The Frugal Artisan

Without dissecting the details, the underlying message rings true, dont'cha think?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7140193618475975826...

I am not a utubie by far, but this is too important to not share.

Don't throw out that JCPenney circular in the mail. The one with the folded side on the first page.

It contains a coupon for $10 off ANY purchase of $10.01 or more at JCPenney. (Read the fine print about electronics and whatnot).

These come at the rate of 2 or so a year. Always one for Mother's Day (2 weeks prior), usually one around Father's Day, and maybe one later in the year.

It is always useful for ~
underwear
socks
kids shoes
bath towels/rugs
gifts

This time I was invited to a 2 year old's birthday of an important neighbor. We are not able to attend, but I used the coupon for a hooded towel & Pooh wash puppet set.

It was sale priced at $9.99, the clerk let me use the coupon and even with tax, she charged me $0.

Free gift for an unexpected expense. I mean un-expense.

It has been a struggle the past two weeks handling my grade school kids in the late afternoon and early evening hours.

Being outside to play is far more attractive than the routine necessary:
piano practice,
homework (thank goodness there's not much lately),
dinner (6:30 is about as late as I'll let it go),
shower (needs to be underway by about 7pm),
reading assignment (*sigh* if there is any time left)

What a dichotomy! Why am I'm nagging them to get outside for fresh air on weekend days, and nagging them to get inside on weekdays.

Will someone please send the Spring Fever Relief medicine over here?

Recreational Equipment Inc., a mostly west coast sports supply retailer has a no questions asked return policy, incredible.

My husband happened to be in the Idaho store this past weekend (just for fun! he was way away from home) wearing the hiking boots he purchased from them over a year ago.

He mentioned to the sales person about the squeeze in the toe and that the boots never really fit great. The clerk encouraged him to return the boots right there. Sans receipt, worn for over a year.

Even my husband, Mr. Ruthless Return, was sheepish. But not that sheepish.

Up to the cash register, with the opening statement, "The sales person over there told me to do it..." and it was done. The year old transaction was instantly in the system. They took a return and he went over to find a better fit. And $9 later had brand new Vasque boots.

REI is a membership type place, no fee. You receive a check every summer in returned profit from the company. The check comes in the form of 'advance toward new items' or you can take it in cash soon after.

I joined this place many many years ago (think 25 or more) when they were way smaller. The Southern California population exploded in the 80s including a huge wave of outdoors enthusiasts (me too!).

This is one establishment, for some reason, which has not batted an eye in changing their culture in the wake of exponential expansion.

They are very worthwhile not just with merchandise. They do classes, charitable work, and environmental lobbying with out heavy handedness.

Check em out

http://www.rei.com

Since before there was such a thing as a blog, I paid attention to 'not driving' for a whole day. (It must be the environmentalist in me trying to win out.)

Yesterday was a no drive day. Naturally, this means more than it used to 15 years ago.

I love the idea of 'no spend' days, but they are a little second in priority behind the 'no drives'.

Here is a picture of the groceries I bought for $59.54 and this will easily feed my family of 4 for a week. Why? I cook, I'm creative with meals, I don't waste food. And there is ALWAYS something on special or marked down for fast sale.



What's in there?
-1 Big Flank Steak (to be used sliced thinly for BBQ steak sandwiches)
-1 Big Box frozen fish sticks (for kids meals, fish sandwiches, etc.)
-Package of turkey breakfast sausage
-fresh fruit: apples, bananas
-fresh vegetables: lettuce, carrots
-3 doz corn tortillas
-Cans and cans of hearty soup (8!)
-Cans and cans of Ravioli (4!)
-Cans and cans of fruit (3!)
-Boxes of pasta side dishes
-2 gallons of milk
-Bags and bags of frozen veges (3!)
-5 lb of whole wheat flour
-box of cereal
-Big bag of chips
-cream cheese
-Bag of cat food

and the 5 cups of yogurt aren't even showing.

So what's for lunch/dinner? with a few afterschool snacks thrown in:

BBQ steak sandwiches and french fries
Fish sticks and frozen corn and can fruit
Pasta side dish with tuna and salad
Ravioli and salad
Soup & salad
Smoothies (yogurt, banana)
Fish sandwiches with can fruit and salad
Quesidillas (I already have cheese) w/chips
Turkey sausage on pasta

and my cat gets to join in.

