Today's Adventures
Apr. 11th, 2026 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithToday we went to the Small Business Fest held just outside Booth Library at Eastern Illinois University. It was several times bigger than we expected, which was awesome. It wrapped around the entire square, and one side had booths down both sides of the walkway. This was nearly the size of the old Celebration fest, with very similar offerings. They do this twice a year now, spring and fall.
To provide some background, Nicholas Macaluso joined the Entrepreneurship Club in 2022 and founded the Small Business Fest in April 2023. He was manning an information booth for the fest, where we bought a tote bag with its logo. Currently Emily Larsen is the president of the Entrepreneurship Club, so it has continuity moving forward. She had a booth called BeeCraftn with clay jewelry and custom creations. We got to talk with both of these folks, and expressed our admiration for their hard work. It was really exciting to see such a big event, with so many vendors, and such a wonderful community spirit.
These are some of the many booths we visited:
Worthey Peppers sold a selection of hot sauces and spicy jellies.
Ritzy Nails put out costume press-on nails, based on standard fingernail blanks which were decorated with enamel. Some sets had the same design on all the nails, but many had different designs within a theme.
Turn the Page Journaling had cards and a set of miniatures set up as tiny rooms or stores.
Dove and Crow Art offered bookmarks and buttons.
DJ Paintblush presented a variety of artwork.
Vivienne Dothager was selling copies of her children's book Want to Play? about a Deaf girl in school. This is well worth a look if you know a Deaf child or like to collect inclusive children's literature.
Kaylah Boswell made assorted ceramics including cups and bowls.
Kai's Kuntry did Tarot readings.
WishStar Bazaar ("Magical Wares, Star Style") had bracelets, keychains, and some very sparkly decor potions. Fun for fantasy gamers or live-action roleplaying fans.
Liz Ziemer Crochet sold fanciful items including dragons and pillows with monster eyes. She takes commissions too.
Chromatic Dichotomy offered jewelry, "blind date with a book" packages, and various upcycled things.
Sticks and Scones baked scones and other goodies. We got a raspberry one, which was quite good.
Lottie Rose Art by Charlotte Hedberg did fantasy, mythic, and nature art in watercolor. My favorite was the Medusa print. You can see an image of that and other artworks on her website.
Awesome Possum let you make your own buttons; they also had stickers and embroidered patches.
Maudie McKiernan of Maudie's Blue Beetle had the most intricate blockprints I have ever seen. I'm a fan of old woodblock and linocut styles. These were done in flexible rubber stamp pad material. There was a moose with fur, birds with feathers, a house with boards, delicate geometric designs, fimbriated outlines -- they looked like they'd been done with technical pen. If you're at all a fan of this artform, behold and be amazed.
Tugs for Tails made a variety of crocheted and fibercraft toys for pets.
Hooked & Hexed provided crochet crafts and jewelry, some in pride colors, plus Tarot readings.
Kaysynn's Lemonade's offered lemon, strawberry, or blueberry of which we got the lemon and it was most excellent. If you're at an outdoor event, look for something made with fruit juice rather than soda; the electrolytes will help keep you on your feet. Also if you're organizing a warm-season event, lemonade or agua fresca or something like that is good for your guests, and thus advisable to provide if you can.
Sweets by Sheka had something my partner Doug had spotted someone else carrying and coveted -- strawberry cinnamon rolls -- so we bought a pan of those. They are really quite good, several giant ones crammed into a deep aluminum foil pieplate. They also do cookies, cupcakes, and other treats including custom orders.
Kelp Kreations made pens, bracelets, and keychains.
Zcisor (pronounced like "scissor") sold T-shirts mostly with goth/metal themes, a few nature which had almost sold out.
By the time we made it around the loop, we were tired and hungry. So we stopped at Mac Daddy, a favorite local food truck. We split a Mac Daddy, which is white cheddar macaroni spirals buried under a mountain of barbecue shredded pork, bacon, brisket, and chicken.
