Craft Show Tour, A Phillies Game, and A New Baking Adventure!

Ok I did warn you all that I was blogging at an average of 1 blog every 2 weeks, right? Well I think it might have been a little longer than that but hey, I am a busy girl! July has gone by with a blur, like usual time flies when you are having fun!

I am happy to report that I survived my brief craft show tour and both shows were incredibly successful! First up was the Haddonfield Fine Arts and Crafts Festival. I was so excited when I found my booth space as it was in a great spot on Haddonfield's Main Street! The show went great! Not only did I sell a lot of accessories it was great chatting with customers who not only remembered my booth from last year but remembered the location! Now that is loyalty! The biggest seller at this show, my fabric flower ponytail holders. In between customer interactions I sat at the booth and made more. As soon as I would put some out, they would sell. I think I sold about 30 of them most of which were made at the show! I have been busy making more since some of the shops selling my stuff are going through them quickly too! Thanks to all of the fabulous people that helped support Purplelicious at the Haddonfield Show, I look forward to seeing you next year. I hope you all remembered my booth location, there will be a quiz next year!

The next stop on my craft show tour was the Handmade Faire. It was held at Freedom Park in Medford NJ. This park is awesome and also the location for many of Medford's events including their Relay for Life and their 4th of July Fireworks! The show was organized by my Etsy Friend Abbie and her mother in law Pola. And I have to say they put together an AMAZING show! There are so many things I liked about the show. For starters, ALL of the sellers sold handmade items, which is great to see. A lot of major craft shows add this as a requirement but I think a lot of non handmade sellers still manage to get in. At the Handmade Faire I just felt this sense of community that I don't usually feel at craft shows. That could also be because I knew some of the sellers from the EtsyNJ group! I think my favorite aspect of the show was the music. The theme of the show was Summer of Love and Abbie put together an incredible mix of songs from the 70s. I was in heaven! And the crowd loved it too, it was cool to see people dancing and singing along to the music! I also had a very successful show! Which is also nice! Congrats to Abbie and Pola on a great show, they estimated about 8000 people came to the event and I believe plans are already in the works for a Fall edition in October! I have already marked my calendar! Here is a pic of me in my booth!


Last week we ventured to another Phillies game! It was a business person's special and also the Kids Run the Bases game. It was during the day on Wednesday. Unfortunately the Phil's put an end to their winning streak that game but Bella had a blast running the bases. How it works is after the game all of the kids leave the park and get in line to come back into run the bases. The line was literally wrapped around the ballpark but moved pretty quick. You get to walk down the ramp by right field and onto the field. The kids run around the bases, the parents meet them at home plate and you are done! Bella got a certificate as well. I was surprised she did it, but as soon as she hit the field she was off running! I took some video and realized that I captured her on phanavision as well. Very cute! Here are some pictures of her from the game. Notice the baseball headband! ;-)
Headed in the park!

Walking down the ramp to the field!

On the field about to run the bases!


The final leg of my 3 weeks of madness was a new adventure in baking! My cousin's baby just turned 1 and she asked me awhile ago if I would make all of the desserts for his birthday party. I was so excited! I love to bake and especially love creating baking and cake decorating! When she told me the party was a puppy theme, I was ready for the challenge! Here is what I came up with:
The Main Birthday Cake:

Sugar Cookie Dog Bones for the Treat Bags:

Personal Mini Dog Cake for the birthday boy to destroy:

Cupcakes with a Mini Dog Bone Sugar cookie:

To say that everything was a hit would be an understatement. I definitely like my fair share of praise but I was getting so much, I started to blush a little. It was so rewarding to see my cousin so pleased with everything and little Owen loved all the doggie themed treats!

After three weeks of fun, like usual, I still have miles to go before I sleep. It keeps my life interesting though, I am not sure I would know what to do if life wasn't always busy! I do have one goal, I hope to get back on a regular blogging schedule, we will see how that works out!

2 Weeks!

I feel like this blog is operating on "Money Pit" time! It seems I have only had time to blog every 2 weeks. Wow has it really been two weeks since my last blog post? I am so sorry to have kept you all in suspense as to the happenings of my fabulous life but maybe getting all of the information in bi-monthly updates is a better way to go? Well for now it will have to do because in restaurant terms...I am in the Weeds!

