Mini Mayday Prep...

Prepping for the "Mini Mayday" show this weekend!

When I set up my "dry run" display in my living room, Terra decided she wanted to inspect the merchandise!

Moving out?  Nope!...just packing up up for the show!

I don't think Terra wants me to leave!

Making tags for the sweater monsters...

See you at the show!

Instagram Sunday: Flowers and Berries and a Family Outing

Lots of plant and garden pictures this week...

I have a blue hydrangea bush in my front yard that came with our house.  This is the beginnings of a bloom on it. (Sadly, maybe the only bloom.  But next year there should be more, since hydrangeas bloom on the previous year's growth.)

 I planted 2 different colors of dahlias last year.  The red one bloomed last week.  The orange one bloomed this week!

The first decent strawberry from my garden!  this was off a plant I'd bought at Aldi!  I have another larger strawberry plant that I planted last year, thought it died, but it came back from last year...and it has been producing small, dinky, shriveled strawberries.  I was getting discouraged until this strawberry came along from the Aldi plant. My mom thinks that large plant is actually more than one plant that is too crowded and I need to thin it out so it will produce better.  

I went blueberry picking with my friend Amy and her kids in the morning on Thursday, and took advantage of the cooler weather to work on weeding my vegetable garden in the afternoon (and picked the first of my sugar snap peas!).

Our new Mason Jar Goblets (aka: "Redneck Wine Glasses") that came in the mail.  They were our belated anniversary present from my brother.  (the Adirondack chairs we are sitting in were our birthday presents!)  Gotta love Mason jars!

On Saturday, my parents came out to visit and have lunch.  We went to my favorite local cafe, the Shirt Factory Cafe.  I had a greek chicken salad and a chai latte with a shot of espresso (my gateway drug into the land of coffee!).

 After lunch, we went wandering the aisles at Tractor Supply.  This symbol on a warning sign on a tractor "power takeoff shaft" made me giggle (although I'm sure an actual injury would not be so funny)

New Monster Monday: Building Up Inventory

 This week, I continue to work on building up my sweater monster inventory for the "Mini Mayday" show next Saturday...

A new monster before the hand-sewn details are done.
(I love orange and turquoise together!)

A bad Instagram pic of 7 monsters I finished last week. You can see the finished orange/grey/turquoise monster at the left.  I'll be taking better, "official" pictures of the monsters later this week.

Back to sewing!

Instagram Sunday: A Week In Review (7/9 - 7/13)

A quick review of my week...courtesy of Instagram pics.

Monday: Forget vases...I'll take Mason jars any day!

Tuesday: Friends took us out to dinner.  Then we went to Barnes & Noble.  I was amused by this sign.  Apparently "Teen Paranormal Romance" is a major genre that warrants having its own section now!

Wednesday: Nubbins peeking out of their suitcase...awaiting the next craft show... and for me to make more to join their ranks. 

 Thursday: One of my dahlias finally bloomed!

Friday: Newest Sweater Monster..."Zula"

Big Barn Owl Pillow

I'm way behind in my blog posts.  So much has been going on this summer so far...birthdays and anniversaries and craft shows (oh my!), and I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and blog about any of it.  So I'm trying to snatch some time to catch up...since I've been making a lot of new stuff lately in preparation for my next show, the "Mini Mayday" that is at the end of July...as well as some custom pieces...like this Big Barn Owl.

This is a big, throw-pillow-sized barn owl I made for my owl-loving friend Casey (of Peaches Products) for her birthday.  She was into owls "before they were cool".  

  I may have to make some more of these.  The barn owl Nubbins tend to be really popular at craft shows, so I can imagine how well large pillow-sized barn owls would do!

 Casey with her new owl.  I gave it to her when she and our friend Melissa took me out to lunch "for my birthday" a few weeks ago, since they weren't able to make it to my party..

Casey LOOOVES her owls!

4th of July in Lyndonville 2012

Some pictures from Wednesday.  I didn't take as many pictures as I'd have liked, but I was pretty busy for most of the day!  I had a lot of customers, a lot of sales, and did even better than I did at last year's show! The Lyndonville 4th of July show still has its place as my second most successful show of the year!  It hasn't surpassed my success at Mayday Underground yet, but this year it came close!

