2009 Wine & Food Classic McMinnville, OR

The McMinnville Wine and Food Classic, also known as "The SIP" was held last weekend in McMinnville Oregon. This was my second time being a vendor. The show is held in the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. The atmosphere is awesome! This year we were in the Space Museum instead of the Aviation Museum. There were many local wineries offering "sips" of their many different types of wine. Yamhill County in Oregon is known for their Pinot Noir Wines.


I was very interested to attend this show as it was my first show for the 2009 Season. As with my Christmas shows sales were down about 26% from last year. There were many people attending the show, but the public is cautious about what they are buying. The trend is still to buy more natural products and people are continuing to ask questions about ingredients and how products are made.

My husband, Mark, was able to be with me at this show. He and I thought that the show treats its vendors top notch. We, as vendors, were able to sign up for a free massage, there were snacks in the morning and afternoon, and there was always coffee, water, and lemonade available for the vendors. I have to say, I am not offered these "perks" at any other show I do. For more information about the McMinnville Wine and Food Classic, SIP go to http://www.macwfc.org/


My husband teaches high school English and History and after the show we were able to take some pictures of the many different space planes, space ships, and rockets at the museum. My husband was also able to get a guided tour of the main rocket and simulated count down they have at the museum. He and I totally loved all the information we read and history we saw after we had packed up our show. If you ever want to visit the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon, you can get more information at http://www.evergreenmuseum.org/

My next show is in April at the Blossom Festival in Hood River Oregon. I am looking forward to the show.


Krista Webber - Owner

Snow, still a novelty

I have been enjoying the weather here in Mitchell Oregon. This last Saturday we woke up to snow! What a surprise this was. I decided to let Sierra, our dag, and Edison, our cat, enjoy being out in it. OK, I will be honest, Sierra enjoyed it and we had just finished a walk to the post office and local mercantile/store. Edison liked it for about three minutes and decided he did not mind being an inside cat after all. Maybe I will get tired of snow, but for now it is a beautiful thing.

I have also enjoyed living in the rural and decided to take a picture of our neighbors on one side of us. She was enjoying the bit of sunshine we were having on this 28 degree afternoon. The two goats were still in their "Home". My Kitchen window faces my horse and two goat neighbors and every morning I get to see them and see how they are doing. Once the weather warms up I may not enjoy the smell from my neighbors, but for now it is all good.



I am getting ready for my spring shows. I start my show season in March and have a few things I want to have done before it all begins again for a new year.

I am wanting to change my show set up for this year. I have to build some new displays, but I think that my new set up will be more efficient and display my products better and hopefully will result in better sales. Also, I am just about done with my taxes. Isn't this a fun part of having your own business? Gathering all your receipts, sales slips, write offs etc. etc. etc. I will be glad when I have everything submitted to the tax man. I take my paperwork to a professional so I can have to peace of mind that they are filed correctly. Also I want to try an online store on etsy this year. I will keep posts on this new avenue.

This is all for now and a picture and information is coming of my new candle line....." Lights of Liberty"

Have a great week!

What's new for 2009 ?1?!

Happy 2009!

We at Pauper's Candle Company have some exciting changes and additions we would like you to know about! First, we have grouped our candles into different candle lines, each having its own look to reflect the scents in that line. Second, each scent in each candle line is made up of a 7oz soy wax candle that comes in a box, a soy wax tealight candle pack that has 5 tealights in each pack, and an air freshener. Lastly, we have made these chagnes so we can keep our prices reasonable for you, our customers.

We are introducing our New Herb N' Garden Line:

This line consists of some scents that we had in our candle tins a couple years ago and some new scents have been added to complete the garden line and garden experience. The scents that come in this line are Basil Sage Mint, Cilantro N' Herb, Lettuce, Cucumber, Tomato Leaf, and Dirt. Helpful Hint: Be sure to burn our Dirt candle while you are burning Tomato Leaf. You will really bring the garden in and without the fuss.

Our Traditional Candle Line:

Many of our scents have stayed the same in this line as last year, but the packaging has changed. Each scent has a colorful label to correlate with the scent name. Honeysuckle has been added to this line and we have discontinued Mulberry, Hot Apple Pie, and Peach. Nag Champa has been moved to our Signature Candle Line. Helpful Hint: Everyone enjoys the scents in this candle line.

Our Signature Candle Line:

This candle line is made up of unique and exotic scents. We have our signature scent Hawaiian Mist in this line. My husband came up with the blend of fragrances we use to create our Hawaiian Mist Candles and air fresheners. Also, we have moved the scent Honeysuckle to our traditional Line and added Nag Champa to this line. Also we have two new scents to include in this line: Wine & Roses and White Ginger & Amber. These are great scents. Helpful Hint: For the person who likes the unique and exotic scents, you will be sure to find a scent in this line.

