Monday, November 9, 2009

Snowman sleds and Longjohn pattern


Been working really hard these last few days. I made a couple of my Snowman heads from the Prim Snowman Wreath pattern and put them on some of the rustic sleds. I had these sleds in my shed, finally unburied them and they turned out really well, now I wish I had some sleds to use for my Santa Heads.
I have to get the trailer packed up tomorrrow as they are forcasting rain from the hurricane headed toward the panhandle. I didn't even know anything was out there, been so long since I watched the news.
I had many requests for the longjohns pattern, I have added to the sharebox. If you have any problems, just let me know.
Well, this is a short post for today, back to work, but wanted to share the pattern for the longjohns.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Quick and Easy

I wanted to get some quick and easy items done today. While going through my mom's crafting supplies after she died, I found some coal she had been keeping. I ran across the old feedsack image from ewe n me printables and found one that work with a lump of coal . So I transferred the design onto iron on transfer paper and ironed them to my little muslin bags. I put one lump of coal in each bag. I will put a low price on these for stocking stuffers.


Next, I made up some little long johns. These were fun and quick to make. I put little buttons down the front and on the flap in back. I had some white doll clothes hangers left over and used these with the longjohns. I put a little prim tag that said "Santa's Long johns" on it. I hope to get enough of these made to decorate a small tree.

I hope to get some Santa's finished tonight and hopefully pictures of them to post tomorrow. Happy crafting and please check back.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

More Crafting


It has been a rough week, it started out with just a tiny ache in my tooth, which of course, I ignored. I just keep pretending it isn't hurting and you guessed it, woke up Wednesday morning with my jaw all swollen and tooth hurting so bad, I wanted to cry. I went to the doctor and he prescribed a strong antibiotic and painkiller, it has been 1 day and the pain isn't as bad. But why didn't I go to the dentist to start with, instead of waiting. It is so hard to work when you are in pain.
But did manage to get some bears done, using a Sweet Meadows farm pattern. These have always sold well for me.


Next, I got some 12" wreaths and made my Santa's reindeer head and stuck in the wreaths, and finished off with some wooden signs and a Peace ornament I bought from Walmart. These are so easy to make.


We leave for the show in Savannah next Thursday, I don't know where all the time has gone, didn't get nearly half of what I wanted to get done or finished yet. So I will be up late for the next few nights working hard.

Should have some other items ready to show you tomorrow.
take care and happy crafting

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Goodwill and Old candle jars

HI,
I spent today, making up some quick things, with items I had found at Goodwill and using up some of the cinnamon coated candle jars and cans. I hate to throw away those candle jars after I burn the candle and figured sooner or later I would find something to put in them.
First off, I used the old candle cans for part of a candle light. Just filled it up with newspaper and moss and glue a candle light in the middle of it Added greenery and berries. I had purchased some of those old looking labels off ebay and glued them to the can. I love the way they turned out. So quick and easy.



Next, I had found this old wicker sleigh at Goodwill some time ago. I put a candle light, small tree, mouse, snowballs and Christmas letter in it.



These are some old roller skates, I added the wrapped candy canes, greenery and snowmballs and Little Mouse to each skate. These I absolutely love, wish I had more skates.



I had these candle jars left after I burned the candles, so I added a little Charlie Brown tree and prim label on the front of the jar.



I had some old copper tea kettles and put the wrapped candy canes, snowballs and greenery in these also with a candle light. So quick and simple.



I still have a lot in the shed, that I want to get used up and my shed downsized somewhat, I don't know what all I even have in there. But am finding treasures, everytime I start digging.
Well, hope you enjoyed looking at my quick and easy projects.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

More Crafts to share

Well, been busy trying to get restocked. I made these from my #400 Wynter Snowman, they are large, so I shrunk the pattern down and got a few of the smaller ones made. Really like the way each one has a different personality,just by the angle of the nose.



I managed to get 5 more of the #405 Saint Nicholas finished, luckily these are so easy to put together. On these, I used dark red flannel and an old cutter quilt to make the bags.



More Santa heads, I used a fleece for the hats, instead of an old quilt. I have a couple of large sleds, I am going to enlarge the pattern, so the Santa heads fit the sled.



Here is a picture of the dolls , I purchased at the show last week from Lee Ann Hinson. She can be contacted at 813-634-9643 if you are interested in any of her dolls.



Last year after Christmas, I found some marked down red stockings and been trying to figure out what to make with them. Today, I printed the poem, Twas the Night before Christmas, on some stained onsaburg, then stitched them to the front of the stockings. These were really simple to get done. I have added the poem I used in the share box if you are interested.
Well thats all for today, back to work.



