Christmas at the Coliseum Results

Here's a little snapshot, taken from my phone as I prepared to load the van with all the stock for my first BIG show in Moncton.

Here's a few shots of my booth at the big show.

My friendly neighbour, who was so well behaved and friendly!

This was my view from my seat in my booth for much of the weekend!

SO...all in all I had a GREAT weekend.  I made just a little less than I originally wanted to, but after my first craft show I had fully expected this outcome.

Here are the totals of money raised:

FRIDAY

HAITI - $61.00

ADOPTION - $269.00

KENYA - $20.00

SATURDAY

HAITI - $102.00

ADOPTION - $398.00 

KENYA - $0.00

SUNDAY

HAITI - $15.00

ADOPTION - $267.00

KENYA - $30.00

TOTALS

HAITI - $178.00

ADOPTION - $934.00

KENYA - $50.00

TOTAL SALES:  $1162.00

And that's, that!  

I'm very pleased with how much I raised this weekend.

As for my well being, I am POOPED right out and have been feeling really groggy! 

For the past 3 nights, I've been sleeping between 10-12 hours each night (in comparison to 4-5 hrs each night all last week).

Finally, I'm finally starting to feel a little more like 'myself' (although it's 4pm and I'm still in my jammies)!!!

One more craft show to go this weekend at the Grand Falls Farmer's Market. 

And SO this is it!!!

1746 pieces of jewelry, broaches, magnets, key chains, cell phone tags and more all ready for the BIG show this weekend in Moncton.

My FIRST big show:  Christmas at the Coliseum

It's been a very stressful week preparing all that I had to do...but I'm just updating ipods while Jacques packs the van, then we are off!!!

Praying for a successful weekend!

Back into the swing of things...

After the last craft show, I just HAD to have a time out.

I was so sick, so I took this week off completely from every area of my life.  I went to the doctor on Monday to find out I have acute pneumonia (again).  It's just horrible.  Two full weeks now that I've been sick and I'm still only just starting to get some energy again.  Any little amount of exertion makes me winded and tuckers me out! 

This week, I declared "NO SCHOOL" week, "MOVIE" week, nothing but relaxing, napping and spending time with my boy.

It seems to have worked, because I am feeling about 95% now which is SO much better than I have felt for the past 2 weeks!

Tomorrow (on Saturday), I am going to work on jewelry making ALL DAY!  I had promised myself that after the completion of the market and the Craft Show last weekend, I would work on jewelry in the time I would have spent at the market (about 6 hours).  I need to, I have SO much more to make to be ready for the big show in Moncton.

So, I'm back in the swing of things and it feels great!

My first Craft Show...

It wasn't quite the success (financially speaking) that I had thought and hoped for.

That said, I'm not overly disappointed.

Why, you might ask?

Well, to be honest there are several reasons:

• I was sick all week leading up to it and I still wasn't feeling the greatest while at the show, so now I can rest for a few weeks before my next show.
• I learned much about how I wanted to set up for my next show.
• I met and talked to many people, which is always a highlight.
• I spent two days with a great friend, who was there to help out and have now learned that I should probably have some people there with me when I go to Moncton (it's a HUGE help)!

All in all, I can summarize by this awesome quote I had in mind:

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

I'm not willing to give up so easily...it's just not my style!

When I googled this quote, I fould so many more that were so appropriate too:

"If you're doing your best, you won't have any time to worry about failure." ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

 

"There is no failure except in no longer trying." ~Elbert Hubbard

"Do the one thing you think you cannot do.  Fail at it.  Try again.  Do better the second time.  The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.  This is your moment.  Own it."  Oprah

"The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way."  Dale Carnegie

 

 That pretty much summarizes how I feel.  It was a GREAT experience and can't wait for the next show to apply what I have learned!

    W.C. Fields

First Craft Show of the Season

Coming up at the Grand Falls Shopping Center, located at 180 Madawaska Rd in Grand Falls, New Brunswick.

• Saturday, Nov 6   9:30 am - 5:00 pm
• Sunday, Nov 7    12 noon - 5:00 pm

This is my FIRST ever Craft Show so I'm a bit nervous, but have complete faith that it will work out just fine!  I wish I would have been a little better prepared, but I was sick all week so I'll have to make do with what I have!!!

