A Neon Silly Monster Birthday Party

We chose the theme "Neon Silly Monster Party" for Trey's birthday.  How's that for adjective overload!?  Our middle man turned three this August and I'm just now getting a chance to tell you about it!  (But the party was super cute, so maybe you'll forgive me for being three months late.)  

I get asked all the time how I plan my parties, so here's a little behind-the-scenes, hopefully this former event planner can pass on a few tips that might be helpful for you...

When I get an idea for a party I jump on Pinterest first to see what other people have done.  I get the best ideas for color schemes and special touches that way, then I put my own spin on it.  In this case, there were plenty of monster parties out there, but I wanted it to be so colorful that my camera would scream for mercy!  (My Silly Monster Pinterest Board)

I always sketch out what I want my focal points to look like.  It helps me because I am so visual.  From there I can write "to do" and "to buy" lists.  I usually shop my own house first after I decide on a color scheme and that's when I found some neon pipe cleaners and glow sticks... it went crazy from there!

One pack of neon poster board became place mats and thank you notes.  

My sister-in-law owns a cookie business and they make the most amazing sugar cookies.  Usually sugar cookies look pretty but taste gross and are so hard you might just chip a tooth... not so with Southern Sugar Bakery!  These cookies taste even more amazing than they look!

She has a tiny projector and can project any image on to the cookie... custom logos, monograms, even Lilly Pulitzer fabric!  You've got to check out their Facebook page for more pictures.  (They ship anywhere in the world!!)  The cookies really took all of my meager decorations up to another level!

On to the table... lots of layering going on here.  It's a yellow table cloth, my poster board monster place mats, and the runner is just some wrapping paper that I liked folded in half, easy peasy!

 See what I mean about those cookies stealing the show!?  I know!

The cake was so much fun to make (and eat)!  It's just a ton of piped orange icing piled up in heaps on top and the eyes are blue dum-dums with peach rings wrapped around them.

There's the party animal right there, our silly monster three year old!  (Looks like my camera finally gave up on all of that neon!)

::Craft Show Mini Series:: How to Prepare

The idea of setting up a cute little retail space to peddle your wares is a romantic idea, but it is a daunting task to make that sweet little space work well for you and make you some money!

You've got to think about more than just pretty colors.  You've got to put your big girl pants on and set up a bank account, order a point of sale credit card swiper, figure out pricing, collect sales tax... UGH!  It's enough to make someone stop right there and forget the whole thing.  But don't!  You've got a great idea!  People want and maybe even need your item!  You can do this!!

I am no pro at this.  One thing I've learned is how little I really understand about all of the red tape involved in setting up a small business.  But what little I understand I'm happy to share!

Find Your State's Department of Revenue Website
Every state is different, so I recommend starting by visiting the Department of Revenue website for your state.  There you will be able to check and see if the name you have chosen for your business is available, see what licenses and permits you may need, register your business to start accepting sales tax, and later you may even be able to file and pay your sales tax through that site.  Once you've registered you'll get your tax ID number.

Set Up a Bank Account
Research the banks in your area.  The bank I chose had a free business checking account and very low minimum balance.  Check about the fees associated.  If you're just starting out it might not be best to open an account right away.  I just found book keeping easier when my business transactions were separate than my personal transactions. To open the account you'll need a few documents to verify your business registration.  Check about those before you go.

Decide How You'll Keep Your Books
I recommend checking out Outright.com.  It's easy and free accounting software that automatically syncs with Etsy and your checking account so you don't have to think about transferring all of those transactions one by one by hand... yuck!

Order a Square
I've said it before, but the Square is the BEST way to accept credit cards!  NPR has a fantastic article about it here.

Decide On Your Pricing
That's one thing I can't help you with.  I also can't promise that it will be anywhere close to easy to figure out how to price your items.  Most people agree with this formula:

Price of Materials Used + Labor + Expenses + Amount You Want to Profit = Wholesale Price

Wholesale Price x 2 = Retail Price

Set Up Your Booth

I recommend setting up your booth at your house first.  I set mine up in my garage and it helped me work out so many kinks ahead of time.  You may only have a couple of hours available to you on the day of your event to set-up and what you don't want to be doing is wasting that time running back and forth because you've forgotten something.  I worked out the traffic flow of my booth and I had plenty of time to tweak it over the course of the week I had it set up.  What did I want my customers to see when they walked by?  (Note: Candy on the end of the table makes little ones stop at your booth, just sayin'!) I was able to "shop" my house for different display pieces before heading out to the store and it helped me in packing my car too because everything was in one place.

