Pictures

I always feel bad getting the kids' pictures taken when I can't work it out for Collin to take them.  He does an amazing job and it's one of the benefits of having a photographer in the family.  But, with him in NE it is often hard to find a weekend when we visit to fit it in.

A few weeks ago, I made an appt. for the kids at a little store here just so I could get a few pictures taken.  However, Siahna came down with bronchitis so I had to cancel.

Then, Jeff and I started hosting a supper group with people in our church and one of the ladies was a photographer.  I asked if she would be willing to take the kids' pictures and she said "Yes!".  And, I cannot say how happy I am with the pictures.

Siahna was in prime form that day - usually we can't get her to look at the camera, let alone smile.  But, she was so giggly this day and everything turned out fantastic.

Please visit Tara's blog to see the photos.

Business Opportunity

I was recently approached by a gentleman who runs a large store in our local mall.  It's a place where people can rent out a space, large or small, and sell their homemade products.  He had seen my letter door hangers and height charts at the craft fair that I just participated in and wanted my products in his store.

I'm sure you can imagine my excitement.  I started this as just a hobby and a way to raise money for our Dominican Republic trip and never dreamed it could become a business.

Jeff & I met with him last night to see his store and hear about all the costs.  My excitement grew as he showed us where we would display our items and how he wanted the letters to hang in the windows so shoppers could see them from outside the store.

It was exciting and overwhelming all at the same time.

I was ready to do it, but knew we couldn't seem too eager and needed to talk about it privately and think on it.

This morning, Jeff ran the numbers.  Being the techy guy that he is, he made a spreadsheet - what if we sold one item a week.  Two items a week, etc.  He figured out an average price we would sell each week minus the cost of materials minus the monthly rental fee minus the 20% they would keep from each item.

This is when my excitement came back to reality.  Darn you rental fee and 20% commission.

Long story short, we decided that if we did 3-4 craft fairs a year and averaged what we made at the first craft fair, we would make over 2x what we would probably make having our items in a store.

But, what an honor to even be asked to sell your product in a busy mall!

On another note, please keep our products in mind as Christmas approaches.  We have a basement full of letter door hangers (for either a last name or first name) and I love the height charts (to measure kids' heights so you never have to worry about moving and leaving their heights behind).  But, my absolute favorite are the set of 7 blocks that can spell out 16 different words.  We love to change our words around each week.

Feel free to send me an email if you're interested: shannon@jeffnshannon.com

If I Had To Choose

Today, we were leaving the gym when Case said, "Mommy, I have a very serious question for you."

Me - "Okay, what's your question?"
Case - "If there was a fire and one of us couldn't make it out alive, who would you choose to die?"

Well, that's not the serious question I was expecting!

Me - "Wow, Case, that's a hard question.  I think I would choose that I die and that the rest of you made it out safe.  You still have a long life to live and I hope I would be ready to meet Jesus."

Case - "So, you would want to die so that you didn't have to clean up our messes anymore?"

No, not really but apparently the question was related to the messes in the house!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Giggles

There is nothing sweeter than the giggles of children.