Three women at three different places in their lives. Three reasons, three products.

Bound by a connection nearly 150 years old, Heidi Hager, Kristi Fulton and Kelly Weidenbach represent today's women who have turned hobbies into direct selling.

Perhaps most easily identified by home party purveyors of iconic plastic leftover containers that "burp" to seal in freshness, today's Direct Selling Association members include 213 companies selling products ranging from candles and kitchen gadgets to educational toys and high-end jewelry.

According to information from the association's Web site, direct selling is the sale of a consumer product or service, person-to-person, away from a fixed retail location, marketed to customers by independent salespeople.

In 2007, consumers in the United States spent an estimated $30.8 billion in direct sales, according to DSA statistics. And the West, including Wyoming, had the second highest percentage of sales by census region at 26.8 percent.

Hager, a CPA, turns something as ordinary as a spoon into a beaded creation using fine wire and shiny beads.

Fulton, a mother of two young boys, Lantz, 2, and Zander, 2 months, sells personal care and skin care products through a thriving online business.

And Weidenbach, who holds two bachelors' degrees and one master's degree, sells sterling silver jewelry through party, catalog and online sales.

The three met through the Casper Alumnae Club of Pi Beta Phi, a fraternity for women founded in 1867. Alumnae clubs unite members of the same fraternity, regardless of which college or university they attended.

Hager graduated from the University of Iowa in 1965 and moved to Casper from Detroit with her husband, John, in 1985.

"If you live in Detroit, you want wide-open spaces," she said. "We love the outdoors, hunting and fishing and the mountains."

A CPA with Lenhart, Mason & Associates, LLC, Hager now works as a CPA only during "tax season," January to April.

She was interested in a friend's hobby of beading and learned the basics from her.

"I started doing it first for gifts, then everybody wanted to order something," she laughed.

She began with flatware and has expanded to coordinating serving dishes, glassware and stemware. A tiny spreader with luminous brown and gold beads spelling a favorite team on the handle and a coordinated brown stoneware plate become the perfect way to serve a cheese ball and crackers during a football watching party.

"I always felt like I had a good sense of color and style, but in art class I was just dismal at painting," she said. "This is a nice switch from the numbers part of the brain."

For the past three years, she has sold her craft directly to buyers as HRH Beaded Creations. The HRH is her monogram and her husband teasingly refers to her as "Her Royal Highness."

Her prices are based on "taking my costs and adding a little bit for time." Reverting back to the "numbers part of the brain," she says she sells her wares as a business, collecting tax on every sale.

Fulton is a Casper native and attended the University of Wyoming, where she majored in child and family studies and planned a career in social work. She was granted undergraduate alumnae status from Pi Beta Phi in 1995 after leaving school early because of an illness in the family.

She worked at the Casper Convention & Visitors Bureau for five years, specializing in marketing Casper at outdoor and sportsmen trade shows throughout the region.

Marriage to Dennis, a directional driller, and babies came along, and she now sells "The Body Shop At Home" products, made in the United Kingdom.

"I have a really good customer base I built through the past five years," she said, "and the Web site really helps a lot."

When shoppers type their zip code into the search base, Douglas, Glenrock and Casper residents are referred to her.

"They can shop online and they don't even have to call me," she said.

She said there are exclusive offers sold only through at-home parties, which The Body Shop At Home refers to as "Girls' Nite Out." Four party themes are available, with the "foot spa" using all peppermint products the most popular.

The Body Shop At Home has domestic violence as its primary philanthropic focus and portions of sales of specific products are donated to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The company also practices "community trade," which its Web site defines as "buying the highest quality natural ingredients and handcrafted products, from the best people, for a fair price."

Weidenbach was raised in Cheyenne and is an epidemiologist with the Wyoming Department of Health in Casper, specializing in food and waterborne diseases. She also consults for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

She earned bachelor's degrees in molecular biology and anthropology from the University of Wyoming in 2002 and a Master's of Public Health in epidemiology from Emery University in Atlanta in 2004.

She and her husband, Marshall Vigil, who owns an oilfield trucking company, have been married just over a year. She was eager to supplement her income to pay for her doctorate program.

"I really love to cook and considered selling Pampered Chef," she said, "but I also really love silver jewelry, and it's hard to find unless you want to spend a lot of money."

One of Weidenbach's friends was having a home show party for Silpada Designs and she asked for a catalog.

"It's all sterling silver with real gemstones. I wanted to supplement my income, and I decided I had enough cooking stuff," she said.

She's happy to do home shows in Cheyenne or Casper and also encourages busy women to have catalog parties.

"People can always just order from me too," she said.

Weidenbach was chosen from hundreds of applicants for the doctorate in public health program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and began the three-year program in September.

"It's intended to be a program where everyone works full-time while taking classes," she said. "We were chosen to represent a variety of people and leaders in our field."

She has class once a week online for three hours and travels to North Carolina once a semester for several days to meet with her "cohorts," or fellow classmates.

She initially hoped selling Silpada would cover the cost of her tuition, but says realistically it's more like the cost of her books.

"But I should be able to get even more ahead now that the start-up fees have been paid," she said. "And it's better than watching television in the evening."

Both The Body Shop at Home and Silpada Designs are Direct Selling Association members, complying with a strict Code of Ethics.

Community News editor Sally Ann Shurmur can be reached at (307) 266-0520 or sallyann.shurmur@trib.com

Holiday Boutique Nov. 1

Hager, Fulton and Weidenbach are selling their products together on Saturday, Nov. 1, when they host the Holiday Boutique in the Birch Room at the Ramada Plaza Riverside from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is no charge to browse.

Beads, beauty and bling

*Beads: To contact Hager about HRH Beaded Creations, hrhbeadcreations@aol.com

*Beauty: To contact Fulton about The Body Shop At Home, 235-4881 or {M7klantz1@gmail.com

*Bling: To contact Weidenbach about Silpada Designs, 235-9006.

Hager, Fulton and Weidenbach are selling their products together on Saturday, Nov. 1, when they host the Holiday Boutique in the Birch Room at the Ramada Plaza Riverside from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is no charge to browse.]]->

*Beads: To contact Hager about HRH Beaded Creations, hrhbeadcreations@aol.com

*Beauty: To contact Fulton about The Body Shop At Home, 235-4881 or klantz1@gmail.com

*Bling: To contact Weidenbach about Silpada Designs, 235-9006.]]->