After that, we went back to one of the earlier booths we had seen. Doodle Booth & Co. had four artists teaming up. One of them was doing live doodle portraits with art markers. You could pick what colors you wanted. It took her less than 10 minutes to do a truly adorable miniature doodle of us, me in blue and Doug in green. So now I need to get a frame for that. I adore artists who work live and will always check their prices; if it's at all in my range, it's a thing I like to buy.
The last thing we did was revisit the Small Business Fest information booth to pick up the tote bag. We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the event, and it was awesome.
Some further thoughts on events, small business, and such:
A bunch of vendors were quite sunburned. Some people had an Easy-up tent or other shade, but some did not. Many had not brought sunscreen. One person who did was passing it around. Even hugging the shade as I did, I wound up getting more sun than was really good for me; my nose and cheeks are pink. Based on my eventing experiences, it's easy to forget stuff, so here's a little list.
-- If you are vending at an outdoor event, pack sunscreen and water and other safety needs. Make sure you have shade. It will not be fun if you get overheated or sunburned; it will be even less fun that night.
-- If you are organizing an outdoor event, try to provide shade for your vendors or at least encourage them to bring their own. Your first aid booth should have shade and a place to sit down, and should stock sunscreen and cold water or sport drinks. I'd say look for a gallon jug with a lotion pump, or a case of individual packets of sunscreen. Make sure your participants know where to go for safety needs.
-- If you are visiting an outdoor event, sunscreen and a hat or parasol may be helpful. As mentioned above, watch for drinks with real fruit juice in them. Be wary of caffeine, which can mess with your temperature sensitivity and also undermines hydration.
-- All of these things are getting more important as climate change progresses. Today was quite mild, but some of us still got a bit much sun; it would've been far worse had the day been hot.
Many of the vendors had a business card to hand out, but others did not. Now if you're putting up a booth at the last minute on a whim, or you sell things as a hobby not a business, or you're doing a casual flea market table, then it's totally fine to do without a business card or a web page. If you're starting a real business though, you need a business card (or a flyer or something else similar) and if at all possible a web page. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just needs to get the job done. You can run off a batch of business cards on your home printer and cut the page apart with scissors; or there are places that will print free cards with their printshop logo on the back. You can get a Neocities or Facebook or Etsy or blog site or whatever suits you. Done is better than perfect.
-- For a business, you need cards or flyers so your customers can remember your name, what you sell, and maybe what they wanted to buy. Some folks keep these things and refer back to them, or use them to give you word of mouth advertising which is precious.
-- At minimum include your business name, a word or few about what you sell, and at least one way to reach you. Add your logo if you have one; it helps confirm that people have found the right web presence. Ideally include an email address and web page URL for your business. Some folks like to include a mailing address or phone number; that depends on how they prefer to do business. Be aware that while smartphones are common, they are neither universal nor foolproof, so if your only contact information is a QR code then you will miss some potential customers. Multiple contact options will reach more people.
-- Make sure your card is easy to read; I picked up a couple that are so dark it's hard to make out the text. Ideally, a blank back in white or light color, that will accept ink or pencil, is helpful for customers to make notes about where they saw you and what they might want to buy later. Many modern business cards are so slick that it's impossible to write on them; this is not to your advantage, even if it looks flashy.
-- Your web page should have the same information as your business card, plus more detail. Pictures of your goods or descriptions of your services are helpful, along with things like your service area, hours, prices, events, storefront if any, and so on. Some sites give you a virtual store, or let you build one as an option. That's great if you want to sell things online, although you really don't have to. It's fine to have just a page that describes your business, with maybe a few pictures, so folks can link to it and say, "Here's a cool booth we saw this weekend." And of course, you want folks to be able to find you if they decide they'd like to buy something later, which is more important for vendors with higher-priced items that shoppers may think about before buying. Also, you can definitely start with a very simple web presence, then make something fancier as your business grows.