Picking up where I last left off, my fabulous little 5 year old graduated from Pre-K at the end of the month. Aside from her dance class performance I have not seen her in a group singing performance since her school doesn't really put them on. She had been talking about graduation for months and humming some of the songs so I knew I was in for a treat! She also teased me about a secret song that they weren't allowed to tell the parents about. I am impressed that she kept it under wraps for so long, I was definitely surprised! The graduation ceremony was only 20 minutes but it was adorable and Bella did great. She wasn't nervous, when it was her turn to speak she stood up straight and spoke clearly. she is so much like her mommy it is scary! So I still have a few months to come to terms with the fact that my baby is starting kindergarten in the fall but I am not going to think about that now!

In other news, Purplelicious is on FIRE! In a good way! I recently reached a milestone of 500 Etsy sales which was very exciting for me! To celebrate I had a Customer Appreciation Sale and offered $5 Headbands for one day. Everyone LOVES the $5 Headband Sale, needless to say it was a huge success! My mom thought I was a little crazy for having that sale a few weeks before two upcoming craft shows BUT I was strategic. While I was filling orders I was cutting a few extra pieces of fabric and building inventory! Productivity at its finest, ok not really!

Speaking of Craft Shows I evidently have taken some crazy pills as I have two, count them TWO craft show coming up, back to back. It is Wednesday and I have a good amount of inventory for my show this weekend BUT I have a very long list of things to do. But it will all get done, I am already very accustomed to the late night craft show prep that ensues when you are a procrastinator like me. Although honestly, I think some of my best work happens in the late night hours! As if that wasn't enough, another shop at the Jersey store now carries my products. Haven Boutique in Sea Isle City, NJ now carries Purplelicious Accessories. It is an adorable boutique with lots of great dresses and accessories. It is the first boutique that my products are in and I am excited to see how well they do there!

My 4th of July was great, thanks for asking! I didn't have any bbq plans and my pool still looked like a toxic green swamp so I took Bella to the movies. We saw Ice Age 3 in 3D. Can someone please stop me from paying more for the 3D experience when only 2 elements of the whole movie are 3D. When will I learn! On a positive note we got to see some Amazing fireworks. My mom's friend lives right across from the high school where they set them off so she was kind enough to give us some viewing space on her grass. I have never seen fireworks so close in my life! Bella really enjoyed them and it was awesome sitting there watching them with her. And like I do every 4th of July since I have been divorced, I hope that the next year I am watching them in the arms of an amazing man. Perhaps I need to make my wish at a different time of the year though, it seems the 4th of July wish is not really working!

FINALLY, since my Tie Dyed Cupcakes have become very popular, I decided to make them for the 4th of July. I will call them Patriotic Tie Dye Cupcakes. I made them for Bella's class and this time I made Tie Dyed Icing..fancy! How to make them, these are easier I think because they have less colors. Divide the White cake Batter into three bowls (about 2c of batter in each). Tint one of them red and one of them blue (I strongly recommend the Wilton Gel colors for this). Keep the third bowl as is. Line the cupcake tins and first add the red, I found about 1 tbsp per cupcake was enough. Although the last couple get a little cheated. to offset this, start the next color where you left off! Follow that process for the other two colors and bake. Now for the icing. I used the Wilton Buttercream recipe and also one of their techniques for the icing. I got some paintbrushes and brushed stripes of color into the pastry bag, then added the white icing. You have to squeeze some of the icing out until the color starts to come through but that is how you get the tie dye effect! Below are some pics! Enjoy!




Ok enough fun and frolic, I hope you enjoyed this rather long two week recap. I hope to post a blog next week about the 2 day Haddonfield Craft Show I am participating in this weekend but at the rate I am going on here, expect it in 2 weeks!

Sewing Like the Wind!

One of my favorite movies growing up was Three Amigos. My brother and I still quote it and my family pretty much always references the Village of Santa Poco because "We Can Sew!". When my mom, sister and I are getting ready for something that requires a lot of sewing we comment that we are in the Village of Santa Poco and are Sewing Like the Wind. For that past month, I have temporarily relocated to the Village of Santa Poco where I have been sewing like the wind pretty much every day! And of course I couldn't be happier!

Why you ask? Well summer is heating up fast for Purplelicious. I wish I could say the same for the weather! I am very excited that Purplelicious Accessories can now be found at two different shops at the Jersey Shore. The first shop is in Stone Harbor New Jersey and is called Alice. It is located on the famous 96th street where all of the shops are. Inside Alice you can not only find my accessories but great jewelry, handbags, painted glass, and a many other handmade items. If you are visiting Stone Harbor NJ, stop by and check it out!

