Vanilla

Finally got around to finishing my vanilla project...started in February! I was procrastinating because I didn't want to spend a fortune on the little amber bottles. Fortunatelty, I recently found a local container warehouse with great prices. I bought 2 cases of 4 oz amber bottles...but I really only needed 1 case because the bottle actually held more then 4 oz.

The one bad thing about the super cheap container warehouse was that the bottles were dusty. I washed them in scalding hot soapy water and let them dry for a day to make sure all the water drops were evaporated.


Look at all that yummy vanilla! Super steeped since I wait 10 months! 6 months would have been fine. I had to strain out the vanilla bean pods and use a coffee filter to get all the vanilla seeds strained out. There were so many that it looked like coffee grounds!

Hubby helped me fill the bottle because even with a funnel..I was making a mess, wasting precious vanilla. The kids thought the vanilla smelled yummy when we were filling the bottles. It did smell wonderful!

Next step will be for me to design labels. I have some leftover waterproof labels that I think would be almost perfect but they are a bit smaller then I'd like. I have non waterproof labels that are the right size but I think they would get yucky looking if any vanilla dripped down. I'll sleep on it and decided tomorrow.

This was a fun project. I can't wait to gift some of the bottles to neighbors and friends.

Woosh, there it...was!

My last blog entry was written at the opening of the 2011 season for the Riverside Arts Market. And the last market of the season was this past Saturday 12/17/11. What can I say? The months absolutely flew by. I had too much to do and not enough time to get it done!

How did my year go? Terrific would sum it up!

Two booths worked out nicely although I am thinking about scaling back next year. Business has been growing and it's becoming increasingly tough for me to be so fractured. It's just to the point where I need to narrow it down and basically decide what I want to be when I grow up. ;) The problem is that I love aspects of everything. Tie Dyeing for RAM, offering workshops in my studio, private sewing lessons...and of course, the Bird-E Towel 'factory.'

In the previous blog, I pined after a cargo trailer so that I could stop filling my van with RAM stuff (and thus getting my dining room back because THAT's where those van seats where living.) I did end up getting it which was an amazing help. I did a TON of RAMs this year. Even through the tough summer months when the heat was awful. It was worth it though! My fantastic customers kept coming back for more.

One sad event of the year was when my excellent employee moved on to full-time work elsewhere. I'm back to the me, myself & I show and it's not quite as good as having a team. After the ups and downs of normal small business stuff, I don't feel that I'm quite ready to bring someone else on board. It often feels that I bring money in right before the next big expense. Case in point, I just spent the equivalent of ALL of my December arts market income securing fabric to make Bird-E Towels over the next few months. That's 1200 yards of fabric and it wasn't cheap. When it's just me, I don't mind diverting my paycheck so that I can get an advantage on supplies. Obviously can't do that when someone else is on board. Anyhow, moot point because NOW is the wrong time to even think about this. No arts market income for 2.5 months = lean business months. Time to recuperate and come up with an action plan for the new year.

I ended the RAM season on a massively high point. Best sales EVER in the 3 years I've been doing this.

Rough Goals for next year - still working on them

Bird-E Towels
- increase Bird-E Towel Sales. Bird-E Towels are more family friendly as far as production goes. I can make and ship around our schedule.
- Take on a few wholesale accounts and see how it goes. Couldn't do this last year with spotty fabric supply. Every time I turned around, my supplier would tell me he was out.

Sewing Lessons & Workshops
- I will continue doing these on a sporadic, as requested, basis. I LOVE doing these but they are slightly more difficult to manage with our ever increasing busy schedules. I look at these as recharging events. They help fulfill the inner teacher in me.

RAM
- Oh RAM, how I love you...but I need a bit more balance in my life and working nearly every Saturday was really tough this year. I'm going to load up on the front and back end of RAM dates for 2012. If I can, I'm going to give myself a break over the summer.

Facebook
- I'm kind of embarrassed that my facebook fan base hasn't grown tremendously. I really need to figure out how to get those numbers to rise on a regular basis. I think I have a fear that I'll be pushy if I do contests tied to 'sharing' like other fan pages do. I am not a pushy sales person. I am thankful that I haven't needed to be!


I love how my business has grown in 2011. I love that the different pieces have worked together in harmony...mostly. I do work really hard and spend virtually all of my 'free' time on this endeavor. I can imagine big things for Athena Creates. Huge! I just need to keep growing, learning and working really hard so that I can make it happen.

Oh how I missed you, RAM!

March 5, 2010, was the grand opening for the 2011 season at the Riverside Arts Market after the winter hiatus. I can't even tell you how nervous and excited I was in the past couple months. Would I be approved? Would I be able to book my desired location? My friend and I were checking the reservation website daily and we'd text each other any news. All the worrying was for naught. We were both approved and we were able to book a booth next to each other. Phew!

So there were 2 big developments for my business as it relates to RAM. 1) is that I expanded to 2 booths! Over the course of time that I have been in business, I would do what most other small business owners do....take my profits and reinvest in more products. Before I knew it, I was having a hard time staying within my 12x12 space! It wasn't too bad because I usually got an end spot and I didn't have to leave a space between my booth and the next on the end. Well, on the last day of RAM last year, there was a new booth created on the end...and I felt claustrophobic in my booth with everything moved in!

Having 2 booths meant that I needed to do a mock up of my booth with my gridwalls and tables. I was able to use a larger table and all 3 brass clothing rack that I had acquired for a song on craigslist last year. I LOVE my brass racks because they are rock solid stable even when strong winds come through.

My helper and I spent all day Friday, Mar 4, setting up my booth in my driveway. We had to pull all my stock out of storage bins and put them back on hangers. I fiddled with the layout many times until I found the best configuration that allowed for people to walk through and see everything. I made signs. My helper priced everything that previously wasn't priced. It was a full day...and then we had to pack it all back up and load it into my 15 passenger van with all but 1 bench removed. I hope business will allow me to buy a cargo trailer soon.


This photo just shows half the booth.

I hardly slept that Friday night. I was up at 4 a.m. and ready to go! I forced myself to wait until just before 7 for the very short drive to the market. I had most of the booth set up by the time my helper arrived at 9. It really went together VERY smoothly since we had done all the prep work the day before.