The ideas of this event are wholly replicable in other places:
-- Most most colleges have a Business department; many have an Entrepreneurship program and/or club. Pretty much all colleges have student clubs and information how students or faculty can start one, if what they want isn't available yet. So there's a good place to begin, encouraging young people to launch their own businesses. Check the colleges near you to see what kinds of support they offer.
-- Likewise, most towns have some event space, whether outdoors or indoors or both. You could organize a small business event of your own at your hometown. It doesn't have to be big; this one started out with a much smaller group, and has grown over time. There are a bunch of other vendor events in our area, small and large.
-- Community and connection matter. We got to talk with a lot of folks today, and really enjoyed it. Vendors who know each other can help out when someone needs to leave their booth for food or a restroom break. Shoppers can recognize favorite vendors that they see at different events. Money spent in small local businesses mostly stays in the community; money spent at chainstores mostly leaves. Building up a good range of small businesses helps a community survive, especially if you live somewhere that the megacorps don't consider worth their bother.
-- Are you annoyed by things like AI and planned obsolescence? You can fight back. Pay a person to make something while you watch. Buy handmade arts and crafts. Buy services face to face. Every dollar you spend at a small local business takes money and attention away from megacorps. You support real people, some of whom might become friends if you frequent the same events and share some interests. So use your folding vote mindfully. And what if everyone did that? The world would be a better place.
Finally, for anyone who heard me talking about my writing, my author website is PenUltimate Productions and My Work has the guide pages with links, most of which point back here to Dreamwidth posts. Most of my current work is under Serial Poetry. Here's the April Poetry Fishbowl for the folks who asked about how my small business works.
Looking for the Effingham newspaper and its magazines that I recommended? Here is the fall/winter 2025 issue of A Day Away. Watch for the spring/summer 2026 issue anytime now. It's available for free, in PDF on the newspaper website and also paper at town halls, orchards, community centers, etc. It features events, attractions, and ads for businesses within daytrip distance of Effingham, so most of central Illinois. It's the best reference I know of if you like attending events or doing daytrip vacations.
Thanks to everyone who made today's event possible. We had a great time.
To provide some background, Nicholas Macaluso joined the Entrepreneurship Club in 2022 and founded the Small Business Fest in April 2023. He was manning an information booth for the fest, where we bought a tote bag with its logo. Currently Emily Larsen is the president of the Entrepreneurship Club, so it has continuity moving forward. She had a booth called BeeCraftn with clay jewelry and custom creations. We got to talk with both of these folks, and expressed our admiration for their hard work. It was really exciting to see such a big event, with so many vendors, and such a wonderful community spirit.
These are some of the many booths we visited:
Worthey Peppers sold a selection of hot sauces and spicy jellies.
Ritzy Nails put out costume press-on nails, based on standard fingernail blanks which were decorated with enamel. Some sets had the same design on all the nails, but many had different designs within a theme.
Turn the Page Journaling had cards and a set of miniatures set up as tiny rooms or stores.
Dove and Crow Art offered bookmarks and buttons.
DJ Paintblush presented a variety of artwork.
Vivienne Dothager was selling copies of her children's book Want to Play? about a Deaf girl in school. This is well worth a look if you know a Deaf child or like to collect inclusive children's literature.
Kaylah Boswell made assorted ceramics including cups and bowls.
Kai's Kuntry did Tarot readings.
WishStar Bazaar ("Magical Wares, Star Style") had bracelets, keychains, and some very sparkly decor potions. Fun for fantasy gamers or live-action roleplaying fans.
Liz Ziemer Crochet sold fanciful items including dragons and pillows with monster eyes. She takes commissions too.
Chromatic Dichotomy offered jewelry, "blind date with a book" packages, and various upcycled things.
Sticks and Scones baked scones and other goodies. We got a raspberry one, which was quite good.