The other shop is called The Maple Tree and it is located in Seaville, NJ. It is inland but right off of Route 9 and you can make a quick stop in there while you are en route to your favorite shore destination! The Maple Tree is an adorable shop filled with handmade gifts. You can find handmade candles, soaps, painted glass, quilts, hand painted garden art, purses, and so much more! The shop is amazing and as soon as you walk in you are instantly relaxed due to the calm and beautiful setting. The Maple Tree is also in the running for the Best of the Shore Hot List in the Gift Shop Category, last time I checked they were only a few votes from first place! Below is a picture of my item display at The Maple Tree, the keychains are selling like crazy there which is pretty awesome!


As if I have not been busy enough trying to keep two stores stocked with product, I forgot about my 3rd shop, VIX Emporium in West Philly. I am in the process now of stocking them up with some new inventory! I also have two craft shows coming up in July which happen to be back to back. I have been accepted again to the Haddonfield Crafts and Fine Arts Festival July 11-12 and the following week was just accepted to The Handmade Faire - Summer of Love Edition at Freedom Park in Medford which is on July 18. July is going to be a busy month but I can't wait, I love craft shows because I am able to showcase new products and most importantly meet some of my amazing customers! I am also excited about the Handmade Faire because I will get a chance to meet many of my Etsy NJ Team friends as they will be vending there as well!

I have not stopped there! In the midst of all of this sewing madness I have been introducing some new products! I have been using this time to tap into my fabric stash that has been sitting there screaming to be made into accessories! Below are just a few of the new headband styles I have created, check out my Purplelicious Etsy Shop for more!



Whew! I am exhausted just by writing this blog. All of this hard work is definitely worth it though! It just goes to show that all of those tiny little things that you do eventually add up and make you successful! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some, I mean a LOT of sewing to do!

Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Ok I think I may have had temporary amnesia when I decided to sign up for this craft show in Haddonfield which so happens to be THIS WEEKEND! I forgot all of the time, money, and effort that goes into craft show preparation. About 6 weeks ago I had set up a production schedule that I followed for all of 1 week! So now here I am, crunch time, with loads of supplies that need to be turned into fabulous accessories. I utilized this long weekend to sew about 70 headbands. My sewing room is a disaster as is the rest of my house that has been neglected due to the massive amounts of sewing commencing upstairs! I have set up a schedule for the rest of this week which I know I will follow because I pretty much have no other choice if I want to break even after all of the costs! I am however excited to do this particular show as I have been to it many years as a buyer and the turnout is awesome! I am a little bummed that my location is not on the main street but oh well, I am a new kid on the block and this show so I guess it goes with the territory! I have been taking pics of the fruits of my labors and will be sure to post them here so you can all drool over the awesome accessories I will be selling this weekend! Don't worry though...any leftovers will get posted at my etsy shop, but I am hoping I don't have too many leftovers! Ok back to the real job where I can spend all day dreaming about being home sewing!

I GOT IN!!!!

Around October of last year I went to my mom's favorite quilt shop in Haddonfield called the Little Shop. My mom is an avid quilter and wanted to take me there so I could look through the fabrics. This place has amazing fabrics! So of course my mom knows the owner so I start talking to her about my headband business. She is impressed and tells me that I should apply for the Haddonfield Craft Show. To be honest, this show intimidates the heck out of me. Haddonfield NJ is a really nice area and I have heard that the show is REALLY hard to get into. Plus the booth fee is really high and I would have to sell a lot of headbands to break even. But she assured me that I would get in because there are few people who sell items made with fabric, she said most of the applicants she gets are jewelry artists...no surprise there!!! So I talked to my mom and my sister and we decided that if the three of us split the fee and all made stuff then we could make it work. So I decide to go for it. I download the application, put together a PowerPoint presentation of my work (can you tell I love marketing!), and sent it in along with my check. So on Tuesday I was checking my bank account and saw that the booth fee check cleared...and I wanted to jump for joy, but didn't want to celebrate until I got my acceptance letter. Which came today!!! So it is official!! I am in! I am so excited because this craft show attracts my target market completely, plus it will be fun to collaborate with my mom and sister on items. They are going to make kids clothes. There is no time to delay though, this is a two day show with a lot of foot traffic, I need to hit the sewing machine hard and start making more fabulous accessories so I am ready for July 12-13!!!

Click on this link for more information about the show!
http://www.haddonfieldnj.org/eventscrafts.php