Prepare Your Mind
Prepare yourself mentally by thinking through a sale.  When someone hands you an item and says "I'll take it" what do you do next?!  My process was:
1. Write up a paper receipt with the retail amount, tax and total (the paper receipt trail was key to doing inventory at the end of my show)
2. Accept cash or credit card
3. Stick item in a gift bag with the receipt, my business card and my enclosure card (read my post about branding for more on these things)

You'll also want to think through some talking points for each of your items because you'll be saying those things a gazillion times all day... Why would you buy it?  What do you love about it?

The best thing you can do for yourself mentally is to get some good sleep before the show.  Relax, you'll do great!  You're so prepared!

UPDATE:  Here are the links to all five posts in this mini series:

The First Step... Designing your "Feel"

Designing Your Booth

Branding like a Pro for Cheap

What To Bring

How to Prepare

::Craft Show Mini Series:: What To Bring

So I thought I would finish up the Mini Series that I started a while back about what I learned doing my first craft show.  I put in SO many hours of preparation and I would love it if you are able to benefit from some of my research.  Here's where we've been so far in this series... click on these for the full post:

Designing your "Feel"

Designing your Booth

Branding (like a pro for cheap!)

Today I'm going to hit on "What to bring" and then I'll finish out this mini series with my tips on how to prepare.  Let's do this!!

There are a gazillion and one lists out there for what to bring to a craft show and you'll probably want to check those out if you're doing an outdoor show, but most of this will cross over.  Mine was an indoor show with the option of electricity provided.  I opted out (dumb!)  Lighting is so key to creating warmth and highlighting certain items.  I didn't think I needed it, but looking back I would definitely get it next time.

I had a giant clear plastic tub with my supplies, this made things easy to find when it got busy.

Inside my big tub I had two smaller containers... one for personal items:
-Lotion
-Mouth wash or gum
-Advil (You'll thank me after you've been standing for hours!)
-Brush
-Small mirror (What if that salad you ate for lunch is still stuck in your teeth.  The horror!)
-Hair tie
-Protein bar (or meal replacement bar)
-Tissues
-Chapstick
-Hand Sanitizer

One for "office supplies":
-Glue (for fixing any merchandise that breaks!)
-Pens
-String
-Scissors
-White out
-Duct tape
-Rubber Band
-Hammer
-Calculator (even if you have one on your phone, still bring a hand held... trust me!)
-Business cards!!!
-Tape
-Price tags
-Square credit card reader
-Phone
-Sharpie marker

I also brought a roll of paper towels and a trash bag for spills.
-Custom Order Forms
-Picture album for custom order ideas

-Inventory List

-Cash Box

-Gift bags

-Sales Receipt book

-Cash

-Signage

And I brought a project to work on during the slow parts of the show.  It was fun for me to be able to demonstrate how I make my scarves and it got people involved.

Wear a name tag with your logo!  It's a great way for people to associate you with your brand and to make you look professional!  I also recommend making a credit card sign so people will know that you'll take plastic!  That was a HUGE selling point for me!

And on the credit card front, I would highly recommend using the Square credit card reader.  They will send you one for free, it is easy to use, there is no up front fee and they just charge you a small fee per transaction.  Read all about it here.

This is my little sales station.  I have my cash box, calculator, Square, inventory list, receipt book and my gift wrap stuff all together.  It was a life saver to have all of this stuff in one place and quickly accessible.

This was my custom order form.  My customers liked being able to flip through a small photo album of the things I made to get ideas for different color combinations if something had already sold out.

What am I forgetting?  Is there anything you can't live without at your shows?  Please share!

UPDATE:  Here are the links to all five posts in this mini series:

The First Step... Designing your "Feel"

Designing Your Booth

Branding like a Pro for Cheap

What To Bring

How to Prepare

Shower games they'll actually enjoy playing!

One of the questions I get the most is, "How can I make the shower I'm throwing special?  Do you have any good game ideas?"

Shower games are tricky.  As a general rule I don't usually enjoy playing shower games because I've found that a lot of them are either:

A) way too time consuming (when people really just want to enjoy a fun, relaxing afternoon and then hit the road) or 

B) they are gross (like the ones that make you eat baby food or guess what candy bar is melted in the diaper... yuck!) or 

C) they are distracting (like the game where you can't say a certain word or the person who heard you say that word gets to steal your clothes pin).  Come on, that's annoying when you're trying to have a conversation with someone.

My favorite games are SUPER simple and incorporated into the unwrapping of the gifts (to keep the party moving!)  

Baby/Bridal Shower Bingo is a great game!  Each person is given an empty grid that's five squares by five squares with the center square being the free space.  Before the gifts are opened each attendee will fill the empty squares with things that that person thinks the mom/bride will open.  This can be as general ("blanket") or as specific ("engraved silver cup") as you want to be.  The hostess will need to offer up  some ideas to keep things moving because inevitably people will not be able to fill the whole grid out by themselves.  Give them a couple minutes to fill out the grid then start the opening of the gifts.  As things are opened the attendees will mark them off on their grid.  The first person with five squares in a row marked off will yell it out "BINGO" and get a (good!) prize!!  

