MORE buttons, More Felt, More Sales!

What day is this? I can't even remember Thursday! Cheryl and I have been working long days to stay on top of this tidal wave. But NOW we have buttons! The Pic is rather dark....but imagine three more boxes of snowflake buttons. And then there is the felt. Cheryl put in another order today..and will probably follow that up with another order on Monday. I'm hoping the orders will be large enough to last through the season. And the sales keep coming. We finally got a little caught up yesterday working till 3 am. ( that is nothing....we worked till 5 the night before!) But the orders keep coming so we are behind again....YEAH! We are hanging on to a tigers tail here and we simply can't let go now. So....Cheryl and I have to dig in and re grip as we ride this train. Hope everyone else is having a fun and event fun Christmas as we are. It's AWESOME! Oh! And it snowed today....and nthing says Fun like an Origami Hummingbird at Panera.

Finally ...BUTTONS! And more Driveway Drama.

OK, first the good news: The Long Awaited Buttons have arrived! I feel down right diabolical! Like I could now take over the world! It has been a long trial, but I finally achieved victory! We placed another order for the remaining buttons yesterday, but those are not as urgently needed as these ones were. So...Mission objective achieved! YEAH! Now then the bad news.....The driveway. Seriously it is becoming a problem. The UPS guy will not drive on it with all those "warning" Tape strewn about. so he put my box at the END OF THE DRIVEWAY! It is a good thing it was not raining...or that someone else decided they wanted it! I don't really blame him....I don't like walking that long walk either....especially with a box on my shoulder. It has been 12 days now....they told us 10. I believe we have been more than patient....but we have to carry things to our house from the road. And NOW we can't even rely on deliveries that we desperately need to arrive in the appropriate manner. It's becoming annoying now...and Cheryl and I have begun our campaign of rebellion. ( i.e. Cutting the ribbon in the middle of the night.) It is a small act...but if things continue...I may have to escalate things. MMUHHAHAHHHAAAA! OH! And felt should be arriving today....good thing too because we are rather busy. And we need that as much as the buttons. I plan on cutting them up as soon as they arrive. We have already sold most of the bolts! There is just so much left to do that driveways can not be bugging me. We shall see.

Who Knew Purchasing Buttons could be Such A Challenge?

Three days after being convinced I solved our button supply problem, we are still without buttons and I have to call the company AGAIN. ( This will be 4 times total) I'm not sure why we are having this hiccup, but I'm very close to mailing them a money order or driving down there in person and purchasing them face to face. I'm actually not angry, just frustrated. We are on the downhill side of a snowball and are running with untied shoes! If we take too long to tie them....well, squish! So I have to call again this afternoon and HOPEFULLY everything will turn out.. Now the felt store is giving us a problem as well....go figure. The Price of Business is far higher than the price tag at the market. To all those folks who wonder why prices are so high....here is one of the many reasons. Well...enough of this rant. Time to roll up the sleeves and get those buttons! OH! And we sold 30 stockings today.....Cheryl is beginning to panic a little. I don't want to overwhelm her too much . She is the sewer after all. And I will soon be laid off if I can't cement my position as Chief Button Sewer in the Allenbrite Business. We shall see.

Crazy work with the New Singer Tradition

We put in a late night last night finishing the orders, but are now all caught up. We happened to find the right sewing machine yesterday and returned the more advanced "Esteme" back to Target. Lucky for us, JoAnn Fabrics had the Singer Tradition in stock and we bought that. Buttons have never been as fun! Cheryl had to break it in for me, because new machines always have their quirks when you first get them running. As do just bout everything. Well, I didn't take any pics of the names or the pile of stockings and packages, but the willingness to blog after a late night should be enough for me. The driveway is finished now and just needs to cure up. That Walk in the dark and cold is really going to strain the relationship we have with our neighbor. But we will solder through. Hope everyone is having a happy Friday. OH! And I managed to hit a home run in the department of the buttons! I was able to score at least 40 bags at wholesale prices! I'm very excited! The snowflake buttons are always in short supply. I may even be able to get even more! We shall see next week Monday when We will have a little more money available.

Making Snowflake Buttons!

That is CORRECT! I'm in charge of the buttons for the stockings now, and that includes MAKING them. You see, the supplier seems to be unable to keep up with our demand, ( isn't it always that way?) So I have been saddled with the task of finding a solution to this problem. After several trials, I found an alternative that even Cheryl approves of. I have to cut the snowflakes out with a punch, punch out two holes, and then shrink them in the oven. It's very much like baking cookies, only they do not smell as nice. And you can't get as fat eating the finished product, ( but you will get as sick) So, there you are! You have to make sure you get a punch large enough because these smaller ones Cheryl believes might be TOO small. I'm very pleased with the results, however, they still take a lot of time to make. Hopefully Cheryl will be able to track down the Wholesale button manufacture so we can get a box of the buttons we need. We seem to be going through the snowflakes fast! And I prob ably will not have the time to make them as I did this weekend. We shall see....