A Hopeful Post

Pink Lemonade

I know, I know - I've pretty much been absent for the last two months. Seems like every time I think I'm going to get back to a "normal" routine something else comes up! I'm hoping that's going to change though and that I'll be back to my normal blogging and listing and creating self :) So far - so good. One morning accomplished! Oh wait...that's not much of a start is it? Well here's hoping for more than just the one morning!

Seriously though, I had some pretty massive migraines this week and we're not really sure why it was so bad. I had about three days where all I did was sleep! Argh. I think it was just a bad convergence of factors, but it was still frustrating. So I stayed home from my Market today (probably good, it's wet out) to relax some. Having said that - I'm still kinda "working" around the house :P But this way I can rest!

I'm so bad at relaxing >_>

Market Day and Renewed Focus

Yesterday was market day again - and I had a lot of fun! Normally I'm going to be doing the Markets every other week, but for the opening of the market I did two weeks in a row.

I made some small changes to my booth this week. The first is that I found the tray that you see above at Ross. I love it! The wood is perfect for displaying hemp and it looks better than when I had the bracelets just loosely displayed. I'm going to be moving the hemp necklaces at some point .... but I'm not sure how it'll work out just yet so I'll tell you about it somewhere down the road.

My hubby found this on top of the fridge when spring cleaning the other day and I realized it was perfect for displaying my charms! I used to have enough counter space that I could display my coffee mugs on the counter. I haven't been able to do that in a long time so I kinda forgot I had it. I may eventually get another one when I have more inventory :)

This is the featured booth of the week! It's one of my nearest neighbors. Doesn't he do beautiful work? He has a gorgeous accent too ( I need to ask him where he's from). And don't worry, it's not like I have a crush or anything, he's an older guy :P I just love voices!

Do you SEE the temptation I'm faced with every week? And to make it worse ... their fudge is delicious! So far I've been a good girl and only had one sample a week. I'll probably buy my hubby some if I have a really good week. Bringing home sweets is a great way to keep the hubby happy :P

I did pretty decent this week. I didn't make my sales goal, but I made enough to make me happy and consider it a pretty decent today. I also met a lady that I might start teaching to bead weave! I really hope it happens because I've been thinking for awhile that it would be great to teach, and this would give me a great chance to get some experience.

I'm feeling really psyched about business stuff right now. I mean, I enjoy doing my jewelry no matter what, but having the regular venue is really renewing and channeling my focus again. I have a lot of ideas, but I'll talk about those in a different post.

Crafty ADD #32

Boy it's been a long time since I've posted one of these! The last month has just been weird. First I spent about two weeks at the hospital every spare moment I could with my brother, his wife, and their kids (she had two lovely twin boys and they are now doing wonderfully!). Then I got really sick for a bout a week. Then, not long after recovering from that, I ended up with major oral surgery! Wow. No wonder I feel like I've been absentee from the on-line world lately.

I haven't done any crocheting. Which is bad, cuz the boys are born and it isn't done, but I figure as long as I get it to them in the first few months we're good right? I've done some cross-stitch, but I forgot to take a picture and I don't want to go take one :P I'll show you where I'm at with the next update!

My major focus has been jewelry the last two weeks because I started the Saturday Market season and I've been working hard on display's and inventory!

This is a custom order I did for a friends mom. It was really neat, her daughter bought the necklace for her birthday, and then the mom decided she wanted a full set! Sweet eh? I had fun designing the earrings. I wanted something that would compliment the design of the bracelet and necklace (which match). It took three tries, but I found something I fell in love with and I will be making more for my shop!

Charms tend to be a big seller for me. $3-5 depending on what they are made of, so it's a cheap and easy item to pick up. Doesn't hurt the wallet. I knew I needed to make more but I got extra incentive when I picked up a coffee cup holder to hang them from! I'm not sure I have what I'd consider a "full inventory" (ie, what makes the holder look nice and full) yet, but that's enough for this week! Especially since I made most of those today...and there are other projects to work on!
3 of these sets of earrings were for specific people, and the rest are just to keep the stock up in my shop :) I'm kinda in the habit of making multiple pairs of earrings whenever I sit down to make one specific pair. They don't take long to make up and it's a good way to keep up inventory! Especially since these also tend to be good sellers :)

Opening Day at the Market

I had a lot of fun at the Market on Saturday! I definitely have some things I want to work on with my display, but that's ok, I have all summer to keep getting better and better right?

Here's my Necklace Table

Earrings, Bracelets, and Everything else...

The above table is the one that I want to do the most work on. I am going to change up my earring display and I want to have something neater than just having things laid out on the table. Don't know exactly what I'm going to do for that part yet though!

Cute Doggy that visited us!

I got my face painted!

With a rose of course :)

Isn't she sweet?

Isn't that shirt screaming for a necklace? My mother in law bought it for me a couple of weeks ago and I have a necklace 2/3rds done for it. But I ran out of beads :P So I wasn't able to complete it in time for this week. Ah well, there will be future weeks!

Over all it was a good day. I didn't make a ton of direct sales, but I have two commissions and a repair I'm doing, so that's bringing a bunch more money in and over all makes for a good day!

Day After Tomorrow

AHHHH! Opening day in the market is the day after tomorrow! Things are quickly falling into place though, so really, I need to stop stressing. The tent came yesterday in the mail (big stress!), and I was feeling good enough today to run the last errands I needed to do for Saturday.

I do have a few things left to do tomorrow, but they are all small things and it shouldn't be too hard to finish up. Especially since I got my grocery shopping done today and I should be home all day tomorrow to prepare and get a bit of rest. Resting is the part that I'll have the hardest time remembering, but that will be the most important! Especially since my mouth is still healing from the oral surgery a weak ago and that lowers my bodies defenses.

I'm really excited though! My brother who is my main partner won't be able to come this week (his twins have only been home from the hospital a week) so one of my other brothers is coming along to do the heavy lifting and keep me company. Should be a grand old time!

Oh and yes, I'm making lists and crossing things off :P

Cook Book's Lie and Preparation for Saturday

Cook books lie. Don't believe them. Seriously! Ok, well I do like experimenting, and sometimes my experiments turn out great. Other times my experiments turn out ... scary. And of course there's the in between.

The chicken cordon bleu I made tonight did NOT look like the picture. That picture looks much yummier for one thing :P Mine actually didn't taste too bad, but it used Panko bread crumbs for the coating, and it just didn't work for me on chicken. I like it on fried fish, but it just didn't fit here.

Oh yes, crafty stuff, I suppose you want to hear about that now right? Well, in my defense, cooking is an art! Not necessarily the way I do it, but does that really matter?

Actually, cooking is the biggest crafty stuff I did today. The rest of what I did was...preparing to be crafty? I guess that's the best way to put it. Or at least, that's what my exhausted brain is pulling out!

I ran a bunch of errands today, including crafty errands. I have a custom order that I've been working on and I needed to get some findings that I don't usually carry on hand. While I was out I ran across a going out of business sale and got some cardboard displays that I'm really excited about! It changes my display plans - but for the better! I might get you a picture before the Market on Saturday, and if I don't, you'll see it when you see my photos from this weekend!

Bead Soup Rides Again!

I'm so excited! Bead Soup is coming back! There are already 55 people signed up - and I can hardly wait to see what we all come up with :) The last one was soooo much fun!! If you want to sign up go to this post on Lori Anderson's blog :)