Open House

I'm planning my holiday open houses this week, and like most everything else in my life, I have made it more complicated than necessary. I made some square invitation cards with a new font that I downloaded specifically for earring cards & stuff. I had to print, cut, paste, scan, print, cut, and stick them in envelopes. I realized after a few that it was an absolutely absurd amount of effort to put into something with a fairly low expected return. My open houses usually draw the same core group of loyal customers. I could send their invitations on cardboard scraps with the dates written backwards in crayon and they'd still come. So anyway, I came up with something easier that actually looks better, anyway. I buy giant quantities of blank cards on clearance at Michael's and use them for thank you cards, birthday cards, invitations, everything. I printed the info on pretty purple paper and glued it into the cards.
A friend of mine who is a dairy farmer in the Co-op I work for makes raw milk cheese, which is really, really excellent, and I asked for a sampler tray to share with my guests. He ships cheese all over the world, too. Check it out. Another friend of mine, Deb Mercer, is going to be doing seated massages for my Saturday open house. I'm having my mother bring out her higher-end textile hats and bags to fill out the space a little more. All of my previous in-home parties have been great, highly profitable and enjoyable, so hopefully this winter's ones will be as well, so if you're planning to be in Western Pennsylvania on December 5th or December 8th, ask me for directions and come check out our stuff!
I'm also running special Cyber Monday sales in my Etsy shop. Free international shipping on orders over $40 and 20% off all purchases over $30. I am blatantly promoting myself here, but that's what the internet is all about, right? Well, self-promotion and ineptly trying to keep your porn addiction a secret from your girlfriend (come on, we all know that guy. Later on I'm going to post holiday sales from other members of the Fabulous Artistic Moms Etsy team, and possibly from Etsy Team Exposure if those girls are running any specials.