2010 Ukiah Country Pumpkin Fest

Ukiah, CA Oct 16-17. We sold our merchandise at the Pumpkin Fest. You can read more on our website http://www.starvingvendors.com/events_Ukiah_Country_Pumpkin_Fest_2010.html

THE AMAZING MAGNO-MAN. A 52-year old guy came into my booth and began looking at my Fedora's. He took off his hat and removed some kind of skull cap which happened to have around 100 tiny magnets connected to it. "You see, when I buy a hat, I need to be able to fit this inside." I looked at him. I said nothing. I was frozen with sheer amazement. He then grabbed one of my hats and placed his gizmo inside. "What do those magnets do?" I asked him. "They help with circulation," he explained to me. "Ohhhhhh," I said not really knowing just what to say. I was pretty much speechless as I had never seen anybody with magnets attached to their head like this. But then again, this is Ukiah and I guess this is one of those stories straight out of the Marijuana fields of Mendocino County. He wasn't able to find a hat that suited him. Just be sure to stay indoors during a thunderstorm.

GROUPIES SWARM ROCK DEALER IN MONTEREY

I have written a number of ficticional pieces on my website Starving Vendors and I would like to share them with you.

One time I visited a rock and gem show in Monterey and ran into a dealer there who claimed that he had 'groupies' that followed him from show to show. That was hilarious. I wrote a little story about what this topic.

GROUPIES SWARM ROCK DEALER IN MONTEREY
Monterey, CA As Jason Ringsby drove his beat-up 1978 orange van through the gates of the fairgrounds, he was able to escape from the reaching arms of over 200 screaming girls who had followed him in their cars from his previous show in Sacramento. With many of them running up to the fence and yelling at him, Jason drove past the security guard and proceeded to the space that had been reserved for him to prepare for this weekend's gem and mineral show.He is truly a rock star and noted expert in his field.

Widely known for his awesome stone jewelry and minerals, Jason has a strong following of young ladies who tail him from one location to another buying from him wherever he goes. Occasionally, some of these ladies will strip down in front of his booth and toss their undergarments at him. "I've got 5 boxes of panties and bras," exclaimed Jason with a huge smile on his face. "I'm thinking about putting them on my counter and selling them."

"That's one of the hazards of being a vendor," Jason added. "These girls follow me all over the place. They tail me to my hotels and wait out on the sidewalk for hours just to see me come out. I must sign over 500 autographs every day. My hand is getting tired. I need to take some time off to rest." Jason has been selling his minerals and jewelry at shows like this for the past 28 years and he really can't recall how and why this has been happening to him. "Yah, I've got my groupies following me all over the place. Sometimes these people will camp out for days on end. They stay in motels, their cars. Wherever they can bed down for the night." As for his night life, Jason certainly has no problems and is obviously the envy of the other vendors. "Yah, at the end of the day I usually pick out one or two and they take me to dinner and ... well, you know what I mean."

COSTCO CARAVAN CANOPIES

Here's a picture of our COSTCO CARAVAN Alumina CANOPY. It just collapsed, plain and simple. Luckily nobody was around. Please be sure to check out http://www.starvingvendors.com or go to http://www.starvingvendors.com/events_Alma_Heights_CA_flea_market.html to see more images of this durable, reliable canopy.

Cherry's Jubilee at Laguna Seca Raceway

Salinas, CA. Sep 26-27. We sold our goods at Cherry's Jubilee Motorsports Festival in the 'paddock' area of Mazda Laguna Seca Track. Here's a portion of our review of the event.

We left Hayward and arrived at Laguna Seca around 7:15. I was told yesterday that there could be a long line of cars waiting to get in. Yah right. We zoomed up the zig-zag road up and over the hills and on to the paddock area where the show was being held. No cars yet for the show. Pulled up alongside our space and emptied out a couple things from the van and had my son drive it up to the vendor parking area. The first thing I did was to take down our covers, which surrounded our canopy and folded them up. We then proceeded to put up our merchandise as other vendors arrived and did the same.

