Craft Show #2

I am totally flabbergasted about how different today's craft show was from last week's craft show.

1. There were definitely fewer vendors at today's craft show, and we were spread between the front and back of the high school building. This was my third year in a row doing this show, and in previous years, there were definitely more vendors.
2. There were fewer shoppers at the craft show. I'm wondering if the attendance of vendors and shoppers was because of the change of date or people going Christmas shopping elsewhere.
3. I made more money at this 1-day craft show than at the 2-day craft show last weekend! People were more willing to buy more cards to get the discount, and no one made a stink about my prices. There was an older lady that came by and bought 4 cards and 8 fabric flower pins. She said that her husband had asked her to get some presents for the ladies in his book club, so I offered the fabric flower pins at a discount if she bought multiple ones. I wasn't about to let a sale walk away!
   
4. I think it also helped that Robyn split the table with me to sell her catnip mice. If I had to make up the table fee on my own, this would have been a different story, so I'm glad that we decided to share. The table was big enough that we each had enough room to show off our items. Also, it was nice to have the company.

I had some visitors come to this craft fair: Mom/Dad brought snacks, a co-worker came by to say hi, and Meg came by at the end to help us pack up and go to dinner. The original plan was to get Mexican food, but the restaurant hadn't opened up yet for dinner so we got Red, Hot & Blue instead, which I was totally fine with.

Today ends my 2011 craft show season. Thankfully, it ended on a profitable note ;)

Trying Out Bundle Monster Image Plates

I have been really enjoying experimenting with the Konad image plate that I got a while back. My only issue with Konad is that the image plates are a little on the expensive side. I went back to Amazon.com to check out any knock-off brands that would have the same value, but at a cheaper price. I read the reviews for this Bundle Monster 25 pack of image plates and decided to give them a try. From what I understand, this set is better than the first one that they have on the market, so I'm glad they listened to customer feedback to make some improvements. Each Konad plate is about $7. The Bundle Monster pack was $21.99 ($0.88 per image plate).

My French manicure from the weekend was looking a little beat up, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try out one of the nail polishes that I bought recently and a Bundle Monster image plate, specifically one that had the fans. I didn't notice any difference between my Konad plate and the Bundle Monster plate, but I'm not sure if that's the case across the board yet because I've only tried one image so far. If I run into any problems, I'll be sure to report on them. Pale blue: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue-Away. Dark Blue: China Glaze in Little Drummer Boy. Bundle Monster plate #215 .

On another note, I need to find a better top coat. I currently use the OPI one, but I find that it sometimes smudges the image on my nail. Maybe I'm putting it on too thick? Does anyone out there have any recommendations? I've heard that the Seche Vite one is good, but it has one of those warnings on the packaging.

Tuesday Trigger: Deck the Halls

Friends: I met up with my former boss for dinner tonight to catch up. It's been about a year since the last time we had dinner together, so it was nice to hear how she's doing (and, of course, gossip about people at work, heh.)

Random act of kindness/weather: It has been raining pretty steadily the past two days and the rain has made the earthworms come out. When I was walking around outside today between buildings, I noticed a crowd of people looking at something on the ground. As I got closer, I found out that they were all looking at an earthworm that had crawled out of the ground. One of the ladies was in the process of picking it up to "rescue it."

Card: Here's my take on this week's Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Challenge. The paper already has a little glitter on it, but I used my finger to spread some silver glitter glue on the green ornaments to make them
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Nana's Kitchen, My Mind's Eye- Countdown to Christmas
Punch: EK Success Photo Tags Large
Stamp: Studio G (sentiment)
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Good News and Fall-To Layout #169

At the office/goals: I am able to cross off another thing off my goals for 2011 list- I got a promotion! It was officially announced at the all-staff meeting this afternoon and will be effective 1/1/2012. This has been over a year in the making. Given the recent staff and budget cuts, I wasn't sure if this was going to be possible, but somehow everything lined up and the necessary people who needed to sign off on this advancement said yes. I am very lucky to have my boss, because she could have easily found another way to move around the program money. She chose to give me the promotion, and that's going to really make a difference next year.

I actually found out about this news a few weeks ago. I printed the official email and went by my parents' house before going to the gym to tack it on the family refrigerator. It had a similar feeling to posting a good report card or good test score.

