Last Show of 2014

Wow!  What a year!  

So many exciting things happened this year that I feel like it should really be 2 years, or at least much more than only 365 days.  There's no way for me to pack the entire year into one post, but I would like to share a few pictures from my last show of the year.  This was at the Women's Art Festival in Minneapolis on Sat.

As usual, my Mom and I had a blast together!  

At 4 am when we were driving into the cities (in a thick blanket of fog) I was contemplating making this my last show ever.  But my Mom talked me out of it.  It's a lot of fun for us to spend 8 hours of uninterrupted time together.  When and where else do you get to do that?!  

So I will be applying to shows for 2015.

Maybe not quite as many shows....but we'll see what happens in 2015.  Last year I never would have guessed the leaps and bounds that my little business would make one year, so you just never know what will happen!

With every show that I did this year, I felt more prepared and it was less work and more fun.

At this last show, I added little toothpick signs to each of the soaps.  The signs helped customers to see at a (quick) glance which soaps were made with Minnesota goat milk, MN beer or vegan.  We still explained the products to the customers, but this way, if we were helping a customer, people could still shop and have some idea of which type of soaps they were looking at.

I need to remember that not everyone can look at a bar of soap and know what I put into it!  I made them all, so that's why I know each of them - like they were my babies! 

This is the first time (this year) that we brought the shelving unit to a show.  This little shelf has been hanging out in storage since 2013 when I used it at the farmer's market.  I stopped using it there, because of the wind and its propensity for tipping over!  

It was AMAZING at the show on Sat.  Worked great!  People could see all the lotions and easily access them.  My Mom loves to talk about the lotions, so she was able to stand behind the little shelf and answer any questions or offer lotion samples to anyone walking by.  

I sold out of almost all of my lotion!  I brought home a lot of empty boxes. Yay!

One of our best sales 'tricks' for the lotion is to offer a sample and tell the customer to walk around the show.  We tell them if they walk around and they think the lotion feels good, then they should come back.  Almost 100% come back to buy and they bring their friends.  Of the percentage that don't come back, some of them will message me the day after the sale and ask where they can get that wonderful lotion!  LOL!  

I really like the lotion recipe that I have created, so of course I'm a fan of my lotion, but it sure is fun to see that other people like it too :)

This year I made over 100 different type of soap.  This meant that at all the shows I did this year, I was able to bring a few new soaps to every show.  I think it's important to always be developing something new.  Not only for the customer, but I do it for myself too.  I didn't start making soap to be UN-creative.  I want to BE creative and have fun.  If I just make the same thing over and over again, I will very quickly lose my joy and interest in my products.  If you don't love your own products, how can you expect other people to love them?

So I make crazy soaps and stay happy!

This is our booth after the show.  Clean up time!

Thank you to all of the wonderful people I have met this year through my little business!!!

All my fun customers!

And all the amazing other crafts people!

Thank you for a perfect year!  

Can't wait to see what happens in 2015!

Escape To The Twin Cities

Last weekend I took a trip to the Cities (that's what the rest of Minnesota calls Minneapolis/St. Paul/Suburbs).

After a long winter we needed to take a Spring Escape.

We went to my favorite restaurant The Good Earth at the Galleria. Well, it was my favorite. I wasn't very impressed with the service or food. It was like eating at a Perkins.

I had a coconut/mango smoothie.

Mom and Dad

Appetizer - warm artichoke dip with jicama and pita wedges.

This was very good. The pita were warm and soft. The dip was creamy and the jicama added a nice crunch.

Mom's main dish - it was over spiced with cumin.

Dad's dish - too much 5 spice.

My meal - the nut/bean burger was undercooked and mushy. The soup was good, but I can make richer broth. Sorry Good Earth!

On our way to Minneapolis to see Macbeth at the Guthrie.

Macbeth was amazing. Although the costumes were a little distracting - 1950's military?

The next day we went to the Mall of America (MOA).

It was an interesting experience.

I met a woman who took cupcakes hostage.......

So, we went to the Williams-Sonoma store. They were doing a cake/cupcake demonstration. We watched for over 1/2 an hour. I was planning on buying some things after the demonstration, but then I met the Cupcake Nazi.

She was so mean!

See the woman on the right side in the brown shirt cutting up the GIANT cake (apparently not big enough to share). First of all, she argued with the blonde woman through the entire presentation - they couldn't agree on anything. Then she went to cut up the cake and get the cupcakes ready. We watched while at least 15 people (shoppers - not people watching the presentation - like us) came up to her and she gave them a slice of cake.

Finally, she passed out pieces of cake to all the people watching the demonstration - except us.

O-kay

Then she brought out a tray of 40 cupcakes (there were about 9 people watching the demonstration). She passed out cupcakes to everyone else and said to us, "We want to make sure everyone that signed up for the demonstration gets a cupcake first." Then she took the remaining 31 cupcakes behind the counter AND continued to hand out cake to random shoppers!!!!!!!

We left and I will NEVER, EVER buy ANYTHING from Williams-Sonoma!!!

Who keeps cupcakes hostage?!?

It's not humane!

Cupcakes are for sharing.

Period.

Also, the blonde lady kept telling people they could buy the same supplies cheaper at Ikea.

Um?

We saw Jesse Venture (our former Governor - so weird and hard to imagine that it actually happened) signing his book.

Crepes - yummy!

Dinner at Ikea. I was so tired by this time. We ran into more rude people a Ikea, but that's to be expected at Ikea - they are always rude.

I LOVE the gravy on the mashed potatoes. It's vegetarian! We bought 12 packets.

Dad watching March Madness in our hotel room.

We stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott.

It was super nice!

Mom in our room's kitchen. It was better stocked than a lot of houses that we have rented.

Yummy cheese and cocosballs that we bought at Ikea.

Those cocosballs are so good. They have a soft marshmallow cream inside them. I would make the trip to the Cities just for them.

There was a full complimentary breakfast every morning at our hotel.

It was wonderful! Lots of choices and the staff were friendly, cheerful and helpful.

The warm buffet choices: eggs 2 ways, pancakes, croissants, hash browns, fried potatoes and some other stuff.

Other side of the buffet. You could also make a fresh waffle or have 3 choices of cereal.

The next day we went to the Science Museum in St. Paul. We saw the Dead Sea Scrolls.........and everything else!

Pretty blue sculpture.

Mom and me with the Mississippi River behind us.

Dad and Mom.

Downtown St. Paul.

Riverboat.

Mississippi River.

I thought this fish in the Mississippi River display was neat.

It's made out of junk.

It was pretty.

Loon!

The Minnesota state bird.

I'm sitting in a red blood cell chair!

Slice of the human body. This person had lung disease and plaque in their aorta.

Side way - with a huge brain aneurysm.

Dad

Dad and Mom.

I thought this was pretty.

And this was pretty too!

It's plastic "junk" glued on a wall with 4 different colored bulbs in the ceiling above the wall.

You could change the color combinations and change the shadow colors and patterens.

Home again.

With a cupcake, it would have been a perfect vacation.

Just kidding! It was a great trip!