Iguanadon

I am officially FRIED! Whirlwind 8 days... Huge 2 day event last weekend and a new 1 day event today. Fried literally and figuratively... it was HOT today, pure misery, but sales were good so it wasn't a total loss. Here's the breakdown... Last Saturday - 9 hours Last Sunday - 5 hours Today - 7 hours 21 total selling hours. Total of 192 puzzles sold. Average of 9 per hour = one every 7 minutes. Exhausting! Yet fruitful. LOL I have another big event in 3 weeks. I'll skip my weekly farmers market between now and then, I'm truly burnt out right now, besides, I need to restock, my inventory is very low and the holiday season is sneaking up on me with several events already lined up. Pictures of today's event - 135 vendors, nice quality stuff that I saw during a quick walkthru during setup. Iggy

There were a handful of empty spaces. I won't swear to yours being empty. And I got to thinking about it that since the booklets had been printed and booth locations listed on the website, etc, I'm guessing they simply don't want to shift people around after a certain time.

And I was thinking about you as I had a chance to stroll the entire venue and saw your empty space. Glad you weren't there, otherwise I wouldn't have sold a single puzzle!!!

Yep, exactly, we got really lucky with the weather, it was beautiful and Saturday was only about 83 degrees. However I was in full sun and on an asphalt parking lot so it was still a bit toasty. I was discussing with Mrs. Iggy yesterday that I sure wish Lazy Daze was in October... cooler weather and able to push the "Christmas is closer than you think..." sales pitch. But 42 years of the event always being the last Saturday in August means a change is highly unlikely.

Some say to set ambitious goals, which I did, with a goal of selling 200 puzzles at my 2 day mega event. Last year I sold 93 the first day in 9 hours and 60 the second day in 4 1/2 hours for a total of 153. The first day last year I wasn't able to set up the way I like to and so this year I rented a double booth so I could maximize my setup and therefore my sales... or so I thought, but it turned out to not be as much of a factor as I expected. This weekend I sold 88 and 48 for a total of 136. Absolutely no complaints, still my best event of the year and a great event overall which I'll do every single year along with over 300 other vendors. Perfect weather, huge crowds and great folks to chat with and still going home with a pocketful of cash. In future years I'll continue to rent a double booth, I simply hate having to set up in such a way that people have to come "inside", generally speaking, people prefer to come up to the perimeter of my tent and see everything around 3 sides. Still in Raleigh today (Monday) as my wife is leaving her job of 20 years and they insisted on throwing her a luncheon today so we'll attend that and then head back to the coast. At which point I have to start cutting as I have a new 1 day big event coming up Saturday at a nearby beach town. Should be a great show as well. I did plan accordingly and am taking vacation this week from the day job to make lots of sawdust. And squeezing in a couple rounds of golf this week also. Photos showing booth and the 316 duplicate puzzles I had with me wrapped and ready to go. Only ran out of Elephants as I had a run on them that I didn't expect. Iggy

Puzzlemobile is loaded... one snapshot shows the 530 puzzles I'm taking, and then the rest of the "stuff" piled on. Leaving in an hour to stay with friends. Early morning tomorrow, up at 4:30am to get to the venue and setup.

Yeah, mine are just simple little puzzles. They don't count as "projects".

That's another reason I set a goal of 200... I don't have the puzzle master from Georgia there to take all the puzzle business. Congrats on the flow of orders. I'll let you know things go. The weather looks like it's going to be agreeable. I hope the forecast holds.

I'm not sure whether to thank you or to condemn you! Good news, the front of my map is completely sold for 2019 as of this morning! Only a few spaces remaining on the back and I have plenty of time to sign businesses for my Pleasure Island Guide. Selling out the front of the map was a big milestone in just a few days of selling.

I'm feeling older every day Ray. Day job, puzzle zombie, map/advertising business, landlord and honey-do list do-er... It keeps me pretty busy but only during daylight hours. LOL

Oh, and I guess in a way this is a good thing... It's been so rainy this summer I've missed 3 or 4 of my weekly farmers markets. It of course has hurt my wallet, but at least I've been able to increase my stockpile, especially since my other side business is taking up a lot of my time right now.

One week from tomorrow I load up the PuzzleMobile and head to Cary, NC for the 42nd annual Lazy Daze event. Over 350 arts and crafts vendors gathered in one place. It's 9 hours long Saturday and 4 1/2 hours Sunday. This will be my second year doing it and I have set a goal of selling 200 puzzles. I sold 153 last year, but the first day I wasn't able to set up the way I prefer, but this year I rented 2 spaces in order to maximize sales. We'll see if it pans out. Of course, weather will be the biggest factor and so far, the 10 day forecast looks decent. We'll see if it holds true. I'm still cutting in preparation for it and I'll take a final inventory count in a few days to see exactly how many puzzles I'll be taking with me, but I know it'll be in the 500-600 range. Silly me, I signed up for another decent sized event the following Saturday... UGH! But I'm taking vacation from the day job the week in between so that I can replenish my stock based on what I sell at Lazy Daze. Fingers crossed for good weather. Iggy

Final Update: I received my order from www.gotprint.com and the cards are perfect. Their design program on their site was easy to use. It took a little longer to receive the cards, but unless you're in a rush, it shouldn't be an issue. It only took 11 days to receive them. I received them in today's mail, was happy with them and immediately placed an order for another batch with a different puzzle image.

