Last One of the Year

Tomorrow I am going to be selling my wares at Jennifer Bellin's Customer Appreciation Open House. I was there last year and except for the blizzard conditions on the way home, it was a blast.

I wanted to post a photo of all the mittens I will be bringing, but they are not full assembled yet... but they will be. Yes it is 7:30 on Fri morning and I really need to get ready for work and will be busy until about 9pm, but the Open House doesn't start until 11 on Sat morning - so I have plenty of time... I'll see you there with mittens in hand to put on your hands :)

Handmade for the Holidays!

Today I am vending at Handmade for the Holidays at Becket's located at 1 City Center in Oshkosh - I can't wait! Considering the fact that it starts in just under 4 hours - guess I don't have to wait very long.

Hope to see you there!

PS: I thought this was my last show for the year, but Jennifer Bellin, who hosts an annual open house (this year it's Dec 10) to promote her message business in Neenah has asked me back this year - more details to follow...

So - How You Doin'?

I love / hate fabric sales. It is my belief that I would save money if there were no fabric sales because I wouldn't get so greedy. I was "just looking" the other day at my local Hancock Fabrics and found some great fabric on sale that will be perfect for clothespin bags this spring.

The weather outside is so gloomy tonight so I thought I would post a photo from this weekend which will probably be the last day my yard will look so pleasant until May {sigh}.

My work had a Halloween Potluck so I commissioned my friend who bakes WAY better than I do to make a pineapple upside down cake. I then took it home and made it into a p"eye"napple upside down cake with a pack of gummy body parts. The other items are noses and fingers (although I was told by one co-worker that it wasn't a bachelorette party... eehhh)

Wrist Warmers

Inspired by a clean(er) sewing area, I decided to try something new for my last two shows of the year. I think they turned out pretty well and can't wait to show them off for the Gallery Walk at Emma Jeans Boutique on 11/05 and at Handmade for the Holidays on 11/19.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home

This song is constantly stuck in my head!

PS - sorry for the lame link to youtube but it's worth it.

Pattern, Pumpkin, Began, Cleanin'

Okay, not that anybody's keeping track, but I haven't posted in quite awhile, so here is what's been going on...

Pattern: Other than mittens and a few random hats - oh and some scrunchies when I briefly had access to a machine in 1991 - I have never made any wearable items so I bough the above pattern for a summery dress in the hopes that I could have it ready by time the warm weather rolls around again (I know it says "see & sew", but the reason I have so much original stuff is because I am really bad at following patterns).

Pumpkin: Last week a friend of mine came over for our 5th annual pumpkin carving event. Hers are the two on the top - the spaceship she finished by putting a little alien figure in the spaceship beam which turned out really cute. Mine are the other two photos. Unfortunately due to warm weather an a little rain, they are a little soft and my not make it to Halloween...

Began (pronounced like "vegan"): This weekend I vended at The Sandra Began Holiday Preview and Fundraising Event. The crowd was great, the venue was beautiful and although I felt like my display was amateur compared to my fellow vendors, it is much better than it was and looking at all the other displays I got a lot of inspiration on how to improve for future events. Thanks Sandra!

Cleanin': there are no photos for this part of the post because I was really embarrassed with how out of hand I let me sewing area get. I dedicated part of the day to organizing and getting rid of unnecessary items. I am now inspired to get back in there and mess it up again :)

Back in Action

After a little hiatus from the sewing machine, I received a custom order which has motivated me to get back to makin' stuff. I used an iron on transfer to make this cute wristlet even cuter with the recipient's 2 little boys (above).

Tomorrow I will be bringing the last of my litter of clothespin bags to the Appleton Downtown Farm Market (as well as all the other fun stuff I have to offer). I can't believe these are all I have left and two of them have been pre-adopted!

And Me Without My Camera...

Okay - that's a lie, I had my camera and once again didn't think of taking any pictures until I was putting away my stuff and my camera bag was in the way.

Anyway, on Sunday I participated in the 7th Annual Summer Craftacular in Madison, WI hosted by the Glitter Workshop and let me just say the good people and tourists of Madison were very kind to yours truly.

Not only did I sell a few items, but I had some great "neighbors" that were fun to visit with. To my right was Amy from Modish Life who sold adorable children's clothing, in fact, the stuff was so cute it almost made me wish I kids of my own (I said almost). On my right was Venessa from BailyBelle Creations who sold some really fun jewelry including these really clever fan necklaces.

I also ran into Betsy from Artess, who happened to have just finished teaching a screen printing class - how perfect - and gave me a few pointers and list of supplies for the beginner (screen printing is going to be my new phase after the new year - I can't wait!)

Here's an update on what's new - nothing - ugh...

I've been working extra hours at the old day job so the sewing machine has been sitting dormant, but my next items up on the cutting block are: gadget pouches, cat bags with zippered mouths & can you believe it...MITTENS (it almost seems like a crime to think about it when I am sitting here with the air conditioning on).

Mauk and Mindy

This past Friday my friend Mindy & her mom opened the doors to their new shop, EmmaJeans Boutique, on Main St in Oshkosh during the Gallery Walk and of course I had to run down and check it out (as I have a few items there too).