Click on link below to read our complete review of the event

http://www.starvingvendors.com/Events_Cherry

Vendor Terminology

Have composed a listing of terminology used during the course of a day selling at events.

Baby-sitting. The act of watching a particular person in your booth, either keeping an eye on somebody who looks like he is about to steal or to keep tabs on little kids grabbing stuff and playing around. Example: I've got to baby-sit these 5 kids looking at the necklaces. Cup of Noodles. This is what I say I am going to eat after a rough day at an event. Example: Well, it looks like I'm going to have Cup of Noodles tonight.

Don't Tell Anyone. A phrase used by a fellow vendor, explaining to you that he/she found a show that's really good and doesn't want any other vendors to know about. Example: I'm doing the xxxxx festival next month and it's really good. Netted a couple thousand. It's not in Craftmaster's. Don't tell anyone. Disclaimer: I'm not lucky enough to come across these kind of shows. But, please if you find one, let me know AND I will definitely not tell anyone.

Doozie. The name for a show that is extremely slow and you are sitting there for hours at a time with virtually no customers

Drink and pee festival. When the temps get pretty hot, you end up drinking a lot and making numerous bathroom trips throughout the day. Example: Hardly anybody buying here. It's so stinking hot. Another drink and pee festival.

Hella tight man. Used by teenagers a couple years ago when they saw something they like. Example: Wow man, that's hella tight, dude.

I can do that. A term used by people when they see their friend or family member interested in buying something unique in order to pursuade them not to buy.

Take the money and run. A common practive amongst a number of promoters whereby they charge high booth fees and provide little in return. Very little money spent on advertising. Also these promoters can be referred to as 'rip-offs'.

Click here to read more.

Dave's Doozie's

This is the newest page of the website and it is appropriately named 'Dave's Doozies' which is a listing and overview of the worst shows that we have ever done in the 17 years we have been doing events. Click here to read about the worst events we have ever done.

Annual Craft Fair and Gift Show - Santa Rosa, CA

Santa Rosa (fairgrounds) Annual Craft Fair and Gift Show Nov-Dec 2009

While looking through Craftmaster, noticed that Santa Rosa is going to have it's the annual Christmas Craft fair and Gift show in December, which will run for three weeks in November and December. Saw that they are getting 500 vendors (doubt it-we haven't forgotten how bad that show was), but that is way too many. They did not have this show the past few years, but we did it before during the middle week of the three and it was bad. Too many vendors and not enough money to go around. Now, we have the poor economy, so that makes it worse. I'd stay the heck away from this one. Three weeks? Uh uh. If you want to see how organized they are, try going to their website. http://www.santarosacraftfair.com/. It's out of whack and so is the show. Maybe they are waiting to get money from vendors to pay for their website, etc. Advisable to stay away from this one.

For more info on shows, events, festivals and a whole lot more, please visit Starving Vendors

Mount Shasta Fourth of July Festival 2009

We just did the 3-day festival up in Mount Shasta City.

On Wednesday, we left Hayward around 10:10 and had a few stops to make along the way. We arrived in Weed at 4:15PM and checked into our Motel and took a little rest. As we left the motel there were some drops of what I originally thought were rain on my windshield. But believe it or not, it was actually snow because of the shape of the crystals. I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. Maybe 5-10 small flakes that melted immediately. I looked over in the direction of Mount Shasta and saw some really ugly dark, ominous clouds surrounding it. We arrived in Mt Shasta City at 5:30 and began setting up our canopy. We stuck around until 8:00PM and didn't really accomplish very much since it was still quite warm. We also encountered a few sprinkles of something here and there and we had some threatening cloud formations. We closed everything up and headed back to the motel for the night.

To read more about the event, please click here.

Mount Shasta 4th of July Festival

Mount Shasta City, CA July 2-4, 2009

DandL CREATIONS will be located on Castle Street for all three days. Come on over and check out our shoulder sling bags, wrap-around skirt, tote bags, hand-made shell and semi-precious necklaces; great looking turquoise and agate necklace sets-affordable. We also sell parasols, garden sticks, small stools (great for the parade), shell creations and a lot more.

