VerticallyEnhanced

Yup. I am seriously sitting here shaking my head at the preposterousness of the whole thing! You know, this, in addition to other things I have heard about them (sneaky handling charges) has me totally scrapping them off of my supplier list. I have only bought a few things from them, but there are just too many other great suppliers out there who are fair to their customers.

Okay, I went and took pictures for you. I warn you. I put a tracking device on it. If you steal it, I will find you. I tried to get a pic of the inside but was trying to hold the door open against the wind at the same time. We also dumped my two tents and tables in there already. You can see the shelves along the back wall near the side door and then one left on the side. My hubby took down the ones on the right (they stuck out too far and were not very stable). The metal shelf is in there just b/c we are toying with the idea of bolting it to the wall and covering it with the cargo net/bungee cords. Another is just a shot when it was still at our house right after I got the previous owner's decals off the sides.

I will go over and take pictures today (it is at a storage lot since our home owners ASSociation frowned on it being in our driveway for three days). Hubby has taken some of the shelves out and left a few...turns out they would not work with all of our stuff (read: four wheeler would not fit). The remaining shelves will be good for non-candle stuff...I was kind of iffy about putting candles on shelves on the road anyway.

Add me to the White Elephant list. I have a "tartdle" with everyone's name on it. Want me to bring my trailer (Did I tell you I have a new trailer...lol)? We can all bunk in it if we get kicked out of the hotel. What a way to break it in, huh?

I will, smelly. My dear hubby has taken on the project of making it even better. He is replacing some of the shelves and rearranging them. I finally realized what he was doing, too, when I saw him measure the width of his four wheeler. "Honey, are you thinking of taking my trailer down to the ranch with your four wheeler inside?" His instant sheepish grin gave him away.

You guys keep your paws off my trailer. I have a heat gun. I am not afraid to use it. Can I say I washed it and polished it this weekend. Yes, a clean trailer is a happy trailer. I even shop vac'ed the inside. I need help, huh?

I use the Bug Buster EO blend from A Garden Eastward. Here are the ingredients: INGREDIENTS: Sweet Basil, Citronella, Eucalyptus, Lemongrass, Lavender. It is SO much more plesant than plain citronella (gag). The link for more info on the oil: http://addy.com/brinkley/410.html

See, I wish she would put that on her site. Instead it says: This is a fabulous oil! Excellent in soy and it is bath and body safe! A wonderful confection for your candles and bath and body products! I use some suppliers that will actually say some of their oils are light in soy; or great as a mixer but not a stand alone; or awesome in B&B and so-so in wax; or awesome in para but light in soy. I really appreciate that from them; it helps me narrow down which ones I want to even test and saves me time and money.

I have been wanting a cargo trailer for a long time. We are taking so much to shows right now that we are having to use two vehicles plus a small flatbed that we borrow from a friend. So I am delivering some candles today to a customer out in the boonies and I see a very nice looking Pace Cargo trailer on someone's property with a for sale sign. I call the number and the guy comes out there to meet me. I look at the trailer and it is almost in perfect condition. It was 18 months old and has a couple of dings but that was it. He opened the side door and I almost fell over. One side of the trailer was floor to roof custom shelves that would be perfect for candle boxes. He even had cargo nets rigged up with bungee cords to keep stuff from falling and shifting. It was a 6x10 white trailer with the side door. I knew these retail for close to $3200 if I am remembering correctly, and I had not seen one that was used for under $2000 So I asked him how much. He said, "Well, we are kind of hurting for money right now, so I need to be firm on my offer." Great, I thought right there I could not afford it. He then said, "How does $1,000 sound?" :shocked2: :shocked2: I could not get to the bank fast enough!!!!!!!!! He now has $1,000 in his hands and *I* have a trailer! I am STILL floored!!