I have also been entertaining getting back into screen printing, something I really enjoyed during college (oh so long ago) and that fire was fatefully fueled when I happened to run into my former serigraphy professor who, of course, has always encouraged my interest.

This weekend my husband wants to run down to Milwaukee and I might just have to stop in at Utrecht (at his insistance haha) to launch my next phase of creativity...

PS: Sorry about the title Mindy, but I couldn't resist :)

For the Birds

I have been saying that I am going to buy one of these birdhouses for the last year and I finally went and bought one on Saturday at the Downtown Appleton Farm Market. They are made by a father & son team who unfortunately do not have a web site, but believe me they had so many whimsical houses, that it was hard to make a decision. I only wish my house was this cute.

I have been meaning to make a gadget / phone pouch (substitute a cooler word than pouch and tell me what it is, because I don't know about "pouch", other than it is technically an accurate description). Anyway - here they are and I made sure that in addition to my little phone, they would fit an iPhone as well as the htc phones.

I was inspired to include the little strap by a friend of mine that told me that her phone fell out of her pocket while biking. Now she can just hang the "pouch" over her handlebars and no worries - in fact I even kept one for myself (a rare occurrence) and took my cell with me on my bike ride (an even more rare occurrence) and was pleased with how it was functional, yet not in the way.

Showtime!

Yeah! My summer show season kicked off for me yesterday at the Appleton Downtown Art & Farm Market. The weather couldn't have been better and the crowd was great. All in all I would say it was a good show.

I think I almost have my setup to my liking. My friend took to photo above with her phone. I had planned on getting more pictures of the market, but I was so focused on not forgetting any of my show stuff that the camera was left at home.

I don't do the markets every week, but I will be at the Appleton Market on the third Saturdays of July, August & September as well as a few out of town shows. I have also been invited to be the featured artist at Eco Candle Company in Appleton for Art on the Town on July 15th.

On a side note, the duck that was referred to in the title of the previous post had made a nest and laid eggs in our flower bed. We were counting down the days until they hatched, but unfortunately she left one afternoon and never returned. Oh, why is nature so cruel...

8 Years, 4 Cats & 1 Duck Later

Tomorrow my husband and I will be celebrating our 8 year anniversary and it makes me wonder - where does the time go?

Although these pictures are from our wedding day, I think they still are a pretty accurate representation of how we look today (give or take a few pounds), but fortunately no gray hairs yet haha.

Did I Mention...

That I got a mention :)

Thank You Women Magazine for mentioning my items in your graduation gift guide!

Bag Lady

The past few weeks I have been working on some bags for my upcoming shows this summer.

A couple of Becky Bags (above)

The yet unnamed smaller version of the Lazy Day Tote (above)

The Beginning of Spring Marks the End of an Era

Okay, so maybe my title is a little dramatic, but after canceling my cell phone plan about 9 years ago, I decided to get a new one - so now I have caught up in technology to my 12 year old niece :)

I finished up a new batch of Heidis (see photos below) that I am really excited about. Last month I made a custom one that turned out really cute and since it is one of my more unique styles, I decided to do a small batch for my upcoming shows.

Thinking Spring

Not everybody wanted to pose, but here is a sampling of my latest.

Next week I will be participating in the Think Spring craft show in Lake Geneva. In keeping with the theme of looking ahead to warmer weather I made up a new batch of clothespin bags.

For fun I replaced my usual little tag with a heart on the backside (maybe I was subliminally inspired by Xavier Roberts, the creator of the Cabbage Patch Kids).

In other news, Michelle at Dainty Daisies has decided to close up shop to free up more time to work on her own projects. I picked up my stuff yesterday and I believe the shop will be officially closed at the end of the month.

I have more bags and another animal...

At last - I finally finished the rest of the "Jenny Girls" and am really pleased how they turned out! They measure approx 9" tall x 10" wide. There is an open divided pocket and a zipper pocket in the inside. The strap is approx 24" long.

In other news we adopted Anderson last week. He's finally getting a little braver, so I was able to get a couple of photos without spooking him.

I was devastated this past fall when we lost our cat Orvis to kidney failure. As painful as it was to see him go, I didn't rule out ever getting another animal. We happened to see this guy at an adoption event at Petco, but didn't think it was a good decision as he is older and we have two other cats.

Anderson stuck in the back of my mind as did his story - he was taken from a hoarding situation in 2008, then adopted by an older man who passed away in the fall so he was taken back to the shelter.

He is nine, which makes him less likely to be adopted and they don't put down any of the animals there, so I kept thinking of him spending the rest of his days in a kennel and I couldn't let that happen - so we took him home :)

Na na na na na- Go Pack Go!

Am I a hardcore football fan?

Hmmmmm - okay - no

Do I like an excuse to cheer and make noise?

Hmmmmm - okay - yes (and while you can see me blowing the horn, what you cannot see is that I actually splurged and bought a Packers sweatshirt for the big game)

Hey - it's Wisconsin Baby - and when it's this cold you got to get your kicks where you can ha ha!

Shrimp, ham rolls and a meatball sandwhich - ahh the finer things in life :)

Thanks to this special request I got back into the creative groove (I was in a funk) and started a new batch of "Jenny Girls". I finished this one (very sharp if I do say so myself) to deliver as promised and I have a few more in the works that will be done by the end of the week.