If you're in the area, stop by my booth to cheer me on, have a little chat and get a little treat!

Grand Falls Farmer's Market

Today was the last day of the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings for me.

I'm not sad to see them come to an end, ONLY because the temperatures are getting kinda cold around here and there is no heat in the building!!!  Aside from that, I LOVED every minute I spent at the market.   I've made some great market friends and have made some regular clients, that I will miss seeing from week to week.

Chosing to do the Farmer's Market was a grand success, considering my totals:

      Total Paid in Market Fees:  $332.00

               Total Made for HAITI:   $580.75

           Total Made for KENYA:   $115.00

    Total Made for ADOPTION:   $1101.00

TOTAL money made at the market:   $1464.75

How is THAT for awesome!

What's up next for me?

Here's my line up:

Grand Falls - MALL Christmas Craft Show

Nov 6      9:30 am - 5:00 pm

Nov 7       12 noon - 5:00 pm

Moncton - Christmas at the Coliseum

Nov 26          2:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Nov 27        10:00 am - 9:00 pm

Nov 28       10:00 am - 5:00 pm

 

Grand Falls - MARKET Christmas Craft Show

Dec 4        9:30 am - 5:00 pm

(will have to double check the times, but this IS the date)

Hopefully, get some photos of jewelry online for those of you who can not make the craft shows.

Email me at chosenone

Haiti DONATIONS - THANK YOU for your support.

Without YOU, this would have NEVER been possible!

Considering it's Thanksgiving weekend (here in Canada), I want to give thanks for living with SO many blessings in my life by donating what I have collected so far.  As I continue to sell more and collect from those I have not received payment for yet, I will continue to donate money to New Missions (the company I had intended on travelling to Haiti with) to buy rice in Haiti.

Donations #1 - Paid for an extra bag to be shipped with my friends travelling to Haiti.


One of the couples I was supposed to travel with, and the couple I had been taking Creole lessons with continued to travel to Haiti for (I think) 7 or 8 weeks.   They left sometime in August and just returned home last week.  Before they went, they collected many items to take with them and ended up with too much stuff.  I felt it was a great way to use some of the money I had raised and I gave them $100 to pay for the extra bag to take supplies to one of the oorphanages they worked at while they were in Haiti - Wendy's Love in Leoganne, Haiti.

These are photos they shared of the bag they were able to take from the money raised from the earrings sold.

This just makes all my/our hard work and YOUR SUPPORT worth while. 

Isn't this little girl just adorable?

This is my friend Bernice, with a bunch of the children.

And this is my friend, Roland.

So up until now, I had been waiting for the BIG donation to happen when I had collected all the money, in hopes that I could reach $1000 to send.  Plus, I thought maybe after the Christmas Shows, this may happen.  NOW, in a Thanksgiving kinda spirit, I decided to send the money collected up to now on this Thanksgiving weekend. 

Of the $842CDN I have collected, I donated $770USD (which is as close to would be very close to $800 as I could get).

Your support in my Haiti project has been just amazing!

THANK YOU for allowing me to coordinate such a successful project and as well feel SUCH joy to send this kind of money for SUCH a worthy and practical way.

Thank You.

Preparation

The weeks are numbered before the big Turner's Christmas at the Coliseum in November! 

Seven weeks - today!

Considering many of my supplies come from China or Hong Kong and sometimes take up to 4-6 weeks to be delivered, I felt a huge push this past week to get everything ordered...and I did. 

It's so hard to guess how much stock I will need for this show...so I'm totally 'ball-parking' the number.

Especially considering, Nov 26-28 is this craft show and the following weekend is the craft show in Grand Falls, so I won't have time to make much jewelry the week in between the 2 shows.  In some ways (when I look at ALL the money I've spent on supplies) - I am FREAKING out completely. Yet, in other ways I know it will work out!

Every few days, I am creating, creating, creating.  In fact, I've narrowed down all the designs I will take with me and how many of each.  But it just hit me yesterday, I wasn't factoring in preparing all of my bags for purchases with labels, or preparing the jewelry tags for each necklace, or preparing the extra jewelry displays....sheesh. 

OK...so today, I am completely freaking out!!!

Tomorrow, is the regular farmer's market here in Grand Falls which will be finished in a few weeks (leaving me all of November with no Saturday mornings at the market).  This should help!

