Spring craft show season is OVER...

I didn't advertise my May/June shows as much as my other spring ones...so here's a recap of my flyer.

...and honestly, I'm over spring craft show season. LOL Spring craft shows are so much more stressful than holiday shows!

It's bittersweet but now at least I can breathe and relax a bit! On the one hand, I love being at shows and sewing new projects but on the other hand, three shows per month is quite the ride. Also, spring shows are a bummer! >.> I got so used to good sales last holiday craft show season (when selling only 10 pillows was considered a bad show) that I didn't have realistic expectations for this year. For spring show season, being able to sell 10 pillows was considered a miracle!! I'd be lucky to even sell 5 at a show. I was thoroughly disappointed in RagsReborn over these past eleven shows. I'm taking a break for the summer but I'll be back for the fall/holiday craft show season.

Here's a quick run down of all the shows I participated in--
       <<This will be a long blog post because I did 11 shows but I hope it will help shed some light on spring shows for other vendors. If you are a vendor, please leave me your advice and comments. What did I do wrong? What could I have done to have a better season? Anything you want me to know about spring shows in general?>>

Quarter Mania
       This was a wonderful event to start off the year! It was actually one of my best shows. I made good contacts (vendors, customers and the event organizer!), my auction items brought in a lot of money and I was able to sell a few pillows during our down time. And the best part, lots of money got donated to Mustang Animal shelter.

D.U.C.K Week Junk Show
       This show was okay. I broke even on costs/sales. This was a family friendly event so there was a lot of moms... moms who were a little too nosy. More than one woman approached me to tell me that it's good that I'm "having fun" and "living my dreams out" while I'm young and before I settled down to have a family. I held my tongue and just smiled while I was screaming on the inside.... Okay lady, #1. This isn't a phase; RagsReborn is a viable business and career option for me and #2. I can't "settle down and have a family"... infertility.  
       Anyway, the best part of this show was my custom orders. One of my customers at Quarter Mania came to this show and brought me four of her late mother-in-law's shirts. Four pillows later, she was the happiest woman at the entire event. I really made an impact on her and her family and it made me feel so warm & fuzzy on the inside. And, her daughter was the cutest thing ever! Oh and she must have contacted one of her friends because not long after I finished with her order, I had another nice lady come to me with a shirt to pillow-ify.

Cleveland County Fairgrounds/Creative Craft Festival
       This was the show that my display shelf broke at ... it must have been a sign because I did terrible on sales. (;_;) It was my first goose egg show. There were lots of lookers and interest (people talked to me; picked up the items and told me how much they liked this pillow or that pillow) but no one purchased. I guess it the compliments and reception was good. I just wish I could have convinced those lookers to buy.
       In my defense, this was the same weekend as the huge Devon layoffs.

Wilmont Place Baptist Church
       This was my second show in a row with zero sales. And this was even worse... no traffic & no compliments. I was put in a bad location.  A handful of vendors were put in the cafeteria with no sign directing shoppers our way. I made good friends with vendors next to me; both ladies (one sold Tupperware and the other crocheted) were craft show veterans so I got a lot of advice and our chit chat helped pass the time.

Western Oaks Christian Church
       FINALLY!! A good show in terms of sales & traffic! I stayed busy all day. There was free wi-fi & breakfast for the vendors. The church volunteers & staff were so helpful and friendly. The event organizer was one of the best. I met new vendors (new as in this was their first show) so I got to be the veteran who bestowed knowledge and advice. It was a great day! I will definitely participate again.

The Handmade Show at the Crown Center
       I absolutely LOVE this show. I know the event organizer; I know the church staff & volunteers; I know the other vendors. Participating in this show is like spending a day with friends. Unfortunately, there was a shortage of vendors and slow traffic but the church was supportive, as usual. The Crown Center really advertises this show to its community. I think everyone who attends church there comes out to support the show. But, it was a lot slower than their Holiday Handmade Show. I did okay on sales. I didn't break even but still donated all money made (not just profits) to The Endometriosis Foundation. I can't wait to return to the Holiday Handmade Show-- November 5th, 2016. Mark your calendars now!

