The Budget Shop

If I could travel and had all the time in the world, I would visit all the thrift stores, flea markets, antique malls and garage sales I could. I love the hunt of finding treasure and the high you get when you score something so wonderful especially at a great price. We recently took a family road trip to visit my husband's family in Lakin, Kansas which is in the southwest part of the state. Lakin's approximate population is 2,500 which is more than I would have ever guessed. Spending a few days in a small town with the closest larger town 30 miles away, I was forced to slow down. It was pretty miserable because I am always busy, moving and creating. Grandma would not let me clean, the meals has already been planned and shopped for and there was no where to shop or even people watch. I had been looking forward to visiting the local Budget Shop but it was only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I had to wait until the morning we left to visit. To my surprise I found some treasures. I found several vintage, super groovy ties and lots of fabric scraps.  I'm so excited about the bag that I'm working on right now that was inspired by some fabric and a tie that were found at this Budget Shop.

What are your favorite thrift stores, antique stores or flea markets?

Weighing Our Options

One thing that Maggie and I have been struggling with is trying to find a local business who could sell our products. There are lots of wonderful places out there. What we're learning is that everyone wants to make money. We want to be able to make what we think is worth for our products but a business is also going to want to make a profit on the sale too. The people and businesses we have approached want us to either sell our product to them at a discounted price so that they can mark it up as they fit. The other alternative is to sell on commission which means that the store would display and sell our product and they would make a commission on the sale. Our problem is that we also sell to individuals through word of mouth, Facebook and Etsy. We cannot charge one thing online and by word of mouth and then have another price on the same product at a local business. I've even had businesses approach us about selling our products at wholesale prices which is a ridicuous concept for a totally handcrafted item. There is so much time and effort spent on creating our pieces that we have to make at least what we spent and the time utilized to create it. We're not grabbing things off of a manufacturing line and sticking our name on it. Totally handcrafted objects cost more. So far we've been making sales and it's these people that recognize that they are buying a one of a kind product that has been created with someone's hands with love for the craft.

Button Eyes

My great friend Heather made it over to the Green Envy Girls cellar to take some pictures of me and Maggie so that we could put our faces with our name and our blog.  We're so goofy down there that we wanted to portray our senses of humor in the pictures.  We got several great pics.  This pic is looking down into the cellar.  Maggie is sporting one of our Sew Funky Totes and I'm wearing one of our many, many men's ties that we use in our shop.

This one speaks for itself.  It's my favorite.  I really can't decide which one to choose for our initial bio picture but I decided the more serious one would be best for now.  I don't want to scare anyone away.   What do you all think?

Zippers

For years, I've been going to estate sales and collecting vintage fabrics and notions. I get super excited about old buttons, snaps and zippers. I really could just display them and look at them all day without using them. When I find a treasure such as an old, aged button, it's pretty sad to let it go. I feel like I've saved it from it's demise and resurrected it into life again hopeful that someone will recognize its special story. It's fun to find a stack of buttons or a pile of zippers with the price tags still attached.
This picture is from my personal stash of zippers that we use on all our bags, pouches and totes.  You can still see the 17 cent price tag from TG&Y.  Do you remember TG&Y.  We had one in the small town I grew up in. 

I'm really looking foward to Spring and Summer and warmer weather for many reasons.  One of my favorite things to do is visit garage sales and add to my already HUGE collection of goodies for GreenEnvyGirls.  Isn't it strange how we all come out of our homes when the weather warms up as if we've all been hibernating.  We clean our houses and have sales hoping someone else will get use out of something that we are finished with.  I feel as if I need to have a garage sale each year or our home becomes too clogged.

I've mentioned before how we are working some new designs for our zipper pouches.  We are going to make 6 different sizes.  We will create them in sets where we coordinate the fabrics to match if someone chose to buy them as a set.  These will be the perfect size for your purse, up to your makeup and then large enough to carry hairdryers and brushes or even your art supplies.  Here is sneak peak.  I'm really excited about them and of course they will have a signature GreenEnvyGirls button or two on them.