all the crafty supplies I have on hand. It sure made putting these things together in such a short time so much easier.

Tagging along with Corrine and getting to know the vendor side of markets was a good experience for me. It forced me to take this whole project seriously and I learned so much over the two weeks of preparation leading up to the event as well.

I knew that starting up and running a small handmade business would be a lot of work and long hours but I needed to feel it to understand what that really meant.

The event itself went well. The organizers had to change the market date and venue multiple times, so I wasn't sure what that would mean in terms of turn-out. On top of that, the weather was insanely hot on Sunday and we were lucky to have an indoor booth, right by the open garage door so at least we got the occasional breeze to cool us down. If I hadn't committed to being there, I definitely would not have left the house that day so I can't blame people for not wanting to come out.

Overall, it was a very slow day but I did get a lot of good, positive feedback. Of course, it did help to be there with friends, and to have some familiar faces show up to give me some support and encouragement.

At this point, I'm not sure if I'll continue doing markets just because it does eat up a big chunk of our weekend and right now for our family, it's more important for us to spend that time together.

That being said, I have set up a little online shop with a few of my ready-made shirts available. I'll also be taking custom orders as well, so if you're interested, please contact me!