The second exciting new was that I was able to invest in some mannequins for my booth! Last year, I discovered that whatever I had on my half mannequins would sell quickly. Something could be on a hanger week after week with no interest but the minute I put it on a half mannequin, it would sell and the new owner would exclaim how cute it was! LOL

Mannequin #1 is this adorable little girl, sitting. I liked her because I figured she could be buckled into our van and kept 'safe' from the shifting stuff in the back. We've had a lot of fun with her! My kids think she's a life sized doll and they would put hats & shoes on her...ALL my kids, even the boys. hehe

The reaction at the market was very interesting! I noticed that several people were a little freaked out...but for the most part people really liked her! Kids loved her and would have to touch her as they passed by! That cute dress that she's wearing is super special. I didn't start with white clothing that I purchased...I actually sewed the dresses with a high quality interlock knit and then I tie dyed it in a 3 part process to get the lovely purple Shibori burst on the side.

Mannequin #2 is a super tall, thin lady with sculpted hair like the girl. Sorry....I didn't realize that I didn't get a photo of her. You can kind of see her head in the back of this photo.





The wind was REALLY strong at times in the morning. I have never had a problem with my shorter gridwalls swaying but I felt the need to really keep an eye on them when the wind was really strong on Saturday. I moved the cascade racks down a few notches and I made sure all 4 legs were on the bricks and that made a big difference. I'm toying with the idea of getting a new tent to have something else to stabilize them. Plus it would be nice to have some sort of shelter when the torrential rains come through sideways. My booth is under the bridge and very protected from normal rain but there is a chance of getting a bit wet when it comes in sideways.

Anyhow, I am so excited that we are back in the swing of things at RAM! It's a lot of hard work but we all have a lovely time....chatting with other vendors who have become friends, chatting with customers, enjoying the music and entertainment. Such a nice way to spend a Saturday!

This last photo is how RAM looks at the end of the day. Everything packed up and ready to load up.

Homemade Vanilla

Our family goes through quite a bit of vanilla. We usually buy it it large 16 oz bottles from Sam's club and with our large family, it doesn't last as long as you'd think it would. I recently stumbled across directions for making homemade vanilla and I knew I had to try it.

I used the directions from this blog: heavenlyhomemakers.com

I bought 2 half pounds of vanilla from amazon

For some strange reason, it was cheaper to buy 2 half pounds then it was to buy a whole pound!

With shipping, I paid $51.95 for my 2 half pounds. I only needed 3/4 a pound for the vanilla so 3/4 of that total = $38.97 The quality of the vanilla is amazing. Plump and moist, not dried out twigs. With my 1/4 pound, I will be making vanilla sugar and whatever else I can think of that requires whole vanilla beans...like my favorite dessert recipe...creme brulee!

I didn't want to go buy a gallon sized jar nor did I want to recycle a pickle jar because I know from experience that it takes a long time for the pickle smell to go away! Not wanting pickle flavored vanilla, I opted to use quart sized canning jars that we already had on hand. Dividing the 3/4 pound among 5 jars, I end up with 16 beans per jar. Per the directions, I split the beans but I also had to cut them in half to get them to fit in the jar. Once filled, each jar had about an oz over the 24 oz line. So, if you wanted to make 1 jar instead of a gallon's worth, you could use 16 whole vanilla beans and just add enough vodka to pass the 24 oz mark.

Hubby purchased the vodka from Sam's Club at a cost of $11.99 per 1.75 litre bottle = $23.98 + tax = 25.66. We didn't shop around so I'm not sure how this compares to a liqueur store or walmart as suggested by the original blog.

Vanilla beans + vodka = 64.63 for 1 gallon (128 oz) of premium homemade vanilla.

That brings the cost to approx 50 cents an ounce but NOT including the little amber bottles that I would have to buy to gift the vanilla. Now I just have to wait 6 months before I can try it!!

Ultimately, this little project does not save me money over warehouse pricing BUT I am positive that the quality will be much better. Is does beat grocery store vanilla prices and it's WAY cheaper then the cost of premium vanilla. And I think it makes a really neat gift especially when transferred to those cute bottles with pretty homemade labels. Oh and we definately will be gifting some. Vanilla stays good forever but I would rather share then have our own lifetime supply! :D

9 months later...

Woah...I was a little surprised to see how long it has been since my last blog entry. The truth is...I have been busy, extremely busy with my business and with my family. It does not even seem possible that 2010 is drawing to an end. It really feels like it should be September!

We have had some big changes here since my last blog. My oldest child entered high school, my oldest son entered middle school (in 5th grade! That's unusual here but he attends a new charter school that starts with 5th.) We successfully fought to have my twin son moved to his appropriate grade level after he was withheld the previous year. And...he is doing GREAT...as we expected. :) And my baby girl attends a preschool 4 days a week, mainly so that I can have some uninterrupted hours to get work done. In case you lost count, that's 5 kids in 4 different schools. Somehow we manage but I think it contributes to my insanely fast moving life!

Business has been great! I hired my first employee over the summer. Her name is Candace and I feel incredibly blessed to have her. She helps me be more productive. It's a good thing! I have to say that to this day, I am still amazed that I am now a bona fide employer. It's a little scary to have someone rely on me for income...but because of her part, I am able to keep business rolling in. For that, I am thankful. It also feels really good to be a part of a business that is constantly growing (albeit in tiny steps) in this market.

My arts market sales have consistently been great and I have reinvested back in more product. When I think about what I started with....compared to what I have now in product and in fixtures like my gridwalls.....it's a LOT. :)

I'm looking forward to another year of growth in 2011! I'm hoping I can provide my employee with full time hours, pay myself with a little more consistency (instead of reinvesting as much as I have been.) And I'd love to bring on another part time employee next summer.

Also on my wishlist:
Industrial 2 or 3 compartment sink to be installed for tie dye operations
Used top loading washing machine for tie dyeing
2nd Industrial serger

OK, I guess that'll have to do. Lots of stuff on my to-do list today...laundry, embroidering, soup making, order filling, product listing, etc, etc, etc!

