Rainy days are giving me a break =)

I haven't had much time to hang out on the forum lately because I've been set up at The Farmstead (pumpkin patch/Corn Maize), but now that it's pouring rain I have a little bit of time off. Although I'm not making money it's nice to have a break. I had to pack up my tent and bring it home because it was so filthy, so I have it set up in my backyard getting "rinsed" by the rain. I'm so excited to clean my kit thoroughly (there is so much straw and dirt in every nook and cranny of everything I own!), and get some practicing done of designs that aren't on my board. I only have a dozen or so designs on my board and I'm so sick of painting the few that are super popular, so I am going to set out today and tomorrow to paint, take pictures, crop and print =).
This is my first successful festival so I thought I'd recap how it's going for those who maybe have their first large event coming up and wonder what to expect, and if anyone has advice for me on how to do it better, I'm still learning...please share .

Here's my setup:

The little girl in my booth is my friend’s 10 year old daughter, she offered to help me out on Saturday. She was so nice and tried very hard to be helpful, but ended up counting change back wrong and lost me a bit of money. Oh well, lesson learned. The overall look of my booth still looks "cheezy" to me, but it is what it is till I can afford to make it bettah .

I purchased a tent from naughty word's Sporting Goods, it's a Quest "Professional", but the frame is actually branded as "EZ-UP" on the plastic things on the ends of the bars. I got it for $149. I need walls, I didn't know how badly I'd need them till after I got set up and once 3PM rolled around I was shading the area right outside my tent but I was sweating and the kids I was painting were squinting in the sunlight. I can't freakin wait to get a directors chair and a FatMax. I've been using a huge heavy 5 foot table and a couple of folding chairs. I promised my husband I would give up my first week's profits to our household budget, and that I'd hold off on purchasing anything for my business till this coming weekend, I made about $400 in the past week which I think is pretty good, and the lady who owns the place was telling me that it was SUPER slow compared to what it will be this next week when business picks up and people know they are open. I'm also going to add a couple more price points to my board, right now I'm offering a quick spider, a pumpkin, a mustache w/eyebrows, and a single eye one stroke butterfly for $4, a few half face designs for $6, and full face or detailed masks for $8. I'm thinking of adding a few more full face detailed "costume worthy" masks for $10 and $12 especially for Halloween weekend.
I’ve learned a few more things from this new experience too….
I don’t like painting Darth Maul, taking Advil at the beginning of the day prevents aches and pains if you have to paint from folding chairs, and bring an extra mirror because kids will come back and try to grab your mirror out of your kit again and again because they can’t get enough of looking at their faces =).

Ya know, I'd be worried about breaking one that big, but if you look closely in the pic I posted, on the left tent pole right by my banner...that's a plastic mirror I got at HobbyLobby and I got so many compliments on it, the kiddos kept coming over to sneak a peek at their faces. I think I might get one more for the other pole. They're only $11.99 but I used a 40% off coupon...super cheap =).

Ooooh, Noella I don't know why I didn't think of that before, great idea! Fortunately It's gonna be overcast and cooler this weekend and by then I'll have my beloved tent walls purchased (hopefully).

*LOL* @ Mana...Yeah, no joke!

I had no idea the forum automatically censored that word! That's too funny! I thought all along that people were choosing to censor it themselves. So what happens if someone joins the forum and their name is short for Richard? *LOL*!