VerticallyEnhanced

Damn I wish I had that this weekend! There was a soy candle maker at a show promoting her candles as such. The best part? They were in balmoral type jars and she touted "triple scenting" AND was inviting people who walked by to stick their hand in her lit jar (Kid you not...I saw a mother let her child do it because "it was not hot wax."). I forgot to mention the two inch flame. When I asked her about it she said it was okay because she only used skin safe oils. Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!

Big two day show this past weekend! I have to admit I went into protecting myself in a way, thinking it would not be a good one based on gas prices and the gloom and doom about the economy every time you turn on the TV. Well, I was wrong! I did way more in sales on Saturday than I did in both days last year at the same show. I was pretty surprised! The weather was just out of this world, though. I knew we were going to be in for some crazy stuff Friday night and thought about setting up Sat morning instead, but it takes me a good 4 hours to set up everything and just did not want to have to get up at 3am. So we just did the bare bones Friday night...tents and heavy furniture. They were having an outdoor concert that night to kick off the festival and I noticed a lot of people walking past my booth very quickly. I finally asked someone what was going on and she said, "You did not hear the announcement? They are moving all of us to City Hall...there is a tornado coming." ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? I step out of my tent and sure enough, the sky was flipping green and black. Not good. We debated on quickly taking the tents down. My husband REALLY weights me down, but even I know his stuff would not stand up to a tornado, lol. My husband's friend was with us and he majored in meteorology. He was watching the sky saying it really looked like it was moving around us, so I trusted him. Amazingly, it literally went around the show and regrouped on the other side of us. After all the drama I turned to him and said, "Wait, I thought your degree was in agricultural economics." He said, "Yeah, I sucked at meteorology and switched majors." Saturday was beautiful and then Saturday night was super stormy. I walked up Sunday morning half covering my eyes, seeing if my stuff was still there. It was, but both tents were majorly sagging with water. I was able to get it all off (in the process dousing me to the point where it looked like I just got out of a pool) only to contend with the 20+mph winds. It was pretty scary at times. Many of the vendors simply had to pack up and leave because the wind was literally taking their tents like something out of the Wizard of Oz. I heard a lot of folks lost a lot of product. I think I made a whopping $120 in sales on Sunday, but again, after Saturday, it was not a biggie. Oh and the gutter for the two ezups worked like a charm. I highly recommend it to anyone using two 10x10 tents at shows. I may put it on the classies because seeing how stretched my canvases were from the rain, I may finally just break down and get a 10x20. It was shows like this one that make me so glad I only do three outdoor shows a year!

You can do it Georgia! I do a double by myself. Of course after a two day show I can barely move, lol! I set it up to where my check out booth is at one side and I am able to walk behind my displays (all set up in kind of a long line if that makes sense). I will say my husband usually helps me set up and tear down simply because the display furniture he built is so stinking heavy I cannot move it on my own.

Do what I do when hubby cannot be there... find a high school boy who wants to make a little $$. I pay $50 but only because my stuff consists of heavy pieces of furniture and two tents worth of stuff. You could give someone $20 for setting up your tent, tables and getting the boxes from your vehicle to the spot. And as Maggie said, vendors are usually pretty helpful. Just stand there with your arm in a sling looking woefully at your tent..I bet you will have help in no time!

Well, I just ordered it. Of course being the ever procrastinator, I had to use expedited shipping, so 20 extra bucks. Oh well... :undecided I did a show in December where it drizzled so much and I was FOREVER cleaning up water off of my shelves and products...had to relabel so much! Water would just sit and collect between the two tents and then KER-SPLASH, all at once. I tried fashioning my own gutter with plastic and clamps, but it was a mess. I will let you know how this one works. I have the heavy duty ezup canopies and the customer service person said they "should" work with every brand. We shall see.... Peace of mind was worth it in this case b/c they are calling for a 30% chance of showers all three days of my show this weekend. Now to just get some swim noodles to prop up the "roof" and I will be good to go!

When I do shows, 90% of the time I do a 10x20 spot. I started out my "show life" with one tent doing 10x10, and when I switched my set up to a 10x20 I just bought another 10x10 tent (cheap on craigslist) to have coverage for a double space. Most of the time it is fine but when it rains, you can imagine it is SO much fun. (yes, that is sarcasm) Yes, I know...I need a 10x20 tent. But until then, has anyone used one of these: http://www.hutshop.com/raingutter10.html Any experience? Thanks!