Screen Printing

Not too long ago, I was shopping for kraft bags for my arts market customers. The box of 500 bags that I bought last year are already gone...plus they were really a tad too big. I bought them because they were actually cheaper then the next smallest size. Go figure. Anyhow, this time I splurged on green bags because my Bird-E Towels are an eco-friendly green product. I also wanted to have my business name printed on them. I quickly ruled that out because of the cost! They were pretty pricey per bag and there was a set up fee that was pretty high.

In the past, I have tried a variety of ways to get my name on my bags...stickers that weren't super secure because I have the re-positionable kind, I also used a stamp but it didn't stand out. I stumbled across a screen printing website...and I was instantly interested. Not just for my little bag project but for the other possibilities.

I bought a hobby kit from www.silkscreeningsupplies.com and I am glad I did. I made a few mistakes in the process & I had to email their customer support. They replied very quickly and gave me a ton of helpful advice. I'm afraid that if I had just bought the supplies elsewhere that I would have been ready to throw the towel after my first disastrous attempt.

The basic steps are:clean you silk screen, let it dry

• apply emulsion to screen in a light safe room & let it dry
• make your design negative on the computer & print it on transparency film
  
• tape your transparency onto your screen & 'burn' the design by exposing the whole screen to uv rays
• rinse the screen with a water sprayer/hose. The parts that were covered by your negative will rinse away.
  
• let your screen dry again
  
• then you are finally ready to actually get the ink out and print! But don't get too excited yet. There is still a learning curve.

I thought I followed all the steps but I couldn't get the ink through parts of the design. Customer service helped me realize that my screen was actually under exposed. I spent an entire morning trying to get the old emulsion off. Looked so easy on the video...oh yeah, they used a pressure washer. Our pressure washer was stolen last year. I was never able to get it wall off even after all that effort. I wrote on the sides of the screen so that I would know which areas to avoid when I burned my new design.

Oh and somehow I ended up buying a new Epson printer and a pressure washer to help me with future screen printing projects. chaching!

So it has been quite a process but it was fun learning something new. :)

Meet Shorty

Our oldest child is our 13 yo niece, my brother's daughter. We've had her since she was 2 and we just count her as one of our own. Her mom & extended family is very much involved and we have a great relationship with them all. Not only were we blessed with Mia...but with all the family that we get to claim because of her. :D

Mia's cousin Lindsay needed to make room in her house so she asked Mia is she wanted one of her chinchillas. I have to say that when I agreed...I didn't really know much about chinchillas. I looked them up online and the pics I saw were just of the chinchillas...nothing to judge their size by. I thought they might be a little bigger then a rat.

Meet Shorty. He's huge! About as big as a rabbit. I exclaimed with delight when I saw him...and I'm not one to get excited about rodents. He is just too freakin cute. His fur is so soft. I'm in love with him already.


And then I saw his cage...it's like the biggest, nicest cage I have ever seen. Seriously, it's really nice, well-made & heavy! The rumour is that Shorty has been quite spoiled. I can tell based on all his nice toys! I hope he loves it here.

FRAM - buying local

I like the idea of buying local but if I'm being honest, we still do most of our shopping at our favorite warehouse club..mainly because of cost. When feeding a crew of 7, cost is a consideration. But, it is my new goal to buy local when we can. Today, I braved the freezing cold temps to hit FRAM, the Farmer's portion of the Riverside Arts Market in Jacksonville, Florida. (The artist's portion of the Arts Market is currently on winter hiatus until spring.)

The biggest plus to just having the farmer's there was that I was able to drive directly onto market grounds. With the vast majority of booths spots vacated, there was PLENTY of parking. It was rather convenient.

I think there were 10 vendors there, mostly produce tables but there was a coffee seller and someone selling granola.

I bought a little from most of the veggie vendors present. I avoided the largest one because they seemed a little more 'Florida' local vs Jacksonville or our surrounding areas. And, I don't know...their stuff seemed a little too perfect...more like grocery store produce. I wanted stuff that looked like it was local, fresh from the ground with dirt.


I was especially drawn to this little table from Down to Earth Farm. Somehow I ended up on their email list and I have enjoyed their upbeat attitude. Their latest email included info on how they are trying to save their crops from the freezing weather. So of course I wanted to purchase from them. Their stuff looked really exotic to me. As a child, my veggie consumption consisted of iceburg lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, canned green beans and canned corn. No, I am not kidding. As an adult, I am much more adventurous but I wasn't quite sure what to make of the unfamiliar veggies in front of me.... cone shaped cabbage, rutabaga, kohlrabi, beets and whatever else was there. OK, I've heard of rutabaga & beets but I didn't know what I would do with them. I opted for a $4 bag of prewashed mixed greens & a $2 cone shaped cabbage since I do know what to do with those at least.

I purchased from other vendors, too....green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, peppers. All in all, I spent $13 and bought a LOT of veggies. When my hands were full, a FRAM volunteer offered me a free canvas tote bag for my goodies. Nice! I came home, thawed my frozen hands, arranged my produce and took a pic for my 365 day project. My kids immediately wanted cucumbers. I made myself a salad with the mixed greens...it was delicious, absolutely wonderful. Not bitter at all like so many mixed salads can be.

So what are my plans with all these veggies... I plan on making salsa with the tomatoes & hopefully canning some. The green beans...oh the green beans...I can almost taste how yummy they will be using the Pioneer Woman's fresh green bean recipe. mmmmm mmmmmm

FRAM is open from 9 a.m. - noon on Saturdays. I'm pretty sure I'll be there as often as possible. It feels good to buy local. And maybe next time, I'll buy a rutabaga. Well....maybe. ;)

Pressure Canning Session #4

Pork Stew

8# Pork tenderloin - 15.80
5# whole carrots - 2.74
Onions - .75

$19.29 to fill my smaller stockpot which I think is 2 gallons Not sure about the cost per serving as some of it cooked down before I started canning. Plus, it was dinner for 6. I'll come back and edit the numbers when I'm done canning and get a better idea of what it produced.

Update: 21 pints plus I am guessing we consumed 2 quarts for dinner so that would have been 25 pt = approx .77 a pint (or 1.54 a qt.) Oh and I added a bag of frozen corn to the remaining stew in the pot so half of my jars will have corn...just to change things up a bit.