Thank gosh the weather will not be as hot as it was a couple years ago. It's a great festival and gets loads of people attending on July 4th and hopefully people will visit the many booths on the days prior, Thursday and Friday.

click here to read what I had to say about last year's event.

For you crafters, vendors, etc. that subscribe to Craftmaster News. Recognize the picture? This is one I took a couple years ago from about 20 feet up from my booth. This photo was on the cover of the April/May issue. Isn't that a beautiful place? Looking at the mountain, you might think that it's kind of cold there? Uh uh uh. That day it was 106 degrees...at least. It can hot there.

Pinole Cruisin in the Park

On Sunday, June 29, we were vendors at the 'Cruisin in the Park' car show at Fernandez Park in Pinole.

Left home at 5:10 and arrived at Fernandez Park around 5:45. I had to seek out Kathy, who showed us where our booth was to be located. I then drove the van over and we began setting up. This was in a ball field...deep second base just into right-center field. At least we weren't way out in left field, which was actually the far end of the show.We were able to park the van behind the booth. They had a lot of cars on display in the event....perhaps a hundred on the field in front of us and more off to the left. There were many more spread througout the event all the way over to San Pablo Avenue.

To read more about the show from a vendor's perspective, please visit my website:
http://www.starvingvendors.com/Events_Pinole_Crusin_in_the_Park_Car_Show_June_2009.html

Vendor News

I have just started a new Forum for people selling at festivals, arts and crafts shows, etc. Please stop by and contribute. The old forum that we were using had a lot of problems and this looks like it's going to run a lot more smoothly,

Vendor News

30th Annual Castroville Artichoke Festival

Sat/Sun May 16-17. This event is held in Castroville which is located approx 20 miles north of Monterey on Highway 156. We will be there selling shell necklaces, shell creations, wrap-around skirts & sarongs and a whole lot more. DandL CREATIONS

On May 16 and 17, 2009, they will be celebrating the 50th annual Artichoke Festival in the community of Castroville, in Monterey County, California. This two-day festival draws large crowds of people who enjoy arts & crafts, tasty food, musical entertainment, cooking demonstrations, a car show and a parade. Last year’s festival was their best yet! Click here for vendor application.

AGRO ART Competition: AGRO art is 3-dimensional fruit and vegetable artwork. This quirky competition fosters imagination, creativity and fun for both participants and the viewing public.
PARADE: Our sanctioned parade is one of the largest and most colorful of its kind.

MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT: Two days of live music! Everything from Swing to Mariachi, Country to 50's Rock & Roll.

CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES: Games, face paints, clowns, stilt walkers, puppets and more!
FOOD: Artichokes fried, sautéed, grilled, marinated, pickled, fresh, and creamed in soup. Plus foods from the many ethnic groups that give this area its character.

COOKING DEMOS: The area's finest showcase the versatility and unique techniques for preparing and using artichokes.

WINE TASTING: Sample the best from the area's award winning producers.

ARTS & CRAFTS: Unique gifts and apparel crafted by artisans from throughout the country. Plus artichoke souvenirs galore!

FARMERS MARKET: Artichokes and more, fresh from the heart of the salad bowl.

FIELD TOURS: Hop a bus to the artichoke patch for grower talks and photo ops.

Please No Pets. (I second that motion!)

Please visit Starving Vendors where I have placed many of my reviews of events that we have done. Check out our new forum, where you can comment on shows, promoters, etc. Brand new.

Info on Global Positioning Systems (GPS)

Did a little research on GPS and thought I would share this with you.

What's the signal?
GPS satellites transmit two low power radio signals, designated L1 and L2. Civilian GPS uses the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHF band. The signals travel by line of sight, meaning they will pass through clouds, glass and plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as buildings and mountains.

