Enterprising Lyns

Ideas are powerful. I love it when my children have ideas. (Well, most of the time. That one about throwing tomatoes into the ceiling fan wasn't that great.) This is my enterprising Lyndsay. Lyndsay loves to make money, and she's been doing a great job of that since she was about ten years old. She makes working and earning and saving money a priority in her life, and by that I don't mean she's obsessed with money, but that she's the kind of kid who will find a way to pay her own way and doesn't use the "I don't have enough time" or "I don't know what to do" excuses.

Lyndsay also loves fashion accessories, and femininity, and oh, if those two things could go together more often the world would be a lovelier place! She saw, while browsing the internet, several different designs for hair clips, and she thought to herself, "I could do that!" And so, her idea was born.

She got right to work over General Conference weekend. While she listened to conference talks, she started drawing and cutting and designing. After coming up with several templates, she then hijacked my fabric scraps and got to work creating her masterpieces.

She talked with our friend Ale, who designs children's clothing, (and for whom Lyndsay also works, cleaning her floors and helping with her sewing business from time to time) who gave her some great advice on some products to use and where to buy them for the best price, and she even donated some of her fabric scraps and other materials for Lyndsay's project.

Lyndsay started wearing her birdie clips to school last week to see how people reacted. The initial response has been very encouraging. The birdies are cute and whimsical, and girls wanted them. She got lots of "You made those?" "You're selling those?" "When can I buy one?" and "How much are they?"

So, on Saturday, Lyns and I hit the town for her supplies. The fabric store was having a great sale, so she stocked up on fabrics, buttons, ribbons, and various other necessities, which she paid for herself. After price comparisons, she determined the best move would be to order the actual clips wholesale, so she did that online. And then, she got to work.

Here she is after all the tracing, cutting, backing, and ironing, which she employed her brother to help her with for an hourly wage. Now she gets to do the actual designing, adding the eyes, wings, etc. Her goal is to have each clip be unique.

Here are several of her birdies. But besides birdies, she will also have flowers, owls, and a host of other cute choices. She plans to sell each one for $10. And today, her first official day open for business, she took a little bin of clips to school for sale. She is wearing a different one each day, and she is having several friends wear them for her as well to help advertise. Soon, she'll probably start a Facebook page for her creations. Good luck to Lyndsay!