Sunday, October 25, 2009

A GREAT SHOW

Hi Everyone,

We have done 2 shows now. We just did our favorite, as it is only one-day, but what a day. This is probably the best one day show there is around. It didn't disappoint us this year, it was great. the Weather was perfect, they had been predicting record highs, but some how a cool front came through, and it stayed a little cloudy with a cool breeze. This shows officially starts at 8:00, but people start showing up anywhere between 6:00 am - 6:30, with flashlights in hand. You look out in the street and see a herd of flashlights coming toward you. Our cash register is in the back of tent, so we have a lantern set up for those early morning sales. We have to hang lanterns from hooks in the tents, so people can see to shop. I was so glad to have my daughter help this year. I think she missed us a lot more than she thought she would, while we were away at the War Eagle show. She didn't want to miss going and helping at this show. I know I was glad she was there, she did the cash register for me.

This show is so different from some of my others in the fact that primitive does so much better here. My room sprays and tarts are the number one selling items here. Dolls, come in after that. Everyone remarked on how good my booth smelled. Even men came back and purchased the sprays after wanting to know which one was sprayed. But it was kind of hard to pinpoint just one , I think everyone had been sampled and it was a combination of all of them.


So, sales were definitely not down here, people came to buy. Most were cash sales, not too many credit card sales.

Picture of our booth, we had our cash register set up back through the opening.







closeup of some of the red work and stitchery pillows my daughter did for me.


Some of my raggedys, these sold great.



My Thanksgiving wreaths and tarts.



Closeup of my dolls, these are the Sarah dolls, the smaller ones, I shrunk the pattern down for the smaller version.


The sign leading into MacIntosh, sorry it is a little blurry. We tried to take it through the car window.



My husband took a picture of the crowd of people trying to get into our booth. I love shows like these.



This is a shot of one of the streets about mid-day.




They have some really pretty old houses and churches in this area. We are set up in the streets with the historic houses, sitting behind the booths. They close off the streets. I don't know what the people who live in the houses do, if they have to go somewhere that day. You can't get out the driveways.






One of my favorite booths, this is where I get my bobbins, he has all kinds of neat antiques and stuff.



This is one of our fellow crafters, Laurie Larson . She and her daughter Danielle Pique have a booth filled with wreaths and Glass blocks lights. They upgraded to a double booth this year and did great. Below is a picture of her mom with some of their creations.




Below is a picture of Danielle, she is standing by her Halloween block lights. They do a great job and are so friendly. I will be seeing her next week at the Micanopy Fall Festival, but as a shopper, I want to go do some holiday shopping at this show.





next I met a fellow blogger, Lee Ann Hinson, I saw her dolls and fell in love with them, I was writing a check out for the purchase and it was so funny, she saw my check and said let me see that and saw my business name and said how she read my blog and purchased my patterns. She was a pleasure to talk to and her booth was terrific. Could have bought so much from her.





Her painting and woodwork was fantastic.



Look at her little witch cat. this was so cute.




but my all time favorite was her dolls, I bought 3 of them.






She had a booth full of Halloween stuff, no imports here, all hand done and wonderful.




Some of her Christmas Items.




So all in all, this was a great show and weather was great, crowds were great. Hope the rest
of the season is this good.

On another note, My Friend Carmen is in the hospital, for about 2 weeks now. She ended up getting an abcess on her spine and had to be taken to an Atlanta hospital for surgery, she had to go in a helicopter. She had the surgery and is doing much better. She is so ready to get out of their, she has two big shows coming up and can't work for either of them. So please say a prayer for her. She is kind of down in the dumps this, this is her favorite time of year, and she was so looking forward to going to the shows and doing her own. So if you would take time to visit her blog and leave her a comment. http://oldefarmhouseroad.blogspot.com/

Take care and I will hopefully get some more posted this week.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

War Eagle Show

Well, we are back. We left last Tuesday and had a great trip. It took us over 20 hours to get there. So we had to stop the first night instead of driving straight through like we had planned, we just got too tired. We had an exciting moment on the interstate in Alabama. While we driving along, a car passed us with two police cars chasing it, then the next thing we knew, 3 more police cars came zooming past. All of a sudden they got in front of the car and on the side and brought the car to a stop. The Policemen all get out with guns drawn, know you have to understand, that our car was the first car in line when traffic got stopped. We were only about 30 feet away from this. So we see all the guns and are wondering do we just sit here or what. They men don't get out their car like they were ordered too, so there is kind of a stand off and then one comes out, then the police continue to hold their guns on the car and finally they get the other two out of the car. but it was kind of scary, we had visions of there being a gun battle and us stuck in front.