Yesterday was a work potluck (for May Day).

1 person brought pasta from Pizza Hut
1 person brought a large premade Cesear salad
1 person brought a bag of chips and premade artichoke dip
1 person brought a premade pie
1 person brought store bought brownies
1 person brought brie/blue cheese & crackers
1 person brought store bought cookies

This luncheon was planned 3 weeks ahead. There was plenty of time to budget for cooking and freezing a dish.

With all the news on higher grocery costs, I don't get it. What are they thinking? It is kind of a pet peeve of mine I guess, I like to cook. Even if you don't cook much how hard can it be to make an onion soup dip by hand?!

To be fair others brought:
Homemade muffin assortment (me)
Crock Pot vegetarian stew
Fruit Salad (a great choice for the non-cooks!!)

I'm off to the grocery store this morning. Sorry I don't see a huge price problem. A small price increase I suppose, but I:

Buy 'Day old' bread,
Use a $6 off coupon for $60 (pre coupon total)
Use a $3 off coupon for produce purchase
Use a $1 off coupon for Chef BoyRDee (my kids love)
Use a $1 coupon off store brand cereal
and many more

USPS prices are going up May 12, see here for info

http://www.usps.com/prices

I had foolishly bought a book of 41 cent letter stamps a few weeks ago instead of the 'forever' stamp. Why? I picked out something pretty and forgot there was even a forever stamp.

Normally that's too many to use within a month or so and I was not happy looking forward to purchasing those pesky 1 or 2 cent stamps to make up the difference.

Without rushing anything, I just so happened to have 2 fairly light envelope packages to send out (one was a prize to a winner in my trivia contest at Pretty Cheap Jewelry and the other was a request for items from my sister).

Weighing the envelopes at the post office scale, it was karma that I had just the right number of stamps to cover the costs for each!

Yay! And I will not make the mistake forgetting to buy forever stamps anymore. Even though they are not as pretty.

Happy Mother's Day?

We got it at Lowes: Bosch new washer, front load, low water use.

Original Price ~ $800
Marked Down Price ~ $700
Out Front 1/2 Off Price ~ $350
Verbal Agreement with Salesman Price ~ $200

Why? No matching dryer.
We grabbed it for our weekend home coming in May.

Drat! We were unprepared to take it with us. It was near my MIL's about 1 1/2 hours away. Not time or cost effective to go and get our pick up truck. So we paid $55 to deliver it to her house and will go and get it next visit.

So total cost was more like $275.

I was a vendor in a city sponsored, well attended art walk event over the past weekend. I had 2 spaces:
1. A single 6' table in the thick of the highly visited pedestrian area

2. Unmanned display in a room off the main drag

Cost of the first was $33
Cost of the second was $0

Sales from the first $150+ ****
Sales from the second nothing yet, (I haven't picked up my stuff yet).

It was a looooong 16 hours manning the table over the 2 day event, but I enjoy meeting and talking to my customers (otherwise it wouldn't be the right business for me).

Wonderful to feel validated by folks buying your crafts. I sold some of everything: bracelets, fancy earrings, casual earrings, men's jewelry, photo albums (like the little one shown in the left column), cross stitched cards, pressed flower cards.

Pooped but satisfied.

Zany trivia time:

'What do thousands of people do to save money that is not necessarily good for them?'

I'll put an answer here late in the day or over the weekend.

Have fun and don't read toooooo much into it!

I was accepted to display my jewelry designs in a venue for a city sponsored event called Art Walk. The host is an office/residential mix building; the downstairs has large, yet unoccupied, business space. One of the rooms is half used by an artist for the event, I was invited to fill the other half of the space.

The items are pinned onto fabric covered foam core boards and hung with wide velvet burgandy ribbon, (see below). Each board has an explanation of the item, including a contact number and price.

The cost of the set up was next to nothing. The fee for the space was nothing. I spent about $4 for a masonry drill bit. I already had made the boards long ago, and already had a very large spool of the ribbon from a marked down Christmas sale.

An easel (I already had from years ago) displays an entertaining biography and contact info. A stand which holds my business cards in a glass candy dish is next to the easel. (Bet you wouldn't guess what the 'stand' is made of).

I'm very happy with the results, and am so excited that it is ready for the show!