The Festival of the Broncos Craft Show
              I had A LOT of issues with this show... where to begin...
       1. There was ZERO, ZILCH, NADA advertising. There were only a few vendors (probably 25 booths) and even less shoppers. The show was from 10am-3pm and less than 75 people came in. If I had to guess, I would say the traffic flow was probably 50-65 people. Due to the low volume, I made no sales. Both of the ladies I was next to (Pink Zebra and a direct sale jewelry consultant) complained about the lack of advertising, so it wasn't just me being whiny. Another vendor told me that her friend attends church at the church that the show was at and even she didn't know about the show. The event organizers did not promote. The church did not promote. Mustang High School did not promote.
       2. This show was a fundraiser for Mustang High School's Project Graduation... strangely enough, no one from Mustang High School came out to the show. Every show that I have ever participated in has volunteers; volunteers to answer general questions, to help unload your car, to booth-sit for you if you need a potty break... this show had NONE. Where were all the graduating seniors? If we are spending our Saturday fundraising for you (the graduating class of 2016), why would you not come out and show your support???? This absolutely blew my mind. I guess students of Mustang High School are just extremely ungrateful.
       3. There were no concessions. We were there all day and there was no food & drinks. Luckily for me, my mom and Mike came out and brought me lunch. In general, if a craft show has food, more people come out to shop. They come for lunch and stay to shop. Duh! I guess the event coordinators haven't heard of this concept. The Pink Zebra consultant next to me drove all the way to this show from Enid. She didn't bring food or water because she expected there to be concessions. Her husband couldn't come to Mustang from Enid to bring her food. Poor lady had horrible sales AND starved to death all day!
       4. The only thing the event coordinators cared about was collecting their tax forms. I have a feeling that they've gotten in trouble with the Oklahoma Tax Commission before so they are very diligent about tax forms now. When I arrived in the morning, the only thing that was explained to me was the tax form. No one told me where my booth was or if I could purchase breakfast. Just, "Don't forget to fill out your tax form and pay your taxes collected at the end of the day." As I was setting up my booth, the event coordinator reminded me again that I needed to collect taxes and pay her at day's end. Toward the end of the show, her husband reminded me again that I needed to collect taxes and pay him at day's end. Then after the show was over, her husband walked around to personally collect our tax form and money. I had enough! I gave him my form and when he noticed that there was no money attached, I told him that I didn't sell a single thing because no one came to the show. Did he care? Nope. He just took my form and walked on to the next booth.

Garden Festival in the Park
       I wanted to do this show because 1. I grew up going to Will Rogers Park and have lots of fond childhood memories there so this was my way to "give back" & 2. In my mind, I thought I would do really well because I'd be one of the few craft booths there so I'd stand out and have little competition. Unfortunately, I set my expectations a little too high.
       The event organizer needed craft booths to be in the Exhibition Hall with the educational booths but everything had to be garden/outdoor/floral themed. I had to sew completely new inventory for this show (34 pillows). I worked SO hard for this show and I didn't even break even in sales. (;_;) It was pretty devastating but that wasn't the Garden Festival's fault. The festival itself went very well. The event organizer was very helpful and professional, all of the booths were strategically placed and there was high traffic all day long. I would estimate that over 1,000 people came to the festival.
       Although my sales were dismal, I enjoyed the show (if I hadn't been a vendor, this was an event I would go to as a spectator). I got to browse many locally grown plants, flowers & herbs, I bought some homemade dog treats from Butterbites and I got to catch up with a vendor friend of mine.

Trinity Free Will Baptist Craft Show-
       A good show to end the spring season!! Yippie \(^_^)/ This was Trinity Free Will Baptist Church's second annual craft show. There were only 7 vendors and less than 50 shoppers but I see a lot of potential in this show. I will definitely be returning next spring. There were 4 handmade booths and then Scentsy, Paparazzi & Jamberry. (Always a good show when there are more handmade crafts than direct sales!) The church staff was very friendly. Jessie (a church member) helped me unload my car in record time. I asked him if he could carry in my trunk of pillows and he ended up carrying in everything!! The pastor was present at the show all day and various members of the church community stopped by to show their support. At the end of the day, the show organizer was open to suggestions.
       Although there wasn't a huge turnout in customers, I sold more pillows here than I did at Cleveland County Fairgrounds, Wilmont Place Baptist Church, and The Festival of the Broncos craft shows. And, best of all, I got two custom orders!! One was from a lady who wanted pillows from six button-down dress-shirts that belonged to her husband and the other order was from the Scentsy consultant for two small pillows.

Swirls Gifts & Treats with Jennifer, RagsReborn Gifts and The Last Supper.

 As I mentioned before, Spring craft shows are ROUGH. And it's not just me, that was the consensus that I gathered from other vendors, too. I only averaged well under 10 sales per show. I am taking a much needed rest and won't be doing any more shows until October or November. But...before I go on a break, I am doing one last Quarter Mania! It'll be Friday June 3, 2016 from 5:30pm - 8:30pm. All proceeds from the auction are going to be donated to the Mustang Senior Center. Quarter Mania is a fun fun event... I hope to see you there!!

