hometowncandles

Congrats I was in the same boat last year with my gift baskets, good to know you sold a couple. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do all that work again for nothing, but I may give it a try.

Anything over $300 is a felony offense and he could pull some serious jail time, I would think anyway. Call your local county attorney's office, they can advise you of your legal rights and the necessary steps to take. Hope you get your money, and soon. Jennifer

If I had fun then I'd call it a success. Don't get me wrong, I also like to make money, but even if I didn't make a fortune but had a good time and was around good people, then I'll do a show again.

I don't know why some shows even have rules. I done one last year, and will be doing it again this year, that stated clearly in the rules that all items must be handmade. We even had to submit a photo of our items to the committee for approval. When I got there there was a lady who set up beside me with purses, hundreds of them. From a distance they could have passed for the quilted purses that people actually make, until you got up close and saw the vivary tags hanging off them. I didn't take anything that wasn't handmade, but this year I'm taking my tart warmers and a few gift baskets. I'm not even going to ask if it's ok. I done another show a few weekends ago, they also requested that all items be handmade, but there was a table a few down from me that looked like a huge yardsale. I think they just cleaned out their garage and basement and brought everything they didn't use anymore. I wouldn't mind so much if the rules didn't state that all items must either be handmade or directly related to your handmade items. But it's really bothersome when you put so much time and work into your items and then you see somebody else with Wal-mart items on their table.

If you have everything else worked out and space is all you are worried about, why not invest in a couple of the folding tables at Wal-Mart. When I first started pouring, I worked out of my kitchen and boy was it a mess, constantly. I couldn't stand to look at it. But then dh got the bright idea to buy a couple of the 6 foot banquet tables and set them up in a extra room we weren't using at the time(now the kiddo's bedroom). I could set up my melters in the kitchen and my jars on the tables in the extra room. It gave me plenty of extra room. If you haven't already, I would take a real close look at your cost before trying to get a wholesale account. I had a lady inquire yesterday about putting some of my candles in her flower shop. After calculating my cost, since everything has gone up so much in the last year, I just can't afford to do it right now. If I gave her wholesale cost, she would make more on my candles than I do, not happening. I don't do enough business at this time to buy my jars by the pallet, my largest expense, and I don't live close enough to a jar supplier to make it cost effective to drive and pick them up. So for now, I'll stick to craft fairs and door to door selling. If you should choose to do it, I hope all goes well for you. Jennifer

Thanks DonC, I'll have to check that out before I buy a permit. I would love to do more of these if this one goes well, but I hate to pay so much for a business permit if this one bombs and I don't do anymore. I'm trying to co-ordinate it with the local tree lighting event on the courthouse square the first part of December. The convention center is a few blocks down, but many of the merchants stay open late because of the tree lighting. So I figure this would be a good time.

This is similar to what I have been trying to explain to dh. I got a call from a local florist today that wants to start selling my candles at her shop. Naturally, I was excited so I just had to tell dh as soon as he came in from work today. His first reaction is, you can't give them to her for any less than you sell them for. The part I can't make him understand is that people aren't going to buy my candles from her for $20 if they can buy them from me for $15. Besides, it would save me so much time and money in gas, eating out everytime I go to town, and so on, if I just had some where for people to buy my candles. It would be worth it to do a wholesale account with her, provided she is interested in more than 5 or 6 at a time. I am going to do some searching on the board before I quote her any terms or prices. This place is a wealth of info.

Thanks, I had one at my house last year, mostly family and close friends. Like I mentioned I'm in a really rural part of our area, so I didn't expect a huge turnout, but I still done pretty good. We ate, played games, and had a really good time. And sold quite a bit of stuff. I have done a couple of craft shows and picked up a few repeat customers from them. So I'm hoping that by making myself a little more accessable(sp?) then I can do even more. I'll let ya know how it goes if I decide to do it. Good Luck with your open house also, just have lots of fun with it and it'll be worthwhile even if you don't sell a ton of stuff. Jennifer

