On some random Saturday in October I saw something that caught my eye. An advertisement for a local arts and crafts fair that was to be held the following weekend. It occurred to be that maybe I could swing doing it. What a weird thought! I had never been in a craft show before, and I had never sold any of my art before.

I quietly sat on the idea for a few days, then I asked my husband if he had to work that Saturday coming up. He didn’t think he had to. So, on Tueday, I sat, staring at the fair’s contact person’s phone number. I was sooooo scared to call. What if they didn’t have any booth space available? But, what if they did???!!!! All these questions whipped through my mind.

Finally, after dialing the number, I got a voicemail. Whew! Ha ha. Within the hour, I got a call back. They did have open booths to rent. The next three days were spent finishing my art pieces and scouring the internet for how to set up a craft booth. The fair was a ‘bring your own tables’ type event. I only had one table. I was a bit worried about being able to pull a booth off.

That Saturday, I showed up with a table, a baker’s rack, and a small end table. Super professional? Um, probably not. But, I was able to set up a space that worked anyway. It was normally a forty plus vendors event I’m told, but that day there was about a dozen vendors. I was able to get a space with a wall that had boards for displaying art. Score!

First, I have to say, the vendors were incredibly kind. One gal even helped me load and unload my baker’s rack. The seller next to me sold crochet items she made and told me about other upcoming events in our area. It was really nice to see how all the vendors treated each other. They visited other booths, made purchases, and chit chatted.

I just have to tell you how much I LOVED being in that enviroment. People came into my booth and LIKED my art. There were many compliments about it being unique. Love that. There is nothing in the world like seeing someone pick up something I made and say that they are getting it for someone in particular or that it would hang in their child’s room. I mean, how cool is that? One lil’ somebody had her very own money and bought a heart box I had made. So cool.

I did well that day! At the beginning of the day, I had thirty one pieces for sale. When I went home, I had nine left. I loved it so much that I signed up for another craft fair in December. I am working on those pieces today, in fact, I have been painting this morning.

The lesson I learned from stepping over that initial fear of calling, is even if we don’t know if we can do something, the chances are good that we can. Things lined up. My husband didn’t have to work. My one table and baker’s rack worked just fine. My art was well received. My heart and confidence in my art grew at least fifty times! For me, that is a total win.

What’s coming to mind right now is that saying, “We can do hard things.” Of course, it applies to many things in a long list of hard, but as far as trusting the idea that something we do IS worthy, we can do hard things.

Whether it’s art, writing, photography, crafting or whatever, we can make the calls. We can enter venues, even if it’s the first time. We can create new and unique things just because.

And, we can put them out into the world, if and when we are ready.

Thank you for reading. Hope you have a really great day!

Jessica