I'm almost too embarrassed to actually do it. I could just shut down the blog & maybe no one would remember, right? But I want the record of all of this as much as I want to share it.
THANKS to those friends who have asked about it ... you guys are my motivation to actually get something up here! So here goes. :)
So much has happened in the past ... 8 months. Really?? 8 months?? Anyway, I will probably post over several days so that it's not too ridiculously long. I'm going to try to do this semi-chronologically, but I'm sure I will forget things.
I guess the first major thing that happened started a couple of weeks after I last posted.
I love doing crafts. Scrapbooking, cross-stitch, sewing ... anything. I went a while back to a sewing party that my bestie had, and it got me thinking. What if I were to make things and sell them to raise money for the adoption?
Cole and I talked it over, and I started making some things. And All Things T-Shirt was born.
I started off making things out of repurposed t-shirts (hence the name) but soon added other stuff as well. I opened a store on Etsy and had a little bit of success there. My mom and sister came and helped me get some things made. Then about the middle of September, I had two different ladies contact me on Etsy. They had seen my shop and liked what I had and both asked me if I would be interested in doing craft shows ... in November. Just under two months away.
I know people do craft shows all the time. The issue was that I had no stock. None. Not even a little. I also didn't have anything else I would need like, say, a booth, business cards. And I knew that I wanted to change the name since the first one didn't fit anymore. Oh ... did I mention I had never even BEEN to a craft show before?
Fortunately, I have a lot of talented people in my life who are AWESOME and helped me out a bunch. I had several people thinking about a new name for the shop. Cole came up with the one that we stuck with ... More than Sew-Sew.
My bestie is awesomely talented with Photoshop and spent a TON of time helping me. She designed the logo, business cards, tags for the shopping bags, etc. etc.
My brother-in-law used to help his mom with her craft shows, so he helped a lot. He helped me figure out how to make the booth, and then he and Cole and my nephew built it. It's great ... and HUGE!
Toward the end of getting things ready, I moved my sewing stuff into my mom & dad's dining room because there was more room to spread out ... and there weren't two little kids trying to get into everything. They had fun playing in the playroom with toys they didn't see all the time. And there are gates. :)
Apparently I make a big mess when I craft. See?
I spent A LOT of time over there. I had my mom, both sisters and a girl from mom & dad's church helping cut out fabric, running to the store, and various other things. Alana (my little sister) made bows. My mother-in-law even came and stayed with my kids for a while so I could sew, sew, sew.
And Cole helped out with all sorts of things. Including staining the booth and spray painting outside in the dark.
And designing my website. It was good times!
After LOTS of work and LOTS of help, More than Sew-Sew was finally ready for the first craft show.
Reagan (the aforementioned bestie) and Cole went with me to the show.
I may not have made a lot of money, but it was fun. And I learned A LOT!
We spent the next week changing some things up, and the three of us headed to the next show. It was
somewhat more successful, though not as much as I had hoped.
Since then, I have spent countless hours sewing. Business has picked up quite a bit, especially since the beginning of the year. And I do plan on doing more craft shows ... some day.
I was just reading a friend's blog and she was talking about how God care about7 the little things. And I definitely see that in this endeavor. He gave me the idea from a sewing party ... had people find my Etsy shop ... gave me a ton of help getting ready for the show ... and I always seem to get lots of orders when I have more time, and not so many when things are crazier. It's definitely a God thing.
I haven't really made a ton of money so far ... actually I haven't even made back what we've invested in it. But it really is picking up! I know that this was God's idea, and I believe He's going to continue to use it as a way to raise part of the money we will need for the adoption.
I guess that's enough for today, but I promise to share more about the actual adoption stuff ... but I'm not going to promise when. ;)
