cotton candy, school buses, & yard sales

There are people in life that you always have connections with for certain things....like, "oh I know a guy who works at such & such and can get you a discount" or "let me ask around with some people I know, I know that one of them will know how to get it done..."  Well, I am learning what I have to offer as connections...they're random, but they have proved to come in handy.

1.)  Cotton Candy:  and it doesn't stop at just that...that just seems to be the most requested item.  With Male Hale's concession/food vendor business of *Fun Time Foods* we have been the "go-to" people for friends who are helping out with school and church carnivals, friends/family members with children's birthday parties, etc.  We even decided that cotton candy would be something that people would see and say, "oh that's SO them!" and used it for one of our wedding favors!

photo courtesy of happily ever after

We've made candy apples for several people as their wedding favors and and also set up shaved ice at various functions.  I absolutely love the feeling of knowing we have helped someone out so much at the last minute and we've been able to provide something that may be everyday business to us, but is an out of the ordinary treat for others.

2.)  School Buses:  My father-in-law owns his own school bus and drives for our local county's schools, and also transports various football teams for their games, drives students for field trips, and uses his bus to shuttle people during our county fair.  A friend asked me last week if there was any way she and a group of friends could rent a school bus for an evening.  I read her text and thought to myself, out of all the times I've heard him talking about having a bus trip, I had never even thought about that!  She and a large group of friends were going to a wedding atop a windy-roaded mountain here in town and they wanted some safe transportation for the evening and she thought to ask me.  Turns out it is possible and a driver was more than willing to accept the offer!  I was so glad it worked out and no one in that group would have to worry about how they were going to get to where they needed to be afterwards!

3.)  Yard Sales:  To say I like having yard sales would be an understatement, I LOVE having yard sales. You throw a couple of signs up and find yourself with extra cash and less clutter!  Imagine the letter H....the two lines that make up the sides of the H are 2 extremely busy roads and the street I live on is the little line in the middle of the H...aka the motherland for yard sales.  Several weekends ago, I had 4 friends team up with me for a yard sale at my house because I'm always up for having one and I'm always promising the friends that they'll have a good crowd.  From 8-1 we chatted with people, rearranged our items, haggled over prices, and rolled our eyes at some who were convinced we were robbing them blind by asking 50 cents for something.  In the end, a good time was had by all and no one was complaining about the amount of $ they went home with.  So now more and more of my friends are realizing when they start gathering stuff together and begin to wonder what they're going to do with it, they think of my little street and all that traffic that will see our signs.