Craft fair update.

Hi all,  I thought I would give a quick update to our first craft fair.  We spent almost an entire month making new items. I would come home after work and we would go right to the garage, sometimes making new things for hours. I spent many nights worrying that I wouldn't have enough items to sell. I had put everything from hiking to skiing to horseback riding on hold to make new items. Fast forward to the craft fair and let's just say that we had way more than enough. I think there must have been 50 people all day, about 1000 less than what was expected.    

But, it wasn't a total loss as I met some great people and maybe some new potential buyers, so that was nice. It also showed me that I can make a lot of things in a short amount of time.

I have since learned to find out the type of crowds who will be attending the craft fair and what types of items they will buy.

Last night the kids and I realized that this was the first night in a long time that we didn't have to make anything and didn't have any worries about our business so we fired up the BBQ and relaxed........aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!  and I loved every minute of it!

As for doing another craft fair, I would love to.  I learned a lot and next time  I will be much more prepared. Oh, another positive is that now I have plenty of items in stock and will be ready when the next order comes in, so that is good.

So, here's to craft fairs and let's hope the next one is more successful. :) 

P.S. My daughter made these glow in the dark smiley rocks and shells the night before. The crowd was so small, we didn't even get a chance to give them away. Next time. :) 

www.etsy.com/shop/DeerwoodCreekGifts
www.facebook.com/DeerwoodCreekGifts
www.twitter.com/DeerwoodCreek

 

Handmade :)

A few days ago I wrote about the trouble brewing over at Etsy, the website that hosts my online shop. Apparently one of the shops they featured claimed to be run by a lady who handmade all her items by herself, but after some looking into, turns out she did not make her items and they were not handmade, at least not by her. 

Anyhooooo, another lady on Etsy thought it would be a good idea for those of us who do make our items HANDMADE, to change our shop avatar's showing our own hands. She then took those avatars and put them in a collective photo.

I wanted to share the photo as it is pretty cool. Mine is the third row up, third from the right. I am holding a green drill. :)

Here is the link to the actual photo, you can see it better.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41698614@N04/6985408074/in/photostream

www.etsy.com/shop/DeerwoodCreekGifts

www.facebook.com/DeerwoodCreekGifts

www.twitter.com/DeerwoodCreek

The kids and I have started an online business!

In January, I bought my son a saw and a drill. We went to a firewood place and got some wood. When we got home, he went to the garage and started cutting away. I asked him to make me a log tealight candle holder. After several tries, he made one! I loved it and he made a few more.

Later that night, my daughter and I made two fleece tie blankets. A co-worker saw them and suggested we put them on Etsy.com to sell. I had never heard of Etsy, but once I looked into it, I knew it was where I wanted to sell my things.

On Etsy, you open a "shop" and sell your items. It is .20 to list a new item, so it is pretty inexpensive. We listed the fleece blankets and then the log tealight candle.

A few days later I opened my e-mail and there was an e-mail from a lady in MA who wanted us to make 60 log tealight candle holders for her wedding. My son and I were speechless. At first I thought maybe it was a spam e-mail - 60 candle holders? We had only made five EVER! I couldn't believe that someone wanted to use something that we created and wanted to use them in their wedding. It was a great feeling.

To be honest, I never imagined anyone buying more than three of our candles, so 60 was huge! My son and I went to the firewood place and bought a lot of logs. After cutting about 20 of them (on the neighbor's borrowed table saw) we realized that there were worms in the wood. No way was I going to send a bride for her wedding wood with worms!

We ended up giving all the wood to the neighbor to burn for fires and back to the firewood place we went. We came home and started cutting, drilling, sanding, cutting, drilling, sanding...it is exhausting, but a lot of fun! Also, very messy. I often came into the house with wood shavings in my hair, in my shoes - that stuff gets everywhere.

The only mishap we have had was my son walked into the house holding his pants leg from the inside and the drill bit sticking out of this leg! Apparently the drill had a malfunction and it caused the drill bit to slip loose and it went into my son's leg. I took him to the ER where he ended up getting seven stitches.

The next day I found him in the garage where he was plugging in the drill. I asked him what he was doing and he said he wanted to get the candles done for the bride and he was going to work on them. I asked him about his leg and he said it hurt, but we promised to make the candles and that was exactly what he was going to do. Finish the job.

We have now had a few more orders and I love selling what we make. It is a great feeling to know that something I made makes others happy. I have a regular full-time job, but once I get home, I love to create things. I love the time spent in the garage with my son sawing, drilling and sanding. I love being the house with my daughter and making up new wedding centerpieces. She is very creative and has great taste, so it is a lot of fun. They are great kids and this is something we are doing together.

If you would like to see our shop, please stop by.
http://etsy.com/shop/DeerwoodCreekGifts

http://www.etsy.com/listing/92509520/peace-love-happiness-centerpiece-log
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94513364/blue-and-purple-wedding-centerpiece