So it wasn't REALLY over...

So I thought I could take a break after the craft show but not so much. A friend of mine suggested I take my purses out to a new store, Farmer's Daughter, to see if I could get them placed there on consignment. Turns out the owner doesn't do consignment but will purchase items outright for resale. She liked my things and bought 6 purses that day and ordered 10 more PLUS a dozen accessories. And wanted them in a week. The problem with this arrangement is that I'm taking a considerable profit loss to do this. Basically I'm making about $2.50/purse for 4 hrs of work. I decided to complete the new order but I'm not going to be doing any more for her. It's too bad as when I delivered today's order, she seemed to really like the new stuff and even is going to keep one of the little purses I finished.

I am proud of myself for getting all this done in a week! The best I've done before was 15 purses in 2 weeks. The truth be told, I did have more squares pre-cut already so I had more time to "design". It felt good to leave with a nice check for our vacation.
~Beth

AND the remainder of my things are in my Etsy shop! They look really good. David and Jaina took the pictures for me. Just tonight, 4 new people have "hearted" my shop!! And a couple of them sent convos that were very nice and complimentary. I'm very excited. I'm going to add a few Bitty Bags and Itty Bitty Bags, and probably checkbook covers, eyeglass cases and accessory bags. I like the way the checkbook covers turned out. I'll be making one to keep, I think!

Well, I'm off to buy more fabric. Not much left in the sewing room! And hopefully it'll arrive by the time we get back from Disney World and I can start a new round of insomnia!

It's over! It's over! It's over!

FINALLY! I might be able to breathe again! The sale was yesterday and while it wasn't a big blow-out, it wasn't bad either. Traffic was pretty light but I had some sales. LOTS of compliments on my purses, lots of people taking business cards.Many of the other vendors thought I was priced too low, some customers thought I was too high so I'm thinking I'm probably somewhere near "just right".

David was a big help getting everything there, setting up and tearing down. I wouldn't have been able to do it by myself. We had everything planned perfectly. The purses displayed fabulously and set up was quick. Finally, my obsessive over-planning pays off! It was funny, though, trying to figure out the table display. I was basically unhappy with all the arrangements until David suggested a "stair-step" design. Sounded good. Well, you should of seen all the crap we pulled out of the garage trying to find the right height combinations! We wound up with 2 dirty cinder blocks, a spare leaf from our old table and 4 decking boards David had to tape together. But hey! they worked. Once it was all under the black crushed panne fabric, who knew?? We did decide the cinder blocks will be replaced for the next venue. Too hard to lug in.

Jaina worked like a slave to help me finish up Friday night. We both got to bed around 2AM. Exactly what I DIDN'T want to happen. I like my sleep. And then after the sale, she got right to work on the photos so we can get the rest of the stock up on Etsy. We'll have those done shortly, I think.

So outside of a couple of custom orders, I should be less chained in the sewing room. I can't want to get back to the point where this is fun and I'm not waiting for the sweet release of death.

On a fun-er note: DISNEY WORLD IN 27 DAYS!!
I think I can speak for the entire family when I say we can't wait to get out of Dodge! Even with the enormous crowds during Christmas, if you keep your want-to-do list shorter, there's tons o'fun to be had. It'll definately be a small budget trip this time. (Jaina and I will probably need to share kid's meals to make food budget.)But sometimes the trips you sacrifice for and on are the ones you enjoy the most. Ask us sometime about the Girl Scout Washington D.C. trip. That's the trip that convinced Jaina she and I could do the Amazing Race program, no sweat. We probably could, but I ain't the one eating any bugs...

So now on to cleaning the sewing room. Hope I remember where everything goes...unless I can just leave it all piled on the floor like it is now...

Fuses Are Overrated...

Apparently, if you try to run three lights, an iron, a sewing machine and a space heater on one side of the house-- you'll knock the power out. I'd say Dad has had his fill of the basement and the fusebox considering he's had to wander down there several times in the last few days to bring light back into Mom's sewing room.

It would help if she had carpet on the floor, but since she started her "Send the Kid to Greece" project, it hasn't really happened. Perhaps I should invest in some of those carpet squares we sell at work, maybe it'll help retain heat. Or maybe it'll just annoy the hell out of her, I don't know. I just know, from 18 years of experience living on the second floor of our house, that winter is the less desirable of the seasons to live upstairs during. She seems to be progressing fairly well. Only a few setbacks I'm aware of and the usual motherly perfection that might slow her down. But I suppose I'd rather her care what her products look like, then she just slap a few purses together and call it good. I can't expect any less from her even if I wanted to, she doesn't leave any stone unturned when it comes to these projects. She worries and second-guesses and goes above and beyond the necessary for making these. Plus, she's way more patient then me. I would have lost my mind a long time ago with these things, but at least I admit that I have no talent when it comes to crafty things.

I admit it.

Anyway, as I've said, she appears to be making decent progress, though I'm sure she'll disagree with me. If she ever actually blogs again ;0)

I wish I could come with her to this craft show, but alas-- as always, I'll be working. Typical anymore, since this lovely new college leaves me no free week days to work. So weekends are shot.

I will not miss working at the store. I'm sure I'll continue working, just hopefully not there so I can be more involved if she continues this little business of hers.

Well, time to go eat-- finally. We'll be back later, and hopefully Mom will blog herself this time.

