In the summer my friend Michelle came to me with an idea. She called it KraftKaravan. Her idea was to take the craft show into peoples homes – something along the lines of a pampered Chef party. I was sold. We worked out the preliminary details and began to ask around if people would be interested in our idea. One of Michelle's friends, Leslie, was enamoured with the idea and we set a date.
We design an e-vite for Leslie to send to her guests and we were thrilled to discover that her guests were intrigued.
On the morning of the event I packed up the car, picked up Michelle and her boxes of handmade goodies and went to work. After a day at the office and my stomach doing backflips from nerves we headed out to Oakville for our first KraftKaravan.
Being slightly uncomfortable in social situations I was a nervous wreck by the time we arrived. We entered Leslie's home and her giant cat walked over and said hello. He was lovely and very interested in my box that held the cat nip toys. Leslie was afraid that he might be too old for the cat nip and asked me to keep him away from them just in case.
Taking over Leslie's dining room was a bizarre experience. I now have a new respect for Avon ladies. We set up our owls and monkeys, displayed our cards and Christmas stockings, we even had a selection of my mom's books pre-signed that we laid out. The room looked great.
Everyone arrived at about the same time. It was very casual and I relaxed a bit. Leslie had made wonderful treats and people were eating and drinking and talking. They would wander into the dining room and chat with us about our products and our process. Everyone was very interested in what we made and how we made it.
It was fun to see little piles of objects starting to form. A book and a monkey and 2 packs of note cards on a chair. 3 owls and a tooth fairy pocket on the stairs. A garland and a wooden fish under the table. People stashed the items they wanted to purchase in nooks and crannies and when the evening was winding down they would fetch their stash and pay us.
One woman had 2 cat nip toys in her pile a stashed it on a low shelf in the dining room. Leslie's cat found them in a matter of seconds. I freaked out. She had specifically asked me to keep it away from him and I had failed. She walked into the room at that very moment. I apologized and quickly got it away from him. Leslie just laughed and said he could have it. He was the best advertisement for my cat toys. He was all over it, rolling on it and licking it. When he had completely exhautsed himself he laid his head on it and slept with it.
By the end of the night we were as exhuasted as the cat and I still had to drive all the way home. The night was a success with a big thanks to Leslie for being open to our idea.
we have had 2 more KraftKaravan's since our first and we are planning for another next week in Peterborough.
KraftKaravan.com
http://www.kraftkaravan.com