Forgive me if this has already been discussed. I did a search but didn't come up with anything specifically geared to what I am wanting to do. I live in a rural area of our county where there's not much traffic except for the people who live here. I just don't think an open house at my home would do very well. I was thinking of renting a room at our local Convention Center, right in the middle of town, for a few hours and host an open house there. I would have to purchase a retail business license from the city for $51.00, but it would be good for 12 months and I could do as many of these as I would like or even open up a little shop if I had the opportunity. And the cost of renting a room that holds 40 people would be $70.00 for 4 hours of actual use time, I would have 2 hours to set up and 1 hour for clean up(7 hours total) They set up the tables and chairs for me all I have to do is set up my stuff and make it look pretty. Has anyone done this type of open house and was it productive? I have picked up several customers from doing shows, and I think if I can get the word out I could do pretty well. What are everyone's thoughts? And what do I need to consider if I do go through with it? TIA Jennifer

:yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay: Boy did I just get a heck of a deal! I'm so excited I can hardly hold it in. I just ordered 5 soapmaking books from amazon.com for a grand total of $6.36 I got the four I had listed in my original post plus the one by Anne L Watson. I had a $25.00 gift certificate, plus I was approved for an amazon.com visa card with a $30.00 instant credit on my first purchase plus my order qualified for free super saver shipping. Is it Christmas already? Now I can order soap naturally from annelees and still have less than $50 invested. Now I just hope I can understand the method of making soap, I don't want to have to list these back on amazon.com in 6 or 8 months. Wish me luck guys. Looks like I've got plenty of reading material on the way. Jennifer

I order so much stuff, everytime UPS comes down our lane, whether it's for me or not, dh starts to the door to meet them. LOL

Thank you, this is why I love this board, you saved me $55.

If you haven't already, you might check www.scentforum.com HTH

TallBlonde, Is this the same book? Soap Naturally(Ingredients, Methods and Recipes for Natural Homemade Soap) Programmer Publishing, Ltd. Australia $79.99 There's no Author listed, just wanted to make sure it was the same as you had mentioned. Thanks Jennifer

That's what I was afraid of I guess the jars will just have to sit for a while. No time to retest now. Thanks Top

Ok, seems like I'm just full of questions lately. I had a fellow chandler give me some apothecary jars the other day that she isn't going to use. They are 16 ounce Anchor Hocking Jars, I have been using 16 ounce apothecary jars from the Jar Store. The Anchor Hocking Jars are a little thicker than what I have been using. My question is, if I use these jars am I going to need to retest? Or does a slight difference in thickness matter enough to affect the burn? TIA Jennifer

I had actually looked at the one by Anne L Watson, but I didn't recall her name from the threads that I had looked at. I will have to add her to my wish list along with some of the Sandy Main ones. Thanks everybody for your input. Jennifer

I am interested in starting soap making and making my own lotions and such, sometime down the road. I'm looking at around 2 years from now when both babies are in school. But, I want to know what I am doing and have as much understaning as possible of the ingredients and process involved. I have been reading as much as possible here on CT and I plan to look at millersoap's website too, as I have seen it recommended many times in the soap making threads. But for me, book form is much easier than online, sometimes it's just not convenient for me to be at the computer. I have been searching threads for some good books to purchase to get me started on my educational journey. And I have chose a few on amazon.com, but wanted some advice from you guys before I purchase them. I have a $25 gift certificate that is burning a hole in my pocket, so I figure what better way to spend it. Here are the ones I have picked out, if there is out there for beginners that is better that I have missed please let me know. Alicia Grosso 1.Soapmaking 2.The Everything Soapmaking Book: Recipes and Techniques for Creating Colorful and Fragrant Soaps(Everything Sports and Hobbies) Susan Cavitch 1.The Natural Soap Book:Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps 2.Soapmaker's Companion:A Comprehensive Guide With Recipes, Techniques & Know-How(Natural Body Series-The Natural Way to Enhance Your Life) TIA Jennifer

Home for Christmas

I use mostly 14's and 16's in my 16 & 26 ounce apothecary jars, I have to double wick to get a full m/p. But they do really well, the only thing I don't like about them is the terrible mushroom you get sometimes. No matter what I do, I still get it with some scents.

