HI, I got a few more items finished. This nativity is from my new pattern on www.youarespecialpatterns.com called the "Meaning of Christmas". The pattern is for a free standing couple but I had an old wooden box and put them in the box with an electric candlelight, added some greenery and star.

Here is the Fall version of the Raggedy Annie I showed you in the last post. I added a pumpkin and some sweet Annie and used some of the fall prints I purchased at Walmart a couple of weeks ago.

Next I was able to finished 4 of my #405 St. Nicholas. These are really easy to make, no legs. Still have to spray the bags with a staining mixture and added a little more greenery to the bags.

I found some old coffee cans and am putting my prim trees in the cans. I still have to added a few stars and berries twined in the tree. But those coffee cans are getting harder to find and when you do find them they can be very pricey.

Scarecrow Nodders and New Raggedy Annie

HI,

I got out my gingerbread fabric that I have had for years and wanted to make a doll, this is what I came up with. let me know what you think of her. I am going to do a fall and easter version of this doll also. If you look closely you can see she is holding 2 little gingerbread men and one in her pocket.

Next I got some of my Harry Scarecrows done, this pattern is from my You are Special pattern line. These guys are heavy when you lift them up. This is a big guy. These always sell pretty fast at my shows.

Well, it looks like it is going to be a little cool for a couple of morning here, thank God. I am so ready for fall. It has been up in the high 80's and low 90's. I drug out most of fall stuff and decorated my front porch with my pumpkins, sunflowers and mums.

Still have a few more pumpkins and a Scarecrow to get out. But just no time lately, only a couple of weeks now till we start up to Arkansas for our show.

So guess I had better get back to work.

Making tarts, candy canes and snowmen

I have been busy getting things ready for the upcoming shows. I have been working on tarts. I found some different scents this year. In this batch, I have a new one called Hillbilly Homebrew, it smells terrific, not the usual bakery scent that I usually like. I made some more banana bread, Mrs. Claus' cookies and my favorite MacIntosh Apple.
I am making the sprays to go with these. Have a mess in my kitchen right now, trying to get it all done in time. I got the labels done for this batch, you can see the closeup in the next picture.

I had one my customers call the other day, she wanted to make sure that I would have the candy canes at the Savannah show. My daughter started on these the other day and I was able to get them finished up. I have to wait for the dollar store to get them in for their Christmas, as I am about out of them.

Next I was in the mood to make a snowman, found this pattern I purchased awhile ago from Country Friends. I had some small grapevine wreaths laying around. When I first started him, I hated the way the body was shaped, but as I got him more and more finished he started taking shape and turned out really well. Now I am going to make some more up. These are made on a 12" grapevine wreath and have lights wound around the wreath. This will make a great centerpiece.

My Ornaments on Cover of Country Sampler

Just got my copy of Country Sampler and realize this was the issue my ornaments were on the cover, even though they are not going to be advertised until the next issue. But if you look real closely you see my Santa ornament from Olde Thyme Christmas ornaments, The Santa's on the wood bobbin and one of my reindeer ornaments.

Snowmen and dolls

Well, I finally got those nodder snowmen done. I was able to get all 9 finished up yesterday. I have 5 more springs. So I am cutting out 5 more bodies and getting them finished up this week.

These are fun to make, I purchased a bunch of springs on ebay and wanted to use them up and I am using a pattern from Sassafras Hill Primitives.

Next,, are 5 black dolls done, they are from a pattern from Chestnut junction. These are quick and easy to do, no face or hair.

This pattern I have had for quite a while it is called Olde Stockings by The Smiling Goat, I made these up and really liked the way they turned out. I have a few more to out drying and will hopefully get them dried and work on them tonight while watching Hell's Kitchen (one of my favorite shows).

I have about 9 more pumpkin and crows sewed up and turned, just have to turn them. I am really getting nervous about the show, everyone says it is very well attended. We ended up finding a place that rents rooms by the week only, it is cheaper for us to book that place, than it is to pay for 5 nights at another motel.

well, back to work, pumpkins and crows to paint and hopefully the weather will stay nice and hot for the next few days.

Pumpkins and Witch soap

Hi,

I have been working hard trying to get my show inventory up. Here are few items that I have working on. These are some super simple pumpkins that I painted white, black and orange. I have grunged them up some, still have to add a prim tag. Got more ready to paint tomorrow.

I was able to get more soaps done today, my newest mold is the Witch head which I just love. It doesn't show up in the pic very well, wrong time of day to take a picture.



I have used the witches boot, and another new one with a flying witch. I love these, they look so prim.

My daughter and I have been stitching some, while I was sitting at the hospital with my dad, I took some stitching along with me. My daughter also helped me, she loves the redwork, only 1 color to have to deal with.

I surfed the interenet for some vintage images and these are what I found. I took a few closeups of some of the pillows.

One of the prim stores I went into, had a bunch of redwork ornaments decorated on their tree, and it looked so festive.

Vintage images of children

Well, I have few dresses in the dryer drying, time to get them out and dress some more dolls. I have several things I want to try to get finished tonight. We did get a trailer the other day, so now I can start stacking finished items in crates and storing them in there, instead of my house.

Countercrafts is having a giveaway

Check out Countercrafts fall giveaway. She does a great job on her items. She has some scrarecrow bowl fillers and little pumpkins that are so cute and prim looking. Check out her blog at http://countercrafts.blogspot.com/

Pilgrim Wreaths for fall

I finally got these done, been working on these wreaths for a few days now, the weather is nice and hot, so was able to get them painted and dried in no time. I made a few of these last year and they were the very first thing to sell. The pilgrims are from a pattern by Hill Kountry Krafts and so easy to make. I use a 14" grapevine wreath and wire everything to it.

