The Daffodil Bazaar and Vendor Fair

I just finished unpacking things from the Westfield Church Daffodil Bazaar and Vendor Fair and would have to say it was a big success. I had hoped to do a little posting on social media beforehand and while things were going on, but time flew by and I was packing up before I knew it (that and I might have been more than a bit nervous in how long it would take for me to set up)!

The show was in Davis Park in Danielson, CT and is a beautiful setting for the bazaar, kicking off shortly after the Springtime Classic 5k kicked off.

My first sale of the day was to this young man who was excited to by one of my desktop series paintings – Wavy! It was great to see all the younger kids taking an interest in art. Donna and I might consider offering some kind of art session at the church in the near future because of all the interest we saw today.

I was working on the piece above, Purple Skies, while at the bazaar and ended up selling it before the paint was completely dry. It’s one of three of my desktop series pieces that I was working on while people browsed the bazaar.

Ocean Bright and Tree Time were the other two desktop series paintings I completed while at the show. I’ll have them posted in the shop later this weekend and hope to add more soon. These are mini-paintings on scraps of wood that are typically 4 or 5 inches square. In the past I would have been afraid to try to do something so small, but these have really been fun to do!

The excitement of the day came when a big gust of wind picked up the tent next to mine. The tent wend up and over mine and landed in the middle of the rows about 20 feet away luckily not hurting anyone or anything too seriously. They apparently didn’t have enough weights or stakes to keep it down.

It was a good test for me as I had paintings blow around, but the tent stood it’s ground (Next time I’ll start with my walls up to keep the paintings in place).

I spent a lot of time weeks before trying to figure out how to weigh my tent down as I knew I couldn’t stake it out – one of the upcoming shows already said stakes wouldn’t be allowed due to irrigation systems. So I tried drilling holes in large 40 pound rocks to connect an eyelet to and couldn’t drill deep enough. I didn’t really want to spend a lot of money on pvc for something that was kind of an eye sore.

It wasn’t until last week that I had what I think is a great idea. I bought four $10 plastic pots from the store and filled them with cement and sunk an eyelet in the center. On two I sunk 3 solo cups in it as it set to leave spots to plant flowers (I had to fill the cups with gravel to keep them in the cement until it dried. I then covered all four with gravel which I will probably glue down before the next show.

I used the three holes in the flower pots to plant actual flowers and used those at the front of the booth while the two with just gravel I put at the back. Each pot ended up being about 50 pounds each which is a pain to haul around, but apparently did a great job keeping the tent in place. I didn’t get any good photos of the boot setup so I’ll have to try to remember to do that next time around.

As for the rest of the show, it went by faster than I ever imagined. It wasn’t heavy crowds, but consistent throughout the entire time once things got going. I had a lot of people visit the booth and had a lot of good conversations.

Next up is the Art Fest at Taylor Brook Winery next Saturday, May 18th in Woodstock, CT! https://www.taylorbrookewinery.com/