Save the Date!

October 14th!

I will be selling all of my Fun Little Things, with a special emphasis on Dia de los Muertos themed items, at a super exciting sounding Day of the Dead craft show at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park!

The show is being put on by a group called The North Park Craft Mafia, a group I am very excited to get more involved with.  

I can't wait to see all of the other great Dia de los Muertos items being sold by other local crafty, talented, passionate artists in the San Diego area.  Should be a fun day for everyone, there will even be a booth there where anyone can decorate their own Calaveras de Azucar to take home and put on your altar or just add a little fun decoration for the fall!

In other news...

     I am super proud of myself and my math skills!

     When working at the markets this summer, both North Park and Solana Beach, I have been very strict with myself about remembering that this is a business.  Or at least, I really want it to be.  I am not allowed to use business money to buy myself lemonade and delicious snacks and more importantly, I need to keep track of the inventory being sold, and work out my actual profits (or losses) keeping in mind ALL of my costs.

     Although it obviously doesn't look very fancy, this simple little chart I made in my much abused business notebook is perfect for helping me keep track of what I sell.  Across the top I have the different onesie sizes, bib, and other as categories.  Other includes diaper bags, clutches, bunting, swaddling blankets and dish towels.  As items sell, I simply note down what specific onesie or bib was sold.  This helps me keep track of what is popular and makes it easy to add up how much money came to me during each market.  I also have a record of what I have to remake or take out of my Etsy Shop if I am out of supplies.  Alright, that part was easy, a little bit trickier was figuring out my actual costs to work out my profits/loss.

But I did it!

Booth fee was easy.  The cost to make each bib or each onesie was pretty easy too.  Cost per yard of the fabric, how many I can make with a yard, a little more for the snap, or cost of the onesie, free shipping from amazon, a few cents for the embroidery thread, easy breezy!

The North Park market is only two miles from my house, so I left my costs at that.

The Solana Beach market, however, is about 20 miles from my house, so to be honest with myself, I knew I had to work out the mileage costs to and from the market and add that in.  

According to the IRS, businesses can claim, or pay their employees 55 cents per mile. 55 cents per mile!  I know they take into account insurance, maintenance fees and car value depreciation, but this is ridiculous!  My Jetta gets 40 mpg on the freeway.  There is no way it costs me 55 cents per mile to get anywhere.  So, being prone to occasional laziness, I was very tempted to just make up some number.  You can see that big crossed out section near the top, I actually did make up some number and do the math with the mileage, but then, my responsible (and slightly nerdy) self, triumphed and I really worked it out.  

I had to think really hard.  I almost called my dad for help.  I channeled all I learned about unit conversions in high school chemistry (thank you Mr. Yoo and Dad!).  **Warning- Its about to get really nerdy here, feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you aren't as excited as me by the fact that I still have some math skills. **  I gave my car 38 m/g (because of the roof rack on top).  I knew I got that mileage over the total 47.4 miles there and back.  Ok, math words... over means... division! Ok, that means I used a total of .801 gallons there and back.  Ok, what is the current cost of diesel (yes, the fabulous Jetta uses diesel, as I have to tell strange men every time I am filling it up at the gas station and they feel the need to save me from destroying my car.  That is why it gets such awesome mileage)?  Pull up my Gas Buddy App, diesel near my house costs 4.59/gallon.  Ok, gallons I used times cost per gallon. All my units cancel out! Left with $3.68 gas cost there and back! Phew! And Woo!

So I actually made some money both weeks at the Solana Beach Market! Excellent! 

     A little note here.  

Thank you, thank you, thank you Kyle!  

     He works hard all week long and still takes his Sunday to come help me at the market.  Carrying all the heavy stuff! Helping me set up the tent and table!  Shopping for meats, veggies and snacks while I sell! Watching the table to let me take bathroom breaks (more and more frequent these days!) And spending the day with me, making it so much more fun!

Second note!

     Last week Fun Little Things started selling these beautiful little fruit caps at my market stands!

They are sweet, and beautiful and soft and I can't stop touching them and staring at them.  They are knit by my mom and their cuteness brings lots of people to my stand who also can't help touching and oohing and aahing over them.  Now if it just wasn't 85 degrees every day and people would actually buy them.  On second thought... maybe I just want two people to buy them, then I could still keep one of each for my little baby girl!

Thank you, Mama, for the great addition to my table!

Also, and totally unrelated, a blog I read, Domestically Unemployed, does a post every Monday called Monday Motivation.  Not all of her quotes or pictures motivate or inspire me every Monday, but I love the idea of taking a day to appreciate how amazing my life is and all of the opportunities I have, and using that to get me going on all there is to do in my day and week.

So my own, short, version of Monday Motivation this morning!  Two things that speak to me and always bring a smile to my face and help me get going...

Listening to Open a New Window from the musical Mame.  My family went to see it when I was little. It was right around Christmas time, it was snowy and cold, I got to wear a pretty dress but had to wear tights!  I remember LOVING it and coming out singing!  This is one song I still play at full volume while singing along with all I've got.  

It became my personal theme song when I got that lay-off notice in March, and it has had many chances to re-inspire me in the 6 months since.

A quote from Mother Teresa-

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love."

It is up on my chalk boards in the dining room right now, and I don't see it coming down any time soon.

So on that note, I am off to do many small things with great love!  I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and week!