Craft Exchange and Ask A Friend

The Brother Sewing Machine I have yet to learn to use!

Sometimes you want to know a skill but you might not have the money or you do not know who to trust. I have only been in Fairfield county for five years and I really do not know the area. Brooklyn supposedly has a lot of great crafting places and artisan business but that is a little far from where I live. So there is no place really close that can teach me how to sew.
I was going to pay $50.00 a lesson at Sew Create and Celebrate in Norwalk. You have to send via mail cash or a check for 3 lessons ($150.00) before you can be scheduled. $50 for a private 1.5 hour class is actually not too bad for a stranger to teach you a new skill. I thought it was actually worth it until the owner emailed me back and said that it was not going to work because I cannot follow directions. That she does not want to waste her time with me and she rather save it for her sewing time.This was her response to me asking if I could pay via paypal. I had asked because she was talking about how she wanted the money ASAP. She apparently either does not know how to use paypal, this is not legitimate business (aka she does not pay the IRS any taxes for the services she provides) or it is a scam. I just think that is rude way to treat a potential client! I was trying to see the fastest way to pay the individual. But the proper way to respond back would have been something like "Sorry, I do not accept paypal. But don't worry you can pay for the session when you come via check or cash. I look forward to seeing you on (insert date)." But now I know this woman does not know how to treat a customer and she does not have the patience to teach!
But that rudeness made me think! It is hard to find someone to teach you things because you have to trust the person first. Fairfield County is very expensive and sometimes you try things and it is not worth the money! Sometimes the risk pays off but it is still sometimes just too expensive to keep up. It made me think of this article that I read about a Craft exchange. I think it was probably in either Real Simple or Living and I wish I had the article! One woman wanted to learn how to sew and was an amazing baker while the other woman was an excellent seamstress and wanted to learn how to bake. They found that they were able to get together and do rather inexpensive hangouts. It was something they could do together and they began to look forward to weekly. Plus who does not like fresh pastry and friendship?
I think that a craft exchange is an excellent idea because you trust your friends and you have seen their product! You have an idea if your friend is going to be a good teacher and it might just cost something you can barter. So maybe you are a marketing/business professional and your friend is a great artist that is trying to start a side business. You might be able to exchange your marketing/business talents or connections. Or you could just offer to get a great bottle of wine or dinner!
So that article I had read over three years ago was jogging in my mind. I am very fortunate to have very talented and artistic friends. Then I realized that I have a friend who knows how to sew who could teach me how to sew! She is a 45 minute train ride into NYC! I can bake but her recent weight loss and etc cookies is not the best exchange! But I offered to make cookies for another person or to make dinner for us that night. She texted me back that I would not have to barter but I still will at least give a hostess gift that she will like.

A perfect hostess gift for me, wink, wink! Macarons!

If you have a great friend like I do that says "oh no you do not have to bring anything or exchange anything." You need to make sure to bring something small that says that you appreciate the time that they took out of their busy life. Maybe if you are a suburbanite or country girl bring some baked goods, home made jam, fresh produce from a garden or fresh flowers. If you are an urban girl bring something that is hard to find items in suburbia/the country. I suggest bring a trendy crunut (croissant doughnut) that maybe the surburbanite or Country gal might have been wanting to try out or get something from a specialty store. I invited a friend for a weekend who lives in the city. She can be invited back anytime because she is a good guest and she brought me my first set of macarons and a specialty store chocolate fish! It was something I could not get where I was from and it floored me! That is a great example of a hostess gift. You do not have to spend a lot of money on the item but the idea that you have spent a little bit of time is what matters! And I think you can always do well with flowers that do not have a high pollen count because girls like flowers! Check out this post from Luxe Austerity.
I also want to learn how to use photoshop and I am thinking about being a freelance/professional photographer so I Facebooked and I emailed a friend who lives 2.5 hours away and I asked for advice. She is a graphic designer and I asked her basically do you think going to school for graphic design certificate (I have a B.A. already) would be good to learn or etc. Instead she surprised me she said no that would not probably be the best price way to get the information you want. Then she told me about Before & After Master Collection which compiles many articles that teach you how to do cool things with photoshop. She then let me in on a secret that you do not need to have a degree in Graphic Design to be a Graphic Designer and this was where she learned her basic skills! The Master Collection is only $179 (plus you have to purchase the most updated version of Adobe Photoshop, have a computer that can multi-task all these products and etc) but that is not that bad of an investment when the graphic design certificate program was going to cost me thousands. I also have this book Adobe Creative Suite for Dummies which I should read!
So the lesson is if you have a friend who is an expert in an area do not be afraid to ask for their advice! It is free advice and might not be the answers you are looking for but it can save you time and money! Do not be afraid to ask a friend to teach you a skill before you invest in a stranger.If you have a friend that gives time up to help you out make sure to be appreciative, arrive on time and at least come with a small gift. This way you can save money and you can reinvest in a friendship!

