Crafty weekend recap

This weekend was a busy one! I had a craft show Friday night - it was a lot of fun! I sold a lot of pendants, lots of magnets, one doll, and two aromatherapy eye pillows! Plus, my crafter friend Abby was there so we had a great time chatting about crafts and doing shows, etc. I made some decent cash, I was happy! I had another show on Saturday that was a DUD. It was at a church about a block down from my house, and I had decided to do it just because it was so close. I shouldn't have! Hardly any buyers. I sold a few things, a pendant, an eye pillow and some magnets. My magnets are the most popular thing at my shows, no matter if people buy them or not. I get all sorts of "oh that's clever!" comments and a lot of "I didn't know bottle caps were still being made!" and some more of "where did you get all of these bottle caps?" (which they are implying, 'please tell me dear child that you did not consume the alcohol from which these 30 bottle caps came from'! To which I reply, 'wouldn't you know, I bought them online? oh that Internet, such a gem!")

I have 35 pendants left! I was really hoping to sell all of them at the four shows I was doing this season. I mean they are priced at an absolute STEAL, which no one realizes. The sterling silver chains alone retail at $12, and I'm selling the pendants AND the chains for $10 TOTAL! I have marked down all of my pendants on my Etsy site for $12 each ... I might go lower just to see if I can get rid of them. Etsy is so saturated with resin pendants right now ... it's really hard to stay on top of the pack and get noticed. I was thinking about offering them in packs of three - three pendants with one necklace, for like $15 or $20, and then selling off the extra chains later. I don't know ... I haven't decided. Do you think people would be more apt to buy three together? If I did that I don't know if I should offer a pre-packaged deal of three, or have people pick the three that they want? What do you think? At the shows this weekend I was offering 2 pendants for $15, three for $20. Most people bought 2.

I am glad to have the pressure off of doing the craft shows. I immensely enjoyed doing them (even the duds had their perks and pleasures) but the stress of making sure I had everything in order and my stock all ready was a bit tiresome. I'm glad now to have the time to work on crafts for Christmas and for myself!

Today Mike went to the Bengals game so the girls and I took a shopping trip to IKEA! I still love that place. I was a very good shopper - I only spent $25, even though at one point I had about a hundred more dollars of stock in my cart! I was going to buy a new comforter for our bed, but then decided to wait until I had Mike's opinion. I got a french press coffee maker for $12! I'm very anxious to try it out - plus I got some cute coffee mugs for 59 cents each. And plastic cups for the girls. And some BIRD ornaments! It was a fun trip. Arlene just loooooves IKEA, it's really funny. Lydia doesn't really care either way, and today, she was going for the honor of "most annoying child EVER in IKEA" and let me tell you, she won the prize!

I found these awesome stars there and I REALLY REALLY wanted to get them, but I wasn't sure how I'd hook them up. They hang from the ceiling, but I'd need to have an electric outlet in the ceiling to hang them. I don't know how I'd display them. But I know I want them. I should go back and get them. They are only $10.

All in all it was a great weekend, but it went by too quickly! The P family is finally getting over whatever horrible cold/flu bug hit us. We're all still sniffely and snotty, but we're managing!