Update: RBARI Anniversary Party

We had a great time at RBARI's 35th Anniversary Party at the Shelter in September!

After a week of uncertainty about whether or not it might rain, it turned out to be perfect weather for the event. We arrived bright and early to set up around 8:00 am. Guests began arriving at 11:00 am and we had a steady stream of visitors throughout the day until the party ended at 4:00 pm.

My previous blog entry showed some of the new bandanas and scrunchies and other goodies I had worked on in preparation for the day. Here's our booth, all set up and ready to greet the party guests:

Maverick was our very first customer of the day and he picked out this Candy Corn scrunchie neck ruffle. (It looks a little big on him because his neck fur is hanging loose over the edge.)

We met lots of nice doggies and their people all day long - and we got to meet many of the dogs currently available for adoption. What a bunch of cuties!

We were pretty busy most of the day and I neglected to take any other photos - before I knew it, we were packing everything up to go home.

One of the local papers recently posted this very nice article about the event: Bergen's largest no-kill shelter marks a milestone

Visit the RBARI website to read 35 Happy Ending stories.

The day was a big success. We sold a little bit of everything - bandanas, scrunchies, kitty cat and doggie-shaped coin purses and cases. After I had a chance to count the cash and crunch the numbers, we had a nice profit and had very tidy sum to donate to the shelter.

About two weeks before the event, I ordered the small banner for my table, business cards and labels with my new and improved logo from Vistaprint. My order arrived a week later and everything looked great. I stuck the business card labels on about 13 plain white shopping bags and pre-stuffed the bags with a coupon for my ArtFire shop. I had more bags and labels with me if we needed them (we didn't).

I worked almost up to the last minute on my inventory and how to display it. In my previous blog post I showed my rotating pegboard display, already set up for scrunchie neck ruffles. I was working on something new for the bandanas. Here's a photo of the pegboard display I envisioned:

It's only clamped together in the photo above, just to see if everything would fit together. I re-used my original scrunchie racks by drilling holes through the posts and using 3 inch bolts and nuts to attach the 2x4 foot pegboard. The base of each rack was then clamped at the back to the table. In addition to the pegs on the front of the board, I used the dowels to display some of the bandanas and collar slipcovers.

The bandanas and a few other things took up most of my 6 foot table and the scrunchie display was set up on one 4 foot table, but I needed a third table for everything else.

I experimented with baskets and boxes at home until there was a place for all the dog- and cat-shaped cases and the other wristlets, sunglass cases and checkbook covers. It wasn't perfect, but it worked.

My next 'live' event is November 23 at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Maywood, NJ at their indoor holiday market. I'm planning to use most of the same displays, with a few modifications.

The bandana pegboard has been modified so it will fit on a 4 foot table. I've moved the support racks in toward the center and raised the board up about 6 inches, so the top of the board is at eye-level. The cat- and dog-shaped cases will also be on this board. The basket in front will have pre-packed sets of matching pieces, and there's room for the pound puppy bandana model.

My bigger 6 foot table will have all my holiday items, wristlets, sunglass cases, checkbook covers and anything else I'm able to finish in time. Fitting everything on the table in a visually pleasing way presented another challenge. I liked the way the pegboard worked out for the bandanas, but didn't want a second 2x4 foot board taking up a full table. And I didn't have any way to support it without spending too much time or money building something.

While shopping in one of our local craft stores last week, I noticed they used pegboards and wire shelving for some of their displays, joined together using cable ties. So I 'borrowed' that idea ... remember at last year's Adorno fair (blogged here), I used some old wire shelves and cable ties for a display? Two of the shorter pieces were the perfect height for a table setup. All it cost me was the price of another 2x4 pegboard at Home Depot. They even cut it in half for me, so all I had to do was tighten a few cable ties.

Here's the result:

The 2x2 pegboard is attached to the wire shelves on each side with cable ties at the top and bottom of the board. The shelves are a little taller, so I raised the pegboard up a few inches. The shelves set at an angle and they seem pretty steady, but I'm working on an idea to weight them down so the whole thing doesn't tip over. And there's plenty of room on the table for baskets and other things.

Here's a closer look at one of the cable ties, threaded through one of the holes of the board and around the wire of the shelf.

Now, all I have to do is get to work stitching and filling up those baskets and pegs with great holiday stuff!

edited:
Nov-16-2018 Replace SewAmazin Flickr photos, upload to Blogger; remove broken links, edit old links