Like the beef roast, I cut the pork into 1-1.5" pieces. I'm trying to eat healthier so I cut off as much fat as possible. (Heck, I do this anyway. Cooking meat with big globs of fat just grosses me out.) This time I browned it on my big griddle to get the caramelized edges vs the oven method of quick browning that we did before. Into the stock pot went the pork alongwith 6 chopped onions and the 5 pounds of carrots that my children peeled & chopped for me last night. I really would have liked even more carrots! I covered everything in the pot with water, added salt & pepper + some chicken base for extra flavor. Oh and I put quite a bit of garlic in, too! I love onions and garlic.

I started making the stew around lunch time but I waited until the kids were home from school before I started the actual canning process. (I could have started the canning earlier but I didn't feel like I could leave it on the stove while I did school pick-ups just in case anything held me up.)

Came home, got my jars ready, heated up the water in the pressure canner and got a load started. I did pints instead of quarts because I specifically want to have easy lunch meals for me. So often when I head to pick the kids up, I realize that I haven't eaten lunch and I stop and pick up fast food or I eat some highly carby food that I don't even enjoy...like cheeze-its.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong but my canner says it can hold 10 pints but I was only able to get 8 in there. I tried stacking them but that didn't work either.

Gotta cut this one short or I'll be late to an appointment!

I had some of the stew for dinner and it was....fantastic. Very yummy. The pork just flaked apart. The kids, minus one picky 9 yo, all loved it as did the hubby.

Pressure Canning Session #3

I made a double batch of 15 bean soup, following the recipe on the back of the bag. It was the perfect amount for 7 quarts, the capacity of my pressure canner. I used a meaty hambone that we froze from our last ham, not too long ago.

Ham bone 0
Hurst Soup Beans (x2) - 4.78
2 cans crushed tomatoes - 2.98
Onions - .50
Lemon Juice - .25
Chili Powder - .05
Garlic - .10

8.66/7 = $1.24 per quart

I should note that we had to go buy MORE canning jars and they can be pricey! 12.59 for a case (12 jars) of the quarts and 11.49 for the pints. I decided to go with the wide mouth style which are a bit more money then the regular ones. The wide mouth ones are easier to fill and clean. I have been searching for cheaper sources and even put a request on craigslist but haven't found any yet. I've heard thrift stores and yard sales are good places to look for them...but I haven't been doing much thrifting lately...too busy! At some point, we can stop buying them because we will just be emptying the ones we have and reusing them over and over. Gotta buy new lids each time though!

Nice lazy day. (not really lazy but it felt like it)

Today has just been a fantastic day! First, I was still glowing after finding out that my Bird-E Towels were featured (again) at apartmenttherapy.com 'best of 2009' etsy finds. Hurray! It explained why my sales and convos picked up markedly.

Then I got 2 wholesale requests. I don't really do wholesale. It just doesn't make sense for me at this time. With 5 kids, my business time is limited and my retail sales are already keeping me quite busy. I did finally nail down my bulk discount rate though and I submitted details to my 2 requestees. If they are still interested, great. If not, that's OK, too. Maybe sometime down the road I can start considering wholesale a little more seriously...like when I have some help!

What else happened? Oh yeah...I was contacted by our local paper. :D They wondered if I was interested in doing a video piece of me making something crafty & eco-friendly. Yes! The video would run on the paper's website and the article would be in the weekend paper...with my name, business name and links. Coolio! Now I just need to lose 50 pounds in a week. Any good crash diets out there???

There were a couple other smaller things that happened that just made me feel good about my business today. All these things on ONE day. :D

OK, what else? Did I actually get out to my studio today?? Well, technically, yes, but I didn't actually get any work done.

Instead, I played with my kids, talked to my hubby, worked on my bulk pricing, replied to convos and emails, cleaned house a bit, did a load on laundry and made 6 gallons of Weight Watcher's Taco bean soup. Oh and I played a little Farkle on facebook. (Watch out Tamee, I got my eye on first place!) ;)

Now back to the soup. We love this soup. It's easy and very versatile. Serve it like soup just as it is. Serve it like chili with shredded cheese on top. Or a hearty tortilla chip dip. It's also great on baked potatoes. It fills you up and it's a good 'diet' food, too. Well, as long as you go easy on the shredded cheese and chips.

There are a ton of different variations of it but the main 2 ingredients that make this version good are taco seasoning and dry ranch mix.

My recipe is approx 6 times a normal person's recipe. hehe I like to make a LOT at a time. And 6 times is the right multiplication for the cans of tomatoes, sauce and corn that is sold at sam's.

So this time, I'm excited about now having a pressure canner because it will actually save me time. I used to have to wait a long time for the soup to cool before I could freeze it. Then you had to wait a long time for it to thaw before it was ready to serve. woohoo!

Although now that I'm on day 2 of using this pressure canner, I'm thinking one of the bigger models would have suited my cooking style better. I can only can 7 quarts at a time in my canner. Oh well...

So here were the ingredients in my 6 gallons of soup...

ground beef 6 pounds	6	2.34	14.04
onions	1	$ 0.97	$ 0.97
2 # dried black beans	1	2.69	2.69
2# pinto beans	1	2.25	2.25
4# Light red kidney beans	2	2.87	5.74
tomato sauce 6# 10 oz	1	2.18	2.18
corn 6# 10 oz	1	3.48	3.48
crushed tomatoes 6# 10 oz	1	2.68	2.68
chopped green chili - tiny cans	2	1.35	2.7
taco seasoning	1	$ 0.66	$0.66
ranch dressing mix	1	4.59	$4.59
			$41.98

6 gallons = 24 quart

$1.75 per quart


I think 1 quart would actually be a meal for our whole family especially if served with a side and bread. Nice!

Although I really must admit that I don't really do this to save money. Not really. I'm just lazy and don't like cooking all that much. I love putting effort in at one time, having something to show for it and then get a chance to slack later. And there is that benefit of me choosing what goes into it. I like that part, too. It's nice that my hubby really appreciates my kind of cooking. Heck, I guess he just appreciates any kind of cooking that he doesn't have to do.