When I was working at the dining room table making painted wood pins (like the curved heart in the mini picture, left column), my 8-y-o daughter decided to paint. (She still wants to do whatever I'm doing much of the time).

She has a nice set of acrylic tube paints. So she grabbed a piece of white printer paper and sat at the table.

A vase of roses happened to be on the table. I glanced at her making the beginnings of what might have been the vase. And remarked "Oh, are you making the vase? Many famous artists do 'still life' and paint what they see". Whether or not she was going to paint the vase, I just wanted to subtly teach what a still life was (you learn while doing much more).

In our dining room is a corner curio with some pottery items on the shelf. I was pretty busy but looked over after she worked for a good 1/2 hour.

WOW! Here is what she saw and what she painted. I am flabberghasted at her creative talent. She did the whole scene including the cabinet, the items on the shelf and mixed black into her main colors to give the walls shadow/depth.

I could never do this!

My husband (the big earner, and big spender) hates to let coupons like this go unused. So we went to Lowe's and obtained 2 new carraige lights for the house exterior (plus a widget he already needed) at for a total of close to $50. Which of course, came to $40 after the coupon.

So far so good. One of the existing outdoor lights was falling off the house and was in need of replacement for a couple years (they are 14 years old).

But they gave him another at checkout. Argghhh.

So he quizzed me what do we need? I came up with a few good ideas. Off he went back a day or two later. I credit him for taking hours walking around scrimping to find something we truly needed for $50.01 to take advantage of the coupon.

He did spend, it wasn't really necessary. But one thing was a 4 slice toaster for the weekend home we are building this summer and are going to have to SLOWLY furnish. OK. I'm in favor of that. We already have a coffee maker for the house. And are moving some of the items from our current house to the weekend place (we have enough to spare in the current home).

Not too bad, but I wish they wouldn't give him any more coupons.

Wow! I was accepted to be in two venues for Art Walk this weekend. This is a city sponsored event that has thousands of visitors, music, outdoor festival type fun.

1. A small space in a popular location.
The first venue I worked pretty hard to obtain. After pestering (nicely), the host store is letting me vend a table in the foyer of their front door. They have a resident artist take 3/4 of the foyer, and I am a little worried I will be hugely overshadowed by this woman and her work. She sits and demonstrates most of the event. I saw her last year and must admit it is beautiful work! But I paid $33 (half of the space) for the right to have one table in there. Thousands of folks will walk by this spot though, PLEASE let some of them visit me!

2. A big space in a quiet location.
The other space I got (today!) was in a building a couple blocks off the main art walk area. It is still visited fairly well because there is an artist's studio building hub very close which is big on the art walk scene. The downstairs contains a big unfinished room which has masonry block walls inside. There is one artist going to take half the room (and be present during the event). But there is a BIG other empty half of the room!

I am mounting my items on boards (already made) and hang them like 'paintings'. I brought several to try today and they look great!

The only worry is I won't be present at this venue because I have to vend the table 100% of the time at the first venue! If folks want to purchase anything on the boards they will have to contact me through my email. I have tagged everything with price and email.

I'm So Happy Tired! It's alot of work to get things ready on boards, tagged, sorted which items are going to which venue, etc.

AMAZING! Nearly EVERYTHING in my inventory is going to a show in April and May. My storage shelves are CLEANED OUT.

This art walk runs Sat/Sun and I am in another show in Texas (a jewelry invitational) in May which I already sent 18 items, a nice small collection. The host studio feels some items are sure to sell.

HERE'S TO HOPING FOR NOT GETTING MUCH BACK TO PUT AWAY! WHEE!

and someday it will be
3. A big space in a popular location
coming soon when I am famous...

This is just too hilarious not to pass out. Sent from my mom, an animal rescuer.

DOG DIARY
8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 PM - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 PM - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 PM - Rode in the car! My favorite thing!
5:00 PM - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 PM - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 PM - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 PM - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!


CAT DIARY
Day 983 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.
Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape.

In an attempt to disgust them, I occasionally vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event.

However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.

Fun and promotional games really DO attract customers to my internet shop.

Below is a 'treasury' (a gallery of 12 items in which Etsy members create choosing from the millions of items for sale in the site). Treasuries are wildly popular for Etsyians to view (kind of like photo sharing). And folks are usually VERY creative making treasuries of gorgeous similar colors, themes, etc.