Erica & Wes are trying to eat healthier.

Just a warning before we start this... it is currently 7:17 am on a Friday morning.
       I work half-days on Fridays, meaning I don't go into work until noon. I am up entirely too early!! (so please pardon any typos and/or nonsensicals...and it's too early for pictures.) I usually do chores and errands on Fridays before I go into work. On the to-do list today is to make a slow cooker meal and then head to my mom's to do my laundry. Since no one would want to read a blog about laundry, I'll will be doing another recipe blog post.

Wes & I are starting a "diet" next week. It's not necessarily a diet, technically. We are just changing our meal choices by eating healthier. And we're limiting ourselves to one sweet treat a day (which will be extremely hard for me *sad face*). We're getting older so we need to start watching our cholesterol, sodium intake and such. Also, I feel as if I am the heaviest I've ever been and I'm starting to look a little frumpy (damn metabolism... why you gotta slow down?) Plus, I don't exercise as much as I used to so I'm trying to get back into that as well. Changing lifestyles... that's the ticket!

I tried this once before when I did the Super Shred diet with a coworker in January. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all. I'll certainly miss sweets and chips but the rest of it is actually doable. I won't be starving myself or limit myself to eating certain things by calculating calories. There's a lot of variety and meal options in me & Wes' diet plan. The key is eating small portions throughout the day and choosing healthy things to eat for those portions. This isn't exactly the Super Shred regime but it's pretty similar.
       So here's what we're doing... we complied a list of "super foods" such as almonds, leafy greens, salmon, yogurt, beans, and the like. We are eating breakfast (something from our list like yogurt, oatmeal or a hard boiled egg), one morning snack (another item from our list--say a handful of almonds), lunch (something from our list like rice & vegetables, a salad or a turkey sandwich), and an afternoon snack (you guessed it--something from our list) and then for dinner, we'll have a serving of a grains or legumes, a meat and a vegetable. And then one sweet (can be used as one of the snacks or a dessert at dinner).
       I also have been going to the gym on my breaks and lunch at work so I'll continue that routine to have some exercise dispersed throughout the day. Oh and yoga... I go to class once a week for that.

So back to my slow cooker meal... I love the slow cooker, by the way. I throw some stuff in there in the morning and it magically cooks into a meal by the time I get off work. Today, I'll be making soup. It is literally three ingredients: a leafy green, a meat and some vegetable broth. I've done this with kale, collard greens, cabbage, and mustard greens. I haven't explored as much with the meats... only smoked turkey legs and ham hocks (which I know are both superbly unhealthy). It always turns out hearty and delicious.

THREE INGREDIENT SLOW COOKER SOUP:
       Ingredients needed: a leafy green (we're using type of Chinese choy today, "swamp cabbage" is what it is labeled at the market), a meat (we're using lean beef meatballs) and vegetable broth.

1. Prepare the meatballs by rolling a spoonful of ground beef into a spherical shape. Or you can use a cookie scoop to make meatballs of the same size. Set aside.

2. Wash and cut the greens. Set aside.

3. Put the meatballs in the slow cooker.

4. Cover with greens. This may look like too much but it will cook down.

5. Pour vegetable broth over the greens. I also add a can of water but it's probably not necessary if you want to only use broth. If you would like, you can add in a bay leaf or some herbs and salt.

6. Cook on low for 8 hours. Then you'll have soup for dinner!

Erica discovers the Dallas Fabric District.

A couple of months ago, I found out that Hancock's was planning on closing. It is the largest fabric and sewing supply store in Oklahoma City. It can't close!! Where will I get fabric? In a panic, I got on Google and searched for fabric stores and learned that Dallas has a FABRIC DISTRICT. An entire part of town that has nothing but fabric stores??!?! OMG, I must go!!

I love Project Runway so when I walked into Golden D'or Fabrics, I was like, "OMG, it's happening...I feel like I'm in Mood. Make it work!"

As I mentioned last week, The Darkness concert was on a week night so Wes & I took some vacation time off work and stayed in Dallas for two days. (Any excuse to take time off work, am I right?) On the second day, we went to the Fabric District (which is really a subsection of the Warehouse District but we didn't go into any of the other surplus stores). We drove out to a pretty sketchy part of Dallas and parked at the first warehouse-- Golden D'or Fabrics. It was a huge fabric outlet and a sewing machine store. It ended up being my favorite store in the distinct. (^_^) April was serger month so they had all the models out and they were all on sale and I wanted one but I refrained. I walked around in awe and picked out a couple of fun fabrics and patterns. I wanted everything but I knew we'd have many more stores to visit so I only bought my favorites.

