Pistol Annie's Vintage and Craft Show

I'm still woefully behind on blogging, but making an effort to catch up.  Next in line is the Pistol Annie's event last month in Perkins, OK.  I was contacted by the organizers via Etsy, and have to admit that I was hesitant about signing up.  I hadn't done a crafts show in many years - not since the late 80s or early 90s - and wasn't sure I wanted to go there again.  But...when I mentioned it to my friend Leann, she was interested and we somehow talked each other into it.  Ha!  Then our friend Jeanne decided to join us, and it was a done deal.

Since I was selling mostly vintage items and just a handful of crafts, I put my Etsy shop "on vacation" for the weekend and took some of those items to Pistol Annie's.  I did have to stock up, but was able to do a lot of that with things I already had on hand and after visiting just a few estate sales.

We had to borrow a canopy - an OU canopy no less, in decidedly Cowboy country, but no one seemed to mind.  The DH followed me to Perkins on Friday morning to help us set up, and then came back Saturday afternoon to help dismantle and cart things home.

The weather didn't really cooperate.  It was fairly nice on Friday, but with the threat of tornados looming we had to head home early as Perkins is a little over an hour's drive from home.  We did our best to secure everything, taking down the canopy and covering our tables and a couple of bins with a huge tarp.  It was all clamped down and seemed like it would withstand a lot.

Saturday morning, I arrived first to see the tarp in a heap on the ground, soaked and dirty table coverings, and water in one of my bins.  There was also a small pond in the center of our space.  The organizers helped us move to another spot, unfortunately available due to the total collapse and ruin of another vendors canopy.  It was extremely windy all day Saturday, and while we did have sales, things kept blowing over and it just wasn't pleasant.  With severe weather forcast for early evening, we called it quits around 4:00.

I have to add that the show was basically in a cow pasture, which was fine, especially because we had three "cow" dogs to keep us company.  This is Copper.  When he wasn't relaxing, he was mooching for food and at one point was spotted trotting across the field with someone's bag of lunch (they were able to rescue it before he did any damage.)

The organizers were wonderful and had the weather cooperated, it would have been an excellent show. I was still pleased with my sales, but after factoring in the gas for two vehicles to make two trips each, it wasn't very profitable. It was great to have all that time to visit with Leann and Jeanne and to do a bit of shopping with the other vendors, but if we do another show, it will most likely be an inside show and closer to home.

A huge THANK YOU to our friends who drove long distances to see us and to shop!  I got to see several of my besties that I haven't seen in weeks or months, and met some new friends, so that alone made it all worth it.