Lottie Rose Art by Charlotte Hedberg did fantasy, mythic, and nature art in watercolor. My favorite was the Medusa print. You can see an image of that and other artworks on her website.
Awesome Possum let you make your own buttons; they also had stickers and embroidered patches.
Maudie McKiernan of Maudie's Blue Beetle had the most intricate blockprints I have ever seen. I'm a fan of old woodblock and linocut styles. These were done in flexible rubber stamp pad material. There was a moose with fur, birds with feathers, a house with boards, delicate geometric designs, fimbriated outlines -- they looked like they'd been done with technical pen. If you're at all a fan of this artform, behold and be amazed.
Tugs for Tails made a variety of crocheted and fibercraft toys for pets.
Hooked & Hexed provided crochet crafts and jewelry, some in pride colors, plus Tarot readings.
Kaysynn's Lemonade's offered lemon, strawberry, or blueberry of which we got the lemon and it was most excellent. If you're at an outdoor event, look for something made with fruit juice rather than soda; the electrolytes will help keep you on your feet. Also if you're organizing a warm-season event, lemonade or agua fresca or something like that is good for your guests, and thus advisable to provide if you can.
Sweets by Sheka had something my partner Doug had spotted someone else carrying and coveted -- strawberry cinnamon rolls -- so we bought a pan of those. They are really quite good, several giant ones crammed into a deep aluminum foil pieplate. They also do cookies, cupcakes, and other treats including custom orders.
Kelp Kreations made pens, bracelets, and keychains.
Zcisor (pronounced like "scissor") sold T-shirts mostly with goth/metal themes, a few nature which had almost sold out.
By the time we made it around the loop, we were tired and hungry. So we stopped at Mac Daddy, a favorite local food truck. We split a Mac Daddy, which is white cheddar macaroni spirals buried under a mountain of barbecue shredded pork, bacon, brisket, and chicken.
After that, we went back to one of the earlier booths we had seen. Doodle Booth & Co. had four artists teaming up. One of them was doing live doodle portraits with art markers. You could pick what colors you wanted. It took her less than 10 minutes to do a truly adorable miniature doodle of us, me in blue and Doug in green. So now I need to get a frame for that. I adore artists who work live and will always check their prices; if it's at all in my range, it's a thing I like to buy.
The last thing we did was revisit the Small Business Fest information booth to pick up the tote bag. We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the event, and it was awesome.
Some further thoughts on events, small business, and such:
A bunch of vendors were quite sunburned. Some people had an Easy-up tent or other shade, but some did not. Many had not brought sunscreen. One person who did was passing it around. Even hugging the shade as I did, I wound up getting more sun than was really good for me; my nose and cheeks are pink. Based on my eventing experiences, it's easy to forget stuff, so here's a little list.
-- If you are vending at an outdoor event, pack sunscreen and water and other safety needs. Make sure you have shade. It will not be fun if you get overheated or sunburned; it will be even less fun that night.
-- If you are organizing an outdoor event, try to provide shade for your vendors or at least encourage them to bring their own. Your first aid booth should have shade and a place to sit down, and should stock sunscreen and cold water or sport drinks. I'd say look for a gallon jug with a lotion pump, or a case of individual packets of sunscreen. Make sure your participants know where to go for safety needs.
-- If you are visiting an outdoor event, sunscreen and a hat or parasol may be helpful. As mentioned above, watch for drinks with real fruit juice in them. Be wary of caffeine, which can mess with your temperature sensitivity and also undermines hydration.
-- All of these things are getting more important as climate change progresses. Today was quite mild, but some of us still got a bit much sun; it would've been far worse had the day been hot.
Many of the vendors had a business card to hand out, but others did not. Now if you're putting up a booth at the last minute on a whim, or you sell things as a hobby not a business, or you're doing a casual flea market table, then it's totally fine to do without a business card or a web page. If you're starting a real business though, you need a business card (or a flyer or something else similar) and if at all possible a web page. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just needs to get the job done. You can run off a batch of business cards on your home printer and cut the page apart with scissors; or there are places that will print free cards with their printshop logo on the back. You can get a Neocities or Facebook or Etsy or blog site or whatever suits you. Done is better than perfect.
