The church on the corner
- Dusty Santos
- Jun 22, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 25, 2025
Hello Hen House readers!
It's the day after my Christ Church United yard sale and I'm very excited. Before I get to the event, I need to do something...
Welcome New Readers! For many of you, this might be the first time on my blog.
I've cataloged my journey since the beginning of this year. Starting with the story of my first year. It's easy to follow along by clicking "continue story" at the bottom of each post.
My goal is to share my journey. Here is what you can expect:
The failures and successes of business.
How I juggle the business and 4 kids.
A bunch of ideas and started projects
Some finished projects lol
Event updates
The creative process
I like to bold certain words in my blog to mark the beginning of sections. That way it's easy for my readers to skim and get what they want out of each post.
The event yesterday went great!
To preface this, I have to say I went into this day feeling a bit down. Two things had me feeling that way.
The first came about when talking to my neighbors. I live in a condo complex and socializing is a big part of my life.
It builds contacts and keeps conversation skills sharp, but more importantly I've been doing it since way before I started a business and love ~cough most cough~ of my neighbors.
A friend, who does unique crochet arts, said to me "I don't sign up for those things (the church yard sale) since it isn't worth it for me. I just don't sell enough."
We have completely different businesses but this comment stuck in my mind anyway. By the way, she is a wonderful artist and you should check her out.
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The second reason I was feeling down has to do with family life. My kids are now out of school. This meant I needed to be home to insure they weren't glued to the screens.
I couldn't finish my projects.
This summer will test my work/family balance more that any other time. Solutions include leaving early and relying on my oldest to hold down the fort.
My oldest is 12 and I don't want to push a mom life on her too much.
How I worked the downfalls to my advantage.
I used the unfinished projects as a Work In Progress section. It showed everyone that I was working on other things and gave a reason to sign up for the Newsletter.
My goodness did that work! More emails were collected during that one event than during the entire time advertising on social media.
I also got some useful feedback on the K-cup holder. I asked people which leather topper would look the best. The lighter color got way more votes than the darker color.
Commissions were another plus! For the first time I included a commission sheet on my table, with pictures of past commissions I did.
I plan to eventually show all my commissions in a catalog.
Notable custom orders:
Horse on one side and name on the other as a gift
A unique "Deeraffe" (combo of deer and giraffe) for the boy scouts.
A business partnership was also born yesterday.
Next to me was "Antiquities and More". The owner, Elaine, was selling a bunch of stuff including the biggest collection of designer jewelry I've ever seen!
We will be working together. I pick out and sell her jewelry and give her a portion of sales money.
My brand is very important to me so the style must fit. Turquoise will fit beautifully with the country theme.
All the stands for my keychains were custom made by me, so making a stand for the jewelry will be easy.
What I learned...
Mistakes were made. The biggest having to do with my custom order form.
When I made the form I thought customers would fill it out at the table. Turns out, most people wanted to take the form and fill it out later. This highlighted my mistake.
I didn't include an email address on the form!
When I realized this, I started to write my email on them but not before some forms walked away. Now I have to hope that they find me via google.
To-do's are growing. Next I'll start on my commissions and keep in contact with Red Antler Apothecary. The example oversized soap holder needs to be done.
The commission order form should have a digital version on my website so I'll start on that.
Again, thank you to all my new readers!
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to join the Hen House mailing list...
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