We left my car at Golden D'or and walked to the other stores. It was all on one side of the street but in between the fabric stores were strip clubs and road construction so it made for an interesting morning walk. The other fabric warehouses were much cheaper in price but their selection of fabric wasn't that great. And the stores were much less organized.
       We went into an extremely cheap warehouse that had a good selection of material but it was all stacked on top of each other on large tables. It was a nightmare to look through. There was also a lady there aggressively haggling and making a scene so it was super awkward.
       There was one store (Fabrictopia) that sold nothing but spandex. I saw mermaid tail patterned spandex and wished I knew how to sew yoga pants.
       After getting a bunch of stuff for RagsReborn, I decided to start getting materials for the decorations I am commissioned to make for my mom's wedding. I ended up getting some red suede and almond fringe. Almond is a very difficult color to find and match, by the way.
       I bought some faux chiffon that I plan on using to make an infinity skirt. And a really cute mint and white floral fabric I'm hoping to make a pencil skirt out of.

After dragging poor Wes into all the fabric outlets, I decided it was time to go to lunch. (He held my bags for me and helped me find almond colored trim. Yay for a supportive husband!!) We went across the street to a really yummy and authentic Mexican restaurant, La Paisa. Their lunch special was 75 cent tacos! We got three tacos a piece, some chips & queso and Mexican soda. The tripe taco was soooo good. After lunch, we drove home with happy and full bellies. The Darkness in concert and a day exploring fabric warehouses... what an amazing way to spend our first wedding anniversary!

Wes & Erica celebrated their first wedding anniversary last month!

As of April 27th, I have been a Mrs. for a year! <3 <3 Congrats to me & Wes! <3 <3 (here are some mush barf hearts to commemorate the occasion, LOL) All kidding aside, I am thoroughly enjoying married life and we had a lovely anniversary. \(^_^)/  I usually take a million pictures but I must have been too starstruck to remember to on this trip so there aren't very many pictures on this blog post.

To celebrate, we decided to go to Dallas to see The Darkness (remember that song, I Believe in a Thing Called Love, in the early 2000s?) in concert. Wes & I don't exactly share the same tastes in music but we both love The Darkness. I was so excited when they announced their Back to the USSA tour and I was ten times more excited when I found out they'd be playing at The House of Blues in Dallas. And even better, the show was on a Wednesday night so I got to take some vacation time from work.

On our way down to Dallas, we stopped in Ardmore to eat at Two Frogs Grill. I say that I want to eat there every time we drive to Texas but we've never gotten the chance to stop. We purposely skipped lunch so we'd be hungry by the time we hit south Oklahoma so we could eat there. Haha! Lunch was good. I got the fried shrimp, green beans and fried okra...and I ate it ALL. (Sadly, no pictures were taken before I devoured it.) Fast forward a few hours to 7pm - concert time!!

The House of Blues in Dallas is a pretty ritzy place. It looks like a bland brick building from the outside but they definitely did a good job with the "abandoned warehouse renovation" look on the inside. And it is definitely a blues venue. There are paintings throughout paying homage to the blues greats (none of whom I was familiar with). Being the overly excited hyper-fan that I am, I walked us to two incorrect entrances before we found our seats. We were seated on the balcony but still had an amazing view of the stage. (I'm too old to be on the floor with the mosh pits anyway... balcony for me!) We walked in during the opening band, Junk's performance. They were quite awful. Their sound was too hard for me. Wes, the expert in metal music, confirmed they were terrible and not metal. LOL

Next was RavenEye. They are a British rock band (no confirmation from Wes of whether or not they are metal). I have never heard of them but they were really good. Like Wes and myself, they have never been to The House of Blues so we were all experiencing our first time together. I have two short videos of their performance on my Instagram. After the show, they were at the merchandise booth selling their own cds. I didn't buy one (I know, I'm terrible) but I did tell the drummer they did a really good job. Compliments also support emerging artists, right?

At 9:30pm, Justin, Dan, Frankie and Rufus took the stage. It was time for The Darkness!!!! They were wonderful and so.much.effing.fun. I'm not a music journalist so I will just describe their performance in bullet points.

• They opened with Barbarian and closed with I Believe in a Thing Called Love and played a variety of songs from all of their albums in between (but their set was mostly centered around their first album, Permission to Land). 
• In between songs, Justin interacted with the audience. He invited a small child on stage but she didn't want to participate. He then invited an elderly man and a teenager to come up and dance with him during Dancing on a Friday Night. 
• They had lights on the stage that flashed naughty words during certain songs. 
• He taught us all dance moves for I Believe in a Thing Called Love.
• They played my absolute favorite song of theirs Love is Only a Feeling. (short video on my Instagram)
• They came out for an encore and Justin rode on a security guard's shoulders and walked around the main floor through the audience. He then thanked the security and photographers (and asked them to only use "slim & flattering" pictures of him)... what a nice guy!

