Craft show craziness is OVER!

Over for this year anyway. And what a crazy year in the craft show biz it has been too. The one show I had anticipated being my biggest yet, ended up being a slow stinker for me (kinda). And the 2 "little" ones ended up being busy happy surprises!  I have some orders in the works that I need to get going on too, so I'm still staying busy with stuff. And that, my friends, is good too!

I have to say that I've gotten so many wonderful words of encouragement from people at these shows about how I should have my own shop, that I'm actually trying to figure out something in my head to get one started. My husband has actually been my biggest supporter with that. Truth be known, secretly he's hoping to become my full time "picker." Who can blame him either? I mean, who hasn't dreamed of being another Frank & Mike from "American Pickers?" Can I have an Amen here?

So anyway...I had my 3rd and final craft show this last Saturday and it was pretty good. Well, the show itself was a tad on the slow side, but since I made a huge sale during the set up the night before, it's considered a good show.

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I made some of these cuties (NO-this is not mine, I forgot to take a photo of them) and all 4 of mine sold to the first 3 customers of the day. And to think, I've had these mugs for about 10 years waiting for some kind of inspiration to use them.

Then, I made these pretties

 They drew a lot of attention, but I only sold one of the small ones.

This is a chalkboard I made, but even though it was pretty enough with that cute frame, I couldn't/wouldn't leave well enough alone. Oh. no.  It needed a special title - to be worn like a necklace on a pretty dress. Unfortunately, it didn't sell either, but I did sell a magnetic chalkboard that I did in all black. And, of course I didn't remember to take a picture of that one, did I? Geesh. You'd think this was my first month of blogging wouldn't you? I keep thinking one of these days I'll get good at this whole blogging thing, but I can't even keep my kitchen cleaned up after every meal. What makes me think I'd be good at keeping my blog up to par? 

One can only hope!


 
I'm linking up to these parties:

Craft Show #1 - Done

I had my first craft show of this year on Nov 3 and I can't decide if it was a success or a failure. The show was busy the entire time, so that part was very good, considering it was in a very tiny town.

I apparently was not all together that day because I forgot to take my camera for pictures of my booth. I know, my bad. I hate when I forget stuff like that and it happens more these days. Blaming it on the aging process.

The part that makes the show a success for me was that I made pretty decent money. Not nearly as much as what I was working my butt off for, or even as much as last year (with less stuff), but still good (I really shouldn't even complain). The part that was terribly disappointing was that I only sold 39 items and about a 1/3 of that was small things that I didn't even make, like placemats and table  runners. I had purchased TWO spaces this year for all the stuff I was making and bringing, and yet I packed practically every bit of it up and brought it back home. As for the furniture, I only sold one chair first thing in the morning. People LOVED the stuff, but must have thought they were at a garage sale...did they feel the prices were too high? I've seen higher prices on Craigslist for scratched up junk... I know a craft show isn't where people go to get furniture, so honestly, it wasn't really a let down in that dept.

My husband tells me I need to forget that venue and move on to someplace that has bigger spenders. LOL! The problem with those shows is that everyone else wants in those shows too and they're booked up early with long waiting lists of other vendors. Besides, I can't even get return phone responses from the administrators in the first place.

Oh well, enough of my whining, crying, snortin' and ballin'. I know there were people at that same show that didn't even make their booth rent. Now THAT'S a heartbreaking day! I guess this buttercup better buck up!

I thought for sure this black & burlap lamp would sell at the show(s), even though it was admired by many, it didn't sell. It wasn't until I posted it on my Facebook page that it finally went bye-bye. I painted it black, even though it looks kind of blue-ish here. It was sanded to distress it and I found a lampshade that I recovered in a printed burlap. I added some coordinating black trim to it to finish it off.

I did sell this birdhouse. I didn't make the birdhouse, but did add it to the wooden candlestick and bottom base that I painted to match closely.

I will admit that I pretty much copied this shutter idea from one that someone else sold on Ebay and mine did sell too. I liked it enough that I was tempted to keep it.

This is a picture frame that I removed the back off of & painted just the frame red and made the quote with red vinyl. I'm learning that I don't have any luck selling these kinds of items, so I guess I need to figure out how to use them with other projects so they don't go to waste.

Little side story here...At the show, I over heard a gentleman commenting to his wife that the "shabby" look is out while browsing my booth. Hmmm...I didn't really think of my stuff as shabby, but more like rustique & chic. I also thought it was rude of him to say that in such a loud voice.  I guess he was more right than I was since I didn't sell much of it. I'm obviously reading the wrong blogs. ????