-- For a business, you need cards or flyers so your customers can remember your name, what you sell, and maybe what they wanted to buy. Some folks keep these things and refer back to them, or use them to give you word of mouth advertising which is precious.
-- At minimum include your business name, a word or few about what you sell, and at least one way to reach you. Add your logo if you have one; it helps confirm that people have found the right web presence. Ideally include an email address and web page URL for your business. Some folks like to include a mailing address or phone number; that depends on how they prefer to do business. Be aware that while smartphones are common, they are neither universal nor foolproof, so if your only contact information is a QR code then you will miss some potential customers. Multiple contact options will reach more people.
-- Make sure your card is easy to read; I picked up a couple that are so dark it's hard to make out the text. Ideally, a blank back in white or light color, that will accept ink or pencil, is helpful for customers to make notes about where they saw you and what they might want to buy later. Many modern business cards are so slick that it's impossible to write on them; this is not to your advantage, even if it looks flashy.
-- Your web page should have the same information as your business card, plus more detail. Pictures of your goods or descriptions of your services are helpful, along with things like your service area, hours, prices, events, storefront if any, and so on. Some sites give you a virtual store, or let you build one as an option. That's great if you want to sell things online, although you really don't have to. It's fine to have just a page that describes your business, with maybe a few pictures, so folks can link to it and say, "Here's a cool booth we saw this weekend." And of course, you want folks to be able to find you if they decide they'd like to buy something later, which is more important for vendors with higher-priced items that shoppers may think about before buying. Also, you can definitely start with a very simple web presence, then make something fancier as your business grows.
The ideas of this event are wholly replicable in other places:
-- Most most colleges have a Business department; many have an Entrepreneurship program and/or club. Pretty much all colleges have student clubs and information how students or faculty can start one, if what they want isn't available yet. So there's a good place to begin, encouraging young people to launch their own businesses. Check the colleges near you to see what kinds of support they offer.
-- Likewise, most towns have some event space, whether outdoors or indoors or both. You could organize a small business event of your own at your hometown. It doesn't have to be big; this one started out with a much smaller group, and has grown over time. There are a bunch of other vendor events in our area, small and large.
-- Community and connection matter. We got to talk with a lot of folks today, and really enjoyed it. Vendors who know each other can help out when someone needs to leave their booth for food or a restroom break. Shoppers can recognize favorite vendors that they see at different events. Money spent in small local businesses mostly stays in the community; money spent at chainstores mostly leaves. Building up a good range of small businesses helps a community survive, especially if you live somewhere that the megacorps don't consider worth their bother.
-- Are you annoyed by things like AI and planned obsolescence? You can fight back. Pay a person to make something while you watch. Buy handmade arts and crafts. Buy services face to face. Every dollar you spend at a small local business takes money and attention away from megacorps. You support real people, some of whom might become friends if you frequent the same events and share some interests. So use your folding vote mindfully. And what if everyone did that? The world would be a better place.
Finally, for anyone who heard me talking about my writing, my author website is PenUltimate Productions and My Work has the guide pages with links, most of which point back here to Dreamwidth posts. Most of my current work is under Serial Poetry. Here's the April Poetry Fishbowl for the folks who asked about how my small business works.
Looking for the Effingham newspaper and its magazines that I recommended? Here is the fall/winter 2025 issue of A Day Away. Watch for the spring/summer 2026 issue anytime now. It's available for free, in PDF on the newspaper website and also paper at town halls, orchards, community centers, etc. It features events, attractions, and ads for businesses within daytrip distance of Effingham, so most of central Illinois. It's the best reference I know of if you like attending events or doing daytrip vacations.
Thanks to everyone who made today's event possible. We had a great time.
