Bags, Lessons and Markets

Well, I forgot my camera (again) on Sunday, but it was a great day at the markets!

I broke my record on profits (only by $5), but not on number of sales, 17 is still the winner there. It was a really nice day, not too windy, and while it was very cold when we first arrived, the sun warmed us up and it was lovely.

We had an unusually large number of requests for baby related cards, so I'm trying to get lots of those ready for this Sunday! Yes, that's right, this is our one off two weeks in a row at the markets! Next month we'll be back to the usual once a fortnight deal of every 2nd and 4th Sunday.

I like to learn and improve on my efforts when it comes to the markets, and do whatever I can to make it a smooth and easy service for both me and any of the customers. And on Sunday I made a final decision on one thing: my cash box was not working well. As brilliant and handy as it was in the beginning, (made by my husband back in his high school days), the bending down out of sight of the shoppers to fiddle, and the fact that it had no divisional compartments, and trying to get the right money out of the little sealed bags I had in there, was all just too time consuming and inaccurate. I felt like it all goes smoothly until someone hands me money, and then my salesmanship is replaced by an awkward clumsiness that undermines the whole transaction.

So I had a bit of a think about possible solutions, ruled out a cash box all together, ruled out the 'bum bag' look, I simply can't pull that off, and decided that what I needed was basically a wallet on a handbag strap. A small bag with lots of handy compartments to separate the silver from the gold, the pink from the blue, the red from the yellow. I did not know if such a devise existed, but yesterday I set out with my determined face on and lo and behold, I found something!

On SALE no less!

It is small, simple and cheap, yet not ugly! There's a combination that agrees with my wallet. So I've handed the cash box back to its real owner and divided up all the coins and notes in this little cutie.

I've adjusted the strap so that it fits comfortably across my body, and the husband likes it so it officially has been welcomed into my world. (note the beige door it's hanging on, right next to the beige wall? Yeah, THAT'S why I'm painting this place)

I also bought myself a very cute jumper that I've had my eye on, which I will be wearing at the markets this Sunday, AND, I stopped in at my favourite scrapbooking shop to find that they were having a sale, and that what I wanted was 20% off. A perfect shopping day.

Today I'll be making some baby cards as highly requested, and continuing the painting of the trim of my house. On the subject of the painting I've learned a lot from this experience and all the parts I've fully completed look wonderful, but in future I will paint the trim first, then the walls. Not that it hasn't worked the other way, it's just caused me stress that I didn't need at that moment when you have to pull the masking tape off. Once I've finished the trim of the living/dining area, I'll be moving on to the painting of the bedroom, and the husband and I will set up camp on the fold out couch for a couple of nights.

And lastly, once again I had several requests for lessons throughout the market day, so now I just need a place and a source for the tools of quilling, preferably at wholesale to keep it an affordable lesson for all these future students. *sigh* So the search continues for that part. The last place I looked at was very promising, until I found out it went out of business four years ago and just never closed its darn website.

See you at the markets on the 25th!

xnata