I mentioned in another thread that I have a big show coming up next weekend. I have done this show for many years and I am used to pulling in a lot of $. It is probably my biggest show of the year (I only do a handful of big ones). The year before last I did so FREAKING amazing and then last year, BOOM, it dropped. I still did well, but my booth fee is $300 and I work my %$#@ ass off to get ready for it, so I really expect a big return. I seem to remember that last years sales were about 65-70% of the previous year. The kicker was that each year this show just gets better and better so I went into it kind of cocky. lol... Lesson learned, huh? So with all this doom and gloom in the economy and the gas prices really heading up there, I am so anxious about the show. Not on the show front, BUT....I have to say that my wholesale is at an all time high and people are ordering more than ever...so go figure???? I am curious to see how others wholesale stuff is going in addition to shows. Many of the store owners are saying that their business is going wonderfully, so again....who knows. It is just such a crap shoot, ya know? With all the national news of the possible recession, the food prices, the gas prices, retail being down, etc., our state has reported nothing outside of a very strong economy. So, basically crossing my fingers for next weekend!

MMMMMWWWWWAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAA! (that is my evil, maniacal laugh! Was it scary?) We hooked another one! Welcome to the club. You will now: 1. Never be able to walk into a room with a candle without your "candle radar" going off alerting you that there is, in fact, a candle in your near vicinity. You will instantly go into candle auto pilot, go up to it and judge it on burn and cold throw. 2. Never be able to pass a Yankmee store (or similar) without walking in, looking at stuff and proclaiming in your head, "Huh! Mine are better. Look at that wick? Don't they know what centered means?" 3. Use terms like cold throw, hot throw, flash points, middle notes and dry downs in regular conversation; people will stare blankly at you because they have no idea what you are talking about. 4. Upon seeing a candle burning in a movie or tv program, you will pause and rewind the show to see if you can a) tell what brand it is and see if it is burning properly. (Annoys the hell out of my husband!) 5. Understand that candle nose is a real affliction. 6. Be told by everyone you come in contact with, "Is that you I smell? What is that? Cotton candy??? Dang that smells good!" (and that is when you hand em a card!) 7. Spend more money on fragrance oils than shoes. 8. Be more turned on by finding that "perfect" vanilla than you ever thought possible. 9. Never be able to walk through a dollar store, Wally World or such without at some point thinking, "Huh...that would make a cute candle container!" 10. Love every minute of it!

Best of luck to ya! I hope you do well! I have a show next weekend that I am SO unprepared for. I keep getting hit with wholesale stuff, which is great, but I really have to bust butt this weekend and next week to get up and ready for the show. I am already cringing over the lack of sleep I am going to have. I am like you about being a bit nervous on what folks will spend. Gas prices alone are concerning, every time you turn on the radio/tv the media is gushing gloom and doom about the economy!

I was going to suggest KYs lumberjack. I have been testing it and love it! Bert's redwood and cedar is good, but definitely not a sawdust scent in my opinion. The KY one is more of a straight wood.

Has anyone heard of an OKI C5150n? I found one on craigslist and it seems to be a great deal. Plus, the toner seems to be somewhat reasonable, which is an added plus.

Well, I think it is safe to say I can scratch "make Lufkin hotel reservations" off of my to-do list!

I had to look it up...it was bugging me: Sweet Pipe Tobacco No cherry or vanilla, just a very mild, smooth sweet tobacco. Smells like a real pipe. I burn this at night because it's very calming to me.

WSP Lavender & Lemon in the front of the house and Flicker's tobacco scent in the back of the house (cannot remember what it is called??? Sweet Tobacco?)

overnightprints.com GREAT quality (the glossy side makes it look SO professional) and wonderful prices. I have used vista prints and I just have found that over night prints is just so much better. I design my cards with photoshop and upload it. overnight prints does not have an upload fee (vista does if I remember correctly). I use overnight for tons of stuff...cannot say enough good things about them.

Thanks Carol. I have never ordered from them, so you know what that means, right? Sample pack and searching the site for ones people love from SOS.

Oh I would not buy a pound to test...my fear is it works well and then I end up having to buy it at $35/pound...lol. Have you smelled the yankme? If so, is it similar? How close is it to a gardenia smell? Let's see...can I ask any more questions?

Nope, and their schedule of events are still listing the 2006 stuff. So no clue...

Have a customer request and did a search both here and on line with out much luck except for TSW and it is $35/lb. Ouch. Does anyone know if it is a close ringer to Yankme? Any other supplier offer it for a bit less than an arm and a leg per pound?