So that's what is new around here...hope all is well with you.

For all my fellow Canadians, hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving weekend!  Count your blessings, count them one by one!

Thrilled beyond measure.

Since my missions trip to Haiti was cancelled a few months ago, I've been trying to figure out WHAT to do with all these OTC (over the counter) medical supplies that were intended to go with us for our trip in December.

Well...this weekend (at our Missions Conference) we met this lovely couple (Allan & Patsy Myshrall who are with Ambassadors for Christ Canada).  They travel the world doing good with several of the poorest countries - Peru, DR & lots of time in the Amazon Jungle).

During our visit on Saturday, they told a story about medical supplies that they had purchased for a price per pound (I think something like around $500 for 200 lbs of supplieis).  After they purchased, they realized that the in fact had supplies equalling about $15,000 worth of medical supplies!  THAT'S when my friend leaned to me and said, 'what about the supplies for Haiti that we have no way of getting there'.

OH MY....I got all excited and thought 'too bad Dianne isn't here'?

AND...this is the home we found for all the supplies.

Monday, Allan & Patsy leave for Iquitos, Peru where they will be ministering to many people in the Amazon Jungle and distributing lots of these supplies.   Then, in December they will be taking a trip to the Dominican Republic and distributing the remaining supplies.

Thank you SO much for those who have donated....it was a great success (too bad they couldn't have gone to Haiti, maybe next year) and Patsy and Allan walked away feeling SO blessed!

Success

I can hardly believe all the success I've been having with jewelry sales.

Thank YOU to all that have been and continue to support our cause!

If you notice, on the right 'side bar' I have a tally of how much we've raised. 


To date: 

•  Haiti - $842.40  (plus $100 already given to pay for a bag to be shipped for an orphanage)
• Kenya - $165.00
• Adoption - $960.00 (I'm in complete SHOCK over this number)

YOU have all been SO supportive, I can hardly believe your generosity.  Thank YOU from the bottom of my heart!

My original goal for our adoption fundraising was to raise $5000 in 2 years.  Well...I have a feeling that this number is going to be exceeded (and maybe even by the end of the year).  With a big craft show and a smaller one, wouldn't it be absolutely CRAZY if we hit that by the end of the year.  

Remember this post???  Where I talked about saying 'yes' to God for our adoption without knowing how we could ever afford this journey???  

Now look, God's provision is allowing us to do this.  I have this strong faith and step by step it's happening!  How amazing! 

I've been working extra hard (and spending alot of money on all the supplies needed) to make over 1000 pieces to have ready for the craft show the last weekend of November and first weekend of December.  I don't even know if 1000 pieces is enough, but it's the biggest risk I'm willing to take!!!  I'm so scared that all this money will be spent and what if we don't sell enough to even cover all the costs so far?  I'm praying it all works out.  Will you pray for us too?

PLEASE keep in mind, that I will be putting the prices up November 1 by the advise of friends, family AND several customers.  

Here's a list of the new prices starting November 1st:

PRICE LIST

SO....get your Christmas orders in soon before the prices go up.

IF you are a returning customer, I will honour the old prices until 2011. 

I'll work hard on posting a bunch of photos this week....

After the craft shows, I will be focusing on getting an online market going. 

Thanks for all your support!




NECKLACES

Necklace with Small Glass Pendant $14.00

Necklace with Large Glass Pendant $16.00

Shells and Wood $14.00

Separates:

Silver or Black Leather Necklace (with no pendant) $7.00

Black Chord or Ribbon Necklace (with no pendant) $5.00

Pendant ONLY (Small sizes) $7.00

Pendant ONLY (Large sizes) $8.00



EARRINGS

All earrings $5.00

BRACELETS

All Kids $5.00

All Adults $8.00

RINGS

Big Glass Pendant $13.00

Little Glass Pebble $10.00

Wire Works $8.00

CUSTOM WIRE RINGS $10.00

KEYCHAINS

Letters $4.00

Glass Pendant (small) $7.00

Glass Pendant (large) $8.00

Cell Phone Tags $2.00

MAGNETS

bottle caps (each) $3.00

bottle caps (2 for) $5.00

CLEARANCE (prices as marked)


Earrings (1 for) $3.00

Earrings (2 for) $5.00

Earrings (3 for) $6.00

Earrings (5 for) $5.00