Pressure Canning

I love to make soups. I love to make BIG batches of soup. Work hard for a little bit and end up with many, many meals for the effort. Hello! What's not to love? In the past, I would make 2, 3 or 6 gallons of soup at a time and then I would freeze the leftovers in individual and family serving sizes. Sometimes I would use freezer bags and sometimes I would use plastic freezer containers depending on what I had available. I would rarely reuse the freezer bags but I would use the containers over and over until they pitted on the sides or perhaps if I lost a lid.

Anyhow, at some point in the past year, I become aware that you could can soups and meats if you had a pressure canner. It just never dawned on me that you could do this at home. I did hear that you could pay to do your own canning at the county extension office but they had rules and it wasn't cheap to do. You had to use an approved recipe AND you had to cook it there before canning. To make it worthwhile, you'd almost need an army of people to process a large amount of food quickly.

So I started doing research and found that serious canners recommend the All-American brand of canners. For Christmas, my darling hubby surprised me with the 21 1/2 qt model. yippee! (He would have gotten a larger one but we have limited space on our range because of the built in microwave.)

I read the instruction manual...and it scared me!! So many warnings about serious injuries that could occur every step of the way if you screw something up. yikes! I panicked and tried to find a canning friend to walk me through it. Hubby went online and found some fantastic canning videos on youtube. That helped allay my fears and I was ready.

Hubby picked up 2 cases of canning jars and extra lids for me... $30 (ouch!)

First recipe...beef stew.

We had a 6# beef roast in the freezer from a previous sams' club trip so we decided to use that. Cost $15.03

Then I was going to break down the other costs but I seem to have lost some of the receipts! Well, OK...whatever 3 qts of cubed red potatoes ($2.50), 3 cups of diced onion ($1), 3 cups of diced celery & 8 cups of carrots costs...add that in. (I don't count the seasoning because we buy that in bulk at sams' for cheap.) I'm thinking it was probably around $23 for everything.

So this is what the stew looked like when we threw it together before canning. Browned cubed beef, veggies, beef base and seasonings. If I were making this for immediate use or for freezing, I would have thickened it with flour but that's a big no-no with canning.

Then it was time to start canning! I filled my quart sized pre-washed & pre-warmed canning jars with stew but left 1 inch headspace like my directions stated. I wiped the rims with a clean damp cloth and then put the lid & rings on.

The jars were very hot so I was thankful that my hubby bought me the canning accessory kit which included a jar lifter. The jars were then loaded into the canner which already had hot water in the bottom. (We accidently put a little too much water in. Whoops!) I will say that the directions in the manual were very confusing! You had to look at this page and then refer back to that page and then look at yet another page. I guess because there are so many options with canning. It would have been easier to a beginner like me if all the directions were complete in one place...even if it would have made the instruction manual a lot thicker.

Once I had 5 of the jars in, I realized that I forgot to swoop the insides of the jars to get the air bubbles out. Whoops! We pulled them back out and redid them. I was careful to rewipe the edges before we rescrewed the lids back on.

That's my hubby's hand, not mine, if you are wondering why it looks so masculine. ;)


We got all 7 jars in, screwed the lid on the pressure canner and started the process.

We first had to wait for it to steam for 7 minutes. It looked like this.




Exciting huh? Then we put the little regulator on, using the 10 pound setting since that's what our recipe called for. Then it was 90 minutes of process time at 10 pounds with the jiggling of the regulator. It looked like this...




The pressure canner is done but it hasn't cooled down enough for me to open it. They warned you heavily not to try to rush this part so I won't! Although I can't wait to open it and make sure all the jars sealed the right way. I know we ended up with a bit more then 8 qts worth of hearty beef stew made without preservatives with ingredients that I was in control of for around $2.75 per quart. (It could be made more economical with less meat more veggies.) And the best part....it won't use up freezer space! And it will be much quicker to reheat.

All in all, this wasn't too bad at all. Tomorrow we will turn these ingredients into WW Taco Bean Soup and 15 bean soup.

My take on having a cash register at a show...

My Arts/Craft Show Background

I am not a highly seasoned arts/craft show vendor but I have quickly learned the ropes. I currently only do one 'show,' the newly built Riverside Arts Market (aka RAM) that is less then 2 miles from my home in Jacksonville, Florida. RAM opened in April of this year. I missed the first few weeks but I started at the end of April. I don't do RAM every week...just not possible...but I have done enough of them to learn a few things about handling sales at shows.

In order to sell at RAM, I had to get legal. Not too scary, actually. I went downtown to the Tax Collector's office to get a peddlers business license. It was not too pricey and the process was easy. I has also filed my DBA online..I don't think that part was required for RAM but I wanted to be covered to use my Athena Creates name. I also had to get set up to accept sales tax for the state of Florida. That was done online and it was free. (All of this was later changed when I became a corporation in August of this year but this gives you an idea of how I started.)

In reading the sales tax info, I learned that if you sell something, you are required to provide a receipt with the sales tax broken out separately. As a buyer, I can say that most vendors don't do this. And in the beginning, I didn't either but I had that nagging feeling that I was a (gasp) lawbreaker! I tried to hand write receipts but it was time consuming and cumbersome. You want to be fast so that the customer behind the one you are 'ringing up' doesn't put the item down and walk away.

The majority of the booths have access to electricity and they charge a reasonable $5 if you choose to use it. I had noticed a few vendors with cash registers and it peaked my interest. So I started looking at them and reading reviews. There are some inexpensive ones out there, some that run on battery power. The reviews on those were OK, not great. The complaints were that it took a long time for the receipts to print. I eventually discovered that I could get some really nice features by buying a slightly pricier model.

The One I Bought:

I chose the Sharp XE-A203. I opted to buy new but I did scout craigslist for a used one first. There were a few out there but I was concerned they wouldn't have the manual or all the keys and whatnot. This model had a display facing the customer. It also let me highly customize the data. I could program departments for the different products I sold. I could also set up different cashiers (for when my hubby or oldest dd came to help) and I could even put a logo or my own text on the receipt.


First things first, setting up the register was not as easy as you would think..even with a manual. The software would not work on my desktop PC which has Vista. Not sure if that was the problem or not. I did not end up calling customer service...I just tried loading it on my laptop and it worked fine there. I was able to set up departments and to get my logo in. Eventually, I removed the logo and just opted to add 6 lines of data that I thought would be helpful to my customers. When I was playing around entering fake sales, I found that sales tax was not being figured correctly when I offered a discount on an item. It was taxing the total before the discount. The manual was useless in trying to figure out how to fix it. I put a call in to Sharp's customer service and they were able to help me in a friendly manner.