A GPS signal contains three different bits of information — a pseudorandom code, ephemeris data and almanac data. The pseudorandom code is simply an I.D. code that identifies which satellite is transmitting information. You can view this number on your Garmin GPS unit's satellite page, as it identifies which satellites it's receiving.

Ephemeris data tells the GPS receiver where each GPS satellite should be at any time throughout the day. Each satellite transmits ephemeris data showing the orbital information for that satellite and for every other satellite in the system.

To read more, please click here

Bok Kai 2009 Parade and Festival

Feb 28, 2009. Marysville, CA. Just returned from doing the festival up in Marysville. It was nice and the weather was great. Temps in the mid 60's and a few clouds here and there.

We spent Friday night in Motel 6...a very noisy place, to say the least. We began setting up for the festival around 6:45 on Saturday morning and by 9:00 we were ready to 'rock n' roll' or whatever you want to call it. People began arriving around then and most of them, were positioning themselves for the parade that would start around 11:00AM.

click here to read the story about the Bok Kai Festival and our review of the event

Tough times - the life of a vendor.

Here's something you might enjoy reading. I just wrote it this morning. I really don't think anybody knows how tough it is for 'vendors, etc.' to be doing all these shows day after day, week after week.

It's a crazy lifestyle doing these events. Sometimes you go bananas when there's a lot of people at a show and nobody is buying. But if you are sitting around in your house, you find yourself 'craving for the action.' You feel like you 'have to' do a particular event even if you know that you might do poorly. Just to be out there around people and trying to sell your things. The 'dreams' of making a couple grand on any given day. You're excited when you see the beautiful weather and it energizes you and you think that you are going to make 'the big bucks'. It's like you've got it in your blood. I love the blue skies, the green money, Benjamin Franklin ($100 bills), the huge crowds (that used to be) gathering around our booths. But it's agonizing when you have so many people, but they are just walking around like stinking zombies.

You meet each and every event with new enthusiasm, thinking that this is going to be THE day. Then you get the sprinkles of rain and the cold gusts of wind blowing in your face. Reality. You approach your other vendor friends and see that they are not getting very many sales that day also. You look farther down and you see that people are buying another vendor's products left and right and that drives you up the wall and you begin to wonder what you are doing wrong. 'Stick with my products or go out and find something new' you say to yourself. Even though nothing is really wrong at times, you drive yourself bonkers trying to think of what to do and then begin cussing yourself out for paying so much for that particular event.

There was a day that whenever you paid a higher booth fee, you usually ended up with a nice space and a load of people. Not anymore. Even the best of shows have gone downhill because the people just are not buying like they did several years ago for a variety of reasons and of course, the promoters keep jacking up their fees and finding ways to extract more money from you by adding on extra fees. How about a $2.00 surtax for ass-wipes. It's like a roller-coaster ride. There's more vendors at a lot of these shows because people seem to think that they can make a quick buck selling anything and everything at these events. So they go out and get a bunch of socks, sunglasses, etc. and set up. People like you and me used to get by and not have to do a show every weekend. Now with profit margins so low, we are forced to do more events trying to make the same kind of money as before to make ends meet. It can be a dog-eat-dog kind of life out there in the streets.

Stop by and read my website, Starving Vendors. I have loads of information on here and you can read reviews on shows we have done over the years and see what it's like. I'd recommend that you start with Your Daily Dose

Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival - April 25-26

The city of Cupertino will be hosting it's annual Cherry Blossom Festival on April 25-26 at Memorial Park. This event draws large crowds and is promoted by Festival Productions and you can go to their website for an application (vendors).

We participated in the event last year and here is my review.

Great weather. However, there were noticably fewer attendee's than previous years. Entertainment was okay and the people came to hear and see them play the large drums, which is one of the highlights of this event.

