Christmas Aprons!

Christmas Aprons are up in my shop in the SEASONAL section! Keep in mind that I have a very limited quantity of these. Once they're gone, they're gone! Below are some photos of the matching sets, but they are available individually. (I just didn't want to post too many photos here on the blog!)

Key Wristlets Are Here!!!

I made up a bunch of these Key Wristlets for the New Salem Mountain Festival and they were hot sellers! They are super handy. I am currently carrying one in the Sherbet print and it has made it a ton easier to find my keys in my big bag. Keep in mind that these can be made in most of the fabrics in my shop, so if you don't see the one you want, just ask!

Here's a linky to where you can see of them in my shop: CLICK HERE

Enjoy the photos!



Don't forget to choose a date for my 200th sale pool! Winner gets $20 in Forshee Designs Dollars!

200th Sale Pool! Winner gets $20!!!

Right now I am at 178 sales in my Etsy Shop! Obviously, the next benchmark is my 200th sale! So what I've decided to do is let my Facebook Fans/Twitter & Blog Followers pick a date that they think I will receive that 200th sale. Each person gets one date and vice versa. You can either leave a comment, email me (aprilforshee at gmail dot com) or leave a Facebook comment with your date choice. I will keep the list updated below!

RULES:

1) Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.

2) You must follow me on Facebook, Twitter or my blog.

THE PRIZE: Whoever chooses the correct date wins a $15 $20 gift certificate to my shop that can be used toward anything there, including shipping.

November 11
November 12
November 13
November 14
November 15
November 16
November 17
November 18
November 19--Rebecca
November 20--Brandi W.
November 21
November 22--Amy M.
November 23--Janimal
November 24
November 25
November 26
November 27
November 28
November 29
November 30
December 1--Erica P.
December 2
December 3--Ginger
December 4
December 5
December 6--Lana D.
December 7--Melanie C.
December 8
December 9
December 10
December 11--Kathy S.
December 12
December 13
December 14
December 15
December 16
December 17
December 18
December 19--Karen F.
December 20
December 21
December 22
December 23
December 24
December 25
December 26
December 27--Elizabeth
December 28
December 29
December 30
December 31

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, celebrated by those girls and guys who walk for days for a good cause. I have a couple of pink ribbon embroidery designs that would be perfect on a solid-color apron, a koozie, a zippered pouch, etc.. 20% of the proceeds from the sale of any items with pink ribbon embroidery will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure! This will be the policy all the time, not just for October!

Small Zippered Pouch w/Pink Ribbon Embroidery $12.00

Large Zippered Pouch w/Pink Ribbon Embroidery $18.50

Adult Apron (any fabric, any color) w/Pink Ribbon Embroidery $25.75

Koozie w/Pink Ribbon Embroidery $8.50

Just email me and let me know what you would like! aprilforshee {at!} gmail {dot!} com.

Craft Fair vs. Online Sales

This post might get long. I have a lot to say. I will start by saying that this post is in no way a bashing of craft shows. It is just to document my experience so other people can learn from it. I LOVE craft shows.

This past weekend I set up my booth at the New Salem Mountain Festival. It was supposedly a big show with 8,000-10,000 attending. So I figured that maybe 1% of those people would buy from me. That's 80 people, at about an average of $20/sale equals $1600. I thought that might be a stretch so I put $1200 in my head for a sales expectation/goal.

Here's how the weekend breaks down:

• $85 Booth Entry
• $50 Gas
• $20-30 Food
• 6 hours to load/unload/setup/breakdown/load/unload
• 4 hours of driving

For $600 in sales. And I'm not even counting the money I put into my display since that is not a specific cost to this particular show. So now let's put a dollar amount on my time. For custom orders, I charge $15-20/hour depending on the difficulty of the project. Let's say I got paid $15/hour this weekend. I worked a total of 26 hours, which amounts to $390.

So taking sales, less the costs, my business profited $45. And that's probably a stretch since I didn't even count the hours I spent sewing the products. Also, I did not include my dear husband's time. He helped me all weekend and I didn't even really ask him to do that.

To sum it up, I just don't think these craft fairs are for me. I don't think they are worth the time and stress (I lost a ton of sleep last week getting ready and worrying). To test this hypothesis, I will be spending $135 on relisting on Etsy and possibly some advertising spots on a few blogs to see if I can get $600 in sales from that. This will take away the driving and setup time and time spent sitting on my behind at the fair, giving me a better profit margin.

On a not-so-sour note, I met these two fun ladies! They have nicknames for each other (and everyone at their work, I learned) and wanted koozies with their nicknames stitched on them. They were so sweet and I was glad to have met them. Turns out that Robin lives a few miles from me!