That's cool Rose.  When I took my stuff to the street fair, I put my Etsy shop on vacation mode so I wouldn't double sell.  I can see how you might want to keep it up though.  Kind of like having two shops open at once.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I haven't done a craft fair before, but I'm thinking of participating in a very small goth/alternative craft fair that is taking place in December. It seems like my stuff would fit in really well. I'm unclear on how much merchandise I will need, though -- I presently have 27 items in my shop and I've got maybe 5 more that, for various reasons, I've decided not to put up on Etsy. That seems like a really small selection, but I don't have the budget right now for more supplies -- until I get more sales.

What do you guys think is a reasonable amount of merch to bring to a small fair (20 vendors or less)?

I did my first street fair two weekends ago and it was a FLOP!!  It was WAY too big (spanned 40 blocks, with about 10-20 vendors on each block) and wasn't advertised at all, so we just got random walkers-by who weren't buying anything.  So I didn't sell anything, but luckily it didn't cost me a dime to get a spot and it got the nerves of my first street fair out of the way.  I have signed up for 2 separate holiday bazaars here.  You guys may want to check to see if your community centers are having holiday shows.  They are usually pretty inexpensive and people are going there to buy.

dobatseatcats, I would definitely suggest doing the craft fair if it isn't too pricey.  Even if you don't have a ton of inventory, you're still getting your name out there and people may love what they see and buy it all up or request a custom item.  Any exposure is a good thing, so do it if you can!  If you're afraid on how your spot will look, don't worry.  Do you know if you'll get a whole spot or just a table?  Remember, you're going to need room for display items (like a stand or whatever you want to hang your jewelry on) and business cards.  You may also want to bring a portfolio of your work for people to look at in case you sell out of some things.  Then people can see what else you've made and can place an order. 

I think 27 items is plenty!  Table space gets taken up more quickly than you realize, especially when you have display props!

I haven't done any "craft fairs" but there are 2 local farmers markets that I've done lately, one seems to be going pretty well and I think I'll make myself a regular there at least until Christmas. There are a few bigger crats fairs coming up in the next couple of months that I plan on attenting, we'll see how those go...

Good Luck Rose!

Mandg  I was also thinking about our local farmer's market. 

Holy Crow!! I just looked at the Berkeley farmers market craft application.   They will not allow jewelry that has any metal created with toxic chemicals or any gems that came from a country with human rights violations Polymer is unacceptable as it offgasses. They only want fabric that was made with 100% organic materials (preferably grown in CA mind you).  Hemp (of course) is acceptable No synthetic materials as they were made with petroleum products.  The list goes on and on.

I mean I want to save the planet too but really don't think I want to be involved in that kind of militant evironmental and political correctness.    Well that's Berkeley I guess.     

I do a weekly Farmers Market near where I live on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada...not this week though (raining) but normally do quite well, selling hats and jewelry...
Been crafting and selling at Fairs for many years. I blog about it quite a bit too, if anyone is interested here is my blogsite:

http://msexilei.blogspot.com/

For the holidays, there are many community centers and high schools that hold craft fairs and the space rental is a reasonable price. I didn't do one this year because I just started and don't have much inventory. But I'd like to do one next year and asked a friend to join me to promote her business as well. The street fairs are out of my league right now.