Vivocity craft market post-mortem 4th to 5th May 2013

How exciting it was for me. My first craft market in 2013. But some things don't change. The long hours. The boring long hours. The boredom. I leave my home at 9am and reach home at 11pm on both days. It's a really long time to be spent outside without the comforts you're used to. And you know, I've stayed in my cave far too long this year.

I took a pic of the craft market. This is the main area. A short distance away, there is another row of booths along the walkway. As you can see, it's a motley crew of all sorts of crafts people. Not everyone makes the items they sell. Some buy ready made goods from overseas and resell at a profit. Some buy parts and assemble them. A couple of tables teach handicraft.

You know what I fear most about selling at Vivocity craft market? Sitting next to someone who uses products that give off a smell, like glue, varnish, lacquer etc. Well, my biggest fear came true. My nearest neighbour used lacquer and glaze. That would have given me a decent size headache which I think I can handle. Unfortunately, a few tables away, another seller BURNED wax for hours. Now I have heard complaints about the wax burning before but this seller usually had a booth far from me so I was spared. This time, we were in the same zone. When I went home on Saturday night, I felt very sorry for myself. My head was pounding and I wanted to gouge my right eye out.

Oh, you know I was pretty sure I would forget to bring something and true enough, on my way home on Saturday night, I realised my transport card was at home. I had to buy a single trip card to take the train home. I think the last time I bought such a card was many years ago because I have my own transport card. I found out using the machine to buy a card requires the IT savvyness  of a 11 year old. It took me a while to figure out how to buy the card and I felt extreme pressure because I could see a queue forming behind me. When I reached my stop, I went to a machine to return my card in order to get my $1 refund. This time my IT savvyness failed me. No matter how carefully I followed the instructions, my $1 refused to pop out of the machine. I simply did not want to admit defeat. I tried all the machines but only one machine had the refund option. And I stood there maniacally trying over and over again. Finally, I recognised it was too silly to continue. I went to the control station and explained in a uncrazy way to the person in charge. You know what he told me? The refund is history. HISTORY. Apparently now we no longer pay an extra dollar when we buy a single trip card so the refund system is obsolete.

And of course I had not looked closely at the card. It is now made of card stock and it is reusable. What an idiot I am. And shouldn't the refund system of the single trip cards becoming history be front page news? People need to know...

On Sunday, the wax burning got really bad. My headache turned into a migraine and I felt nauseated and seriously considered packing up and going home. I mean come on. I wanted to vomit. The craft market organiser should put the glaze/varnish/paint/wax burner on an island far away from the main area.

This morning I woke up and was super pissed my head is still pounding. If I were to be reborn, I want beautiful straight hair and absolutely no migraine or headache. Now where can I find some morphine?

Rant is over. (promise) Here's my table display on Saturday. Ouch, no one liked my hair accessories.

This is me on Sunday. I was feeling not too bad when I had the photo taken. Hubs and the kids had come so I could step away for a while.

Hubs is not bothered by smoke, smell and has no allergies to food. Lucky man.

The only exciting moment at the craft market? Some people from Avatar came to visit. I think you can understand why I did not take a pic from the front?

I had good sales on Saturday but Sunday it was bad. I do admit my range of stock is not exactly very exciting so I will work on that. I'm waiting to watch The Amazing Race Finale. Please don't tell me who won. After that I'm taking a long nap. When I wake up, I'll take pics for my giveaway. So today I will have two posts up. If you're interested, come back when I have the giveaway post up. See ya.