Because we have a family business, we go to lots of festivals and craft fairs. We have found that the shorter craft shows work better for us, because then we can do them without all of us crashing at the end of the show. Unfortunately, we learned this lesson the hard way.

In 2009, we did the KY State Fair. It was eleven days that were thirteen hours long each day.  Even though we split up into teams and only did half a day each, it was really tiring and we were all home sick even though we slept at home each night.  Even worse, we did not get anything done for the following two weeks!

So in 2010, we went a different route.  Instead of being a vendor, we just gave a demonstration on the Blue Ribbon Stage.  We were able to set up a booth behind the stage on the day we demonstrated.  It worked a lot better. The boys were in charge of loading the display shelves:

When we arrived at the Fairgrounds, we loaded all of our stuff into the building, set up our tables, played with toys, and posed for pictures:

And then it was time to start selling soap:

We also knit while we’re selling soap.  Many people are amazed to see kids knitting and they ask us what we are doing.  When we tell them we are knitting washcloths to sell with our soap, they usually ask questions about the soap.  And even if they don’t ask questions, my brothers tell them about the soap anyway.

Having cute little faces like this in your booth helps a lot too!

Right before we demonstrated soapmaking, a radio lady named Cindi Sullivan was answering questions about flowers, or gardens, or something like that. Because Emery is an avid gardener, we let him have a break from the booth and listen to her.

When Cindi was done, Emery came running back to the booth yelling, “She is having a giveaway!! I need you all to come so we can get lots of giveaway tickets!” Cindi was giving everyone a raffle ticket, and then she was going to pull a number out of a bag. Whoever had the matching ticket, would win the prize. And she had several prizes! So we all went over, and got our tickets. We ended up winning 3 or 4 things – like this KY State Fair bag Indigo won.

Cindi was really, really nice.  I didn’t see it, but Daddy said that Emery got up and walked to the microphone and asked her a question about his garden. (Emery just told me that he asked her if chicken manure was safe for his flower garden). She was very impressed with Emery, so Mom made us we all got to take a picture with Cindi.

Then it was time for us to demonstrate. I was very nervous, because I was making bath bombs.

I had actually had a bad dream that the bath bombs would not stick together, and I had to tell everybody who was watching that I could not get them to work. And then the people started to boo. It was a terrible dream and didn’t help my nerves.  Mom tried to make me feel better by telling me about a speech she had to give in Junior High. Don’t tell her, but her story didn’t make me feel any better.

I think I was so nervous because bath bombs are VERY temperamental. If there is the slightest bit of humidity, they take forever to stick together. And sometimes they don’t stick together at all! And right next to the blue ribbon stage, there were a bunch of doors. Doors that led to the outside. And it looked like it was going to rain.

And rain = moisture. And moisture and bath bombs don’t mix. And some of our friends were there. And as bad as it would be for the bath bombs to not work in front of an audience, I knew that if they did not work in front of Sam (who is Indigo’s crush), I was never going to hear the end of it.

So as I was getting on the stage, and setting up my stuff, I prayed, and prayed, and prayed.  Because the way things looked, I was NOT going to get them to work. When we were all ready – Mom with her microphone, me with my bath bomb stuff, Dad with his soap stuff, and Greyden with his knitting – Dad started making the soap:

First Dad made a batch of organic castile. When he was done with that, he brought out some soap that he had made the day before, and showed the audience how we cut it. 

And then it was my turn. 

So I mixed together all of my ingredients as Mom explained what I was doing. Now came the tricky part! I stirred and added some witch hazel. And I stirred, and added more witch hazel. And I did it again. And again. And again. 

And it still would not work.

Instead of freaking out, I started stirring it as fast as I could without adding any more witch hazel. I offered up another prayer and…

It worked! And everyone started clapping! (Then I was really happy! :D)

So once I was done pressing all of the bombs, I put one in water, and walked around letting everyone see how it fizzed. There were a couple kids in the audience, and they followed me around, watching it. LOL. I guess they thought that it looked really cool!

After our demonstration, we took a break and walked around to visit friends who have booths. And then Jade got so tired…

 …that she had to take a nap under the booth like she did when she was younger.

And by that time the show was over, and it was time to pack up and go home.  And you know the best part?  I wasn’t nearly as nervous the following week when I had to demonstrate again!