The first thing, is that for the past few months my weight has been gained back on, lost again, gained again, lost again, food patterns changing, lack of going to the gym the past month, etc etc.
As of right now I've maintained my weight at 140.4 lbs. I still want to lose another 10 lbs in the long run, but for right now....I'm happy with MAINTAINING the weight. It made me so sad to be 150 lbs through last winter...so much that I had had enough of my free-willed food cravings and decided to kick my butt into shape.
Even though I haven't been losing any more weight, I still keep an eye on my food (I let myself indulge every once and a while when I crave 'real food'), go to the gym when I can (which at this rate is once every 2 weeks :( ) and I'm maintained my weight, which makes me feel alot better than I did in the winter. And I think I'm starting to look 'good' again to my standards.
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| A Picture of me I took in a mirror at the Charity Auction. |
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| Same night--at the charity auction, but a close up on my face to comepare to how I was in the Winter. |
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| New Years, a little chubbier in the face and arms than I am now. |
Now on to the last few days. The Herefordshire Council started this inititive to help lanch new businesses on the local market scene. There are markets every thursday and Saturday in Ross, where eople hold little market stalls and sell everything from local produce, carpets/rugs, knick-knacks, books, etc.
They want to make market days bigger and busier so for one day (which was Saturday) the Council was offering a free market stall for new enterprises who might be interested in holding a weekly market stall in the future.
Normally in order to be part of the market scene you would have to have 3 things(besides what you were actually selling):
-Personal Liability Insurance(which the cheapest would be about 40 pounds a year)
-15 pounds per day, paid to the council, for a 'spot/pitch' on the market
AND
-Either provide your own table, or rent one from the council
So, for this one day....the council gave the pitch and the table to new business for free to 'test the waters' on the market scene. And that's what I did!
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| Me with a sheet of Peanut Butter Drops, ready to chill in the fridge, before dipping them in chocolate. Yum yum! |
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| The 'back' side of my table....with shortbread cookies, cake photo on display, and a sample plate. |
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| The 'front' side of my stall. With Cakes and Peanut butter Drops on display. |
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| Fresh with tea in hand at 7:30 in the morning. |
I preped and baked everything the 3 days before Saturday after I came home from work.
Wednesday--went to work. Came home. Made peanut butter balls and mixed up the dough for sugar cookies.
Thursday--went to chambermaid at the hotel. Came home. Rolled, cut and baked sugar cookies and mixed up and made 2 dozen cupcakes.
Friday--work again. came home. Frosted Cupcakes and cookies, and packed everything up for saturday.
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| Finished Peanut Butter Drops |
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| Teapot Shortbread Cookies, with pink frosting. |
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| Vanilla Cupcakes |
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| Chocolate Cupcakes on display |
I didn't get to sleep friday night until about 2am(just from tossing and turning of sheer nervousness) and work up at 6am, Got ready and was at the market by 7:30 so I could get a good pitch...and this time i did. I was in the middle of the market, in the shade so my cakes wouldn't be in the elements, and the first stall people saw when they came up the stairs in the market square.
Some of the good points of this market(compared to the last market i did, the May Fayre) is that:
-I was in a good location
-The market was busy because the french market was in town as well
-I had pictures on diplay to show people I can do personalized cakes as well (for functions and business parties) instead of JUST telling them and having them not see anything I've done.
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| (Left)Patrick Star cake I made in March. (right) 'Cake Shots' I recently made....a layer of vanilla cake, then a layer of bailey's frosting filling up a shot glass. |
-I had a great experience, talking with other stall keepers, getting the exposure to hand out more business cards and get my name out there, etc.
-Alot of people praised my cakes, which made me feel better that people actually enjoy them as much as I do. One lady said my cakes were 'moorish'(which confused me at first, so I had to search it on my phone....appartently is means it's so good that you want to keep eating it, that you want some MORE of it. Also, these two teenage boys bought 3 cakes (because I offered them to them 3 for 1 pound, which is too good to resist) and when they bit into them, they almost died---eyes rolled back into their heads and they said my cakes were 'LUUUUUUUSH' (Lush over hear means really really wonderful).
Some not so good things that happen:
-Didn't sell out of everything.
-I have alot to improve on if I intend to start up my own market stall.
There was a nice lady who has been on the market regularly for 6 months who was giving me advice about how to boost my business.
1. I need CLEAR domes to cover my cakes. I had these cheap netted ones. They kept things off my cakes, but it wasn't clear enough so that people could see my cakes.
2. My table was too white, so I need to get colourful squares to decorate my table with to livin it up a bit.
3. Also, my father in law(who passed by my stall on his way through town) advised me to have more cakes on the table because people don't want to buy things if they see there's not many 'left'. He used the motto, "stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap".
All things to consider. I'm thinking of doing the market full time...so these are all things I'll look into but it was a great experience and I made about 33.50 pounds on the day (but after supplies, that means I only made about 6pounds....but the most important thing is that I'm getting my name out there and building the business slowly but surely).
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