Well I made a treasury game. The title was "Which one DOESN'T belong?". Players emailed me their guess. The prize was a gift certificate to my shop.

One lady won last night and was so excited she posted to the Etsy bulletin board about the whole thing. The post drew about 5 more players to my treasury. This is the kind of advertising you can't buy!

Want to take a guess? The bottom row is a little cut off, but the idea is intact.

No more gift certificates though, just a little fun. I'll post the answer after awhile.

I had a small percent of my total IRA account invested in oil (decline to say exactly here) which has of course doubled over the past year (maybe not even that long). My conservative advisor, who fits me to a 'T', sold it with my blessing yesterday so I capture a very tidy profit before things get too wild.

He says, "You can be a bear, you can be a bull, but don't be a hog." And I agree.

I would love to invest in gold but it is still high. It's come down some, but still going up and down. Sterling is going up.

WELL....stopped by the bead/jewelry supply store on my lunch break. WHAT WAS I THINKING?? I couldn't pass the 25% off gold-filled wire and sterling silver wire. This shop's prices are always a bit high, so with the sale their prices come down to what is available more typically to me with a little work (ie using a Joann coupon for sterling wire, although there is no choice in wire weight at JoAnns, or going to a different shop which sometimes but not always has the right weight).

Goldfilled and sterling work are never terribly inexpensive and 25% off doesn't come around too often.

These will be such a pleasure to work with! I made two pairs of chandelier earrings last night using sterling wire/silver plated chandelier frames and semi-precious stone briolettes.

no pic -- you'll have to wait! They will be priced somewhere in the $10-15 range.

I have a stack of coupons for:
Six Flags Magic Mtn (Valencia CA)
Six Flags Discovery (Vallejo CA near SanFran)

I have plenty, if you want some email me to obtain the address where to send me a self addressed stamped envelope. Include in your request how many you want.

The fine print on the coupons:
--------------------------------
Six Flags Magic Mtn (Valencia)
Buy One Get One Free Any Day/ Expires 4/30/09
6Flags $29.99/Hurricane Harbor $19.99
Good for up to 9 tickets
---------------------------------
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Vallejo, near San Fran)
Everyone pays kid's price/ Expires 12/28/08
$29.99 + 2.5% city fee
Good for up to 6 tix

Sales are tough, especially for handmade jewelry! Lots of folks enjoy crafting, and most everyone seems to try their hand at jewelry. But it's true for card makers, soap shops, and knitters.

How can you compete? Especially on the internet?

I've had a sale this past week from a no cost promotion and am going to tip you off!

What's at stake? These are SOLD
'O' Iolite Earrings


1. Games. Make it fun for your customer to play a game. I ran a 'Name that Tune' puzzle and gave a virtual gift certificate to the person(s) who answered correctly. The puzzle can be hidden in various places in your shop, such as the titles, item descriptions, item pictures and anywhere else you want them to go. What other games can you think of? Do you like word scrambles? Trivia?

I give you only one big caveat! Be sure to comply with local laws, ie special laws apply to drawings (with or even without purchase required) and sweepstakes type games. Avoid the whole sweeps issue by removing any aspect of chance to your players. For example, give EVERYONE who gets the answer right a prize.

2. Mailing Lists. Make sure you have a mailing list for potential customers! Put out a sign up sheet at every craft fair you vend. Get names by giving out small goody bags ('Free Goody Bag for signing up') filled with samples of your work, candy, or whatever you ingeniously think up! Use that list! Send out specials to subscribers at least monthly, including 'Free Gift with Purchase', Sneak Preview prices, and more. Do a simple, no cost email mailing without an attachment (many spam filters will flag an attachment).

3. Join some Groups. Many internet groups are out there for posting free ads, showing off work and general camraderie. The trick is defining your market!!! It would be exhausting and unprofitable to post just anywhere so if you make baby clothes, join some mommy groups! If you make dog treats, join the pet lovers groups! Look in yahoo, google, myspace and just google your target market.

It takes time, but has returns.

The black ink is drying!
Five vendors held an Artisan Af-FAIR at my home yesterday amidst food, friends and fun.

Sales averaged $100 a seller. Modest to good if I say so myself!