The Darkness put on an awesome show and this was probably one of the most fun concerts that I have attended. I really wanted a concert t-shirt but they didn't have a merchandise booth. (;_;) I now have seen all three of my favorite bands: Goo Goo Dolls, The Darkness and Weezer (and I'll be seeing them again this summer!) Yay for wedding anniversary success!

Some of Erica's favorite places are Asian grocery stores.

If you haven't been to an Asian grocery store, I highly suggest that you go visit one. Wes & I go to the Super Cao Nguyen here quite often. It's pretty low key compared to the ones in Texas and California. Those are ah-maze-ing!! There's all sorts of unique (aka weird but delicious) groceries, different languages being spoken throughout, a local restaurant and/or bakery serving fresh hot foods and the whole environment is just so much fun. They're almost like the open air markets you find in big cities and in other countries. All forms of manners and politeness are null once you walk in: there's no such thing as waiting in line or saying excuse me; if you want something, you just reach and grab it (pushing aside whomever is in your way); there are wild children running around parent-less, and if you want to tell your cousin something who is three aisles over, just yell it out loud in Chinese. Now don't get me wrong, none of these things are bad. It's actually rather exciting. (The only stressful part is the parking lot.) I love to visit the 99 Ranch Market every time I go out of town. And, I like the experience of going shopping here locally on a Sunday afternoon.

OMG just look at all those green vegetables...and ramen, tofu and chips!!

When I was younger, my cousin would often spend the weekends with me. My parents would take us to the old Cao Nguyen market (before it got a makeover and moved into a much larger building) and drop us off at the rice pallets. Toward the back of the store, there were a few pallets piled high with large bags of rice (25lb bags, 50lb bags, etc.) We would climb all over the rice as if it was a jungle gym and play "King of the Mountain." Strangers would tell us how cute we were and we would thank them in Cantonese, which made us cuter, and then they'd give us candy. Oh, those were the days!

Shrimp, lychees and choy (leafy greens)... three of my favorites.

This afternoon, Wes & I went to Super Cao Nguyen to get groceries and ingredients for dinner. For my blog tonight, I would like to share our dinner recipe with you-- HOMEMADE VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS.

Our shopping basket.

Spring roll recipe:
       Ingredients needed- 

• spring roll wrappers (I like the "baby in a box" brand)
• rice noodles
• lemon grass
• shrimp
• tofu
• mint
• shredded carrots

We're using fresh mint that we've been growing ourselves.

(Actually, if you could prepare steps #1, 2 & 3 at once, that would be ideal. It is best if the shrimp, tofu and noodles are finished cooking at the same time so all the components can stay hot and fresh for wrapping.)

1. Prepare the meat (shrimp in this case; you can use whichever meats you fancy).
       Peel the outer bark off the lemon grass. Then chop into small pieces and dice in a food processor. Set aside.

       I always get fresh shrimp from the butcher section of the market so it's necessary to peel and de-vein the shrimp. If you are using frozen shrimp, go ahead and skip this step.

       In a wok or large sautee pan, cook the shrimp with the lemon grass and a little bit (probably a tablespoon but I never measure) of water. Set aside. Lemon grass shrimp is delicious so try not to eat any...

This picture is blurry so it doesn't look as appetizing but I promise it is yummy.

   
2. Prepare the tofu.
       Slice the tofu into long slender pieces.

       Pan fry the tofu until browned on each side. Set aside.

3. Prepare the noodles-- boil a large pot of water, throw noodles in, stir around with chopsticks and let them boil until they're soft (let's say 5 minutes. We want them cooked but not mushy.)

4. Set out all your ingredients in an assembly line fashion.
       Shrimp, tofu, noodles, mint, carrots all in separate containers.

5. Fill a large bowl half full with cold water.  Soak the spring roll wrappers ONE AT A TIME in the water. Soak until they are softened and malleable. Try not to tear the wrappers. They should not be too soft, wrinkly or begin to disintegrate.

6. Place a small handful of noodles, a few shrimp & slices of tofu, some carrots and mint at the base of the wrapper. Tightly roll the spring roll, folding in the sides and continue rolling until the entire wrapper is rolled in.

7. Serve either immediately or chilled (I prefer immediately). Serve with sweet peanut sauce (yuck) or Sriracha or soy sauce.

I tried to take an artistic picture but my soy sauce went everywhere. I could never be a fine dining photographer :(