A Very Pintrest Christmas

I've started decorating my house for Christmas. This will be our first Christmas as a little family (my husband and I and our two sweet dogs) and our first Christmas in our new house. Previously, I lived with two roommates in a house and we always decorated together. As I started putting my decorations out I realized that I only have enough stuff to really decorate about 1/3 of the house since only 1/3 of our decorations over the past two years were actually mine :( So I'm in the process of getting new decorations and making new decorations. I have found several projects on pintrest and I have done a few, I'll blog about those later. Here are a few that I still want to try:

These beautiful christmas tree cones from acreativemomma.blogspot.com

Beautiful Burlap Tree Skirt

SOOOOOO Pretty! http://pinterest.com/pin/146437425353281690/

Leave a comment and post your favorite Christmas Pintrest or blog idea!

Thanksgiving is here!

I'm super excited about Thanksgiving this year. I'm hosting for the first time ever. Thanks to Pintrest, I've come up with some pretty sweet menu ideas. My mom is bringing chicken and dressing and I am making the following:

Mac and Cheese from A Whisk and A Prayer

Roasted Potatoes seasoned with spices from DellCoveSpices on Etsy (she's a super sweet Etsian and friend, and her spices are out of this world!!) I made these potatoes for a football game viewing party using the Blackened Cajun rub and I swear every single person that ate them raved on how amazing they are.


And maybe these Betty Crocker Green Beans

I do still need a good dessert, anyone have any suggestions???

To end this post, I'll keep my tradition of posting the things I'm most thankful for this year

1. Christ
2. Family, old and new
3. My amazing husband of 3 months :)
4. Gainful employment
5. A BRAND NEW HOUSE!
6. A great set of in-laws packed with cousins, aunts and uncles (I've never had a big family)
7. The cutest puppy alive
8. Having the opportunity to grow my Etsy shop to be profitable (Thanks PromoFrenzy Friends!)
9. Pintrest recipes (seriously, I have taught myself to cook on pintrest)
10. Alabama Football being awesome again (had to throw that one in there ;) ) Roll Tide!

First Craft Fair

This past weekend I did my first craft fair. I was so nervous because of the nature of my items. I typically sell items that are customized with people's names so I didn't think I would have any sales. To my surprise, I actually had 4 orders! I also learned a few things that I will work on for the next fair. If you are planning on doing a craft fair during the holiday season let me offer a few suggestions:
1. Get a Square. Period. - If you have a smart phone or an iPad you NEED a square. You can download the app for FREE in the app store and register and they will send you a free device that you can plug into your phone or ipad. This allows you to take credit cards. It direct deposits the money into your account in about 24-48 hours and even sends your customer a receipt to their phone or email. There is a charge per transaction but it's super small plus because there are no monthly fees, you don't have to worry about paying a bill! Three out of four of my sales were with a debit card so if I couldn't take them, I would have lost those sales.

2. Bring cute bags to package your sales. I didn't have to worry about this since all mine were orders but I saw a few people putting their sales into simple cheap brown gift bags with a piece of colored tissue paper. I thought this was such a cute idea. It really makes your products have a nice "boutique" feel to customers. Hey, Victoria's Secret makes billions off of this strategy, make it work for you too.

3. Offer an incentive to customers to place an order the day of the fair. I didn't think of this until the last hour or so but I really should have done this. I noticed that I went through about 40 fliers and people said they wanted to order but would order later. Next time I will offer a special such as 15% off your order if you order at the craft fair.


4. Stand up. I know this may sound crazy, but it works. For my "real job", I work college fairs and have to stand behind a table all day. My boss is always so insistent that we stand, not sit and there is actually some logic behind it. I noticed at the craft fair that when I was sitting, only half the people came to my table as when I was standing. I started looking around and noticed that the people who were standing had much more traffic than those sitting. You appear more approachable when you are standing. Try it out!

Anyone else have any craft show pointers??
Finally, here's a pic of my booth, my husband was such a proud hubby that he had to take a pic...he's going to be one of "those dads" one day :)

Craft Show

This weekend I am getting ready to do my first craft show. I am a part of a local group of crafters called North Alabama Crafters and we are hosting our first annual holiday craft show. I am sooooo nervous! Since most of my items are personalized, I'm having a super hard time developing an inventory to take to the show. I will probably end up taking examples and order forms but I want a few things on my table to show. Anyone have any tips on craft shows??

I plan to sell Christmas Ornaments:

plates

and a collection of Alabama/Auburn themed merchandise

Please share your tips, suggestions of items to take, etc!

GIVE-AWAY WINNER!

I'm pleased to announce the winner of my first ever blog give-away! The winner is post #4 Crystal!! Crystal is expecting twins any day now so I'm super excited that she won this mug. I see lots of coffee early mornings in her near future! Congrats Crystal and thank you to everyone who played! I hope to do more of these in the future! Thanks to all my new followers!