I buy my little turkeys from Lex at http://northwindstar-primitives.blogspot.com/she does a terrific job on them. Thank you for making these for me. I love them. I still have several turkeys, I want to get the wreaths finished to go with them.

Well, I am no my way to Joann's etc. It is calling my name. And finally hopefully going to purchased a trailer, we always have to rent a Uhaul every year and that gets expensive so we are looking at a used trailer this year, with the trip to Arkansas for the War Eagle fair, it would be half paid for anyways with the uhaul rental. So hopefully by this time tomorrow, I will have more fabric and a trailer.

Fall is in the air

It is so hard to get back to full steam again after my dad dying, but I am trying. We are still getting his affairs in order and cleaning out the house of food stuff and such. We decided to wait awhile until we really get into clearing it out.

I have to get really busy this next couple of weeks, it is only about a month away from my first show at War Eagle. I am really getting excited about doing that show. Can't wait to get away and see another part of the country.

I worked on fall items this week. I did two patterns by Chestnut Junction. I love the way the pumpkin and crow turned out. It was quite a bit bigger than I thought it would be. I wanted to get some more done this week, however the weather is not going to cooperate. I like to paint and stain everything, then put it outside to dry. It is still so hot here, it dries so fast.

I went to Walmart and found some Halloween prints. Wasn't sure how to use them, I had been doing things a little more prim. But loved these bright colors. I made these dolls from another
Chestnut Junction Pattern called Punkin Annie. Still have to make a candy corn and put in their arms. But I love them.

Well, time to get back to work. I will hopefully be posting more pics tomorrow. And I should have another giveaway this week, so keep watching for details.

wev

Beeswax Witches

HI,

It's getting close to that time of year. I have been busy pouring beeswax into witch head molds. I have some awesome smelling fixen's mix that is mixed with orange peels, putka pods, rosehips and assorted botanicals that have a strong harvest orangey smell. It smells so good. I have placed about a cup in these fixens into little tobacco stick boxes and placed three of the witch heads onto the top. These are actually sucker molds that I bought off ebay. Just snipped the sucker straw part off and put it back into the pot to melt again.

Next are some really neat pretzel witch molds, that I found on ebay. I love these, so prim looking. These are about 6" tall.



I am trying to find some larger wood bowls at a price that I can afford to sell the whole set. But I want it to look something like this, this holds about 3 cups of fixens.



Next are my little witch heads molds that I bought again off ebay. I added a couple of beeswax spiders to this mixture.



I made some more of the witch bodies, these sold really well last year.

Well, back to work, I working on some little Raggedy Annies in a fall theme. Will post a picture when I get them done.

Getting back to crafting

Well, it has been almost a week now. Time to get back to life as normal, as much as possible. I miss my dad so much, hard to believe he is gone. We are trying to get his affairs in order, the will, and transferring everything out of his name. There is so much to do, dont know where to start. We are going to buy my sister's part of the house and let my daughter move in there with her best friend. This will be a little easier to deal with, my dad's house was right down the street, so I can zip by and see her car and know she is home safe and sound. I told her a condition of us getting the house, was she had to come visit and invite us over. My husband isn't as fond of the idea, he doesn't want her to move out period, plus he doesn't want to play landlord and do all the repairs. But at least my parents house will stay in the family. It is so sad to go through someones things and here his voice on the answering machine. I get so teary eyed when I go down there. But everyone I have talked to, has said, that he was ready to go, he didn't want to be here anymore. My friend saw him last Saturday and told me that he told her he didn't want to go back to the hospital anymore, just wanted to get it over it, if that whats it took to live. More and more all his friends and family that he has talked to recently has said he was tired of living in sickness and missed my mom, so I guess it was his time to go.

I started back to sewing this past weekend, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it for War Eagle, because of my dad's health. But now, I don't have any reason not to go. So have to get real busy for the next few weeks. I recently purchased Sweet Meadows farm new pattern Monkey Business, was a little worried about doing the eyes and nose. But really liked the way it turned out. I have 2 of dolls made and got one of the little monkeys made to go with her. I purchased my fabric off ebay with the sock monkeys.

I have several more bodies ready to go, got all thefaces done today. Have 4 more dolls and 2 bag holders I am making with this pattern.



These were so easy to make, I love this pattern.

My daughter was busy making up Reindeer food. We had to go to the dollar store, for the oatmeal and birdseed. The cashier asked what she was doing with the oatmeal. When we told her it was reindeer food she looked at us like we were crazy.

She got quite a few bags made today. She made up one box full and half of another box. Hope the reindeer are hungry this year.



Next, I found a website that had some neat ideas and graphic printables. This one is called Jesus tears, you put an icicle ornament with the Jesus tears poem. She bagged these in the same bag as she used for the reindeer food. If you are interested in this item, check out her website at
www.sunflowerfriends.com She has some great printables.



Check out deb at www.debslosttreasures.com she has a lot of free prim and halloween graphics on site right now. Love her site and work.




Well, I am trying to get caught up on orders and emails. I want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers during this time. I really appreciate it. I would sit down and read some of the comments and they did make me feel better.

My daddy died

Well, it is finally over after all these months of hospitals and sickness. We sat with him, the whole time while he was in the hospice care center. He had been so restless, they had to keep him sedated, because he got so agitated and trying to get up. But last night about 11:00 he layed still the rest of night, then started the rattling breathing. They said the fluid was building up. My sister came about an hour before he died, so we both were there with him at the end. We assured him we would take care of each other and that we loved him, then told him Mama was waiting for him. Then he died about 5 minutes after that. He died the same way my mom died, opened the one eye and took the gasping breaths. So glad it is finally over, he is at peace, no more pain and no more missing my mom. Now the hard part of learning to live without him in our lives.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and best wishes. Makes you realize how precious life is and enjoy every moment of it.