Another Successful Doll Show!

Sunday was Dana Cain's Toy & Doll Supershow!  I've posted a lot about our preparations for the show, but not as much as I had originally planned to post, somehow.  Time got away from me and I ended up scrambling to get ready, which meant less social media and promotion than I had planned.

I did better than last year, though, so I'll take that as a win!  Every year I get a little better.

In fact, everything about this show was better than last year.  Getting ready for it was an improvement for me because I succeeded in starting much sooner this year, and I had lots of little nice extra touches, like the hair clips and the Easter baskets.  It's the doll rehab I need to start earlier next time, as I only had about the same number of dolls as last year, and several of them were from last year.

It was a stunningly busy day, though.  We were up at 6:30am to pack the cars and get going, and we were still just over an hour later than the start of setup.  A friend from another booth who was finished setting up helped us load in to make it go faster, and we got all three tables completely set up by the time the early birds came in, just under two hours later.

I had time to get a few pictures of our both and my dolls as the early birds trickled in, and after that we got so busy that the first time I got to sit down was when I finally had a chance to go to the bathroom, a full four and a half hours after I first noticed that I needed to go.  And the next time I got to sit was to restring a doll!

But we sold a lot, to the point that the cars were noticeably easier to pack when we went home.  They had been packed to the gills in the morning; I honestly don't think we could have fit another doll, unless it sat on one of our laps!  So although I had been hard on myself for not getting more ready, I actually don't think we could have brought more without making another trip to pick up a second load.  The only thing I think I could have brought more of was American Girl clothing; I had a lot of people looking and I definitely could have had a more interesting variety if I'd planned ahead better.

It turned out to be a crazy day weather-wise, too.  Five minutes after leaving the venue, it started to rain.  We had gotten everything loaded up just in time, thanks to my friend!  And then halfway home, it turned to snow.  It was snowing heavily by the time we got home.  I think that's the fastest we've ever unpacked two carloads of stuff!

The success of this show has me thinking about ideas for the future... but I'll get to that in a future post.