My hubby has been trying to convince me that we should put up a little building and make it into a shop for me to sell out of here at our home. I have to admit that I'm not sure about how well it would go over, but I did have dozens of people ask me if I had a shop. The idea is that the money being spent is going back into our property as an investment and not someone else's pocket for rent. The back up plan is that we make this shop from a garage plan, but cuten it up (I made that word up - cuten) but if it's an epic fail, then we can convert it into an actual garage for the multitude of vehicles and equipment we seem to have. Still getting all the necessities for zoning & permit info, etc.

Enough of the boring stuff - now here's a few more items.

Painted Vintage Rolling Pin

Pinterest inspired Stocking decor (a smaller version because I'm basically lazy)

Another Pinterest inspired project - painted snowman shutter. It looks better if you take a picture looking down upon it instead of dead-on, like this one, but it's still kinda cute.

Two more shows to go and not sure what to expect at the next one, because it's a new venue for me and I've never even had the opportunity to visit it before now. I'm excited that I was able to get in this year, since they're typically booked with a waiting list! Wish me luck! 

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Linking up to these parties:

 

Maybe A Little Early

How many of you have seen this pin?

 (Source)

DO NOT pin this image from my blog - See BELOW for images that you can pin

It's like all over Pinterest for holidays and snowmen crafts. Pretty darn cute, eh? I thought so too....enough to make some myself! I couldn't resist. C'mon....you know you can't blame me.

Here are the two that I made. They are two different shades of red on two slightly different pans.  I didn't know which color I'd like best.  Sorry about the poor picture quality.

I thought I wanted the pan like the one in the original because I thought the circle indentations added a little extra something extra to the look, but when it came time to put the letters on the pan, I realized that the smooth one makes it a little bit easier

Since I didn't have a working white paint pen on hand and the local Walmart didn't have any on hand either, unless I wanted to spend $10 for a multi-pack of colors I didn't want, then I had to think of another solution. I've been a scrapbooker for over 15 years, so SURELY I have something I can use as a substitute. One night, as I was drifting off to sleep (typical), I remembered that I bought some tiny snowflake rubber stamps at a garage sale for 25 cents this past summer. YES! I also had some opaque white stamp ink that I hadn't had a chance to try out yet. It's not as bright as I would like and I'm thinking maybe it would have looked better if I had embossed them, but it is what it is. I also have a Cricut machine, so I cut out the words in white vinyl. I really liked how that looks! I also cut the noses out of chipboard with the Cricut. I sealed these with a Matte Finish Sealer and now I just need to add some rag ribbon to hang from the holes. My step-mom thought they were adorable, so maybe one may end up under her tree this Christmas?  -from Santa, of course ;)

What about you? Are any of you working on any Christmas projects already? Tell me about them & post a link to them in the messages below so I can come see and leave y'all some love!

  
I'm linking up to the following parties:

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like....

...Christmas? 

(sound of a record coming to a screeching halt) 

Well, it sure isn't looking like Christmas around here with the temperatures in the 90-100+F degrees and dying grass! That is unless you look in my house and see some of the projects I'm working on while trying to prepare for my mid-Fall craft show. You could even get a little confused when you step through my door with all the candy canes, sleds, mistletoe & Christmas trees. Why, even the furniture is getting in the spirit! hee hee How about a little Christmas in July?

If any of you are a fan of Pinterest, and I don't see how you can follow crafting blogs and NOT know about Pinterest, but I've known a few "under a rock" dwellers, so I won't judge those that have better things to do with their time than how I'm wasting mine. 

I will say that the original inspiration for this next piece did not come from Pinterest, but from a magazine. I keep a journal full of ideas that I've come across in magazines, or where ever, and tuck them away in different categories. This little journal is nothing fancy at all, but it suits my barest of organization needs.

The idea came from the Create & Decorate crafting magazine. It fits more of the primitive and rustic category. But I know I've seen this image plastered across Pinterest many a time, as well.

Look familiar?

I've held onto this ripped-out page for well over a year I think, trying to find just the right chair and to muster up enough ambition to paint it when I do. 

I did not find the chair that resembled this one, nor did I find one that was hacked up & cracked from good ol' fashioned weathered use & abuse. However, I did find a suitable imposter. Again, like so many other times before, I forget to take a Before shot, so you'll have to envision this cutie looking like the pristine pure white dining chair with barely a knick or a scratch on it. Got it at a garage sale for a good price!

