This page is where you will find updates, tips, and the latest projects!

She’s headed to Cajun Culture tomorrow in DeRidder!

About Food

Y’all, I want to get healthy. Not just healthy but in good shape, toned and competitive. Because let’s face it, at my age, I need to work harder to stay in the game at all.

I’m already on a low-carb lifestyle, and I’ve seen and maintained great results. I want to step up my game now. It’s all about being fit.

So what I’ve learned in Recovery is that accountability keeps you straight. I’m taking my journey public so I’ll stay on it.

Y’all are welcome to join me! We can figure it all out together.

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Swamp Fairies

I’m working on fairies right now for a shop window.

I kind of just chose this pic at random because I’m updating my entire site and I haven’t been on it in so long everything has changed! I can’t even find the admin spot, don’t know if you see my name and URL as different, don’t know anything really.

I’m going to update you with all of the major changes but I just wanted to get it going in a small way right now since it’s the middle of the night and my toes are cold.

Kisses y’all 😘

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Getting it Together for the Tax Man

It’s so hard!

Trying to decide how to handle my business, that is.

Merging my business name with my blog name was the perfect solution but now lining it all out legally is a little more difficult.

It could be because I hate that side of things.

Anything that makes me stop running around like a chicken with my head cut off is not my friend.

I hate the tedious, absolutely boring nature of chasing tax information down and (you know) doing the right things.

Gotta do it anyway.

So here I sit, at the surgery center, waiting for my friend to get a cataract removed and chasing down all the steps needed to do this the right way so I don’t jump the track like the train wreck that I am.

Well, we got hitched!

I’ve been meaning to post pics and let me tell you, it’s really hard to pick favorites! But, here are a few!

I will come back and add more later! ❤️

NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO QUIT!

It’s easy in this business to become discouraged, and when that happens, to quit putting forth all the effort it actually takes to be successful.

When sales are down and stay down consistently, you want to pull out and run away.

Running a booth business is hard work, and under-appreciated. We source our merchandise, taking chances on things we think will probably sell or things that we love. We then must clean and sometimes even repair those items. If we keep inventory, they are added by whatever method we use. We store the items.

Getting them ready to sell is really not fun. I use a system with Quail that allows me to create a barcode price tag. Then I save those inventory sheets to my computer, and I have a copy of the barcode on every item I have for sale.

Additionally, I take pictures of my booths every time I go. When something is missing, I know it. When something big is missing, I wait for my end of month totals to find out if it is stolen or sold.

You can’t imagine how many huge items walk out the doors without anyone stopping them!

Anyway, pricing is probably the least fun part, even when you have a good system.

Then you wait. You wait to see if things are going to sell, if it will be a good month, or if you will hear crickets. And lately, the crickets have an entire orchestra going.

I know from speaking to shop owners that it’s slow for everybody around here right now. Oh, one or two vendors may be doing great—and I’m glad they are! But the majority of us are struggling.

Makes you want to quit.

I’ve noticed that a lot of vendors have stopped refreshing their booths, stopped seeing if there are holes to fill, stopped sharing pics and tags on social media. Essentially quitting without quitting.

And I get it. It’s a whole lot easier to quit all the hardest things and blame the economy when you fail than to keep working hard at it just to hear those pesky crickets!

Also, things come up in life that take precedence over your booths that must be tended to. Family sickness and tragedy, unexpected stress, health issues, and a host of other things.

But don’t quit!

Don’t give up! Even when you can think of a million reasons to quit, if you aren’t doing everything you can to make a go of it, you will always regret it. There may be a time to quit, but if you haven’t given it everything you’ve got, this is NOT the time.

Pour yourself into the dream you have and do every single thing you can think of before you throw in the towel. Remember the reason you started it all in the first place!

Promote other people as they promote you. Shout out to all the people in your circle who need a boost. Share their posts and ask them to share yours! It’s not going to hurt your business to help someone else. What it does is get us all more exposure. If the other business brings customers to the shop, they always walk around to look, and you may have just what they’re looking for!

I’ve had more than one customer tell me the reason they were in a particular shop/market was because they saw a post on Facebook. So, keep posting and sharing, highlighting your favorite merchandise. Keep showing up and refreshing your booth. The Christmas season is just about upon us.

This is not the time to quit! Double down and LET’S DO THIS!!