I had a vision of a customer bringing an item to me, I'd press a button and it would ring up the item without me entering the dollar amount...so I set my departments up like that but I left a few miscellaneous open for dollar entry...which was a good thing.

I made tags for my products with the price and a tiny department number under it. Unfortunately, not all my items got tagged. I brought the stuff with me to finished tagging but the market opened before I had finished.

Here's how my first live experience went...

Customer brought up an item. I realized then that left my master programming list at home. The customer's item just happened to be one without a tag and none of the similar items had a tag. In my panic, I just couldn't remember what button to use. I started mashing buttons with the intent to figure out the right one with the intent that I would void that receipt. It worked but I was sweating bullets for the 40 seconds that it took me to figure it out. I've had a few transactions like that because I didn't have my cheat sheet handy. And yesterday I left my register keys in the van and my hubby had to come to my rescue. I'm sure that wouldn't happen to anyone else though! ;)

After that, things went much smoother. All in all, the first day was a success and I LOVED being able to hand my customers an accurate receipt. I also found it helpful to have the register figure the change for me. Yes, I know how to count change but it would slow me down a teeny bit especially at the end of the day when my energy would be waning (and lack of sleep from preparing product the night before didn't help!)

At the end of the day, figuring out my sales info was so much easier especially since I broke my departments down based on specific product. I could easily see that my adult long sleeved shirts were selling like hotcakes. I had a feeling that my girls' tie dyed dresses weren't selling well..but when I looked at my register report at the end of the day...they were selling! My faulty impression was based on the fact that many people came and admired but not as many bought. In the madness of the day, I seriously forgot about items that did sell. The summary took my faulty memory out of the equation. You could obviously do an inventory before and after the show to get the same data...or you could keep a detailed log as items sold but I never found the time to do it manually.

At the beginning of the day, I use the RA button to log how much money I am starting with and it adds that to my cash sales and tells me what my final tally should be. And during the day, I can QUICKLY figure out what my sales were thus far.



Here's a fake example of my summary report. It's called a X1 report.


It makes my life easy! I can see exactly what my sales were and how much money I should have in my register.

Pros

• It is WAY quicker then writing a receipt and manually figuring things out with a calculator.
  
• It's lightweight and easy to transport.
  
• It doesn't take up that much room, maybe a slightly larger footprint as a regular sized cash box.
  
• I can put my info on the receipt: my store name, my name, my etsy website & the dates I am scheduled to be at the market.
  
• I can easily apply a discount, either to a single item or to the whole total. Sometimes I put the slow movers on sale for 10-20% off. Or I can offer a vendor discount if someone asks.
• I can price my items exactly at the price I want without having to round up or down. And without trying to build the sales tax in there to get to a whole dollar amount.
  
• The back-end accounting is so much easier! I can easily see what I need to submit to the state for sales tax.
• The data of items sold is invaluable...without me manually tracking it, I mean.
• My customers get a detailed receipt of items they have purchased.
• It lends a feeling of professionalism.
• The cash is not visible. I always wonder about the booths that keep their cash boxes right out in the open where the 'shoppers' can get right next to it. Maybe they don't keep much cash in there but I also think that it would be an easy target is the seller was distracted.
  

Cons

• The cost of buying one.
  
• There is a learning curve & in my case since I have never run a register before, I was starting at ground zero.
• You have to be organized about it. Either have *everything* labeled or have a cheat sheet taped to the register or just use a few basic entry departments where you key in the dollar amount. And make sure you have the keys!
  
• Requires electricity that you may have to pay extra for.
• You have to learn a new routine when ringing a sale up.
  

Precautions
I will say that my register is VERY lightweight. Much more lightweight then I expected. I turn my machine off after each sale because I once had a little girl reach over and mash buttons. It popped the drawer open! Luckily I was right there but it took me a bit of time to void what she had rung up. If I have to leave my booth, I do empty the register of the bills just to be safe. I still wear my vendor apron to keep things on hand like my pen, keys so I just tuck the money in there. I also choose to put the back of my tent up and I block access to the register with my table slanted so that I can walk to the front of my booth to help a customer without worrying so much that someone would walk away with the whole register. I think these are the same precautions that you would take with a cash box though.

Summary
For me, having a cash register has been the right decision, a good investment for *my* business. I've done enough shows without it, my products are selling & I need to streamline the processes where I can. I don't do a bunch a different shows where electricity may not be available. I might sign up for 1-2 smaller venues during the RAM hiatus (now until March) but I can go back to my cash apron for those if I can't get electricity. And my product offering will be much smaller so it will be easier to keep track of things manually.

I would not recommend one to a newbie who has never done a show before. Doing shows is not for everyone. Make sure you like it and that it's profitable before you invest a ton of money! And maybe a cash register is not for someone who does 2-3 shows a year. And it's probably not necessary for someone who sells one item at one set price. I offer probably 50 different items at different price points.

My Last Day at the Riveside Arts Market for 2009

December 5th (yesterday) was my last scheduled appearance at the Riverside Arts Market (RAM) for the 2009 season. There are 2 more RAM dates but I did not get signed up in time for spots with electricity, a must for me now since the purchase of my cash register. I am on a waiting list so there is a chance that I might get in. Still haven't quite decided if I will say yes if I get that call. It is December. We have a birthday coming up for our twins..oh and that thing called Christmas. I suppose it would be a good idea to have presents under the tree...and I don't think my kids would appreciate Bird-E Towels and the rest of my tie dye stock. Ingrates that they are.

I loved my location. It was not an end spot but that was OK. I was down closer to the food vendors and there seemed to be more foot traffic. My sales were higher then last week but not as high as they were 3 & 4 weeks ago. Being close to the food was also good...I was able to eat. Yay for eating! Another wonderful feature of the location was the proximity to the restrooms. I bring my valuables with me and not have to wait for my hubby to come watch my booth...which wasn't an option yesterday anyway because my dear hubby flew to Texas yesterday for a business trip. (Pray for me...patience and whatever...because I have never done this on my own for a week before. Uh - 5 kids really do take 2 parents, I think.)


