Sale Re-Cap

{left over's of a few weeks spent prepping for the sale}

The sale is complete.....ended Saturday around 4 pm. I left with a mixture of emotions & exhaustion! Had plans of getting home & resting for a few minutes but that few minutes turned into a 1 1/2 hour nap......and could have been longer!

People have been sooooo kind in checking in on me this last week......so I'll just give a little re-cap of what took place, how I felt, & what I took away! I. Sat. A. Lot. Like 43 plus hours of sitting throughout the week! I indulged in my love of people watching. Talked a bunch with some of the other vendors. I walked around & perused the isles & isles of clothing......watching the amount of clothing dwindle away over the course of the week! And I sat.....wondering after a certain point of sitting & not much selling if I had really made a smart decision in being a vendor at this sale?? I took that "leap of faith" in deciding to be a vendor. It is really easy to hide behind an online store {etsy} to sell your handmade goods. Someone opens your package & hates what they see! Or they think your product is overpriced. Or you try to tell them you are selling these to raise money for adoption that they think you are an absolute kook! All these are reasons to why it would be easier to continue hiding behind etsy! BUT I've said it before & I know that I will continue to repeat myself throughout this journey.......this is not my story....not the easy comfortable road I would choose to travel. If life was easy I wouldn't need to rely on Him so much, right?!! I did sell 7 rolls over the process of the week.....6 of them being to friend/family but I'm totally gonna count those 6!! The 1 & only roll I sold at the sale was Tuesday evening.....it was roughly 6:30 pm {sale ended at 7:00}. About 5:00 pm I was begging God to please show me that I was in the right place.....PLEASE GOD PLEASE!!! I wasn't doing a good job of convincing Jon that for 6 days of being away from the family ALL. DAY. LONG.....was paying off! So here comes this sweet little lady.....she buys some bows from the lady next to me and we are all talking. She then comes & peeks at my crayon rolls, deciding last minute that she needs to buy one for her grandson!!! THANK YOU GOD!!! REALLY THANK YOU!!! I just needed a small nudge to know that I needed to come back!! The rest of the week was quite uneventful.....sale wise. But on the home front we could NOT have had a crazier week!! Jon was EXTRA busy last week. Kayden had extra homework. Emery was feeling the lack of family time & was really acting out. I still had our Wednesday night kids church program to help with {although my sister pulled most of the weight that night!!}. We had baseball practice. It was our turn to provide our church's hospitality breakfast on Saturday morning {my mom was out of town so it was a bit more hectic!}. MY. HOUSE. IS. A. DISASTER. Which in turn does not create a calming environment for our family. I was getting ready to leave the house Friday morning, put my jacket on & found that I had washed & dried my ipod shuffle. That was the straw......I cried. I called my twin, & she had the perfect words to pull my spirits out of the mud. She reminded me gently that if my week had gone just as **I** had wanted it to go I probably would have not taken a single second to pray & lean heavily on God!!! Not profound.....common sense advice....yet JUST what I needed to be reminded of! Emery & I walked into Costco right after the phone conversation with Kristi & as I turned the corner I saw the 2 cutest smiley happy Ethiopian kids!!!! I almost ran up to them & hugged them.....but I refrained. I also refrained from telling their mom that she & her 2 sweet adopted babies were a HUGE answer to prayer {I could kick myself after the fact for not sharing with her that she was sent to me personally by God}!!! God was giving me another gentle nudge that "Hi Kera, I am with you still.....even through this crazy week! All your hard work will one day pay off"! Back at the sale Friday evening, I was approached by one of the other vendors who has a boutique in Chattanooga along with another one in Louisiana. She had taken pictures of my rolls earlier that week, sent them to her mom, & together they decided they wanted to carry them in their store. Not sure where that will lead, as they want to buy them at a "wholesale" price BUT none the less it was another door opening for possible sales!! I honestly believe that even if I don't have a full answer to why God had me sit at that sale ALL week, I know he wanted me there......& he wanted me there for a reason.....maybe soon enough I will know the answer!! Someone asked me a few days ago "survival or triumph"? My answer would be triumph for sure!!! I took that 1st step & trusted that God would give me the confidence I needed {which I was lacking before} to get out & sell something I had made to the public! I also received some great feedback on my product & was given several places where people thought the rolls would sell......lesson learned that a consignment sale where people are coming to save money is probably not the place to sell these rolls! Now I'm just slowing trying to get this house back in some kind of order......I could use some help that!