Private School Boutique Recap

Yes, the week I have a ton of office work and a show to do, the baby decides to have a growth spurt.  Ughhhhhhhhhhhh, what a week.  So yeah, Hui.1 has been waking up STARVING every few hours and decides he wants to eat his hands more than he wants to be swaddled.  So I temporarily retired the baby straight jacket and I need to restock my cupboards via Trader Joe’s again.  I’m craving meat and green leafy vegetables.  So I want spinach and those gorgeous boneless thick cut pork chops.  I also need basic stuff like onions.  I see a trip to Ralphs and Trader Joe’s in my future unless TJ’s has a good deal on onions but I don’t care for their produce because it’s mostly packaged. 😛

I ended up learning a lot from this particular show experience so I’m walking away from it with more than just money in my pocket for pork chops and more beads. 😉  I got to test out my new bamboo risers that are just so awesome.  I also got to hand out several of my new postcards too.  Overall, I got a very positive response which gives me hope that all this hard work is not in vain.  So let’s summarize the lessons, shall we?

Choose Shows Wisely ~ With a fresh, new baby, I don’t have the luxury of time to spend the entire month prior to the show stocking my inventory.  So I need to choose my shows wisely until he’s eating solid foods and less boob… also, it would be better to find shows that are 1 day, provide tables and chairs, indoors, etc.  Shows need to be spaced out with a few months in between so inventory can be kept up to par.  So maybe one every quarter, which equates to 4 shows a year.  I think that’s fair and should be easy on my sanity.

Travel Efficiently ~ I managed to haul nothing but a suitcase and a stroller full of stuff.  That’s the lightest I’ve ever traveled and it worked well.  Mom has a lot bigger suitcases I can borrow, but I’m really happy with the way I compacted everything so I could haul everything with the baby.  This is still a good age for him to tag along.  He slept through 99% of it.  Once he starts crawling, he’ll also be eating more than just boob, so I’ll have more freedom to make Jesse babysit.

Designs/Inventory ~ This will vary from show to show, but I feel the need to make more of the Chainmaille Straight Up in varying gauges and have more bracelets available for men.  Remember how I’ve been doubting my cohesiveness because my designs jump from elegant to whimsical to everything else?  Doesn’t matter, it adds to the charm of Chainmaille with a Hui Twist.  That was probably the best epiphany ever.  I’m on the right track and just need to keep doing whatever it is I’m doing. 😀  Definitely need to keep a larger stock of Perfect Rings… basic sterling in 20g size 8-11 and 22g in size 6-9.  Then the more pretty variations in at least size 7 and 8 for 22g.  Not sure about the 20g since they’re more manly.  But something like that.

Now I can get back to my normal life… juggling the duties of Mom, engineer, housewife, and artist. 😉