Yep, cause you know I had to try and relight that sucker. It stayed lit for just shy of an hour, albeit a very small flame. The top of tartdle had three different cracks that did not go all the way through the tartdle. (Yes, I want to use the word tartdle as many times as I can.) Then, there was some type of hole at the bottom of the tartdle. I think it was an air pocket around the wick tab. The tab was not set like a votive, it was just kind of smashed down in there. So when the wick burned down the middle of the tartdle all the wax went out the bottom of the tardle and all over the plate. I wish I could describe the scent to you. Not sure what it was supposed to be, but it was kind of like pink sugar meets dirt meets rotting meat. Just don't know what you would call that one. Now I am off to trademark the word tartdle.

Yay for you! Your booth looks awesome! I just recently started doing double booths and was worried about recouping the cost. It has more than paid off. The extra $ is awesome, but having more room to move around is an extra added plus! I attach washers on the hems of my table cloths to help keep them down.

You know the verse: Someone just started making candles, Now they are selling them to folks. Hope their poor ole' customers Don't end up with a house full of coals. Actually this person asked me for my website because they wanted "to use it to get ideas on how to make candles and start a business." After I picked my dang jaw up off the ground, I gave the whole mantra about testing and you need to give yourself adequate time to let that process happen, blah blah blah. I also said that I had worked very hard on my site and my business and did not really appreciate people saying they were basically piggybacking off of me. At that time this person told me they were thinking about making them and had not even ordered supplies. They looked at me like I had three heads when I talked about testing. Three weeks later someone saw them at a fair selling them. Shocking? Yeah, not so much. I am sure three week was more than enough time to buy supplies and adequately test 23 different scents that they had sitting out there, find insurance, get a tax permit and all that good stuff. Yeah, that is called sarcasm. :rolleyes2 :rolleyes2 So, this person gave a friend one of their candles. My friend said it truly did make her nauseous and gave it to me so I could see it. I can honestly say I have never seen this. It is obviously soy (VERY soft, lots of frosting and has the soy wax feel). It had been poured in a paper muffin cup and wicked, but the cup was removed. Is it a tart? Is it a candle? Maybe we can call it a tartdle? I lit it and it has been burning for three hours (on a plate in my kitchen sink with a fire extinguisher near by) and is burning a dime size hole down the middle. No, never mind, I just looked and it went out. I just have to shake my head.

I actually bought two of them off of ebay. One to hold my clamshells and the other is a table top greeting card spinner that was the perfect size for my aroma bead sachet envelopes. I got them each for a GREAT price, too. The only thing is that the clam shell one is plastic and if it is windy, it has been know to flop over if I am doing an outdoor show. Anyway, go on ebay, go to the "Business Industrial" section and do a search for the words "spinner" and you might be able to find something. Alos try "hook rack". I am sure there are other words that might come up, but that is off the top of my head. I just looked on ebay and there is actually a catagory for this: Listed in category: Business & Industrial > Food Service & Retail > Retail Supplies > Retail Racks > Spinners & Carousels You could just brouse the entire catagory and probably find something.

WOW! I think it is worth a trip on a plane just to get a copy! Can you go somewhere to celebrate? Heck, I will tell my hubby we need to fly somewhere just so I can pick up an AA magazine. (Did you hear that? That was a lead balloon. See how well it went over?)

Pam, how wide are your jars? Also, what wax are you using, if I may ask. I could not even get a cd22 to work in my "lighter" oils in my 4 inch apoth jars using 100% soy.

I guess I consider myself lucky. In the past 5+ years, I have only had three bounced checks. One I am still trying to collect on ($60) and has been turned over to the district attorney for the issuing county, and the other two were cleared up with just a phone call to the people. They quickly made good on it in addition to paying the fees I incurred. Just make sure you get a lot of contact info including their DL #. As for credit card payments, I drug my feet on accepting them, but wish I had started offering the option sooner at my shows. I recently did a show where over $1200 of my sales for the weekend were CC sales. I am forever seeing people bring one candle to my check out counter and seeing that I take CC, then they go back and get more. I really think it boosts your sales. I have used propay for years and love it. However, I am getting to the point where I am outgrowing it and need to find something else, but it has served me well for a long time.

sniff That was just the push I needed. The guilt has been eating me alive, yet the market demand made me drown out their horrific, gut wrenching shrieks. No more. No more, I say. I just released my bears thanks to your eloquent oration, Top. They are now running free down the street. I think I even hear the faintest hint of "Born Free" wafting through the air as they disappear into the cool summer evening. It is a beautiful thing. Simply beautiful. Top, I am forever in your debt. You have given my life new direction. The plushies and I both thank you.

