My first Pop-Up Shop!

I participated in my very first Pop-Up Shop!

At the end of April--- (actually it was Earth Day- yay!) a local boutique, Moonshine and Magnolias, hosted me for the day. I was so excited to be able to share my art in person and set up a cute display!

I had a lot to do to prepare. I knew there would be a lot of steps and things to organize and such prior to the day of the event, so I started prepping in advance, but even on the day before the event I still had a lot to do—luckily my sister was in town and was able to help me to ease some of that stress. I realized a few days before the pop-up that I hadn’t varnished some of the paintings I wanted to bring along, so my sister was kind enough to do that for me while I made sure all of the products were input in my app so I could accept credit card payments. This was a time-consuming task, but it ended up working so well. I used the Square app and they even have a new feature where you can tap to pay. It was really exciting—at least for me!
I also had to get all of my prints organized because I wanted to display them ready to go, meaning that I had each print in a protective sleeve with a thank you sticker. While this was also a little time consuming it was actually my favorite part of the set up. I mean who doesn’t love sticking stickers onto things?! I think it made the in-person display look a little more sleek and  professional too. And speaking of stickers, I also had to decide which of my vinyl stickers I wanted to bring to the event and how many of each. I brought 75 designs, which included two new designs, one of which is now available in my shop! It’s one of my new favorites because it has a wonderful message- see here. The other was a location specific sticker. The event was in Hendersonville, NC, so I created a watercolor-esque digital drawing and made it into stickers and prints. There was a small festival that morning for Earth Day and the people visiting seemed to really like the Hendersonville products so I’m really glad I decided to do that.

Setting up at the event proved to be a little more stressful than I thought. I had thought it would be really fun to decide how everything should be displayed, but I think I brought a few too many things and I got a little overwhelmed that it would look cluttered. Luckily my sister helped me make it cute and I think it turned out really well. See some pictures below!

I loved interacting with people and everyone was so kind and complimentary of my work. It was such a fun day! I had some friends stop by in support and that was so heartwarming to me. My favorite memory was when I sold one of my very favorite paintings I’ve made. I told my sister that I would be kind of sad if it was the only painting that sold and then it was so funny because it was the very first painting to go! We laughed afterwards and of course I wasn't too sad to see it go to a new home. The woman who purchased it was so kind and told me about her perfect spot for it. And don't worry- it didn't end up being the only painting I sold that day. 

I can’t wait to do another pop-up—I’ll be back at Moonshine and Magnolias the first weekend in November, so keep a lookout for that and if you’re in the area I’d love to see you there!