september 26th was the 3rd Silverlake Swap Meet for us folks at Better than Naked. it was another hot day, naturally, and the crowd was smaller than the last 2 times we had attended market. but that didn't make for a slow day for us! while business was pretty crummy, i'll admit...i had a great time socializing with all the fantastic vendors!
ok, before i get ahead of myself, i have to admit that i am a little bit proud of myself...I hired an assistant for the first time! the husband was looking forward to an exhausting Sunday and had made it very clear days prior that he would not be helping at or attending the swap meet with me. he also strongly suggested that i not go either. well, i decided against his opinion and went ahead with it anyways. i posted on facebook that i was looking for an assistant and my friend (and previous co-worker) Shelly answered the call...and I was happy it was her! Shelly met up with me around 8:15am on Saturday morning outside of Micheltorena Elementary School, which is where the Silverlake Art Craft and Vintage Market is held every Saturday. We cruised into the school and proceeded to set up the booth. After a successful set-up, Shelly was off the hook. Off she went and sitting I did.
After what felt like hours, I started chatting with the 2 sisters in the booth next to me, whose items were fairly similar to mine. But this time I had done things different at my booth, and played around with the inventory i was offering. bad move that I will never do again. But that's besides the point. The 2 sisters have a fun little business set-up: they collect email addresses and email their fans updates on where they will be so you can go on a shopping spree at their current location! and I'm not lying when I say spree. All belts were $3, Antique 50s Hats for only $15, and all clothing only $5 each! After some time, I took my sad little sweaty self on a tour of the market once the hubby showed up. Wait a minute, didn't he say he wasn't going to come?! well, he lied! (He showed up with sandwiches around noon and stayed with me until shut-down time, and I apologized for not helping and commended me on my job done.)
on my walk, i ran into a super cute girl named Corrie who had a super cute clothing line called David - Solomon. After admiring her dresses, we exchanged info, and I'm hoping she remembers to call me so I can come pick up my dress, which was only $25! Whatta steal!
After leaving Corrie's booth, I walked up on Mother-Daughter team Laurel and Amanda. Their booth was filled with all sorts of fun toys and trinkets, including a vintage Care Bears TV Tray. I admired it then shared with them that I had a similar TV tray in my booth, except it was ET.
Too hot to explore any more, I made my way back to my booth and tried to not look like I was melting. Wendy, the cute skinny girl in the amazingly fabulous vintage dress came by and we chatted about our Etsy stores. She runs a fab online boutique called Strim Vintage, and she's known to refurbish her finds into fabulous one-of-a-kind vintage pieces. We promised to "Favorite" each other on Etsy before she pranced back to her booth.
The afternoon crawled by at snail's speed, I'm not afraid to admit it. Anyways, everyone else was! I waiting until 4:00, not any earlier, to start packing up the goodies...many of which I had hoped to find a new home but was not successful in doing. After reviewing the days log, seems to be that purses and jewelery are still favorites and shoes are picking up. Home goods are better when sold online and $1 mystery bags...they're still a hit!