I keep an eye on the sales. For example, Michael's had their baskets on sale this past week. I stocked up on the ones I use, which I guess are the "laundry basket" kind??? I ended up paying about $2 and no shipping. Edited to add I get my paper shreads from Nashville Wraps. I have also gotten good deals on ebay before but have not checked there lately.

In the state of Texas, exemption certificates and resale certificates are two different things. http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/01-339.pdf (In the above link, the resale certificate is on top and the exemption certificate is below it. In Texas, for the sale of items through a fundraiser, the sales tax needs to be collected from someone even if it is conducted for/by an exempt organization. The exempt org is acting as a representative of your company and you are responsible for collecting and remitting the tax if they are getting a percentage of your sale. Tax is due on the total cost of the item, not just the base minus their markup, if that makes sense. Most people build the tax into the sale of the candle and back out the tax when it is time to report. You do have to state somewhere on your order form that Texas State Sales Tax is included in the purchase price. Another way to handle it is to "sell" the candles to the organization and accept a RESALE certificate from them and THEY are responsible for the sales tax. Say they get $4 profit from each candle, you would sell a candle to them for $10 each and they would charge their customers $14. They are then responsible for collecting and remitting the sales tax on the total consideration (which is $14). BUT, In order for your "bottom to be covered", the exempt org has to give you a properly completed resale certificate (not exemption certificate). This means that the resale certificate has to include their taxpayer ID number. You can verify their ID number in the state of Texas through this page: http://ecpa.cpa.state.tx.us/vendor/tpsearch1.html If they give your an exemption certificate for candles and you are audited, then your bottom is not covered. If you have a resale certificate from them with a texas issued taxpayer number stating that they are responsible for collecting/remitting tax, then you are covered. Keep it on file for four years. Many are mistaken that exempt orgs are exempt from tax period and that is not the case in most states. In Texas, an exempt org is exempt from paying tax on items they purchase which are used to further their exempt purpose. If a school purchases teaching supplies, or a church purchases vestments for the priest to wear, those are considered purchases which further their exempt purpose. However, exempt orgs are not exempt from COLLECTING tax on the sale of items. Now if the school were buying teaching supplies or the church the vestments, then they would issue an exemption certificate. That same exemption certificate can be used by you and I. For example, if I am buying a wax melter, that is an exempt purchase because it is a manufacturing item. In general, sales tax is not due on items that are used to manufacture items for sale. Of course there are some rules that go with the whole manufacturing thing. But as far as the melter is concerned, it is used directly in the manufacturing of my end product, so it is an exempt purchase. It is all so confusing, made even more so by differing rules for different states. It is always good to check with your state's revenue/tax/comptroller's office.

Thought I would piggy back. :-) I am testing ICS' in 415 soy. I thought it just looked like a normal wicker to me, but alas, I think not. The burn is surprising me and it looks as thought it needs to be bumped up. I was wondering if anyone has found they need to wick up on this one? I always wonder on ones like these that surprise me if I put the wrong wick in or something else notoriously dumb I have done in the past.

I love statcounter. I have the $9/month version but really, the free one is just as good. The only thing I can tell that is different from the free vs the upgrade is that your log count is increased which allows you to go back and view a lot of records. If you are just after the "here and now" you are good to go with the freebie one. I love seeing not only how many people visit my site, but which of my pages are more popular than others. I also love seeing some of the search terms they use to land on my site. Some are so freaking funny and I have to wonder about the freaks out there. Last week someone landed on my site by googling, "my asian honey wears leg warmers". So um, yes, I have all those words on my site but not in that order, lol. When I do the same search I cannot bring up my site, but lucky for me some whack a doo with a fetish for asian honeys in leg warmers did. Wonder which candle they will get?

on the recall page http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08167.html at the bottom...

I have never worked with palm, but do with soy. I have seen some big swings in lots over the years. Twice I have gotten lots where I had to wick up two sizes on some of my heavier oils. The next lot usually goes back down to my normal wicking. I have always thought that if someone was testing with a "bugger" batch of wax it would be dangerous in the long run. They would use the bugger batch to test and get their wicking down and think that was how it would be forever, not knowing about the possible swings in wax lots. Then, if their next batch of wax is "normal", and they used the wicking they formulated with their testing, it would be way over wicked. Over wicking one of my jars with wicks two sizes too big would make some big 'ole flames...I could totally see "minor damage" being done. I just think it is so important for soy wax sellers to educate their customers about the possible changes in waxes. Many put a notice on their site, but many still don't.