I can do better than that...but no one cares

Sometimes I am truly upset about being in the field I'm in. I craft items and sell them online and at a few local shows. I have scaled down the amount of shows in the past few years and really don't show up to many. It's a lot of work and I don't have a lot of help to set things up because my husband usually has to work. 

However, after touring a large local show today I am just truly frustrated with this business. I make hair bows, tutus, headbands, etc. and while it doesn't seem awesome like some of those recycled metal sculptures and such, it keeps me busy and is actually a lot of work. I spend (or at least did spend when I was really going at it) many hours with my sewing machine, locked up in my craft room at 2 in the morning, imaging the happy little girl that gets to twirl around in my tutus feeling like a princess. Or the family pictures that look just so with my headband adorning the family's three little girls. It seems silly, and it is, but I find that I just get so frustrated when I go out into the world and see what my competition has to offer. 

After doing this for four years, I have a pretty good line on suppliers and such and I have found that increasingly over the years they have started to offer more and more pre made items. Stuff made in China, cheaply, all sold ready-made so that your lazy ass can buy it and peddle it off as something you made at a show. Or, if you want to have a conscience, you can buy pre made bows and use a hot glue gun to glue it to your pre lined clips, and at least you had to break out the glue gun. And here I am, folding all my ribbons, lining my clips myself, clipping, sewing, heat sealing, with a certain standard. No gloppy glues poking out everywhere. No fraying ribbons, no wonky clips that would never stay in even the thickest hair, etc. And yet, no one seems to care. No one does. When a booth lines up their walls and bins with crap that took them seconds to make (or just a quick order to the online supplier), and people are eating it up, it frustrates me. I wish there were some integrity. I mean in a all handmade, juried show to make one or two of your items and to buy the rest is just frustrating to me. 

Yep, I'm ranting, and who am I to criticize? If I'm so upset why don't I just do the same? I have to say many times I think I should just quit and do the same. What difference does it make? But for some reason I can't. I just can't bring myself to do it. Good luck to them because I know they are kicking my ass in sales. They make much more than me because for some reason the China-made items are cheaper ready-made than what I can even buy my ribbons for. And there is no labor time involved. Whatever, I'm in this for me, right?