We kept expenses very low by volunteering for various tasks:
1. Donating snack trays and drinks for guests;
2. Donating goody bags to hand out for visitors who brought a coupon we distributed with a flyer in prior weeks
3. Making and posting street signs for about 1 mile in 3 directions.

I also provided a nice lunch for my sellers. We played radio music in lieu of finding a live musician.

These are new crafting buddies in my internet group the "California Crafters Club of Etsy".

I made a pin for each to wear, to serve as an easy lead in for offering a visitor a business card or coupon to their internet shop.

This Saturday I am hosting a craft fair at my house (yikes!). Five local colleagues will have booths out front, we are providing light refreshments and have free goodie bags to hand out for every guest that brings a coupon which has been on a flyer we are distributing.

Send me sales mojo! It is intended for our extended contacts, ie family, friends, neighbors, school friends, co-workers, etc. But I expect half or more of the attendence will come from the street signs 2 of us are placing within 1 to 2 miles of the house. I have made about 16 BIG signs.

Am busily tagging my things with prices as I speak (write). And just yesterday had a little lightbulb go off while making a necklace. See the shell piece on the item below, it was picked up off the beach by my then 8-y-o and has languished in my bead box awaiting the perfect use.

Natural Buddha
Strand of polished jasper chips (obtained in a trade), bone donuts (reclaimed from a former necklace), and tiny gold beads, hold a framed picture of peaceful Buddha. Picture protected by a permanently affixed plexiglass window.

Our tug-o-war has begun! My DH is spending the tax rebate before we get it (Mr. Spender) and I am arm wrestling with him (ok, thumb wrestling) to save it.

He reminded me -- and all of you -- the income will be taxed on your 2008 return!

Don't spend it all therefore! At least 25% of ours is not really ours.

GOOD NEWS! We (mostly he) built a septic system for our weekend home which is scheduled for delivery in May (modular).

IT WAS APPROVED by the County Inspector this past week. A HUGE relief. Unbelievable what he did with a little bitsy tractor and loads of time. It meant:

--digging a big hole and placing a tank at 6' down, so it ends up with about 1.5 feet of soil cover (he didn't drop it!)

--digging 210 feet of some 5 foot wide trenches that had to be PERFECTLY flat. So he would dig about 6 feet, jump off the tractor, use a level to make sure it was flat (and hand shovel if it wasn't), put in a 'distributor' pipe, get the level and make sure THAT was flat, then get back on the tractor and do it again.

REPEAT 50 times.

Saving? LOTS. A septic system costs in the $5-6 thousand ballpark to hire out. Ours? In the $2-3 thousand ballpark plus sweat equity. A great way to save on exercise gym costs too!

Back to the tax rebate:
He wants a new bed to furnish this new house. He deserves it. I agree to whatever he wants basically, and fortunately he doesn't have extravagant taste. Just something long lasting, nicely designed and to rest his tired self after all the work he has accomplished.

I have monthly craft fairs starting in April and have made some new things, like
White Wedding or whenever Earrings
Classic for ladies down the red carpet, or just perfect for prom. White ceramic drop ringed with sparkling swarovski crystal. Finished on goldplated ball posts to keep them fabulously affordable. Shown in tahitian-style pearl and apricot. (click mini photo, left column for more description and price).

Woweee! Gold is holding steady at about $1000/oz (pure).

For 15+ years I have stashed some bits and pieces of old gold jewelry to sell back, ie one earring (lost the other), damaged ring, broken necklace chain, etc. None of these items were of 'estate' value.

But I have always been afraid to take in the various old gold items to get cash or credit at a fine jeweler.

Because in the past I've tried and was disheartened at the pittance they were worth, as well as the very little value of any diamond or stone that might be involved.

Understand, of course the shop is going to weigh the items and give a percent of the gold value, and include no value for the item workmanship. I accept that.

Soooooo GOLD IS HIGH, right?

And I have three jewelry jobs I have been waiting on:

a. Repair a prong on a nice ring from my 16th Bday from my parents. This ring is a keeper and I want to give it to my daughter. It is fairly heavy 14K make.

b. Repair another garnet ring I gave myself upon the birth of my 2nd child (as a breast feeder reminder! put the ring on the other hand to remind me which side, get it?). This one of course is also a keeper.

c. The big job is to reset/redesign my wedding set. It is too small now (older hands, eh?) and I haven't been wearing it.

