Football Season Bliss

So we went up to Gainesville this past weekend for the first weekend of college football. Oh how I have missed football season. I absolutely love it! We took the whole set up for Game On Events and had a spectacular day!

This is our outdoor living room!

 We decked the trailer out in Gator gear to show our support for our favorite local team!

We even had a nice little crowd gathered around watching the various games that were on during the day. Everyone was very impressed with our rig.

 Hubby smoked all day and we dined on some amazing smoked chicken (that I injected with homemade creole butter) and some awesome tri-tip sirloin.

We had incredible seats for the game! The Gators have gotten smart and scheduled the first two games (i.e. the hottest games) at 7pm so the weather was perfect!











So all in all it was a pretty perfect day! I can't wait for more awesome games and events this fall. Did I mention that I love football season!

Craft Shows and Such

So I have been busy navigating the world of the Craft Show for the past month or so. It has been interesting and I have been learning the ropes with the help of some veteran crafters that I have been meeting.

My debut event was called "Pig on the Pond" and it is a local BBQ competition here in Clermont. So the "pig" part of the title is the BBQ and the "pond" is actually a lake (the next lake up the chain of lakes from "our" lake).

The weather on Friday night was horrible and there were 16mph winds coming right off the lake making the wind chill about 40 degrees. No fun at all since the event was from 5pm-10pm. Plus part of the event is a huge carnival with rides and games so it was teeny-bopper High School night. Needless to say the crowd was not interested in baby wipes cases, burp cloths, and taggy blankets. We did get quite an entertaining show of all that Clermont teenagers have to offer. The best (or worst) was the girls who were running around in short shorts and tank-tops as I am shivering in my wool boots, jeans, and huge fuzzy coat. It was ridiculous. I guess looking "cute" trumps physical discomfort for 16 year olds. Not this lady! It is comfort all the way! But I still looked cute in my boots, jeans, and coat anyway so whatever!

Saturday was much better! Sunshine, no wind, lots of young families - a much more condusive  atmosphere for a successful day for a baby gift booth! The day went well and I pulled out my best sales woman personality! My Sister-in-Law and her family even came and helped for several hours. It was a great day to hang out, meet some people, drum up some interest in Coco Lemon and sell some cute baby gifts!

The next weekend we went to a small event at one of the local community colleges. It was a Wing Fest and Craft Show and it was only a few hours in the morning. It was mildly successful and again we met some nice people! Plus it was a few town over and the drive was very pretty so I can't complain about that!

Finally this past weekend I did a three day event at the local winery here in Clermont. This was more of an established crowd of crafters and my display needed to be bumped up a bit so I added some curtains and tried to make my tent look a little fancier than the general pop up that it is. Most people had the tall white tents with the fully enclosed sides. I will work up to that but for my third event ever I think I did pretty good! Again I met some awesome people and everyone is very encouraging. The lady whose tent was right next door to mine was also next door to me at Pig on the Pond, strangely enough. She was super nice and was my biggest cheerleader. She kept telling anyone with babies that they needed to check out my booth and would brag about how nice my stuff was. I really appreciated all of the encouragement! It was a nice weekend and again I was able to generate a good deal of interest in the company.

So that is what I have been doing. The weekends have been full with events and the weeks are spent replenishing inventory and getting ready for the next show! I also have been updating Etsy with new items so be sure to check it out! Now I am brainstorming on some things that I could add to the line that could appeal to everyone, not just new mothers. I am thinking iPad covers, camera straps, and several other options.

Any ideas? I would like to use most of the same fabric so that I can utilize odd cuts after I get the wipes case and burp cloth pieces cut out.

Bring the Rain

I love a good rainstorm. It was one of the things I missed the most when I lived in Vegas. I good hard rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightening.

However, my dogs do not share in my sentiment.

They think the Thunder is a personal attack on them. An attack that needs to be answered with full out outrage and vocal retaliation.

It drives me crazy!

My calming rainstorm has been turned inside out!

What are you going to do though? You can't really reason with a dog and tell them things like you would a child. "Honey, it's just God bowling" doesn't really make K9s feel any better.

So I did the only thing I could do.

I sent them to a time out. They are now taking naps in there "sleepy-time" kennel. They are snuggly with blankets and they seem to have calmed down.

Peace has returned.

I will wake them from their naps soon, but for now Peace.

I know kids aren't any easier but hopefully I will not have any that bark and hopefully they will understand by age 4 or 5 that Thunder is not a personal attack on them.

Hopefully.

Every Little Bit

This is a common sight at our house.

Do you know what it is?

It is the window ledge above my sink. And those are the foil yogurt lids that my husband so sweetly leaves for me. 

Why? Well, because I asked him too. After his morning Activia he rinses off the lids and sets them on the ledge to dry. After a few of them accumulate I collect them up and take them over to my laptop.

I log onto www.cupsofhope.com and enter in the code on the back of the lid. It is the least I can do. For each lid Dannon donates 10cents to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. 

So from now until 11/30/10 I will be frequenting this site.

Because every little bit helps right? I am not doing the 3day walk or anything nearly as profound but I feel like this is at least one little thing I can do. And I appreciate my husband for helping me by remembering to leave his lids. I also appreciate that my husband wore his pink shirt to work today. He even remembered that it wasn't clean and did a load of laundry at 9pm last night DURING A FOOTBALL GAME! He is trying to get it in the rotation as many times as possible during the month of October which, as you probably know, is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

I am very proud that he is so thoughtful. 

So what are you doing to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month?