~Jaina

New Layout.

Well, it looks like Mom has another full evening of sewing, so I guess I'll update. I'm attempting to change the layout of the blog, but I'll need motherly approval before anything is set. I guess we'll have to see what she thinks of this one, though I have several others in line, just in case.

She is rather picky.

I See a New Machine in your Future

So, sewing machines are the devil. Last night was a particular challenge seeing as Mom's lame machine decided to take a cigarette break right in the middle of her working on a purse. It started seizing up and no matter how long she pushed the foot pedal, the needle wouldn't go up or down. Just made a terrible "whirr-not-going-to-work-for-you-stop-pushing-the-pedal-whirr"sound. She had to wait until Dad got home to figure out how to pull the thing apart and oil it.

It ended up turning into a project, so she wasn't able to work much more on the purse she was sewing, but Dad started putting it back together when he got home from work today. Which of course, lead to the usual, two or three screws that had to come from somewhere, you just can't seem to find it now that you're trying to put it back together.

The most ridiculous part, is that when she pulled it apart, there really wasn't anything to clean out. It would have made some sense that it decided to stop working because it was being choked up by chenille bits, but it wasn't. Just decided it was done.

Lame.

So now it appears to be working again so Mom can continue toiling over these purses. I think she's completed three purses this weekend/week, though don't quote me on that. They're looking really good and I'm excited to see people's reactions, I'm not sure if I'll be there for the craft show, since I work every weekend, but I know they'll do well.

The way I see it, either she'll be surrounded by fellow crafty people and they'll understand how talented she is with these purses or she'll be surrounded by not-crafty people who sell those ridiculous marshmallow shooters, in which case anyone there will still see her talents and want to buy her purses anyway. Her purses are fabulous and everyone is going to want one.

I don't know how to make her feel better about it, but I understand why she's nervous. I feel the same way when I show anyone a story I've written or a film I've made. Nothing was more frightening then watching my Dad read a story I had written and it wasn't even an original work-- it was a fanfiction...

So I get it. But I still wish I could reassure her.

Well, I've got some other things to do, until then-- keep a lookout for more updates!

~Jaina

Kids These Days...

So my daughter has the nerve to tell me that updating my profile is not blogging. My thought is that if it needs a password and a keyboard, it's blogging. She disagrees. So I guess it's my turn to "blog".


I've been spending most of my free time in the sewing room. David's been good about sliding food under the door. I don't know what I was thinking when I signed up for this show! I'm notoriously slow when it comes to design and production on these purses. I tend to agonize over e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. And now I've committed to getting done 30 or so. yikes...


And when I leave David alone too long, he finds weird stuff. Like last night. He can't just drive off and get me that yummy Rocky Road ice cream I've been drooling for. Noooo. He has to bring a special friend into the house. A giant BUGGY eyed friend. With fangs. And claws. Apparently the giant Praying Mantis was lonely. He certainly must have begged to be stuffed in a empty fish bowl with a cellophane lid. I had to insist David place a rubber band on the bowl to keep the lid on. The last time we had one of these buggy visitors, it nearly ate us into bankruptcy with the amount of crickets we had to buy it for supper every week. OK, show of hands...how many of you think David is a child? Not so fast. He's an adult (but obviously not grown up!) Bugs stay outside.


So I hope I can count this as a blog. Hey, Jaina! Tag! You're it!!

Scatter Joy Vintage Opens...

Hello and welcome to Scatter*Joy*Vintage's blog. Please forgive us as we get settled into our new routine, we're not used to writing about ourselves!

So, how about a story?

Once upon a time a mother sent her daughter to a nice college (excuse me, a very nice college). While there, her daughter was given the opportunity to travel to Greece for two weeks in order to better understand the foundations of education. Her daughter being an elementary education major, this seemed too wonderful to ignore and the mother agreed to send the daughter on her adventure. But how to pay for the plane tickets?

The daughter suggested selling her kidneys, which at the time, seemed to be as feasible as growing a money tree in the backyard. However, the mother was more practical and took the opportunity to put her love of vintage fabrics and her sewing skills to the test. And so, Scatter*Joy*Vintage was born (asterisks' and all) making beautiful vintage chenille purses available to all.

True story folks.

Beth, also known as Mom, is the creator of the pretty purses you'll soon be seeing in her shop on Etsy.com (her site can be found in the full profile). After discovering her love of chenille fabrics (eBay feeds addictions), Mom has devoted the majority of her sewing room to her auction winnings and treasure finds and is now putting them to use in her purses.

Jaina, also known as the kid, is a junior in college and is, unfortunately, the one making her mother go through all the trouble of sewing and selling these pretty purses. She's also in charge of anything computer oriented, since Mom insists she has no idea how to make this stuff work. She hopes to be a Kindergarten teacher one day and is grateful to her mom for putting so much work into all of this.


Both Beth and Jaina will update this blog when there appears to be something worthwhile to mention. Possibly craft show dates for those who live in the area or new purses available on Etsy.com. At the moment there are no purses listed in Beth's shop, but that's because she is focusing on her first craft show coming up soon. In the next few days, when Jaina isn't in class at the really nice college, she may upload a few photos of the purses Beth has already made for family and friends so you can all see how lovely they are.

So please, keep an eye out for the pretties and we'll be sure to let you know when they're available.

~Jaina