As predicted, Dad thinks the extra money should go to retirement. What a typical parental thing to say. I can think of funner things to spend money on. Like some crafty goodies or hey, even a kitty buddy for RJ. There's an idea! ;)

Card: I'm glad to be back to making cards for the blog. The card production for last week's craft show kinda exhausted me, and I felt like my mood for creativity was just not there and I didn't want to force it. With that said, I decided to tackle Fall-To Layout #169 tonight. I wanted the tree to stand out against the card, so I took out some of my green buttons and arranged the buttons into a tree shape.Card Specs:
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Countdown to Christmas
Stickers: Basic Grey Micro Mono Stickers from the Basics collection
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Doily Motifs

Song of the day: "Faster"- Matt Nathanson. I heard it at spin class a few weeks ago...and I forgot the lyrics so I couldn't find it when I got home. Nancy played it again tonight, and I repeated a line in the song in my head over and over until I got home so that I could Google it.

Craft Show #1, Day 2

Craft show: Today was better than yesterday in that I was able to cover my table fee AND make a little extra money. Cristina, my friend from grad school, came by to visit my booth and her purchase helped put me in the black (as opposed to red). There were some new vendors today, to take the spots that Saturday-only vendors occupied. The treasure box lady that had the booth next to me was replaced by a woman who sold these beautiful colorful wreaths. I wish I made more money today because I would have definitely bought a wreath and some of the photography that was being sold. The grandma that bought 15 tags from me yesterday made another appearance. She was sporting the necklace that she purchased from another vendor and showed off yesterday. She was a cute lady.

I'm so glad that I stayed for the whole time because there was a lady that came by at the very last minute and bought 6 cards from me. Patience pays off I guess.

Books: Just so that I would have something to keep me occupied at the craft show, I brought The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. I started it yesterday and finished it today, with about an hour left of the craft show. It was something that was already sitting on my bookshelf. I had read it before when I borrowed it from the library so I knew that it would be a good quick read.

RJ: One of my goals tonight was to wash my bedsheets because of all the cat hair that's accumulated over the course of two weeks. RJ obviously didn't mind taking a break on my bed, even though it was sans bedsheets. I honestly can't let the guy out of my sight. What a little terror.

Craft Show #1, Day 1

Craft show: I had my first one of the season today. I got many customers that said "Ohmigosh, that's so cute (::touch cards, pins, tags::)" and then walk off. Such a tease! However, there were some very nice customers. This one grandma almost cleaned out my origami ornaments, an item I don't get much business on usually. She wanted one origami shirt or dress ornament for each of her grandchildren, and since she took 15 ornaments, I'm assuming she has 15 grandchildren.

Nail polish: The crackle nail polish from Thanksgiving came off yesterday. I decided to do my first DIY French Manicure, using Kristina Werner's tutorial on YouTube as a reference. Tip of nails: Essie in Walk Down the Aisle (3 coats). Over top: OPI in Sweet Heart. I think it's a subtle French manicure, not like the ones you see on acrylic nails. Not too long after this picture was taken, the manicure got messed up because some parts were still not completely dry, so I took it all off. The 3 coats of the while tips might have had something to do with it. WAH.

Nail polish, take #2: I went out to dinner with a girl that I met at the dog wash event a few weeks ago and then afterwards, I went to Ulta with a coupon to check out nail polish on clearance. I cashed in on the Buy 2 Revlon, Get 1 Free deal and some clearance Sally Hansen Insta-Dri nail polish (5 bottles total). With the coupon, my total was $6.86. Mwah ha ha. I tried the French manicure again. Hopefully this'll stick this time around. I'm absolutely shocked that my right hand turned out better in tonight's manicure. Usually it's the left hand because I'm a righty. Tip of nails: Revlon in White On White (2 coats). Over top: OPI in Sweet Heart.

Craft Show Eve

Ahhh, a day off! :) I was able to go to the DMV Express to get my address updated on my driver's license. I dunno why it's called the DMV Express. I was there for like an hour! How is that Express? :P

Mystery solved #1: I found out who the mystery chocolate came from at the office. Since I knew who the sender was, I felt that it was safe enough to eat.

Mystery solved #2: I ran into my neighbor this afternoon and she said that she noticed that I had fixed the handle on my trashcan. The bungy cord that used to be there because of some random act of kindness somehow fell off, so I had to replace it with some string. She said that she was the one that put the bungy cord on my trashcan, but we were both disappointed that it mysteriously disappeared.

Here's my craft show inventory. Look at all the cards! I hope that by the end of next Saturday, most of the inventory will be gone, which would translate to profit! ::fingers crossed::