Crafts and Craziness and Monsters, OH MY!

I worked my first Farmers Market yesterday.  Craziness, I tell ya!  I was a Momma Monster the week leading up to it trying to get all my crafts finished and prepped and the table "scape" prepared.  I have been in many conversations with God through the whole process and I kept asking if I should be doing this.  Did He want me doing this?  Had He made this the path He wanted me to walk down?  I wasn't really getting a clear answer to be honest, but I will tell you what I was getting.  Agitated.  I wanted to have certain things made and prepared and ready to go and it took away from my family, made me into a bit of a Momma Monster and as a result, my family suffered.  The night before, I presented a request to my Father in Heaven in much the same way Abraham's servant did when he was in search of a wife for Aaron.  I asked God to make it abundantly clear whether having a booth at craft fairs on a regular basis was something He wanted me doing.  I asked that if this was a green light, that all my stuff would sell...every single thing...nothing left.  If I had even one thing left, then I would know it was not a go.  Haha!  God totally answered.  I had all of some things and just a few of others left over.  I do believe I now know for sure! ;p

My dear friend Lucy went with me and totally blessed me with her time, company, help and previous fair expertise.  She helped me set up, took turns holding/feeding/entertaining Brea and just hung out with me.  It really was lots of fun, but it was lots of work for little return as far as the business side of it goes.  We did get to meet some interesting people and got to get back into the practice of saying MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Many people thanked us for saying that instead of Happy Holidays.  :)  We also came across plenty of people who were doing whole body cleanses and so did not partake of the tempting samples we had laid out.  I thought that was particularly interesting.  Especially at this time of the year.  Here is what our booth looked like at my house the night before when I set it up to see how I wanted everything:

 The bumbo in the background was not a part of the display...;p  Everything was squished at the house, but not at the actual event.

 I love that I got to use my Pampered Chef stands and platters for my display.  Those things are mighty handy and can be used for so many things!  Hey, hey!

 I put my business cards on the stems in the vase.  I saw it while googling and really liked that idea.

You know those cube shelves you can get at Target and they click together with the little discs?  That's what the display stands are.  I just used silver twisty ties to connect them.  Ghetto, but effective AND nothing a little ribbon or lots of scarves won't hide! ;)

Here is what our booth looked like at the market:

 That is my beautiful friend Lucy back there.  She's feeding Brea while I take pics.

I was rather surprised at what sold and what did not.  I only sold one bag of chocolate chip cookies!  What?!  That was unexpected!  I really thought those would disappear.  You never can tell, really.  I really didn't expect the tutus to sell and they didn't.  The lip balm sold rather well.  The bread sold pretty well and even some of the apple butter found new homes.  No jewelry was adopted and neither did the flower bow/pins take new journeys. :)  They will be going on the website.  I will also list some of the lip balm, although some of it will be going in stockings. :)  I don't think I want to mess with trying to package and shipping the apple butter.  Those will be given away, I think, along with the cookies as Christmas goodies for the neighbors.


After it was all said and done, I came home with stocking stuffers, bread to eat for breakfast and some things with which to set up my online store...finally.  I have decided to go ahead and actually do something with the business fb page and blog that I started over a year ago.  Yeah.  I started setting it up yesterday afternoon and even listed a couple of things.  I was going to list some things in my Etsy store, but found that it had been suspended.  I found out why this morning and it has now been reinstated, but I don't know if I want to mess with Etsy for the time being.  I am able to have paypal on my business blog and people can buy it directly off of there instead of me having to mess with listing and selling fees on Etsy.  We'll see.  I still have to link my fb and blog pages together and also finish listing all my stuff.  Once that is done, the bulk of the work will be done and I can just list stuff as I randomly make it.  I've also decided to take custom orders on a limited basis for now.  This is a much more do-able format for me than booths at a market or fair.  I think it would be fun to do that occasionally, but only if I have plenty of things already made up and I have a friend to make it fun.  I would also want to look at it as a ministering opportunity.  If I don't ask God into all that I'm doing, then what is the point?!  I'm still learning to do that and it is just so lovely when I do and He is there with me in all of the details!  So neat!  When I get everything listed and linked, I will put a link on here as well as my usual fb page and see what happens from there.  It should be interesting at least. :)

Big time disappointment!

Back in December, I placed an order with Mabel White Laboratories. Its a DIY site for homemade soap, lotion, etc. and they have essential oils and bases for lotions and such. I was super excited because this site had the best prices in conjunction with the shipping prices for the essential oils and shea butter and container and what-have-you! Well, a couple of weeks went by and I still had not received my order, so I emailed them to see what was going on. I got a response that same day saying that she and her staff had gotten sick over the holidays and they were just getting back into getting the orders out. She told me that she would send it the next day by a much quicker way than what I had paid for and that she would also include a free gift for the long wait. Well, I can understand about being sick and having to get caught up. I told her that since I knew it was on its way, she didn't have to worry about the free gift or the speedier mailing process and that I was content to wait for my order to get here by the mailing preference I had paid for. I also gave her my hopes for a speedy recovery for her and her staff.

Okay, fast forward another month. Yep, it had still not arrived! So, I emailed again. I asked if my order had been shipped yet. I just figured that the catching up was still behind. I will give the benefit of the doubt for a while. I got NO response this time.

Now another month has gone by and I wrote again to inform them that I wanted a refund and that I was going to pursue reimbursement through paypal. Unfortunately, I can't because it has been over 45 days. Bummer! So, I did the next best thing I could think of....I contacted the Better Business Bureau in the state she is licensed in and filed a complaint and request for reimbursement. We'll see how it goes.

Now you all know that when I am excited about something I will do a post and promote it. The opposite is true when I come across a situation like this. I will do a post and warn as many people about it as possible!!! I certainly don't see the need for anyone else to pay for a product(s) they are never going to receive. So, here's my warning:

I would highly advise AGAINST buying from Mabel White Laboratories, Mabel White DIY or Mabel White Home Living Corporation!!!

Here is the web address so you know: http://www.mabelwhite.com/ and this is the supply co. I actually ordered from: http://www.mabelwhite.com/SupplyCo/index.htm

After not receiving a response for so long, I went and did a little google research and much to my dismay, I am not the only one who has had issues of this sort with this company. There are apparently many complaints about this company and if I had researched it more thoroughly, I could have completely avoided this whole thing. Oh, well, live and learn!