Iguanadon

Brian, I use this and it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I buy the 12" width to match the size boards I use. Peels off easily and no residue. And it's really cheap. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Duck-Brand-Peel-Stick-Clear-Laminate-Adhesive-Shelf-Liner-12-x-36/16224481

I can certainly see that happening and I won't be surprised if my little experiment is a 1 time thing. I'll have a separate table set up just for this and will let folks have fun with it. I'll report back. Assuming my event doesn't get rained out... Ugh, I hope not.

Mrs. Iggy and I play trivia every Wednesday night at a local pub with another couple. I took the dino puzzle with me and had the other couple try to solve it. After 10 minutes they hadn't even gotten half of it assembled, so I feel good that I won't be giving any puzzles away. LOL Although I wouldn't mind having someone win one every now and again.

Not so much a "secret", more of a methodology... step by step working on one side, then each row all the way around til you get to the bottom... each area requires certain combination of turns. Here is the book I memorized back in the early 80's. That said, the world record is something like a few seconds... it's nuts how fast it can be done. I never tried going for speed. I'm happy at under 3 minutes. LOL https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-simple-solution-to-rubiks-cube_james-g-nourse/312710/?mkwid=sRUPUpdnY|dc&pcrid=70112912712&pkw=&pmt=&plc=&gclid=CjwKCAiAx57RBRBkEiwA8yZdUJErJS0deEz_RmpIrGsezdgrPkHQpKQCNh2KRmcPB0J8e3ecfr2XPBoCL-kQAvD_BwE#isbn=0553140175&idiq=4249644

I memorized the solution to the Rubik's Cube when I was in junior high when it came out... and amazingly it has stuck in my head for over 35 years since. ;-) I'm working on teaching the 5 year old grand-Iglet now. LOL

This Saturday is my last event of the year and I came up with an idea I want to try, just for kicks to see if it stimulates traffic at my booth and subsequently additional sales... It'll be fun for the kids and even the adults. I likely won't have to give away many, if any puzzles. I can put it together in about 3 minutes, but I'm familiar with it. I'll test it on Mrs. Iggy to see how long it takes her. LOL I have the outline of one that will be sitting there so that people know what it is they're trying to assemble. The Rubik's Cube is just for show, but if anyone challenges me, I'm able to solve a scrambled cube in under 3 minutes. ;-) What do you think?

I can say with 100% certainty that I wouldn't have been nearly as successful this past year if it hadn't been for the incredible community of folks here at SSV. Thanks to one and all.

Amazing work as always Brian.

Three days of cutting now on the drying rack, including a new item, mermaid that says SOUTHPORT, the town where my next event is in 10 days. Final event of the year... Whew... Still plenty more to cut before then.

LOL, you read very deeply into things. I was simply assuming she wanted to cut one for herself. So, nevermind, forget what I said.

That looks like a perfect image to use as a pattern. Print it and size it as you'd like it.

Thanks Jim, a lucky shot. I was actually ducking lower so that the bright sun wouldn't glare in the photo and I liked how it turned out with the sea oats. Speaking of lucky shots, check this one out I took in July. Caught the sun hitting the structure just right. I ended up using it for my new business card.

It's the tiny details that matter.

Saturday #2 of the local holiday market. Sold 43 puzzles in week 1 and sold 60 today. Compared to 23 and 43 last year. Very happy... until I realized I have one more event and it's potentially a big one which means I have a lot of cutting to do over the next two weeks. The last picture is the beautiful sunrise I got to enjoy while setting up this morning. I'm at 970 total puzzles sold in 2017... quite a year. I'm exhausted... Iggy

Pretty much the only non-puzzle I've ever done. A special request from a friend... Now if I can figure out what I can do with the little cut outs. :-)

I've used Jing for years. It allows you to do a "screen capture" and then add text, arrows, etc. I literally use it on a daily basis to screen capture something and share it. You can download it here and there are tutorials. Very simple to use once you get familiar with it. https://www.techsmith.com/jing-tool.html

Yes, the African Grey was fun to cut. That was the first time I'd made it. Now she tells me she wants the birds name instead. LOL Custom order for Harvey to draw, he loves doing it.

This past Saturday was week 1 and this coming Saturday is week 2 of a holiday event here in my home town. Week 1 went well, sold 44 puzzles in 6 hours so that meant having to restock... Knocked out a good chunk yesterday and today so far including a special request for a dark Frenchie and for the first time, an African Grey parrot. And lots and lots of Dachshunds... I've sold 4x as many Dachshunds as any other breed this year... it's nuts.

Thanks. I was looking at my numbers... 2016, my first year I sold 484 puzzles. As of right now for 2017 I need to sell 90 in my final two events to hit 1,000. I won't count on doubling my sales every year. ;-)

I had a lackluster event last weekend that I shared information about after 3 or 4 weeks without any puzzle events. And I've started up a new business which is taking up some more of my time. In addition to the day job. LOL New company info can be seen here...

A nice event nearby today, only 6 hours in duration, but did quite well selling 44 puzzles. Same venue and duration next Saturday and should do even better as it will be the official beginning of Christmas shopping season. I have a lot of cutting to do this week to replenish. I'm very ready for the winter break! Great location right on the ocean...

FYI for the curious folks... I just posted in the Coffee House forum about my new business venture...

Yeah, it was the first time I'd done that, but it's in my home town, Mayberry Beach as I refer to it and I knew the cops were watching over the venue overnight and I figured if anyone was going to do something mischievous they'd be more attracted to stealing racks of ribs. ;-)

Absolutely. And the fact that I upgraded a notch or two to a sturdier tent a couple of months ago. It looked like it held up ok, but the real test will be tomorrow morning when I go there to take the tent down and bring it home with my tables. I left them overnight, I only brought home my puzzles and other crap tonight.

Day 2 - Saturday - Quite cold this morning but the event doesn't start til 11:00. At 9am I decide to go down and check things out and take the fabric walls down from my tent. I had simply zipped it up and left everything there. First time I've done that. I usually pack up my puzzles and take them with me overnight for a multi-day event. I'll never leave them overnight again... I get down there and notice one of my walls is open on one side... "Oh shit, someone went in..." I open it and I see my displays laying on the ground versus on the table where I had left them... puzzle pieces laying in various places... but it doesn't look like total mayhem... I look around a little more, I look around the outside, I notice my tent was lowered... What the hell? Then I realize... wind... then I talk to one of the BBQ rib vendors and they say it was incredible... A wind storm hit around 11pm last night and even though I live 4 blocks from the event I didn't hear or know about it. I live at the beach, wind is a rather constant thing, but this was pretty bad... stuff blowing all over, the tents they were using over dining table were totally blown away and destroyed, I walked over to where the majority of vendors were and their tents are twisted and bent, it was a mess... I later find out that the organizers had scrambled and lowered my tent and tried to put the displays on the ground to avoid things blowing away. End result, after I piece together a couple dozen puzzles that had gotten unassembled, I only had 3 broken puzzles. Absolutely amazing and lucky. I get my booth set back up and the day goes smooth. Sales were mediocre and I won't do Day 3. Lesson learned... always be sure if leaving tent overnight, be sure to fully secure it (which I had done fortunately) and don't EVER leave puzzles overnight. It's not worth the chance of a freak wind or thunderstorm. I take over 200 puzzles to each event, that's over $5,000 in value, not to mention the 100 hours of work that was put into them. Now I focus on my remaining 3 events, all holiday oriented crafts events which I should do rather well. Then I get 3 1/2 months off from doing events, but will be stockpiling throughout the winter.