So we finally got to Arkansas and saw the mountains and the leaves changing. I have never seen the leaves changing, it was beautiful. We had cold weather down in the 30's with frost and highs in the 50's, so it was big difference from when we left the hot, humid 90's of Florida, just a few days ago.




This is the one way wooden bridge that comes one way, this can get kind of crowded with the pedestrians and traffic coming in both ways, they have men on both sides with walkie talkies.



The view of the River from the bridge.




A view from a nearby spot on the road to War Eagle.



Cars being parked in the back area.

Closeup view of the bridge.




This house sets on the the area across from the fair.





I love this building, it is the War Eagle Mill building, ithas a restaurant and gift shop area.




People getting in line to shop.



Another building in the fair area.




Tents lined up. There were 4 large circus tents and 1 building full of booths.



They had 2 more craft shows across the river, you had to walk across the one way bridge to get to them.




View of the tents in the fair.



View of one of the tents.




I have to say setting up my booth was very difficult at this show. I had too much stuff for an 8 ft x 13 ft. booth space. It took me awhile to get everything set up. I wasn't able to get it all out. Next year, I am planning on a different display and will have things a little better organized. Well, I know everyone wants to know how the show went. We did fairly well, well enough that we went ahead and turned in our application and money in for next years show. The crowds were pretty good, but a lot seemed cautious of how much they spent. You can tell the economy is still not good like it was, by the way people are buying now. We had mostly cash sales, which is good. This was an exhausting show for us, we spent 2 days getting there, and 4 days at the show, the first 3 were fairly busy, but Sunday was slow. We stayed Sunday night and got up at 5:00 in the morning and drove straight through, it took us until 4:00 in the morning to get home, we got stuck in traffic and construction. So next year, we are just going to take 2 days to drive home, it was too hard on my husband doing all the driving and pulling the trailer.




















I have to share a couple of crafters booth with you, I absolutely love this lady's booth. She had the best scarecrows. I bought one of her larger ones. Her Scarecrows are great. Her name is
Brenda Chester (417-592-4491) or email brenda.chester@att.net if you want to contact her about a scarecrow. Her scarecrows wear bib overaalls and flannel shirts. They have a wooden stake for standing up in the yard. They are big, the one I bought is probably 5 feet tall, she also has some that are about 3 feet tall.








Next, I met a couple of ladies, I have to introduce you all too. This is Margaret, she is on the Primitive and Rustic board of the Delphi forums, she stopped by to say hello, with her daughter.
She is in the background. Very nice lady and it was great to meet her.


Next I met, Diane Dodd, she is a real sweet person. She had ordered some of my patterns and emailed me a couple of times. She shared some pictures of crafts she had made from some of my patterns and others. She does a great job. Thanks Diane for stopping by and chatting with me.


Next, I met Pam from the Wooden Nail, she is also on the Primitive and Rustic board, she didn't want me to take her picture, so I took some of her booth.



I love her snowmen, I purchase one her Wooden Santa's in old box with a prim tree. I love it. I will take a picture of it when I get the trailer unloaded. Her booth is so prim looking. I could have bought one of everything.





Well, thats about it for tonight. I have another show this weekend. Thank goodness, it is only a one day show. But a good show, I can make as much at this show in one day, than I do at some of my 3 day shows. The only bad thing, the forcast is showing maybe some thundershowers that day, so holding my breath to see what the weather brings. I will be adding some pics of that show also.




Friday, October 9, 2009

Running out of time


I am so far behind getting everything ready, hoping I remember to take everything I need. Not used to shows where I can't run home if I forgot something.
I did manage to get these Santa's done. These are from a Smiling Goat pattern. I love them, I put a little more beard and hair on mine than she did on her pattern, that way they are not so prim. I have so many things I would like to get done, but not gonna happen.
I spent the whole day, sorting through boxes, trying to decide what to take and repack everything and get it tagged. I didn't realize I had so much made.
My daugher and some of her friends went to Halloween Horror nights at the Universal studios down there, then I have a good friend who's husband works at Disney. She is getting them into Disney World for free, do you know that tickets cost over 70 dollars now for a day. So don't have my daugther to help me get everything ready.
Well, not sure if I will get another chance to post again for we leave. I will take lots of pics and put them on my blog when I get back.