VivoCity Craft Market 29th to 30th June 2013 Post-Mortem

Hello.

It's July. My craft market at VivoCity has come and gone. What can I say, what can I say? I'm tired. Truly tired. It's no joke spending hours and hours at a mall. I leave home at 9am and come back at 11pm. That's crazy, rite?

Sales. Yes, the most important thing. If you say it's not, I'm going to blow haze at your face. So, everybody agrees with me? As usual, it was good on Saturday and bad on Sunday. Honestly, I should just open for Saturday and "forget" to show up on Sunday. Of course I must remember to bring my stuff home on Saturday. :)

On Sunday, it took quite a long time to get the first sale. Two old people, I'm guessing from China kept checking out my hair accessories. The old man was terribly terribly interested and kept examining the details of the hair clip. Yes, it has a lot of details. I almost think he's into handmade. They left without buying anything. Finally after making the round of the craft market, they came back and decided to buy the hair clip. While his wife (I assume) was paying, the old guy started bargaining with me. Um, shouldn't you bargain BEFORE you pay? Anyway, I don't price my stuff very high in the first place and seriously for the hair clip, I wasn't even making any profit. So when the old man NAGGED me for a discount, I said,

GET THE HELL OUT OF MY FACE. IT'S UNDER $10. WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? WHY DON'T I JUST GIVE IT TO YOU FOR FREE?

I'm kidding. I said it all IN MY HEAD. I'm generally very tolerant of old people. Then the old guy NAGGED me again for a discount. I just gave a huge laugh, like HAHAHAHA kind of laugh that says "I'm not even going to insult you with an answer."

This was Saturday's display taken real early. I forgot to take a pic of Sunday's display. Yep. Didn't feel real motivated.

I was seated behind the vendor who uses varnish and some kind of marker pen which requires shaking. Luckily she sat right below the air-con vent and in front of her was the door so the ventilation was good. I only felt like vomiting if I went too close to her so I stayed the hell away. Whenever the smell got bad, I just went for a walk. Anyway, she did tell me she would do the varnishing outdoors and keep the varnished item in a covered container. If you think I'm unlucky to sit behind her, it must be a lot worse for her!

Guess who showed up on Saturday? Yes, a customer from my iLuma days. (btw, iLuma has now changed hands and has become Bugis+ - yes, what a stupid name but it looks like a much better mall) I don't really remember many of my customers but somehow I remember Delphina. Maybe it's her unique name! Oh and how nice of her to bring a friend.

On Sat I went dressed as a blue clown. I have started to buy a lot of Uniqlo clothes and when I saw these striped lounge pants, I fell in love. Upon careful reading of the packaging, I was dismayed to learn these pants are meant to be worn at home. I'm a shorts kind of person when I'm lounging around my home. Then hubs said the magic words. Wear them out! And so I did. They are horribly, horribly comfy. Anyway, no one said to me: what the hell are you wearing? I wish Uniqlo has it in black and white stripes as well.

Recently there was a Hello Kitty 6 plushies promotion by McDonald's and yes, it triggered a Hello Kitty mania. (this isn't the first time it happened) People queued overnight to get the soft toy which you have to pay for on top of a meal. Some travelled around Singapore in search of McDonald outlets which have stock.

These are the 6. I managed to get Little Red Riding Hood easily. Hubs had his heart set on the Singing Bone (the black one) which was unfortunately the last one released. Which meant it would be the hardest to get because the mania would be at its peak. Anyway, you can read his Hello Kitty search here. Needless to say, he did not get his Singing Bone Kitty.

On Saturday when I saw one of the balloon artists at the craft market put up a Singing Bone Hello Kitty balloon for sale, I immediately snatched it up for hubs. The balloon artist heard my sad tale of how hubs failed to get his kitty and was sympathetic. However, she cautioned the joy of the balloon kitty is short lived as you know, balloons don't last forever.

Oh, you know what? On Saturday I went to a nearby flea market held in a club. It was dark, there was loud music and is that a disco light? I really don't know how it's possible to shop in the dark. Most of the shops sell clothes. How do you even try them on? All the vendors were squeezed together. There were a lot of customers. However, some of the vendors were located in smaller rooms. Poor thing. I'm quite aware I'm not the target customer. I felt really out of place and I had to ask many people for help when I tried to leave. I ended up in small rooms and weird tunnels. It was scary but I finally saw sunlight.

I did buy one item. Yep, something shiny caught my eye and I bought the purple case embellished with shiny stuff. The seller gave me a new one which I didn't check because it was all wrapped up. When I opened it upon reaching home, I realised that one of the big crystals had become unglued. Demmit.

So that was my Saturday and Sunday. And how was your weekend?