Free printable for the grid I use is HERE.

Another great game that I've done as a bridal shower game, but that could easily be changed into a baby shower game, is "How well do you know the bride?"  Each attendee will get a sheet of paper with lots of specific questions about the bride and they will fill it out.  (Make the questions as specific and obscure as possible, it's more fun!) then the attendees are given a very short amount of time... say, two minutes to fill it out.  The key with the short amount of time is that people will put their first gut response to the question and these end up being really funny! Then the hostess reads out the answers and the attendee with the most correct responses wins a (good) prize!

Free printable with sample questions HERE.

Have you ever noticed how awkward it is for the mom/bride at some showers to carry the conversation while she's opening each gift?  "Oh, more Desitin!  Thank you, baby's butt will sure be pampered thanks to you all!"  Rather than have the shower conversation be all about the gifts I like to have the conversation focus on the sweet relationships between the people there.  One way I like to do that is to have the mom/bride choose a gift to unwrap then either have her share how she knows the gift giver or have the gift giver share how she knows (or a funny memory about) the mom/bride.  It's a sweet way to take some of the pressure off of the mom/bride to speak the whole time and the gift-givers leave with full hearts because they have learned a little more about their new mom/bride friend!

Now let's talk prizes.  Prizes are the best way to get your guests' competitive juices flowing!  Make them good, no dollar store chotchkies please!  One of my favorite prize gifts to give is a Starbucks gift card.  Have the barista give you an empty, clear plastic, grande-size frappuchino cup with a few coffee beans in the bottom of the cup.  Insert the gift card then put a little bit of tissue paper in the top with the lid and straw... great presentation for a simple gift card!

Oh, and here is a link to all of my parties with lots of shower ideas thrown in. 

Having a sit-down meal at your shower?  Here's a way you can incorporate a simple question for each person.  Give people a minute to read their questions and think about it while they get their food then as everyone is eating, go around the room and answer your question.  What a sweet way to get to know the other important people in your friend's life!

What are your thoughts on shower games?  Am I too harsh?  Maybe you're one of the weirdos that actually likes guessing what candy bar has been melted in the diaper... ugh, come on, that's just nasty! 

::Craft Show Mini Series:: Designing your "Feel"

It's the first post of my Mini Series... get pumped, get psyched!

So you want to do a craft show and you're not sure where to start.  That's exactly where I was a few months ago, so you're in good company.  In this mini series I plan to cover:

The First Step... Designing your "Feel"

Designing Your Booth

Branding like a Pro for Cheap

What To Bring

How to Prepare

Now I am in no way an expert, but I've read more craft show posts and books and listened to more podcasts than I care to admit!  (More on my favorite resources in my last post.)  How about I sift through all of that for you and give you just the gems?

The first place to start is deciding on what you want to sell (think: what are you best at making, what would YOU buy?) and seeing what the common denominator is.  I wanted to sell handwoven infinity scarves, paintings, crayons, baby hats, preschool song books and stationary.  There's not a whole lot in common in that list.  It's not like I was only selling things for one type of customer or only things that go around your neck.  My inventory was a little all over the map so color was my tie that bound everything together.  I used the same color palate and even with a crazy mixture of items, it all came together.

After you decide on what to sell it's time to design your "feel."  In my opinion this step is master class... a ton of people buy a black velvet tablecloth, lay out their stuff and call it a day.  Where's the personality, where's the element of story that comes with your product?  I think creating a "feel" is key to giving someone an experience with you.  People love to give gifts with a story behind them and when they have just met a stay-at-home mom of (almost) three who knits during nap time and decorates with her grandmother's treasures because it's the nostalgia she loves, they like talking about it.  It brings another level of depth and value to your product you've worked hard on.  You'll think about packaging and display later (and I'll talk more about that in a different post) but first it all has to relate back to your "feel."  

Ask yourself what type of environment to you want to create.  My decided feel was "bright and happy little boutique!"  That phrase then acted as my filter.  When deciding on my display I would ask myself the question, "Is this in my bright and happy little boutique?"  Would a wooden stump be happy?  Nah, not really, that's more woodsy.  How about an old Radio Flyer Wagon?  Happy, yes, but not exactly in my bright color palate.  It's a cute idea, but that's more "playful vintage" than I was going for this time.  Does that make sense?

A great place to start might be this quick decorating style survey or here's another one from Sproost.

Here are some examples of my style and how it played out in my booth:  I love the warmth of the unfinished wood, aqua, pinks, vintage table cloths and hankies... those made the cut.  As did white furniture with a scalloped edge.

