Entrepreneurial Drive

One day last year, I innocently brought home a book from the Book Exchange on how to make tiny animals out of very fine gauge wire and seed beads. Larkin was all over it. She has also been very interested in the idea of making her own money (it's clearly a hardship to be dependent on such unreliable adults).

Talent has an outdoor market every Friday over the summer at which kids are allowed to peddle their goods without paying the usual vendor fee. We didn't have it together until the last market of the summer, but she set out that evening with these beauties and some serious determination to make sales.

In a few short hours she returned home a very satisfying $54 richer after having sold most of them. Here she is chatting with one of her first potential customers:

Apparently, sales picked up considerably once she abandoned her stationary location and instead prowled the crowd on foot, trolling for hapless jewelry-less marks.

While we are not yet planning Emile's retirement, we are setting up an Etsy storefront for Larkin which she is very excited about. Should her enthusiasm wane, it will be easy to take down listings, but I think as long as the money rolls in there will be quite a few bead creatures in our future.

After her initial success, Larkin took her wares to one other local crafty event and once again depleted her stores. On the agenda for this week is a trip to the bank to open a bank account... this is necessary for opening an Etsy account, but Larkin also now has more cash than she is comfortable carrying around in her money purse.

More photos of Larkin's creations are on her Picasa Web site.