"An Affair of the Heart" { My Gypsy Booth }

Sorry I've been absent from blog land lately.  I have been crazy busy with "life".  

A week ago I was a vendor at "An Affair of the Heart" in Tulsa, OK.  It is one of the largest shows of its kind in the Nation.  It was crazy huge and intimidating, yet wonderful at the same time!

I do craft shows regularly, but I've never participated in one this large.

On set-up day, as we passed all the other awesome booths on our way to find my spot, my husband said, "Wow, these people came prepared to sale some stuff!"   

They had display set-ups that cost thousands of dollars.  

Their booths all looked like perfectly manicured little stores.  

The parking lot was filled with fancy cargo trailers with logos and brand names painted on them.  License plates from states all over the midwest.

....and there we were, with our pick-up truck loaded down with a bunch of this and that handmade display pieces and things taken from my home and borrowed from others!

Just looking at their booths made me feel like I was going to have a panic attack.

My breathing got heavier, my heart was racing and I didn't want to pull out my display for fear of being embarrassed to have my home-made inexpensive set-up being surrounded by all these "professionals".

Finally I just told myself, "Get over it! Stop comparing yourself to everyone else and get to work!"

My wonderful husband and even Felicity helped me put everything together.

As my booth came together piece by piece I was proud of it.  It was not as fancy and elaborate as most of the others, but it was special, it was unique and most of all, it was ME and represented my product.

We hung fabric all around the sides of my booth.  My husband referred to it as the "Gypsy" booth surrounded by uptight corporate stores.  

The show ended up being a success and I met lots of wonderful people.  But most of all I think I learned a valuable lesson about insecurities and comparing yourself to others.  

My booth was not like the others, but it was me and it represented my product well and that's all I needed to do!

Here are a couple pictures of the show borrowed from the official AAOTH website.

That's it for now.  I have a cranky little girl that has been sitting in my lap while I write this and I need to go give her some attention!  Have a wonderful week.

-pamela