Majority of the food booths was volunteers and served up various Japanese foods, in line with the theme of the festival. However, there was a smoothie booth there and their drinks were sensational. I had a pina colada smoothie and I wish I would have brought a small bottle of rum with me. Very refreshing. I've seen quite a number of refreshment booths and this one is excellent.

click here to read more

Your Daily Dose from StarvingVendors.com

An older couple came into the booth each holding a little pooch in their arms. The lady asked me 'are those doggie chairs?' pointing to the small one-foot tall stools I had outside. "Huh?" was my response as I looked over at her. She repeated her question and I said to her "Uhhhh... no I don't think so."

Doggie chairs? I think that some people spend way too much time with their dogs. Hey Joe, ya want to go to the ball game today? Nah, gotta stay home with the dog. They don't let dogs in there. Louise, want to go to the Craft Show? Yah, okay. I can bring our dog and get him some new shoes and a cute little hat.

click here to read the remainder of this story

Arizona Events - Yuma and Tyson Wells

INFO ON ARIZONA EVENTS - Yuma and Tyson Wells.

Nice weather here in Hayward with temps around 70. In Quartzsite, sunny with temps 70/40 for the next 10 days (hopefully). A bit breezy today. In Yuma, nice and sunny with temps approaching 75 degrees throughout the week. Reports from the Old Town Jubilee there show that some vendors are down by as much as 75 percent. Very rough, especially for those that travel and have to stay in motels. I might add that all the new construction in that area has been detrimental to vendors at shows there. Improved shopping areas for visitors and the area provides more things for people to do. Sure an improved downtown area would attract more visitors, but I think that the events are of little concern to them.

Would like to let people know that we (DandL CREATIONS) will not be in Kernville (Whiskey Flats Days) this time nor will we be in Lake Havasu for the Winterfest since we have an 'extended stay' in Tyson Wells this time. Whiskey Flats is a nice show for the month of February as the weather is decent. despite at least a day of rain or snow for the past 4-5 years at this event. Nice parade, shootouts and is enjoyable. It's a hell of a ride getting there, driving along the Kern River Valley since it has many winding, harrowing turns, making it difficult for motor homes or vehicles towing cargo trailers, etc. Not recommended to drive at night. It's quite scenic, nonetheless.

We will be at the Tyson Wells Sell-a-Rama beginning on Tuesday, located in Space X-19 until Jan 26. We will them be over in space PQ-3 on Jan 29 for the A&C show. The event runs until the 8th of February, but we will be there until Feb 15. Hope to see you there. If you mention this blog, I'll take 10 percent off your purchase.

For more info on shows, festivals, etc. check Events and Festivals. I have a website called Starving Vendors that has many reviews of shows we have done in past years and you will most likely find them very informative. Lots of information, etc.

HR4040

CRAFTERS OF CHILDREN'S CLOTHING GETS SCREWED by HR4040. That's how it affects vendors....even those that sell commercial clothing, Please read the entry in this blog prior to this.

Here is more info on HR4040.

For more information on this please check http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-4040 This is about the HR4040 bill that was passed in December.Here is what somebody wrote on their blog.

The following are from a couple fellow 'crafters' and is quite interesting to read.

http://pinaforesandknickerbockers.blogspot.com/2008/12/disturbing-law.html http://babyswagspr.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/supporting-small-businesses-cpsia-law-issues/

Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA - Hand-made Toy Alliance. http://sites.google.com/site/handmadetoyalliance/ You can vote here or get info on contacting Congress about this matter.

Save Handmade Toys From the CPSIA http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia

I can see a lot of people will be taking an interest in the toy issue as it involves the crafters. There are a number of people out there who make children's clothing for a living and sell at various events. Also affected could be the makers of children's toys or the vendors that import toys from China or anyplace else. Sounds like big problems for some vendors and if I were in their shoes, I would be mighty worried right now. As if the vendors don't have expenses already, they could possibly have to pay around $85 per test. I'll bet that the company that produces testing products is going to make a lot of money out of this and it would not surprise me if they put money in our Congressman's/woman's pockets.

I know this is for the safety of our children, but I wonder if this is really as big a problem as it is being made out to be. Is there an 'underlying theme' to this

Does anybody out there need this sign?