I am still collecting myself but this weekend was one of the most magical and wonderful things I’ve ever participated in! Read on to see the festival through my eyes and hear about this amazing journey!
ROCKY START
The weekend started out almost as bad as it could get (luckily not AS bad as it could get)! When I arrived they had a shut down time for driving to your spot I was not aware of, I forgot my tent weights so I had to take back down my pop up tent so it wouldn’t blow around, everything kept falling on the ground, it took forever to get going, and my anxiety was off the charts.
Luckily, my wonderful and supportive father came and brought me my tent weights and between him and my mother that came and spent the WHOLE festival with me from set up to tear down, my tent was up and running in record time!
THE WRITTEN WORD
After I got set up, the sales started coming in! My first sale was before I got my tent set up and she was the most wonderful supportive person! I was glad to have met her! (Pictures below)
Out of all the poems I got to write, the ones that stood out the most were: A man who bought a poem for his wife and read it to her at my booth so I got to see her reaction, a 10 year old girl named Emily who got a poem for her recently deceased grandfather named Poppi, and a young couple who had liked each other for four years before gaining the courage to admit it to one another, found that they liked each other, and now have been dating for 10 months and are about to move in together!
I had a few customers cry happy tears and all of my poems hit home for those I made them for. I was so happy to see their smiling faces!
TIRE TALES
Other than writing poems for customers, I was debuting my educational children’s book series Tire Tales! I was delighted to see how happy my series made people!
I created 10 different coloring page designs and had them at my booth, thanks to one of my friends who printed them out for me (thank you David!!) I had some beautiful artwork I got to hang up for all to see!
REARRANGING
Throughout the weekend I tried a few different layouts for my booth. By the end of the festival I had it down to a science!
At first I had my easel up near the front so people could watch me draw the Tire Tales characters. I even had some kids that wanted me to draw extra images or wanted to try coloring in the images themselves! (Side note: It is a lot easier to draw on my iPad where I can redo lines than it is with chalk on a drawing pad!!)
Then, I moved a small table near the front and set my portable printer and iPad on it along with a sign hanging above to create custom poems for people and make it more obvious what I could do!
FINAL NOTES
Overall, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity and the experience to be a vendor at the Braselton Antique and Arts festival! I remembered why I call myself a writer and the joy I have in creating unique and special poems and experiences for others!
If YOU would like a custom poem made or to order any of my books (Tire Tales series or poetry chapbooks) feel free to drop me a line on the “Send a Letter” page!
Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful day!!
E. Lexi Abbott 