Taking time to take stock

YUP, it's that time of year again.....getting ready for the 2 day local festival, the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival.  This years event is September 26th and the 27th. 

The festival last year attracted 13,000 people which is pretty good considering where it is located which is on a farm accessed by country roads (or shuttle buses since parking in limited).  The organizers are all volunteers and over 200 people sign up to help out during the weekend.  

Needless to say, it takes a lot of inventory to fill up a 10' X 10' booth so I have been sewing up a storm.  As you can see, there are lots of items at this point that need a label so I set up a labeling station yesterday out on the porch. This labeling process also gives me a chance to take inventory. I print out the labels on 8 1/2 X 11" card stock, 10 to a page.  Once I had them printed, it is time to cut and trim them on the paper cutter.  I have a box which I store all my labeling supplies in.  There are envelopes with the name of each item I make on them and that is where the labels go.  Right before I attach the label to the item. I put a price sticker on it.  Since all my inventory is made out of fabric, I have a labeling tool that has a pin that gets poked through first the label and then the item and the you pull the trigger and a 1" plastic shoots out and holds the label in place.  I have actually just started the process but having it set up out on the porch where I can keep everything organized will hopefully help keep the confusion down to a minimum.  I have given myself a couple of weeks before everything has to be labeled and priced and I plan of doing it a little at a time.  This gives me some space to keep making more items if necessary.   Yesterday was bib day, which I have 16  of which are now labeled, priced and inventoried.  Tomorrow will be apron day.  Since I make a lot of different items I am trying to keep things well organized so that I don't end up pulling the hair our of my head.  

Here is the link to the festival and the description of the artists.   http://garlicandarts.org/artists/     If you scroll down a bit, you will find New England Fiber Arts...ENJOY!