My second vintage market: The Bad & Ugly

After my positive experience at the Sweet William Market, I was really excited for the Horseshoe Market the following weekend on October 6. I felt like I knew what I was doing, had a week to make any necessary adjustments and even to restock some of my best-selling items. I had sold plenty, but still had more than enough to have a full booth (something that I'd been really worried about all along since I couldn't predict it). And then it all fell apart when I started to watch the weather forecast.

As the week went by, the weather forecast got progressively worse. From 55 and sunny, to 47 and morning rain, to 39 and snow. As if that wasn't bad enough, Porter was sick and vomiting on three separate days, making me worry if he'd be well enough to leave all day long on Saturday. And to make things really fantastic, The Mister found out on Wednesday that he would have to go out of town at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning so he wouldn't be able to help at all.

My mom flew in Thursday night and we spent all of Friday doing last-minute crafting, pricing, and packing. We woke up to snow on Friday morning and I really hoped that meant that maybe the storm system was ahead of schedule and would be on its way out (and the temperatures on their way up) by Saturday morning. When we left the house before dawn at 6:00 a.m. it was cold and foggy. Once we got to the market site and started to set up, the fog lifted and it actually didn't seem to be as cold as I had expected. In Colorado, it's not uncommon for the weather to be iffy when you wake up, but then the sun comes out and the skies clear and I truly thought that's what would happen.

I was wrong. Oh, so very wrong. Instead of the weather improving, it actually got much worse as the day went on. The temperature dropped and it started to mist, causing us to have to pull in anything made of paper. Then, the misting intensified to a light rain.

And then the rain turned to snow. Not even nice, fluffy snowflakes--these were like pellets. Sometimes it was rain, sometimes sleet, sometimes snow. Always COLD. And damp. And generally miserable.

As you can imagine, the 5000-strong shopping crowd that was predicted failed to materialize. If we had 20% of that figure, I'd be shocked. I was surprised at the number of shoppers that did show up, considering the rotten conditions.

I think every single vendor was honestly thrilled when it was finally time to pack up and get the heck out of there. But then we had another lovely surprise: when it came time for my mom to leave to pick up my kids from my friend's house where they had been for the previous 9 hours, the car wouldn't start. We attempted to jump start it with two separate vehicles and even to push start, all with no luck. I had to leave it in a parking lot 30 miles away from home, and somehow figure out how to get it returned to me.

We got home, I unloaded just enough junk from the back of the car so that I could fit in the carseats, and picked up my poor children from my poor friend's house. Had a wonderful dinner at a freezing cold McDonald's, took the kids toy shopping as a reward for their long day, went home and fell into bed with microwaved rice heat bags to thaw our still-frozen feet and hands. The high temperature on Saturday was 36 degrees and I was out in it for nearly 12 hours. Average temp for that day is 69.

If I could sum up the whole day in one word, it would be Disappointing. It was really kind of devastating to have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours and dollars preparing for this day, pouring my heart and soul and creativity into it, dreaming of doing it for 18 months--all to have it completely obliterated by something I couldn't control.

I do take some comfort in the fact that I did everything I possibly could to make the day a success. I'm proud of the things I made. I'm happy with my displays and the overall look of my booth. I'm pretty hard on myself so I don't often say that there was nothing more that I could have done--but in this case, I really feel like I did my very best. I worked hard and put it all out there. It sucks that my hard work and sacrifice didn't translate into success.

Now I get to figure out what to do with all of my stuff that didn't sell. I know that I could just pack it away for next year, but I really was hoping to decrease the number of plastic tubs in my storage room, not the other way around. I'm behind the power curve on Etsy because most Halloween stuff has been listed for a month now and time is ticking. I decided to have a little 'trunk show' at my home tonight and invited all of my local friends, neighbors and church congregation. I was hesitant to do it because I don't know if anyone will show up and frankly, I'm just not sure how much more failure I can take at the moment. But my desire to get rid of things won out and I'm doing it anyway. I made a big pile to take to the consignment shop, some went back into my basement, and some will get hurriedly-listed on Etsy later this week. The giant plaid chair will find its way to Craigslist sometime soon.

I'm sorry that this post is such a downer, but the day was depressing and I'm still completely bummed about it. I'm normally a very positive, optimistic person but I'm struggling with this one.