Friday, December 30, 2011

I have been enjoying my family this holiday season. So this picture OVERLOAD is making up for the last month! 

These last few weeks have been a ton of fun! Getting ready for Christmas, baking, crafting, seeing my little brother (who joined the national guard.) Christmas morning was a blast! My boys loved it.
Anyways here is a little picture recap of what we have been up to!

































Our pot belly piglet Penny and her best friend Bun Bun


Christmas Morning!









Christmas Tree Cinnamon Rolls!!




Ryder loved his Inch worm!

Reed got a fish tank from his grandma and papa!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Holiday Bazaars and Shop Update!

 A Very Interesting Weekend!!!

              This weekend was my First Holiday Bazaar, and well lets say I am chalking it up as a lesson learned. I am not giving up on Holiday bazaars but I am going to be more selective in the bazaars I choose. Lets start at the beginning, so first  when I called the man "in charge" he was very hard to get a hold of and terrible at returning phone calls. (yes I know RED flag). When we finally got in touch he really grilled me and asked a ton of questions about what I was making. I thought okay he really wants to be selective as to who is at the bazaar. He also told me that he asks what each vendor makes so there are not any duplicates. After the long phone call I thought well I have nothing to loose I will set up shop. I was excited, nervous, anxious. I didn't know how much stuff to make, or how I was going to set up my booth display. So Saturday morning came and I went to the bazaar an hour before it started and set up and got all giddy and was ready to greet customers. Slowly other vendors trickled in and were setting up there booths and as I looked around I realized. . . . . wait this is not what I had expected.  There were  4 purse ladies(you know the one who buy knockoffs and then sell them), 2 Mary Kay reps, a lady selling tons of sheets. Now don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with selling that kind of stuff I just kinda, sorta expected it to be more handmade crafts, since it was called the Holiday CRAFT Bazaar. After seeing that I really kinda thought, man this guy fooled me.  SO with all that negative I decided well I need to make this positive.  I took notes on how I would display things better.
Like making my display easy to navigate with prices marked
Making a place for me to stand behind my table so I am easy to approach and talk to.
Engaging with people as they walk by and bringing them to my table.

I also took note of  what questions I would ask when looking into a bazaar.
Do they advertised? 
What other kind of booths would be there? Handmade or not?
Asking there return rate (how many booths come back each year?) 

There is much more but that will come in another post.

      The good news is I did break even. So it didn't cost me anything but my time to be there, I even made enough to pay for the items I purchased for my display.  That was awesome.  I also met this totally awesome lady named Brooke she is the face behind SharpCouture. Her stuff is AMAZING! She also has a Facebook page. She sells totally awesome burlesque costumes and masks, totally adorable sock banks, feather earrings (she even dyes the feathers herself). EVERYTHING IS AMAZING!  Be sure to check it out and tell her I sent you!!!!

        Well with lessons learned, breaking even and meeting new people in the handmade world, it wasn't to bad of a weekend!  If you have a good or bad experience that you think the rest of us can learn from! Link up to my blog!!!
     
           Next weekend I will be at the Indie Crafters Market at Gates Home Furnishing in Grants Pass. Be sure to check it out!!



 Oh almost forgot there will be a huge shop update this evening and tomorrow!!!! So excited!!!!

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

I was featured on Heart Handmade!!! Exciting!!!

For any new shop/blogger being featured anywhere is exciting! This week I was featured at Heart Handmade. I am super excited!!!  Be sure to check it out.

On another note, this week has been so busy!!! I have been sewing and crafting away getting ready for a Holiday Bazaar! It has been Crazy!!!!! The shop is getting low, my patience is running thin and my head is pounding! I knew I should have started this project way sooner then last week! lol

Well I am off to finish crafting! Be sure to check back for photos of my booth at the bazaar and an updated shop!!!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving and Black Friday!! Link up!

First Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! This is my favorite holiday, no gifts, no craziness, just family and friends spending time together and be thankful for the blessed year. Oh yeah and the AMAZING food!!!
On another note, as I was watching to news, I saw something that was kind of sad, people missing out on valuable family time to save a buck. Now I am all for shopping and saving money, but really camping out a week ahead of time to get the best deals. Kinda Crazy!!! I rather have a nice dinner with my family and friends and then hit the shopping!! lol
 What are your family traditions? 
Do shop on Black Friday?
Everyone know I have two sons and 3 year old and a 1 1/2 year old. Well this will be the first year that I will not be taking them Black Friday shopping with me! I know crazy I took them the last two years! Now usually my little brother (who is 18) is my Black Friday shopping partner, however this year he is at Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. He shipped out November 7, 2011 (my 23rd birthday). So this year I am going to be doing my Black Friday shopping with his girlfriend and her family! I am looking forward to it! We have a few stops we are going to be making.

What stops will you be making? 
What stores have the best deals where you are?

I would love to hear about what everyone does to get ready for Thanksgiving and Black Friday!


I sat down with Ian and Reed last night, Reed made his list for Santa and so did Ian! lol I decided on what stores I needed to go to first and what time to leave. Nothing on Black Friday goes as planned, so that is my plan. lol

Be sure to check back tomorrow probably evening (after my nap) for a look at our Thanksgiving feast. We are doing something totally different they the usual Thanksgiving dinner. Also check back to see the awesome Black Friday deals that I got! 



I would love it have you link up & share your plans for Thanksgiving and Black Friday, 
by placing this link at the bottom of your post!


Modern MayeFlower

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Vacation and Referral Giveaway Winners!

I had a wonderful time in The Bay Area! We got to visit with family, spent the day in San Fran (where I went to an awesome fabric store), had some amazing dinners, learned some awesome recipes, and did a little shopping!































Enjoy all the pictures and Congrats to the Referral Giveaway winner!!!



Thank you everyone for helping me promote my business. The winners for the giveaways are Fallon Boyers of Silly.Beautiful.Life and lowercase letters