Well, dag nabbit, Scent Works was the first place I looked for it! I must have totally overlooked it. Thanks so much. I have to order some stuff from them anyway, so that works out well.

I use soy and the hot throw on this one is wonderful for me! I agree, it is a divine scent!

I have a customer request for this one and it sounds like a beautiful scent to add. I cannot find it anywhere - not on the fragrance finder or the sites I know to be notorious for dupes. Has anyone run across this one? Thanks!

Looks really great! And once you set it up at your show, it will be the last time it looks really great, lol. I predict you will forever be straightening your table, but it will be worth it because your set up looks wonderful! I get so frustrated some times with customers - sometimes it looks like a tornado came through my booth because some people seem to have an aversion to putting things back where they belong after they pick them up.:rolleyes2

Photoshop can be kind of daunting! It is not nearly as "user friendly" as graphic work is in word of some of the watered down graphic programs. I bought the 24 hour sams publishers series for all my adobe products. They are great books that walk you through the program step by step. The books are broken down in one our sessions, 24 sessions, hence the name. It was really helpful! Even with that book, however, I feel like I have only scraped the surface of what the program can do!

I have never had any trouble with them at all. I hope it was just a fluke for you. I really think their prices are some of the best and I LOVE the clam shell packaging! Also, I ALWAYS have printing issues with Avery labels (i.e. the are "off" margin wise one time and the next time they come out perfect), but never have with the ones i get from onlinelabels. I actually use photoshop for everything! For my labels, say for example I am doing a 2x4 label. I go to photoshop and start a new image. I set the size to match the label size and start creating. This is all text with some gradients and stuff. Their text effects are WAY cool and you can do so much with them (beveling, shadowing, etc.). I set the DPI for about 600 for a really crisp product and save it as a jpg image. Then I import it into my MS word template that I have downloaded from either avery or the onlinelabel site. Photoshop has just totally spoiled me!

Along the hula hoop route, we use swim noodles for the same thing. We just cut them to fit and use it to push the canopy up a bit to avoid the rain collecting on the top. My husband is "weight obsessed" when it comes to my tents! I use two 10x10 tents placed up next to each other. For each leg, my husband has taken 6 inch PVC pipe and filled it with cement. I would guess he cut the pipes to about three foot lengths? There is a PVC cap at the bottom and on the top of the pipe he has placed one of those heavy duty metal spiral dog spikes that is sunk down into the cement. They are the kind that screw into the ground and then you can hook your dog's leash on it. He then secures bungee cords to the dog spikes, wraps them around the legs of the tent and hooks them to the upper bars. They are super heavy and stay out of people's way since they are tall and thin. At night if I am doing a two day show, I have two five gallon buckets filled with cement and the same spikes. When I am closing up for the night, I put them in the middle of my tent and secure them to the middle upper portion of the center of the tent with safety straps. I just don't think my tents are going anywhere. Those things are SO dang heavy, but I have seen so much damage to people's tents before. It is well worth the extra insurance!

Way to go! I am sure you are exhausted but happy! I find two day shows (in my area, at least) to be just as you described. Saturday is just always the bigger of the two. I just finished one tonight that was Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday I literally did not stop selling. It seemed as though I would finish wrapping and packing and then someone else was in my booth and handing me candles. (Not complaining!) On Saturday I made FIFTEEN times my booth fee (and I doubled my booth size this year, so I was pleased). I was shocked! And the plus, I was so busy I did not have time to walk around and shop! Then today, I only made six times my booth fee, but it was such a better pace. I would have loved to have been as busy as I was yesterday, but it was actually nice to breathe today.