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The Frog Lady

VerticallyEnhanced
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VerticallyEnhanced Newbie

VerticallyEnhanced

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I know I have told Kimberly and KFTS this story, but I thought I would share with you guys. I hear so many frustrated with their first shows and this hopefully will make you 1) giggle and 2) realize it gets better. :D This will be long. If you don't want to read something long or want to bitch about how long it is...turn back now. :D

I have always wanted to do something from home...sell something I have created. When I was four I went door to door and sold pictures I had colored to my neighbors. Luckily they thought I was cute and shelled out

$.10 for something they probably tossed as soon as they walked back in to their house. What they did not know is it fed my fire and their simple act of kindness set me up for disappointment.

My first venture was calligraphy. I made beautiful (yes I am modest) matted prints with various poems, verses and sayings. I shrink wrapped them, gave them as gifts and everyone said "You should sell these!" Well dammit if I did not get that gleam in my eye like I did when I was four. I priced them a bit higher than my pictures several years earlier and signed up for a craft show in a town where we always go for the 4th of July. I just knew my calligraphy would more than pay for our vacation. Wrong. I sold ONE print and that was to a fellow vendor who felt sorry for me.

No more calligraphy.

Fast forward. I am pregnant with our first and out tinkering in my husbands woodshop. (Yes, instead of nesting I built stuff.) I had to take my cat to the vet the next day and my carrier was broken. I grabbed a laundry basket, cut out a top from some scrap press board, pop riveted it on the basket, fashioned a door with a hinge, a lock and voila...kitty crate. The next day all the people at the vet's office were highly impressed. "You should SELL those! People would love them!" That four year old little girl thought "Hell yeah I should!" I perfected the design, my friend made me 50 doors from sheet metal, and I even painted them all sorts of cute colors. They had Kitty Crate on the lids complete with ears and whiskers. I signed up for a craft show thinking I would sell all 20 I had made. This was going to be how I would quit my job and stay home with my baby. I set up just knowing I would sell out in 10 minutes and have to go home. I even took some of the left over calligraphy prints out of the attic with me (lmao!). I did not sell a thing.

To make matters worse, there was a woman there selling these knock off homemade beanie babies that were frogs. They were ugly. I am not just saying that because I was sitting there sulking...they were honestly the ugliest amphibians I had ever seen, living or stuffed. But every damn person at that craft show had a freaking frog in their hand...she was selling the flipping things right and left. Each time a frog passed my booth I got madder and madder. After a while I would turn to my hubby and say

"$*@($* frog lady." I was pregnant, hormonal, hot and NOT able to have a beer like my dear husband who kept dipping into my change drawer to go get cold ones. Hell...what did we need change for...I was not selling a damn thing, so why not drink beer.

No more Kitty Crates.

Fast forward a few more years. I had given up on the making stuff to sell route. I still held a unnatural and very unhealthy resentment for the frog lady and considered counseling. :cheesy2: I just would never try to sell anything again. But one day I wanted to make a candle. I got on the net, poked around, found a site, read a lot and ordered a few things. I was hooked. We had candles all over our house and by golly they were good ones. Never did I ever think to sell them. I gave a few to friends and family and they liked them. People would go to their house and THEY liked them. Someone did it. They said "You should sell these!" My cynical side flared up...PTSD flashes of the frog lady filed my head. Yeah, right...sell them. People actually started calling me wanting to buy one. Hmmm, this was new. Okay, I might give it a whirl. I tested some more over the next several months, added a few more scents, tested those and then told people if they were interested, I would sell them some. It worked...really well, actually.

So, I hesitantly signed up for my first craft show. I prepared myself saying it would suck, no one would buy anything and I would get pissed. It is easy to just go into it being realistic, right? Well, I actually SOLD stuff! :shocked2: :shocked2: I was hooked.

That was a little over five years ago and it has only gotten better. Now during shows, my hubby will call or stop by with the kids and say "How is it going?" I will tally up sales on the register and smile and say "I AM the frog lady."

So stick with it...find those good shows and pretty soon, you might just be the frog lady too. (Or frog man...not trying to be sexist!)

So there is my inspirational story for the year. Feel free to call me Dr. Phil or the frog lady...which ever floats your boat.

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Kimberly Newbie

Kimberly

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Just wanted to add...VE is right....DO NOT give up!...unless threatened by divorce or the Poor House. NO, dont give up...you can find another spouse and at least in the Poor House you get fed!

Like VE. I too have alwas had the dream of getting paid for my creativity. I was an Art Major in college but went the medical route because I was scared of the "starving Artist" stories and I like to eat!...lol I got a degree in BA in Medical Technology...I worked in the lab for 6months and thought..."If I see another red blood cell I am going to kill someone!" Then I got a job with the state HD System teaching Sex ed to High School Students...LOVED MY JOB! But still was itchin to create...I got hooked up with a guy that made jewelry from 14kt gold wire...I started selling for him first then started making it...YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! I was creating and getting paid for it. Some of the CT members hav a few of my pieces, not patting myself on the back or anything...but I was pretty freakin good!..lol But then I developed Carpal Tunnell and it was over...hurt too much to make the jewelry.

FFW to 5yrs ago...I had moved from KY here to NY and I went home for the first time in a yr 1/2 to KY...My Godson was making candles, great candles and was doing awesome selling them. I got him to show me how to make them and the rest is history....

I dont do shows like VE because that is too much like work and people annoy me...lol I do Fund Raisers...BIG Fundraisers and Wholesale. I still have a full time job as an Insurance Agent but with this income I could quit my job but I am way too scared.

Sorry to hijack VE but I am just trying to encourage also...DO NOT GIVE UP! If you make a good product...they will come. (sorry, just watched Field of Dreams)

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Guest EMercier

Guest EMercier

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I bow to you!:bow: :bow: :bow:

I thought that was such a funny story, but I know I too have been frustated and have seen other little gimmicks sell more than my candles, but I must be doing something right because people keep calling back everytime I want to quit. My BF was looking at me like I was crazy laughing at the frog lady story.

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