Carla, my custom order bride, (that sounds like I ordered her - LOL - no, she was the bride who ordered a ton of Bird-E Towels for her reception a couple months ago) came by with her new hubby. It was so cool to see them. I have thought about her over the months and kept thinking I should contact her to see how the wedding went. She said she's going to send me photos from the wedding..yay!

I also met quite a few other customers. Several other vendors came by and purchased from me. I'd be willing to bet that more then 50% of my sales were to other vendors. One vendor who had a booth behind me bought t-shirts for her entire family for Christmas. I didn't have a boyish long sleeved shirt in size 4 that she really wanted and it was a struggle to find something that worked. We ended up going with a short sleeved one. (Reminder to self to order more long sleeved 4T shirts.)

Dawn, a friend of mine through Etsy and now in 'real' life, had a booth a couple spots down. She has beautiful glass pendants and other cool stuff like slumped bottle cheese boards and neat paper weights and glass dishes. Every time I walked by, her booth was loaded with people! (Hope you had a great day, Dawn!) Her etsy store is FirstLightGlass. Dawn had her children (+ a friend) with her for a portion of the day and I loved watching them skip around. It was especially cool since they were sporting their new tie-dyed t-shirts. It was like moving advertising. ;)

I also finally sold a shirt to Copper Head Dan. He's the one who requested long sleeved shirts back in the summer. He gave me a free copper sand dollar so that I would remember and darned if I just hadn't seen him since then. And the long sleeved shirts have definitely been a hit so thank you, Dan! I was initially scared of the price of the long sleeved blanks (compared to short sleeved ones) so I'm not sure I would have taken the plunge. Dan picked up a orange and blue shirt...to root on the gators.

The day started out so nasty and cold. Rainy, gray skies and just blah...and then the sun came out and it ended up being a lovely day. Yay! There were MANY booth cancellations...28 to be exact. I have to say that I was SO very tempted to cancel, too. With hubby catching a flight, we had to make arrangements for someone to watch the kids and then I needed help breaking down my booth. And then the prospect of standing in the icy cold rain just didn't add to the appeal. I'm glad I stuck it out though! It ended up being a lovely day...and my brother and his girlfriend came to the rescue for the babysitting and booth breakdown.

This is my brother, Levi, here. He is my baby brother, born when I was 9 years old. He was supposed to be Kelly and it took me a long time to forgive my mom for ruining the lovely all-occasion card I made for him with KELLY plastered on the front. I had gotten one of those little brass things that you punch through paper and it lets you attach 2 pieces of cardstock together. I had cut a little window in the card and attached a wheel of cardstock that said 'birthday,' 'Merry Christmas' and other holidays . So it was a whole year of card giving that was ruined when they came home with Levi and not Kelly!

He looks a little scruffy but he is a really nice guy and he always helps me out when I ask. And he's super smart with computers so he helps me when my computer crashes. I'm thankful to have him around. He was helping me break down my grid walls here.

Coming up soon...my take on having a cash register (vs not having a cash register) at a show.

11/28 Riverside Arts Market - Spidery!

My supply of shirts was dwindling down so I tie dyed the remainder on Friday, after Thanksgiving. It took me a super long day to get these done. I always underestimate how long it takes to just do stuff! I had planned on sewing more Bird-E Towels for the market but there was no time.

Here are some shirts, soaking in a solution to bring them to the right PH level so that the dye that I use will be permanent.


With the super cold temps, I had to bring my operation inside and then keep the kids away from the tempting bottles. This was set up on top of my dining room table. I used pieces of cardboard to soak the small spills. Tie dyeing is messy!

I keep grates over bins like this to contain the dripping. And I'm now mixing dye by the gallon or half-gallon...thus the milk jugs (which were thoroughly cleaned obviously.) I like to recyle and reuse with my business. I use reuse plastic bags over and over and over again...even though it takes precious time to clean them out after each use. The same with the rubber bands that I use.



So yesterday was my second to last schedule appearance at RAM. It was cold, brutally cold for this gal who does not have proper winter clothing. My hands especially did not like the cold. It was hard to get them to cooperate with me at times. My feet, however, where quite toasty in my hand knit wool/cotton socks...ones that I knit myself a couple years ago!

I changed the layout a bit, like I always do depending on where I am and what is around me. I really prefer spots with one end open.


For the most part, it was a long slow day. Traffic was down compared to the previous 2 weeks. Sales were about half of my average. Not complaining really, these things happen and I am very thankful for the customers who did stop by and find things to purchase. I have high hopes that next week will close the year for me with a bang. You know, so that I can actually pay myself instead of just accumilating supplies. ;) Not that I don't get immense pleasure from opening 200 yard rolls of fabric, dyes and t-shirt blanks. Oh, I like that just fine!

This week's RAM theme for me was spiders...partly because of this beauty..


This is the Christmas spider that I bought from my booth neighbor, Samantha. I had never heard of Christmas spiders but I was entranced by them! She included a little piece of paper with a brief version of the story but I found a longer version here... http://www.santalady.com/xmasgame/stories/spider.html Kids were really drawn to the spiders so I know my kids will love having this on our tree. And Samantha has an etsy store! alaart.etsy.com Her stuff is gorgeous and she's really nice, too. She does have some spiders in her store now... http://www.etsy.com/search_results_shop.php?search_type=user_shop_ttt_id_5585745&search_query=spider

When my hubby comes to help me break down my booth, our children are sometimes with him and they help. When my middle dd was undoing velcro from my tent, she found this little spider.



I can't believe that the Riverside Arts Market is so close to wrapping up for the year. It has been such a great thing for Riverside, heck...for Jacksonville and the surrounding areas, too. But, considering that I am and have been a Riverside resident for nearly 20 years, I feel what I consider to be a deeper appreciation. This is my neighborhood and my small business is thriving, in part due to RAM. And the other kudos go to etsy.com for sure!

Muses' Corner

I have crossed another milestone with my business. My product is now in a brick & morter store in Jacksonville, Florida. The store is Muses' Corner and it's in the Avondale area, 3562 St. Johns Avenue.

http://musescorner.com/Welcome_To_Muse_s_Corner.html

I set up one spiral rack with some of my tie dyed stuff. I also left a small qty of my Bird-E Towels.

