How Bazaar!

Last Sunday, Sept. 5 saw me, the DWs and the hubby’s family at the Tahanan Village covered court for the neighborhood’s annual bazaar. The fund raising event was in celebration of Mama Mary’s birthday and proceeds of the booth rentals and of the food sale went straight to  Tahanan’s parish church.

BDW grew up in the South at Tahanan Village while I’m a QC girl through and through. We met in a research firm where we worked before where I remember BDW as being very masungit :p  BDW has logged a bazillion miles while we were dating because of the QC-Tahanan distance not to mention the traffic!

Now that we’re married, we go to Tahanan for family lunch every Sunday. DW just loves playing with his cousins. The youngest is less than a year old so DW would always come up to the baby and then shriek “AY LAWAY!!” wahaha!

Last weekend, we spent Saturday and Sunday at Tahanan for the bazaar. We spent Saturday at the park where DW had a great time at the playground. We also checked out our booth for the Sunday Bazaar and made a few mental notes on what to do with the space. I figured since it was just a neigborhood bazaar that we could take the whole thing in stride, well we thought wrong!

Sunday started really early! By 7 am we were off to the park, which was a block away from the house and people were already setting up. Some booths were already open actually! There was a bit of  confusion with the booth positions but it was all ironed out right away. We were lucky too that the booth next to us didn’t show up so we had instant extra space for all our stuff!

BDW’s family runs a t-shirt company and so our booth both had ManilaBaby Shop items, cotton shirts and jersey blouses.

The booth’s best seller were these shirts! 3 for 100 only!!

Our “neighbors” that day were a booth that sold ceramic wares and a popcorn stand.

For us, we sold our baby bags as well as Milea Baby Organic products (also available at the online shop).

The best seller was the Bug Away lotion. It’s Dengue season right now and a lot of parents were looking for safe mosquito repellents.  We slather DW with the Bug Away lotion even if he’s just home. What’s great about the lotion is that it’s got a nice and clean smell, it’s spreadable and is made from all natural ingredients so we can use as much as we want on DW without worrying about any toxic side effects. It also uses Andiroba oil, a natural mosquito repellant from the Amazon (the rainforest not the store haha). Most organic anti-mosquito products contain citronella, which is an effective anti-mosquito ingredient but what I don’t like about it is that it leaves a really strong smell that’s almost bordering on the unpleasant (but that’s just me). The Andiroba oil is the perfect alternative.

I manned the booth all day but I had some help from some really cute shop assistants

Who were always taking breaks….hmmm…

DW taking a break to walk his ninang’s chihuahua, Bruce:

The DW’s blowing bubbles…

When they’re in the booth naman, they were always eating LOL!

I taught DW some basic selling skills. I taught him to wave to people while saying “Come On! Come On!!” ( I don’t know why Come On ang naturo ko but DW said it and he was waving to people haha)

The highlight of the bazaar though was the food. Melo’s, Via Mare at Hizon’s lang naman  kasi ang mga caterers haha

A new foodie discovery:  Sweet Bella Quezo De Bola ensaimadas! They were really  yummy and had generous Quezo De Bola shavings on top! I forgot to take pics of the ensaimadas when I unwrapped them because I was so hungry (hirap maging tindera no!)

At the end of the day we sold one bag plus a handful of baby lotions. It was veeeerry tiring but I would do it again!

Some things I learned that day:

1) SMILE! -I learned that it puts people at ease at syempre kelangan approachable ka ever hehe

2) Know your products – a lot of people asked where the baby bags were made (they’re made in Marikina) and it was great to see that they were pleasantly surprised by the fact that the bags are locally made. Also, people interested in the organic baby lotions asked  A LOT of questions, particularly about the ingredients and proper usage.

3) Bring something to keep you occupied during the lull hours – Because the rush of people would always come after each mass at the nearby church, hours in between them were a bit quiet. I brought Temple Grandin’s Thinking in Pictures to keep me occupied but I never really got to read it (happy problem naman actually hehe)

4) Bring a Fan, water (in a cooler), food and a partner. In this case, I manned the booth with BDW’s mom and sisters. We would take turns with our breaks because it can get really hot in the booth. We also wanted to see what the other booths had (and shop for ourselves na rin haha)

5) Have FUN! The reason why I wanted to do this again was because I had a lot of fun 🙂 I met new people and I got to promote the shop and our products.

Our baby bags and Milea Baby Lotions are also on sale at ManilaBaby Shop and at http://manilababy.philshopping.com (where you can use your credit cards and choose your shipping ala Amazon.com!)