But here is MY interpretation of the Snowman Chair

   My snowman is slightly different than the original, but I think it's 
   just as cute. 

I might still try to add the blush to it's cheek, but I like the carrot nose on mine better, doesn't it look a little more realistic? The lettering was done with my Cricut using Nursery Rhymes & Botanicals cartridge. The stars are from George cart.

I may have gotten a little carried away with the stars, but the original had quite a few too. It kind of adds to the whimsy, don't you think?

I sanded the edges and sorta beat it up just a little on some corners & edges. You can't have it looking too new!

I'm thinking I might make some more, but I don't have anymore chairs like this one, but they might be even more interesting.


 
Parties I'm linking to:

One craft show item I'm willing to share

This is my version of a picture I purchased at a flea market many years ago. I sold that picture at one of my craft shows that year. I'll tell ya, first of all, I wish I would have taken a picture of it so I could recall what it looked like exactly & secondly, I wish I would have made a dozen of them that year because I could have sold each one.

Sorry that I didn't take a Before shot of this. The base of the picture is actually an old, faded to blue cardboard picture of a farm field scene that I found at a flea market. Initially, I had other intentions for this old picture, but then I remembered that I had bought everything to make the snowman picture way back when & this picture was the perfect size to make it!! It's made all from felt & I cut everything & stitched the snowman by hand. How cute are those rusty snowflakes? Everything was going "close enough to perfect", until it came time to put the felt on the board. Being totally oblivious of where my fingers were during the gluing process, I managed to get a good sized glob of glue on one of my fingers & of course, managed to get it on the front just below the top right large snowflake. If I would have just thought it through before trying to take a pair of scissors to cut the glue off, I could have just dissolved the permanent fabric glue with some nail polish remover. Now I have this small defect on the picture. I tried to camouflage it by rubbing the felt in other different spots, but it just makes them look like grease spots, which there is not. LOL! The splotch is not really the only defect, but the other one isn't that bad, but when I was ironing the nose on, the iron smeared a little of the orange paint onto his face. I did take a little bleach and water to help remove that, but there's still a tinge of orange left. I guess I'm selling this one at a discounted price because even though it's handmade with imperfection, these are not the imperfections that I can live with.




Now I'll be changing gears from being crafty to outdoorsy by sharing some of my flowers/gardens that are blooming right now. I've thrown in a cute little critter pic at the end to hopefully brighten your day and bring a little smile to your face, in spite of the squelching heat.


I love African Daisies and this is one of my favorite colors. I planted the seeds in my garden a couple of years ago & they have just reseeded themselves every year since. I haven't seen any of the orange ones yet, but there is a gold one that is blooming now too. Not so much my favorite. Goldish yellow flowers are not really my favorite, but they do brighten up where ever they are.

Aren't these blue Bachelor Buttons gorgeous?!!! I direct sowed them from seed and they're just now starting to come into bloom. They sure are pretty, but not enough of them are blooming to give me the impact I'm looking for right now. They're not too picky, considering we have such barren dry sand for "soil" here. They do get really weepy looking in the heat of the mid-day sun, but they do OK in spite of it.

Even though this photo isn't of the peach daylilies and Hosta in full bloom, it's a little past that, but I still love the look, even though the dry, humid weather has taken it's toll on the daylilies, the flowers are still going.

Check out this pretty butterfly that was feeding from my Bee Balm patch today. You can't tell it in the photo, but it was HUGE!! Sorry about the picture quality....by the time I ran back to the house & ran back out to the flowers, it was such a temperature change with high humidity that my camera lens was trying to fog over. I actually think it makes for a cool looking photo.

This is my patch of Bee Balm this year that grows along the back & side of one of the garden sheds. I need to get the seeds moved closer to the side of the shed instead letting them take over more of the backside. DH is complaining that he has nowhere to hide is scrap metal junk without trashing my flowers. OK, nuf said.

One of the things about living where we live is there is a ton of different creatures to be found everyday. Some years we are literally over run with frogs and toads. You'd walk through the yard and there'd be a literal wave of frogs hopping ahead of you!! Oddly, with all the rain we had this spring, this year wasn't really one of them but we still have tons of them. Check out this cute little tree frog shading himself from the late afternoon sun in one of my daylilies. You will find them tucked into the flowers all the time! Isn't he so cute tucked in there? ;^)

 

I know, I don't post for a week at a time & then this week it's twice & I've gone into pic overload! tee hee!


God Bless and have a great day!


I am linked up to A Little Knick Knack Blog's Everything but the Kitchen Sink link party.