That's it for now. After my Arts Market days are over, I may send more stuff over.

Riverside Arts Market 11/14/09

My hiatus is over! I guess it's been 3 months since my last date at the Riverside Arts Market. It's so much work to get ready...especially the first one after a break. I have been working very, very hard to have product available. My booth looked like a rainbow exploded over everything....lots & lots of tie dye and a tall stack of my popular eco-friendly Bird-E Towels.

The morning was very chaotic. I bought a cash register to help me keep track of sales and to help speed up the process of providing a receipt for my customers. I spent time programming keys for departments. I printed price labels with dept numbers on them so that I just had to push a button to get the right item. The only problem was that I ran out of time to get the stickers on every item. No problem...I would have time to do that at the market. haha I left the stickers at home AND I left the lovely master list I had created. So my first customers had to wait while I figured out which keys were right...and somehow in the process, I rang up a $10,000 order and I couldn't figure out how to void it. argh! My cash was a bit off at the end of the day....by $10,000. hehe It was actually very nice to have all the good data from the register so I don't regret the purchase. Next week will go easier, I'm sure!

Another new thing was that I now accept credit cards through propay. What an awesome thing! More then 50% of my sales were credit cards. And it was very easy to do. Well, my knucklebuster was a fail but it was easy to rub the card impression with a receipt so it worked out.

Exciting events of the day:

• Having a woman driving a segway crashed into my booth. She was so apologetic and a bit embarrassed, I think. It slid my grid walls over a bit and knocked off some shelves. Product (and the lady, I might add) were all fine after a bit of dusting off.
• When I was talking to an old friend, I had a kid push cash register buttons and the drawer popped open! I was able to fix it. Lesson learned! Lock the drawer every time. That was too easy. I thought it was in a somewhat secure location but I never imagined a child would be tempted and would actually touch it. Thank goodness it wasn't a thief.

I'm suddenly feeling very sleepy so I better end this. I was going to head out to my studio...but I just decided to head back to bed for a little bit longer. {{yawn}} I've been working so hard lately that sleep has not been a priority.

Here's one photo from the day. I love how my booth looks! It's such an improvement over my first days. I can really get a LOT of product up on those hooks. Yay! I have more photos up on my facebook fan page. Become a fan here to see them. Thanks!

Oh and I had a very good day, sales wise. I felt like the day was a bit slow but when I sat down and totaled everything, I found that I must have mentally been counting the cash because my guess was close to the cash amount. By the time I added in the credit cards receipts...it was a good final number!

A Paperless Birthday Celebration

Sometimes I feel a bit guilty when I find myself doing un earth-friendly things...just because it never dawned on me that there was an alternative. I fully admit that when I created Bird-E Towels for my family, it was more based on a desire to stop spending money on paper towels as a way to stretch our household budget a little further. And I LIKE the earth-friendly aspect but that was not my primary motivation at the time. Since then, I have changed many of our un earth-friendly habits and it feels fantastic.

We now use and LOVE our stainless steel Klean Kanteen water bottles. My 4 smaller children have the smallest sized bottle which we pack in lunch boxes as an alternative to juice boxes. And we have a complete set of the 27 oz bottles, one for each family member that we keep refilled in the fridge. Easy to grab when we are going somewhere. No more bottles of plastic tasting water here and NO trash to worry about!

When making purchases, I now think twice before I purchase stuff with plastic or with big bulky plastic packaging that will just end up in a landfill. I haven't totally avoided it but at least I'm thinking about it and making decisions that make me feel like we are making a tiny bit of difference. One small example that comes to mind is that I am buying bars of soap from a local seller at our arts' market. Virtually zero packaging compared to the squirt pumps that I would buy and toss after one use. And it lasts longer, too, so it ends up being a better value.

So last night I was at Target, shopping for birthday gifts for my baby girl and I stopped by the gift wrap. My first thought was 'Why is this stuff so expensive??' My second thought was.....'Why do I HAVE to wrap her presents in paper that will be thrown away?' Well, there is something nice about seeing a stack of prettily wrapped packages so I knew that unwrapped gifts wasn't the answer.

Enter lightbulb moment:

Aha, I have lots and lots of pretty fabrics. Couldn't I just wrap her presents in fabric and tie it up with a ribbon??? And that's exactly what I did. I didn't even serge or sew the edges. Chances are that I will use this particular fabrics for something else so no need to worry about raw edges. I just fold it so that so raw edges were showing. I'm sure that someone else could do the folding more justice but this is kind of in line with how I wrapped presents with traditional paper...just get her done.


I am pleased with the results!! I'm sure that this would not be the most cost effective thing for a non-seamstress. But maybe there are other reusable things that could be used to wrap presents to avoid paper. A pillowcase comes to mind. Or a fancy apron could possible be folded and tied around a gift using the straps. A reusable grocery tote, a kitchen towel for smaller gifts....just all sorts of options that could be part of the gift and not produce any trash. Heck yeah!

Now I interrupt the talk about paperless gift-giving and will share some photos about my baby girl's 3rd birthday. I love this little girl with all my heart and can't imagine what life would have been like without her. She was our rainbow baby and she helped heal our hearts from the loss of her big brother, Nolan, whom she never had a chance to meet. We are pretty darn sure that she's the last kiddo so she will probably always be referred to as the baby...even though I'm pretty sure 3 is the official cut-off for calling your child a baby among other adults.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Lily! You are such a joy to us....smart, funny, adorable!

Make a wish!

SOFT!

Um, OK - clothes!

Now we're talking...toys!

This isn't hard to open and none of that annoying paper ripping sound.

Who are these kids and why couldn't I be an only child??

So this little paperless experiment was a great success! Not sure I can pull it off for Christmas but I know birthdays will be a cinch. No more trashy paper!!

As I approach the gift-giving season with my business, my mind will definitely be on providing complete gifts that will not require excess disposable gift wrapping for my customers. So, keep an eye out for Bird-E Towel sets 'all wrapped up' in drawstring gift bags. A few are already listed in my store and they have been quite popular already. I enjoy making stuff that has a bit more color then my best selling product so it's all good. :)