I am just putting the finishing touches on the newsletter that will be sent out at midnight. Lots of free stuff from teddy bear patterns to aprons. It is my Christmas gift to my faithful readers. Enjoy and I hope your family has a safe and joyous holiday.

If you subscribe to my email newsletter, I have a treat coming to you on Christmas Day. I am including in my special Christmas Day issue lots and lots of links to free patterns, how-tos and digital embroidery files free to download. If you are not getting my newsletter you had better sign up for it so you can get that special issue.

The newsletter is scheduled to be sent out on Christmas Day so you will have that little gift from me.

I have found that humor sells items faster then sentiment. Take for example the craft fair I attended last week. While waiting for customers I embroidered 2 words on a baby bib and that baby bib sold right after I got the threads trimmed. Those 2 words were "cereal killer." It was a touch of humor.

Using humor on your business cards will also make you more memorable. Just a humorous tag line under your business name will fetch a smile and often a sale. Try funny sayings on t-shirts or quilts. Making off-the-wall hats or funny house slippers will often get your business the attention you are striving for.

A phrase, a few words or even a picture done in a humorous way can grab that sale. Now I am not going to say that the humor should be in good taste, but I will say that you know your customers best and if they go for raunchy humor then go for the raunchy humor. If on the other hand your customers are just the mild dry humor type then go for that. Experiment and see what you are comfortable in the humor realm.

Adding humor to your business my take you in a whole new direction and a profitable one at that.

As I told you last week, I was going to attend a craft fair.....well I did. It started off being an early start in the morning. The people organizing the event wanted to start the event an hour earlier than they started last year and extend the hours to add an extra 2 hours at the end of the event. So instead of it being a 5 hour craft fair it would be a 8 hour event. There is only one problem with that, people that live in the area are rural people. They do get up early but that is to take care of farm animals on the weekends since it is too cold for farming. So after setting up and ready to go at 8:30 am everyone had to wait until people started to show up at 10 am.

Sales were poor for everyone. The only person who was making any sales was a balding older woman who was selling homemade cookies and jams. My daughter was helping out at the fair and kept wondering why people would buy questionable foods from an uncertified kitchen. That thought about turned my stomach. The fair had about twice the vendors that they had last year.

I was across the aisle from a pair of women that were selling thick plush towels with crocheted tops for only $5 each. Those women were probably losing at least $3 or $4 on each towel. They were high quality and nicely made the only problem was, they were not selling. I think my daughter said it right when she stated that the shoppers that were attending the sale had no clue as to what was a great deal and what wasn't.

Now it is time to start listing items on eBay to see if people are really buying like the news media keeps reporting they are.