Craft Fair Display On A Budget

As an MiOEE mentor for many new entrepreneurs I never expected my wife to show creative flair and set up her own cottage business in the creation of her own little niche of making designer leather wrap bracelets.

One morning she announced that she had applied and was successful in securing a limited place for artists at a craft fair in South Carolina. She proceeded to share her ideas for the event as well as asking for my input on how she could make an impact on a shoestring budget that would leave her with a healthy profit  by the end of the one day craft fair event.

Initially, she rang up the event equipment rental firms across South Carolina.  Average rental prices for weekend canopy stand tents were being quoted at $120.  Catering tables and covers were another $40 each! Add in Jewelry stands, shelves and signage and the bill was looking to be over $400.  With a travel distance of 160 miles each way and driving a gas guzzling suburban, all of a sudden it looked unlikely that she would be making a profit at all.

With a little advice and some creative thinking, Jessica writes here about how she managed to stage a good looking craft display stand at a total cost of $40 and made sales in excess of $600 over the five hour Saturday Craft Fair.

The Quiet Keys - Key Largo

Key Largo Vacations

The Florida Keys string of islands stretch more than 100 miles south of the Florida mainland. On a research journey in February I landed in Miami and drove towards the keys for the first time, not knowing what to expect.

Initially driving through Homestead on the mainland I was a little hesitant as there is absolutely nothing appealing about that area but after you are into the Everglades National Park and the Atlantic comes into view, things begin improving dramatically. One bridge later on Highway 1 lands in you in the top of Key Largo and the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.

To see the full beauty of Key Largo you have to drive down the side roads on the west side of Key Largo (opposite the state park) as there are cafes, bars, boutique hotels and lovely vacation homes muddled together along the coast line.  On Hwy 1 at the top end of Key Largo you will find all the normal facilities such as grocery stores, hardware, liquor stores, fishing equipment suppliers and various marina supplies.

A short distance passed all of the stores and the road straightens out between the trees with sign after sign of BnB's, lodges, guest houses and private rentals on both sides of the highway. We booked accommodation before our flight and rented a lovely motel suite with outside BBQ and water front view on the bay side of Key Largo, stayed for three nights whilst touring the area before heading further south towards Key West. The motel was better than many hotel experiences and is now included in the myrentals key largo rentals site. After three wonderfully relaxing days in Key Largo, it was time to load up the car and head further south along the road stretching out through Key Largo, passed the glorious vacation villas and onwards towards Plantation Key.

LASTPASS need to explain

This is not directly attached to vacation profiles but is relevant to Google and visitors understanding of your passwords etc.... so please read on (as this is a copy of what was written in Google's Chrome Q&A....

Ok, Having Chrome so sensitive to Password storage is one thing.. but check this issue out!

http://lastpass.com/  created an extension for Chrome and Firefox which promotes the storage of all passwords in the 'cloud' so that you can access your passwords from any machine after logging in.  Sounds Good.....

Here's the kicker!
I tried this out seeing as I was transferring my system to a new Windows 7 installation but seeing as I have over 400 different passwords stored in Chrome and Firefox - I was keen to ensure that my previous Windows XP system stayed in tact if the 'moving van' of another piece of software didn't do a fantastic job transferring all of my data and programs etc.

Now LastPass is clever and give you that feeling that they are cutting edge and will look after you.  I loaded the program, I checked that the web login of LastPass showed all of my password data.. then I proceeded to move my applications and data to the new Windows 7.

PANIC...  On the new machine, I open up Chrome (and then Firefox) and the passwords are empty !  TOTALLY EMPTY.

I cant access banking; web hosting; various blogs; web analysis systems; etc you name it.  I have a few 'level' type standard passwords which give me access to some services. But the majority of important logins are gone.

SO - I boot up my old machine thinking it will be an easy case of exporting the passwords from Firefox seeing as Chrome is pathetic at exporting such data -  Oh no.......   LastPass changes the setting of your password storage in browsers and LASTPASS certainly don't warn you of the impending disaster !

YES... LASTPASS changes your storage of passwords to DONT STORE PASSWORDS in browsers... in an effort Im sure to make you think that you are now safer by LastPass looking after your passwords.  But when LastPass shows an empty online storage safe with none of your data in it.  YOU ARE SCREWED.  as they removed your chances of recovery from within the browser itself beforehand.

An old storage backup gave me back 100 of the passwords, because like most - new passwords are added regularly, or updated/changed from old.

GOOGLE should be embarrassed by their lack of natural retrieving/export of passwords for their few million users of Chrome.  However....

GOOGLE should be ASHAMED of promoting/listing an extension which wipes out your saved passwords from Chrome and leaving their customers raped.

A huge foopar.  As a developer I wouldn't consider causing such harm to my applications users!  Shame on Google... Avoid  LASTPASS.

If anybody has a solution to this craziness, I (and many others Im sure) would love to hear it.

Sadly.... Martin.

RentIn- Denia Rentals

Denia Villas are all the rage on the Costa Blanca side of Spain.  I hadn't even heard of Denia before a good friend of mine explained where this scenic beauty of a coastal landscape was.  Previously being involved in the services to a clothing manufacturer, Denia is a term I believe they use to explain how tight a material is woven :)  Whereas the Denia I now love is the beautiful quiet and stunningly fantastic holiday resort reached by flying into Alicante airport on the coast of Spain.  The villas and apartments are of a very high specification and priced at a  weekly rate similar to some villas cost further down the coast in places like Marbella !
The Google profile looking after this wonderful location is RentIn-Denia.

RentIn- Estepona Rentals

Estepona Rentals of villas and apartments in the lovely 'newish' resort development of Estepona in the Costa Del Sol of Spain is the focal subject of the Google Profile: RentIn-Estepona .  Both Estepona Villa Rentals and Estepona Apartments are the priority in serving holiday makers looking for vacations in this Spanish resort area.

Estepona Coast Line

Estepona Rentals in Estepona Spain are great value both during the summer and a winter let.