I tried a few of the long haired ones last year, they turned out ok, but I am too messy to be making those. I had a horrendous(sp?) mess, I tried to be careful and not get wax everywhere when I fluffed them up. But, I'm one of those people who the harder I try not to make a mess, the more mess I make. Did I mention that I am messy? That was the end of my dipping experience, so I definately don't have any experience with the short haired ones. But, there was a lady selling the daylights out of them at a show I done a couple of weekends ago. She had all types of bears, dogs, cats, short hair, long hair, you name it and she had it. She done a really great job on them too, they looked really cute. I've had a couple of people tell me it just takes practice to get them the way you want them. I just don't have the patience though, oh yeah, and I am messy.

Thanks guys for your input, the biggest reason I have put off signing up for fed-ex already is because where I live is not considered a business district. And since the closest fed-ex to me is 1 1/2 hours away, they sometimes don't deliver to my area everyday. Fed-ex does deliver everyday to the business districts in the county, but if you are considered primarily a residential area or a rural area,(I'm both) then they only deliver every other day unless they have a certain number of pieces on a truck coming this way. I'm just wondering how they would do on pick-ups? I guess the best thing to do is call and ask a few questions. Just wanted to get some real world opinions on their service first. I know if I ask Fed-ex about their service, they are going to say it's excellent.

I'm looking to switch from UPS to Fed-ex. I have checked out their site, but I wanted to get some first hand opinions. I will just be using it occasionally, maybe a couple of times a month, 5 or 6 at the most. Most of my sales are local, but I do need to ship stuff every now and then. I love the local guys at UPS, but the corporate level that is in charge of accounts s**ks. I have had nothing but trouble with them since I changed banks. When I opened my UPS shipping account, nearly 2 years ago, I had a business account with the bank I use to work at. I found another local bank that offers free checking for small businesses, so I switched. I immediately called UPS to change my account info. Shoulda been fine, right? Wrong, apparently the girl I talked to didn't put in the correct info or forgot to save it or something, because the next time I try to ship with my UPS account it comes up that my account has become deactivated to call customer service. When I call customer service they tell me that my account has been put on hold because I had an outstanding balance. I ask how that could be, since my checking account is charged once a month for my transactions, and there was more than enough to cover the charges(not a lot more mind you, but enough). She checked my UPS account info and lo and behold, the old checking account info is still in the computer. So I explain to her that I had called a few weeks ago and updated my account info and what she had on the computer was incorrect. She appologizes and corrects the info, but I still can't ship anything that day, because it can take up to 48 hours for a deactivated account to become active again. And she can't reactivate my account anyway, she has to transfer me to somebody in that department. All she can do is update my information. So as patiently as possible, I wait, yet again, on hold to talk to somebody else. I go through the whole ordeal, again, and he says, ok I've sent in for your account to be reactivated, but I will be 24-48 hours before you can use the account online to ship anything. I ask why nobody from UPS had tried to contact me when the payment was denied, he said he didn't know he thought I should've gotten some type of notice either by e-mail or snail mail. But if I wanted to hold, he could let me talk to somebody in that department. YEAH RIGHT! So I ended up loading up 3, 20-30 pound boxes into the car along with a 2 & 3 year old and driving to my local UPS, which is only 5 miles or so from my house. But not the most convienient thing to do when you have two 25 pounders with two legs each and lightning speed(I lost my lightening speed a few years back, I'm thinking about 3 1/2 now). Sorry this is so long, but I just needed to vent a little bit. So anybody like their fed-ex shipping account? TIA Jennifer

I think most kids are just happy that someone is willing to take the time to share something new with them. What ever you decide, I'm sure they will like it just fine. I think it's a wonderful thing you are doing. Good luck.

Since they want to do wicked, why don't you go ahead and wick all the jars except for maybe one. Then you can show them how to center the wick and explain the importance of it. While you are doing that your wax could be melting then you could explain the process of weighing and melting the wax, and measuring your f/o and dye. I don't know what type of wax you are using, but you many also want to condiser how long it will take the amount of wax you need for 20 candles to cool enough to pour and produce a good looking candle. If you only have an hour and a half, it may take most of that time for your wax to cool to the right temp to pour, and are the girls going to leave their candles at this home until they set up enough to be moved? Just some thoughts. Hope it turns out well for you and the Girls. Jennifer