Ok... Let's start with the craziest of all..
I decided to start up a shop called Mini, Mama, & Co. Surprise on the name, right? ;) I wanted to start out a company making baby stuff that I actually wanted, mommy stuff that was comfortable & practical, and home decor that wasn't crazy expensive but was cute & trendy.
My first crafty adventure was making table runners. I saw a really cute simple table runner sell for like $20 on this Facebook page called Herriman 24/7 (kinda like a local KSL website) but the runners all sold out before I could snatch one. Then randomly the next day or so I went to hobby lobby & saw the same fabric as the runner on 24/7.
Light bulb!
I went hunting, bought some red chevron duck print canvas (thicker material, won't wear & tear as much) and also a cute mistletoe printed burlap. Love.
I bought enough fabric to make 3 runners so I went to work. At first each runner took like 1 1/2 hours to make! Kill me! But over time I got more efficient, better at it, and much quicker so that each only took me about 30 minutes.
I sold all 3 in one day. No joke! So back to hobby lobby I went!
That morning Olive had her 4 month shots (so tragic) and when I was leaving I had the distinct thought to go to hobby lobby... Since I was already dressed & out and about I decided to go. Poor sad Livi fell asleep on the way after screaming her face off.
While I was in the store I ran into a woman buying fabric & we got to chatting. She loved my fabric, thought the runner was darling & wanted one! I was dying! So when she came to pick it up from me, she started telling me about this upcoming boutique, that I should totally do it. Super intrigued, I called up providence hall charter school(where she said it would be held) and decided to take a giant leap of faith & do it! Crazy that if I hadn't gone to hobby lobby I wouldn't have bumped into her, sold a runner to her, and decided to really even start this amazingly scary yet ridiculously fun adventure! Her name was Hazel, and I am so grateful to her! xoxoxo
So I started out small, making headbands for girls, bow ties for little guys,
frames for bows,
Nursing covers for moms,
make up bags,
little tiny banners my friend Sheridan made for me,
and Christmas table runners (which really started it all).
I genuinely had no idea what to expect before I walked into this boutique but was just kinda going on faith & hope that people would want my stuff & that it would be profitable not just a fun adventure.
I prepped by grabbing some plain wooden letters (again hobby lobby is my drug...) and spelling out "mini mama co" with them, gluing and glittering them to death, and hanging them on a twine.
And made my own business cards. ;)
I used an app called "a beautiful mess" for those. Love that app.
So Friday afternoon Micah and I drove over to the school, set up my booth, and hung out with my headband model, Livi. In between manning the booth & eating Wendy's frosties, I wandered through the gym, scoping out my competition & also seeing if there was anything I felt like buying.
One way cute little booth caught my eye. They named it Keep Onn, a super fun button earring boutique & an organic hippy-esque bath scrub boutique. I got to talking to the girls there quite a bit & ended up buying some fun button earrings. Before the boutique ended we traded supplies, my bow ties/adult hair bows for earrings & lavender body scrub. Worked for me!
On Friday night after theboutique ended we raced over to my parent's house & dropped off Livi with my brother Johnny to babysit for us while we went to see Catching Fire with Jess & Dan.
Catching fire was pretty legit. Better than the first "hunger games". I had seen it just 2 days before with Maegan for a free premiere showing but since I kinda loved it I was totally fine with seeing it again. :)
Throughout the weekend boutique I had a lot of familiar faces come by & keep me company which was really nice since Micah was on Olive duty... And she was not super happy towards the end.
Overall I was profitable, but didn't sell all of my stuff. The whole boutique wasn't as busy as I expected either, and when I spoke with the other booth operators they said it was a slower year than last. Kind of a bummer.
On a positive note though, I've sold almost all of my table runners on KSL/Facbook's Herriman 24/7 page. Woo! And I've never thought of this little "business adventure" of mine as being a crazy money maker... just a really fun hobby that I love that apparently other people do too haha.
I can now officially say that I have done something I never thought in a million years that I would do: enter a boutique and sell my own handmade products. :) pretty proud moment for me.
xoxo Mandi
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