the thing is done

It is over.

The craft sale was today.

It was a great day but I'm pooped!

We took in almost $400 - so with expenses, we made about $350.

While I hoped and prayed for more, it is still quite thrilling.

And now that I have done it once and know what the event is all about and know what the crowd is like, I have a better idea of what to do for next year.

Food - yes!

The Pumpkin butter sold fairly well.

The Hot Cocoa packs sold okay - not great, but good enough.

Candy Cane Reindeer?

An absolute must.

Almost every kid in the school comes in to the sale, and they are willing to spend a buck or so on a treat for themselves. So these, as well as the chocolate caramel pretzel rods sold great.

It might also have something to do with them not being able to buy them anywhere else in the country of Quito.....

Note to self: Get someone to buy out the shelves after Christmas when they go on sale. Bring back here after the summer and sell, sell, sell!

(they do, after all, have a 2 or 3 year best before date, so we may as well get them ahead of time and for cheap!)

Bad picture, but it looked cute in real life:

The accessory tree.

All the headbands, hair clips, earrings, rings, necklaces....

sold pretty well, but only for really cheap.

The crowd didn't want to pay much for anything.

So go small and cheap... think stocking stuffers.

Búhos?

(that would be "owls" in Spanish)

I'm sure every girl in the school who walked past (and some of the adult women who were there as well), let out a "Awwwwwww! There so cute." and a "I want one".

Unfortunately those girls weren't with their daddy's who may be suckers for their puppy-dog eyes.

So only 5 out of 14 sold, but everyone wanted one.

Didn't sell at all....

wreaths.

I loved my wreaths and I think they are quite beautiful.

And significant.

They are made from rolled up pages of the New Testament - from a bible that was coming apart.

The problem is that they are a LOT of work.

The other problem is that I realized too late that people did not notice anything that wasn't directly on the table.

If it was a price sign on the edge of the table - didn't see it.

If it was something above or behind the table - didn't see it.

They seem to have it in their minds that you look only at table level - no higher or lower.

And being that I was the only one with anything displayed anywhere else other than on the table, it makes sense that they only look there.

(Another note to self)

Three of my cutest customers:

My Mia, another Mia and Yone.

(Notice please that my Mia is modeling one of the flower clips. Awfully sweet, isn't she?)

Another real customer:

And a fake customer:

That is José Luis - one of the Casa G. guys, checking on us to see how we were doing.

Desi - she is from Holland and is here to work on starting the girls' home - helped me out all day. I even learned a little Dutch.

But we decided that we should probably have me stick with learning Spanish right now....

One language is plenty for me.

She knows four.

She thinks she's so smart

and cute

and sweet

and funny.

Actually, I'm sure she doesn't think that, but I do.

We had the best looking table by far (and it really wasn't anything special) but apparently that doesn't do much here.

I am exhausted from getting it all ready.

But believe it or not, I'm still itching to make stuff.

Now I have things on my own agenda....

But at least for tomorrow, I will rest.