Very worried about the cost of 14K gold work, I still gravely went to one of the better jewelry shops and discussed.

YAY! The worth of the scrap was over $50! And the repairs (a) and (b) were a mere $58!

Why did I wait so long?! (Oh yeah, see paragraph #4 above...)

As far as (c), it is going to be alot more, but needs alot more thought and discussion. The shop was very very polite and I may work with them on it in the future. It needs another opinion from my second choice shop first.

Thanks for listening!

You've been to those infomercial home shows (BLEH) where a rep takes an hour of your time showing stuff you don't really need....

You've been to a home boutique where the place is packed with specialty items, they hand you a hot tea or coffee to sip, and it's a pleasure to walk around browsing...

How about something inbetween?

By default (since my first choice venue fell through), I am hosting a home craft show in a couple weeks. It has been fun planning! Without any retail experience, it's falling together well.

1. Get commitments from your sellers.
Every seller needs to take ownership of the event by taking a volunteer assignment. Examples: placing low/no cost ads in local media outlets, making street signs, or bringing snacks/drinks.

I am charging no table fee, a very nice perk for my sellers, however, each is responsible for some other part of the event.

2. Motivate your sellers in prior weeks in attracting guests
Prepare an email flyer, as well as a print flyer and send these to your sellers at least a month ahead of the event date. Send reminders (such as weekly) to your sellers to distribute these and give them specific ideas!

In the reminders, include anecdotes of your own experiences giving out the fliers to give your sellers a feeling of confidence and comfort. Examples: hand out to church friends, neighbors, school contacts, co-workers, shops frequently patronized (the shop will likely allow fliers to be left for other customers).

3. Have small refreshments for the guests.
I am holding my entire event outside, so this is less problematic than if you have an indoor event. We will have individual sized plain water, flavored waters, soda. Trays of very inexpensive snacks are planned, such as pretzels, cookies, crackers. The cost of snacks can be shared by your sellers, or (in my case) are being brought as part of the 'fee' to be in the event.

4. Have a 'freebie' for guests.
On our flier we have included a coupon to be reedemed at the event for a goody bag. My sellers have donated small items (representative of what they sell) and I have made very nice goody bags with the items, including: jewelry samples, greeting card samples, hair ribbons and bows, fun magnets and pins, and more. Coupons should indicate "while supplies last". Other shows have drawings for one large basket or box of similar donated items, but there are local laws regarding raffles I wish to avoid.

5. Make the event festive but inexpensive.
Our event is a spring boutique and I'll dress up the front of the house with balloon bouquets, a big banner, and create shade structures with draped sheer fabric overhead. Other holiday events can make great use of decorations you already have!

Wish me luck and stay tuned for more blog posts as the time gets closer!

Today I took the (long-range) bus route to work. What a treat! It is about a 30 mile drive. Why did I wait so long???

Pros:
Gas ~ 3gal x $3.50/gal = $10.50
Bus Fare = $4.00
Savings = $6.50 (!!)

Convenient pick up TIME and LOCATION!

Add 1 hour of cross stitch time during the bus ride! Woo Hoo!

Cons:
I can't do it more often because I drop off kids at school M-W.

Riders were so nice, a friendly group. One fella brought the bus driver a coffee!
Am going to try this every Thur/Fri

But we will celebrate it tonight at:

an inexpensive chinese restaurant (the mall?!)

a 10 minute massage from the chair masseuse in the mall

That's all I want. Except a $100 canopy for craft fairs! hee hee, just kidding. My biz

Pretty Cheap Jewelry will pay for that with earnings during the year.

Girl Scout Cookies.
Need I say more?
I am a troop leader and this is the 2nd year we are selling.

Not much of a sales person, I can hardly believe how easy this is.

These things go on nostalgia and I don't know what else.

effortless

our kids are going to have an educational and fun sleepover at a zoo with their earnings.

As a longtime environmental advocate and past volunteer with urban river groups, I wrote and handmade a BIG oversized book gratis last summer for an exhibit curated by a local artist on our Fading Treasures.

The book is reproduced on-line

here.

There is a pic of me with my 8yo girl under 'About Nina' (without my glasses!)

It is a quick read, with a lot of mini topics on endangered species, river habitat, and more.

I hope it entertains and educates!