These fit my aesthetic perfectly... bright, happy scrapbook paper with glittered vintage hymnal sheets.  AND those I didn't sell will be up in the shop soon!

 Bright scarf hung on an old wooden hanger.

Vintage Lilly Pulitzer fabric Mod Podged on to a tin ceiling tile with all of my yarns for custom orders.

Next up... "Designing your Booth" with a couple bazillion pictures of mine!

A Rustic Feminine Wedding Shower

My cousin Anne is a feminine trend setter.  She majored in interior design and she's always loved color, patterns and design.  BUT... this girl is not afraid to throw on a pair of hiking boots and wipe some sweat off of her brow on the Blue Ridge.  I'm telling you, any girl who can wear her Kate Spades as well as she wears her Merrells is a catch and she's been caught!  His name is Jeremy and they are calling it official in November!  A rustic, feminine and very southern wedding shower is in order.

(My sister-in-law, Mary Chandler, my mom, Anne and me... it's like a pregnant sandwich!) 

Yes, stumps showed up at our shower... stumps and vintage doilies!  I can imagine God getting a little tickled making this particular tree... so strong and tall, so rustic in the middle of some beautiful forest somewhere, but He knew that one day this tree would have another life... covered in doilies with a bunch of girls giggling around it!

There's not a whole lot more Southern than vintage blue glass Ball jars filled with lemons, so we did a little of that.

Galvanized ice bucket, hand embroidered vintage linens and of course, more Ball jars to drink... what else... sweet tea and raspberry lemonade punch!

The punch was a huge hit.  My mom's recipe is one can frozen concentrated raspberry lemonade mixed with one liter of Sun Drop (Sprite if you're not from the South).

I did three centerpieces on the food table just to switch things up a bit this time.

The two centerpieces on the left and right are actually an arrangement of different size Ball jars with a combination of white hydrangeas, yellow flowers and some cut lemons.

The center arrangement is on a raised wooden pedestal with an addition of yellow lilies. 

 Silver became a little less well-to-do.

Our invitation was thanks to Vistaprint.

Now that I've thoroughly bored you with the decoration details, let's eat, shall we!?  Country ham biscuits are just a must at a shower and these were soaked in a brown sugar and butter mixture just to send them over the top.  (Do I sound like the Pioneer Woman?)

The shower was at 10:00am, so we went with brunch food.  Fruit skewers, baked gruyere cheese grits, blueberry muffins, and sausage and egg breakfast casserole.  No one left hungry or without their fair share of rustic femininity, y'all!

Roar! Dinosaur Party

Baby Trey isn't a baby any more!  He's a big two year old now.  In honor of his entrance into the "Tremendous Two's" we had a dinosaur party.

I really loved this party even though I was definitely still suffering from the pregnant ickies all through its planning and execution.  Let me tell you what made all the difference in the world I think... we kept it simple!

I used mostly things I had to decorate.  The turned bowls my dad had made me, rocks and ferns from our yard, some dinosaurs I picked up at the local consignment sale.  The menu was simple too... cupcakes, ice cream, sodas, watermelon and cantaloupe.

I made the kids some favors out of old baby food jars, tutorial here.

I covered the table in brown kraft paper, topped it with an old Crate and Barrel table runner and then went to town throwing rocks, ferns and moss here and there.  The cupcakes sat perched on my tree trunk cake pedestal.

 T-Rex guarded our watermelon and cantaloupe with a ferocity that scared off some of the adults...

but definitely not the kids!  

I followed this tutorial to make it.  Don't let me mix words here... this was HARD!  My fruit sculpting skills are not up to par.  It took me an entire morning and I almost chopped my fingers off a couple of times.  Seriously.

So, on a less bloody note.  Funny story, you mamas will appreciate this.  The boys were out playing in the front yard while I finished icing the cupcakes.  Our 10 year old neighbor came running up to my front door and said "Hey, Owen wants to know if I can come to Trey's party!"  Hilarious!  I was like, "Um, sure!"  Well let me just tell you that I literally had to chase the kid down upstairs to get him to leave at the end of the party!  I think he likes us!

We have a huge family and everyone is close by, so parties are always just family and one of my oldest and dearest friends, Blair's family.  We got her to move in to the "Tucker Compound" a few years ago and her boys are the same age as mine.  We do all of our parties together.

We made crayons for the big kids to color.  They are always a hit.  You can get tons of plastic molds here.  I used a new technique this time and it was so much easier... peal the wrappers off of Crayola crayons, break them in to small pieces and put them in a foil muffin wrapper, bake at 220 degrees until the crayons turn to liquid then pour them into the mold of your choice.  Let harden on the countertop for an hour.

 Don't let the look on his face fool you, he may not have fully realized it was his birthday...

but the kid did realize what to do with the cupcake!  That's my boy!  Happy Birthday, Trey!  We are so proud of you!!