Decisions

It has been over a year since I have created a post on this blog. When I first wrote this blog a lot was different including an important fact I was only working part time. Now I work four, ten hour shifts a week and I am only off of my feet for lunch break. It is labor intensive my new job and yet I burn no calories! I have gotten tired because where I work the days are long! I have been using my free time on researching, working out, enjoying my new found weekends off and day dreaming.

I actually got inspired by a good friend who blogs five days a week on her blog Luxe Austerity. She blogs a sort of quick good things list for Fashionistas on a budget. You got to love friends! I love her blog and it gave me inspiration! I realized that I do not need to write long blogs and over do it! So I am saying thank you to Poppy B! Reading her blog gave me the kick to start writing again on this blog! I am not saying I will not be verbose BUT it will help me write more with less pressure!

If you have been following me you will see that I had a desire to create an online bakery of some sort for extra money. Friends, co-worker, and family love my cookies! I had a list up of the cookies that I was selling only to my friends because I do not have a commercial kitchen.

So I learned about the WBDC which targets women and minorities who want to open a small business. It is a great resource and there is a WBDC I can walk to! I decided to go to a class at a local Women's Business development Center. It was a four week class in June that  met from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm on Wednesdays tailored to running a food business in Connecticut. It was a good kick in the butt that I needed.

I had been starry eyed for a couple years thinking that when Jon and I move to a house I would build a kitchen in the basement. The idea was that we could write off the basement that I used, that it would cut down on over head costs, and we would not have to renovate a space and pay rent on it. However this class set this idea straight. Connecticut and it's taxes are no joke and they have been cracking down on home businesses related to food! There is a scale tax for an instance for every food and packaging scale and you have to pay people to come out to properly adjust it! That is just one crazy thing that makes your money fly out the window! A lot of the people that spoke to us at the WBDC were able to work from their homes or out of a friend's kitchen. They had some loop holes that we cannot follow now and the penalties are very severe. So they were able to save money and at the time that the rules changed they had enough money to pay for rent/renovations of a space. But new rules and regulations make things hard but also help protect consumers and your business. But still it kind of stinks that I cannot cook out of a nice basement commercial kitchen far from my cute little dog, Penny!

There is one major issue and reason I will not in the next couple of years start this online bakery and it is money! You have to have a lot money and have to rent spaces which you normally have to renovate first before you do that which is more money. In order to qualify for better loans and for free money you have to be in business for a year. They are not going to waste money on new businesses because everyone wants to be in this business and there is a lot of over head costs that put people out of business. But the major one is insurance related. If I were to purchase a place with a basement to do a basement kitchen and have commercial  kitchen and there ever was a fire resulting from a commercial kitchen I could lose my insurance and be uninsurable. This is important. I would get no money to rebuild my house, lose property and personal items and get no money! So I would then want to renovate get into a house and not be able to get a mortgage because the fire was caused by a commercial kitchen which would not be covered by home mortgages!

I do not have 100,000s of money to just renovated and get a good kitchen started. So I have been looking into a different vein of small business. Not going to reveal it now but I am doing some research.

What to expect on the blog:
1.) I learned while researching that some companies give out free merchandise for blogs to give away and to try out. I am going to try to go to the companies that I love and try to do merchandise giveaways.
2.) When the heat wave dies down more baking and cooking posts!
3.) More information on trying to start a small business.
4.) More blog posts! I am hoping for at least once a week!