What type of garden and sunroom objects do you think would be good sale items?

My daughter, who is recently divorced, is having problems meeting the expenses of running her household. She already puts in all the hours possible at her job and being the parent who does everything for the kids. She really has no spare time to carry on a moonlighting job. She is a very talented person and would like to use her art degree to design items to be made in China and sold here. We were wondering what would be the best items to have produced. Some things have been overdone and there is no need to produce more. We would like some input on this subject. What would you buy if you were looking for new items to enhance your garden or sunroom? What would you like to see produced? We are thinking of things that won't weigh too terribly much as the shipping cost could be too much on that kind of thing. Please give us your input. Thanks in advance.

Elena - great topic! I love the decorative garden "stakes" with butterflies, dragon flies, etc. To save on weight you could scale these down for use in potted plants and could even do some ceramic tops. Little fairies, while possibly challenging to design, would be awesome. You should have a good response - there are so many opporunities to express yourself creatively. I'll keep thinking :)

I admire your daughter for trying to supplement her income. But, she is going to have them made in China? How unpatriotic. I hate to sound callous, but with all the major corporations shifting their factories to foreign countries and Americans losing jobs by the thousands, I think this is not a good thing to do. How about something she could manufacture herself at home? Cutout wooden signs for the garden with original stenciling, rubber stamping or artwork. Stenciling is quick and looks nice. You can even have an original art design with your own stencil or rubber stamp made up. I designed a logo for my small business (flea market booth) and had a company cut me a rubber stamp. She could design and paint terracotta flower pots. Everyone, how about some more Made in America ideas? She could then proudly display the Made In America sticker rather than the unpatriotic Made in China or Made in Mexico. Redbug

Thanks folks for the input so far. Redbug, she just doesn't have the time to make the things herself. We have a very close Chinese friend who has a trading company and she is mainly dealing with suppliers in China and Taiwan. She is willing to help us if we can just decide what we wish to have made. We don't happen to have names of people in the U.S. to help us in manufacturing these items at a reasonable cost to us. We have looked but to no avail. If you know of people who are doing such manufacturing for reasonable rates your input would be greatly appreciated. We never ruled out our country but just didn't have any contacts of that type here. Our country does have trade agreements with China and Mexico and it isn't really unpatriotic to deal with them. If you analyze everything in your home you will most likely find many products made in foreign countries.

Hi...everyone Annie here..
I'm new to these forums. I hope you won't mind me posting to this particular thread.
I'm not trying to intrude but Elena did say she was looking for input on ideas to help out her daughter to supplement her income.

I have to agree with her in the respect that there are alot of items we all have in our homes right now that were made somewhere other then this country.
As far as referring to her or her family as "unpatriotic" for their ideas was abit unfair.
We buy cars with Good Old American names slapped on the sides. Have we forgotten they have good old foreign parts under the hood? There are very few cars that are made today that don't have *something* under the hood that came from another country. Are we "unpatriotic" for buying those cars?

And beyond that you can't tell me that everyone at least once in their life hasn't found some little trinket they liked and took it home. Those more times then not...don't not have "Made In America" slapped on the bottem, but we continue to buy them.
I think when people from here are forced to look beyond this country's boundaries, then we must take a good long look at what is wrong with this picture.

I think if this country made things abit easier for business's then we might not see so much of our trade going to other places to be manufactured.
This lies [or should] right in the laps of our law makers and large companies.
Having said that...there really has to be back and forth trading and manufacturing to benefit everyone no matter where they are. We have benefited greatly I think by things we have aquired from other nations.
Just my 2¢....thanks for letting me voice my opinion even if you don't agree with me.
Now back to the garden right? Isn't that why we're here anyway? ;-]
take care everyone and have a great week wherever you may be....OhioAnnie

Good morning everyone,
Thanks Annie for your great email. I really think you hit the nail on the head when you said, "Now back to the garden, right?" I really need input on the original question and not on foreign trade. I think that would make a great new thread for someone who is really very much concerned about this subject. Elena

Once again it amazes me to see how much class DG's have! It is so nice to see we all have different views and we can all respect that. This thread expressed concerns that everyone shares. Yet, no one came back with something ugly or negitave....That is why Daves Garden has the best folks around!!!! In the words of Chooch:"Dave's Garden ROCKS" (with class, of course) Lisa