Thanks for the encouragement everyone! I need lots of it! Jan, would you believe I use my mini-van (with all the seats out). Thank goodness it is only 13 miles from me, and I can set up all day on Friday, so I usually make about 4 or 5 trips to get it all there. And I can pack a van like no other - hubby cannot believe all I can pile in there. I call it my truck. Kim - welcome to my life - sounds like yours is much the same. My spot (a double space) is $150 for 2 days, but very well attended show (and they bring lots of money). Hope you do well! I look forward to seeing pictures and hearing your results. Have you done the show before? I have so much to do it is mindboggling. I haven't started bottle bugs yet and can usually sell as many as I can make. Have tons of old Coke bottles I plan to use this time as well as old Christmas bulbs. I got my larger containers planted and am ready to go full-tilt all week with planting. Spent $106 at the nursery the other day and will have to go back, I'm sure. I buy my groundcovers in a 6 pk. basket and then divide each one into 4 so I get 24 plants from one 6-pk. I also have mini shepherd's hooks to make, marble gazing balls to assemble, some birch logs to cut up into miniature houses, mini buntings to make, you name it. I may as well give up sleeping. It will all be worth it though. I love it when everyone oohs and aahs over my stuff and stands in line to buy, it makes it all worthwhile. I meet the neatest people and they all love to visit. I've had 2 previous customers call me in anticipation already. Fairy gardening seems to be getting very popular though, there are several other vendors doing it this year also. I used to be the only one selling them, and it was something unique, so I am hoping for continued good sales this year, but not sure. I will post pictures eventually - I don't accessorize any of my gardens until a few days before the show. Glad Sundays are a day of rest around our house.....back to the grindstone tomorrow! Arlene

I guess I should explain this business better in order for you to understand why there is a loss of $4000.00 each month. There is nothing we can cut out to avoid this. We simply must grow the business. We are publishing a real estate book that is a free publication available in all grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, etc. Our income is earned from realtors, builders and mortgage brokers buying advertising in our book. The cost of printing these full color digest size books is spendy, not to mention the cost of racks, the cost of paying to be on certain racks (grocery stores have a contract with a distribution service and we have to pay the distribution service), shipping of the 25,000 copies from Portland, where they are printed, artist fees for designing the ads, etc. There is absolutely nothing to cut for the business at this point. We bought the equipment we had to buy up-front (Computer, fax, etc.) but have not splurged on nice office furniture, new vehicles or any obvious mistakes. I run our household very lean also. We do not want to borrow more, as we are afraid it will be too hard to ever catch up. If we progress at the rate we are moving now, we will eventually earn a decent income, but in the meantime our hard, unchangeable business costs are significantly greater than our earnings. I would love for DH to be able to work less, but am not sure how that can be done. He is a paramedic in a supervisory capacity. There isn't enough job security as it is to be able to "dicker" with them on hours. If he went part-time he would lose all benefits. We simply cannot risk no insurance for a family of five. I have been a powerseller on ebay for several years and also have a booth selling antiques. It is a great way to earn quick cash, such as in times like now, but of course also takes time. The antique booth is not very time consuming, but it also earns much less than the ebay. I spend many hours each day handling the production end of the publication . . . getting photos and listing info. from realtors, instructing our artist with design specs., proofing and editing text. I just don't have the time to go out and sell the advertising too. When the publications come out, DH and I distribute all 25,000 ourselves, rather than hiring that out, as that isn't feasible. That is very time consuming, not to mention the gas and wear on our cars! When I do ebay, I do it late at night, so that it doesn't interfere with the business or the kids, so it isn't like I can just swap ebay time for this business time, as I must operate during realtors business hours. We are seriously looking at putting the boys in school in the fall. I just don't want them to get the scraps" of our time. DH spends most of his off time on the business, for example spending over 8 hours today doing cold calls and setting up appointments. We are seeing growth . . . just slower than what we need given the debt factor. This is a rapidly growing publication throughout the Northwest and all the publications started in other towns prior to ours have grown rapidly and are now showing a profit, so we are no where near walking away from this. I just am not sure what we should do in the meantime. We have used up our HELOC and visa. We can get more credit as we have an excellent credit rating and we have checked into it. It is just the fear of borrowing so much that it will take forever to catch up. So I guess I am wondering, if you were in our shoes and knew that within a year, two at the most, you can probably be earning a 6 digit figure, would you keep borrowing or what would you do? Thanks. Brenda

We moved to a new house in Georgia with my 15 yr old chow chow. We left her in the garage while we went shopping, no fence yet either,and she actually chewed the frame off the door leading back into the house.It took a while for her to calm down to the new surroundings.I would not have purchased a home that would not allow a fence. My dog is a family member, you must think of their needs also.

Not a panic buyer. The only thing that could send me into panic buying mode is if it were announced that they were going to discontinue the dark chocolate covered dark chocolate oreos. Then I would throw some elbows to get to them. They freeze well. Ask me how I know😏. I prefer to buy things fresh. I am just not good at planning a weeks worth of meals and shopping for it. We are day to day,meal to meal type people. The times I have tried to meal plan and shop for it, we wouldn't want what I had planned when it came time to make it,and I would end up going back out to get stuff to make something else. As for other stuff, like paper products, I buy big packs of those when we run low,and it lasts awhile. I have not tried to buy paper towels or toilet paper since the freak out started. We have enough for the two of us for awhile. I also keep plenty of cleaning supplies on hand because I keep my house clean,so there is no reason to go clear the shelves of cleaning products, i have some already. I went back to publix today on my way to work to get stuff to make a salad with and they had lots of empty shelves in the middle aisles,but still plenty of fresh produce. No bread, no bottled water, and the only eggs left were the very expensive,organic,free range yada yada yada ones. I needed eggs so I got some. I can get eggs from my sister but her very fresh eggs are impossible to peel when boiled. I buy the older eggs in the store for boiling. I did bring a can of lysol from home to work,because my day shift counterpart has called in sick the past 2 days. She is not sick but her poor one year old baby has the flu. And since she doesn't want to use up all her sick days, she will probably come back to work tommorow, bringing her kids flu germs with her. We share a desk and computer. I have never had the flu and would rather keep that streak going. And I will lock my lysol in my locker before I leave so that they wont use it all. My boss has gone waaaaay off the deep end lately. He had a plexiglass barrier installed to separate us from people who come in here. Madness. He would probably use the whole can on one doorknob if left to his own devices.