So, after a "mishap" with one of my garage doors (Mishap being defined as me accidentally lowering one of the doors about a foot, not raising it back up, and then a few hours later attempting to back my very tall golf cart out and bending the bottom portion of the door. What's funny is that I was able to pop the door back on the track and everything was working fine, but I decided to take a rubber hammer to bang a portion of it straight and in doing so it popped the entire bottom rubber strip/seal off. I should have left well enough alone.) Anyway I had a garage door company come by today and repair things for me and while I was talking to the guy after he gave me two options, I asked him about insulated garage doors... do they actually help. Reminder, I live at the coast in North Carolina, my garage faces to the south and gets full sun most of the day. The highest temp I've registered in the garage is 96 and it's quite unpleasant. The guy says they do pretty well. Steel construction with insulation sandwiched in between... I asked about price, he called the office, gave me a quote which I found to be quite reasonable (I have 2 garage doors), so I decided to do it. The doors are on order and will be installed in a couple of weeks. Anyone out here have insulated garage doors and can provide your thoughts? Even if it just lowers the temp 10 degrees or so I'll be happy. If it does help, then I'll consider having a window or two installed in the garage on the north side (currently there are no windows at all)

Well... After bad batch #1, replaced by bad batch #2, I asked for and received a full refund. I waited a couple of weeks, and hoping that they'd found the issue with their printing equipment, I placed the order again... I now have bad batch #3. I emailed them letting them know how disappointed I was and that even after asking twice for my issue to be escalated so that I could speak with someone higher up, I never heard a thing. Full refund given again and I'm done trying to work with them. I just placed an order on this site and hopefully I'll finally receive some usable cards. https://www.gotprint.com/home.html

LOL, yeah, I kind of stared at the "hook" and wondered if it could be tweaked a little. I may try to work on that if the puzzle sells and I have to make another one.

Hi RJ, Thanks for asking. All is well. Sales have been good overall. My weekly farmers market has been hit or miss and also 2 rainouts. But my bigger events have been going very well. My biggest event of the year is coming up the end of August and then a week later I have a new event that has a lot of potential from what I've heard. So I'm busy right now cranking out as many as possible in order to be stockpiled. I did stop making and selling the kids puzzles in order to focus 100% on my signature puzzles. That means my total # of puzzles sold may be lower than originally estimated, but the $$$ should be roughly the same or higher. We'll see how the final tally looks. Harvey is on the mend, he's able to draw again and he's supplying me with custom names as I request them. The map and visitor guide business is going very well and Mrs. Iggy put in her notice at her job of 20 years and will be focusing on the map and guide moving forward. She's excited.

These are not new from Harvey, but new to me as I hadn't cut these before. Trying to add a couple new items in advance of two big events coming up next month. I have Harvey modifying the Steogsaurus to simply say STEGO... the original had so many letters, they were thin and fragile.

Excellent. Keep us posted.

Mine just arrived from Bearwoods for my Dewalt (along with 3 gross of Pegas Modified Geometry blades LOL). I hope to install the blade holders tomorrow if I have a chance.

Hmmm... Interesting. He's going to be located at the far side away from me but I hope I can swing by and see his booth.

Literally just got an email from Lazy Daze updating vendors with information. Here's the link to the site. Huge event, 350 vendors, 50,000+ attendees... I'm cutting like crazy getting ready for it... https://www.townofcary.org/recreation-enjoyment/events/festivals/lazy-daze-arts-and-crafts-festival

Since you won't be at Lazy Daze in August winning all of the wood puzzle business with your beautiful work, I may have a decent event.

Beautiful work as always Brian. Glad it was a successful show for you.

Response from Vistaprint... I chose to be refunded. I'll consider reordering in about 4 weeks in hopes they've found and resolved the problem. In the meantime I was also sent a survey asking for my feedback about my complaint experience... Hopefully I'll hear from them based on the ratings I supplied. ======== Hello Scott,How are you? I hope you are having an awesome day as the week progressIt pains me to learn that the replacement is still dark, knowing its only a reorderBut no worries. I`m here to help and make thing right for you within this conversationThis was clearly a missed on our printing size. I have your feedback and attached photo sent to our plant site making sure this won`t happen again during replacementYour satisfaction is of great importance and I would love to get another opportunity to make things right for you. To make it up to you, it would be my pleasure to assist you with any one of the following options: Replace your order at no additional cost. (if you'd like to give it a try again, You can also edit it by making it lighter) Issue a Merchandise Credit for the amount charged. (can be used towards new order) Issue a full refund. Thank you for letting us know of the issue and giving us the opportunity of making things right for youI`m glad I was able to fully resolve the concern with in this conversation and made you a very satisfied customerHave a lovely day and awesome day as the week progressMikeCustomer Care Specialist