Our Aromatherapy Candle Line:

This is our 100% Natural Candle Line. We sold more natural candles in 2008 than in our previous years. We blend all our scent combinations in this candle line to formulate each candle. The scents are from 100% pure essential oil. Helpful Hint: This candle line has become a favorite to those who want a 100% natural candle.

One big difference this year is that we decide to discontinue making our Reed Diffusors that match our candles, but decided to make air fresheners to match each candle. We have enjoyed this change and hope you do too.

There is one more candle line coming in the next month and I will post a blog about it when it is ready for distribution. Just a little hint.....the candle line is named Lights of Liberty. This has been a candle line that I have enjoyed creating.

I will blog again soon.

Krista,

Owner

The Holiday Season is On........

The Holiday Season is off to a good start. So far the season has been good. I am doing some new shows and so it has been difficult to measure the season. The shows that I have done in years past have still been good. The pictures I posted are from three different shows I have done.

The first Picture is from the Tierra Del Mar Music and Art Festival. This show was last summer in August. This is always a good show and very well organized.

The second photo is from the 3rd Street Holiday Market in MacMinville, Oregon. This show runs for the months of Nov. and Dec. and is run my the downtown association. This is my first time doing a show where I set up my space and let it run without me there. So far so good with this show.

The last Photo is from the Church on the Hill show in MacMinnville, Oregon. This was my second time here and had a nice show. The event is very well run and organized.

I have four more shows I am involved in and I will be done with the Holiday Shows. I am looking forward to the break. My husband and I are going to be spending time at our house in Pacific City, Oregon. We are looking forward to the time away.

May you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Be sure to keep checking my website. I have made some changes to my candle lines. I may be adding one more dimension to my candle lines. We shall see......

Again, Merry Christmas to all
Krista Webber

It's been an adventure....

It has been a very long time since I have posted a blog. Much has happened with Pauper's Candle Company. First and most important, we have moved. Pauper's is now located in Mitchell, Oregon. This took place in the middle of August until the beginning of Sept.


My husband has a new teaching job here in Mitchell. Mitchel is a small town located about 45 minutes east of Prineville, Oregon. He is teaching in a school of about 63 students, K-12. He has enjoyed the change.

We traveled through Mitchell during spring Break and who would have thought that we woul be living here. We are also enjoying the change in weather. There has been mostly sunny days and warm weather. This last weekend, we took a drive to a near by town called Kimberly and bought some peaches to can from their orchards there. We also saw what is called the Blue Mountains on our way to Kimberly. This was a very beautiful site to see. We are enjoying the exploration of the area.


Pauper's is now established in our new home and we are up and running again. I am starting to hear back from Fall and Winter shows that I have applied for and I will update my website in a little bit to reflect the shows I will be at this coming Holiday Season.


I would like to thank my customers for their patience with the move of Pauper's. There are changes coming with our candles in the near future and our website will reflect this as well.


I will write again soon with more news, but I am off for now.

MidSummer's Art Festival in Ashland, OR

We loved the weather!!! My husband and I had not seem the sun in weeks. The Oregon Coast has been cloudy and rainy. To look at the festival more closely you can go to:

MidSummers Dream Art & Music Festival

There were many people who attended and the vendors were very friendly.

On this same weekend my in-laws ran a show for me in Sister's Oregon. They also had terrific weather and the show was in a beautiful setting, the local park.

I have to say the both of these shows were not my best shows in regards to sales. I am not sure if the economy is affecting the shows. All of my local shows and farmer's market are doing about the same as last year. I am glad that I decided to do only a few shows out of my area for the summer.

I am off and running this week because the 4th of July weekend is going to be very busy with shows. I am looking forward to that.

Double Booked - I am loosing it!

Do you feel like you are loosing your mind? This weekend I doubled booked myself and so my in-laws are doing a show for me in Sister's Oregon and I am doing one in Ashland, Oregon this weekend. I did not even realize this until two weeks ago and I have had these shows on my books for months. I wrote down the wrong date for the Ashland Show. Yikes, keeping track of all the shows, markets, and wholesale accounts sometimes gets a little confusing.

I am anxious to do some of my bigger shows to see how the economy is affecting the markets. I started the McMinnville Farmer's Market and had a good first day. I am only filling in for that market until September and then I will be there every week. I am excited to fill for the Manzanita Farmer's Market this summer season. Tillamook Farmer's Market starts this weekend. I will be there on June 21st. So, I am off and running. It is good to be busy with retail shows.

I will report back after the shows this weekend to remark on how they went. Until next time, don't forget to smell the roses.