 My "award winning" booth!

 The monster trunk.  This was considerably emptier by the end of the day!  I wish I'd thought to take an "after" picture!  I think I only had about six sweater monsters left! That means I gotta get busy making more for the "Mini-Mayday" show that's at the end of this month!

 The main table

 The "accessories" side of the booth.

A new hair clip display that CJ made for me out of a frame, some fabric, and chicken wire! (I originally found the idea for this on Pinterest)

 Crochet flower hair clips displayed with clothespins.

Flower pins, bottlecap pins, and a basket of smiley Strawberries (left over from the show I did during the Albion Strawberry Festival).  I also had a mirror that my mom gave me awhile ago to use for shows, so people can check out how they look in the hair clips or hats.  I usually only use this green desk for this show (since it's so close and I don't have to transport things so far, and you can pull your vehicle right up to your space instead of having to cart everything from a parking lot), but I am considering starting to bring it to other shows where I have a 10x10 space.  It helps to have the extra table space, so the accessories don't clutter up the main table.  Many times I don't even have room on the main 6ft table for the mirror.

I was getting worried that no one liked the Superhero Nubbins, since they hadn't sold well since I first made them...but I almost sold out of them at this show!  And I am completely sold out of Robot Nubbins as well!

These girls were delighted to take Wilhelmina (pink) and Edwin (blue & green) home with them!

A lot of my friends stopped by to see me... even my little buddy, Mikey!  He's the son of some friends of mine from church.  For some reason, in the recent months, he has really warmed up to me! (he was also flirting with my grandma at my birthday party a few weeks ago!)

 My big, strong Scottish man loading the massive trunk into the truck! The 4th of July is his birthday...so he decided he wanted to wear his kilt.  It was kind of a "It's my birthday and I'll wear what I want to!" kind of thing.  People kept asking him if he was in the parade and he'd say "No, it's just my birthday and I wanted to wear it!"  

 Our yellow truck all packed up!

Then we took all the stuff home and spent some time with my parents and brother and (soon-to-be!) sister-in-law before they went back to my parents' house to meet some friends and watch the Henrietta fireworks.  After they left, CJ and I went to our friends' house so I could cool off and go swimming (their house is where everyone was hanging out most of the day while I was at the craft show).  When dusk started coming and people were getting ready to walk down to the school to watch the fireworks, CJ and I went home to watch the fireworks from our front lawn... because we were both pretty wiped out and just wanted to be able to go straight to bed after the fireworks.

 The only way it could be better is if that tree weren't in the way!

It was a long day...but was a very happy 4th of July!

Quick Instagram Update: 4th of July Highlights

I'll post more pictures from the 4th later...but here are some highlights, courtesy of Instagram!

(I know...I've become an Instagram addict!)

The biggest highlight of my day: I won first prize for the "best booth display" at the Lyndonville 4th of July Craft Show!  I got this cute ribbon to put on my booth and a $50 cash prize! (so, since the booth fee had been $25...they essentially covered the booth fee and then paid me $25 to do the show!) Thanks so much, Wanda and Joyce!  You really made my day! :D

My brother and his fiance were visiting from Staten Island this week.  They were hanging out with me and my mom at the craft show for a bit.  All of a sudden my brother looks across the way and says..."Anybody order a llama?". It made me laugh!  So I had to go take a picture of the random llama.

The Lyndonville fireworks seen from my house.

I'll Be Local in Lyndonville for the 4th!

Tomorrow is my big 4th of July Craft Show in Lyndonville, NY!

I can't get any more "local" than this!...since I live within walking distance, right down the street from the high school grounds where the show is held. (I will have to bring the truck to haul all my stuff though!)  ;)

Lyndonville may be a tiny little rural town, but EVERYONE in Orleans country comes for the 4th of July!

TOMORROW! Wednesday, July 4th, 11am-6pm

On the Lyndonville High School front grounds.  The school's address is 25 Housel Avenue, Lyndonville NY 14098 (if you need to use your GPS)...but the front grounds are on N Main Street (Rt 63).

 "Celebrate the 4th of July "American Style" in Lyndonville NY. Featuring the Annual Parade (at noon), Arts and Crafts (11am-6pm), the Lions Club chicken bbq (seatings at 1pm-3pm and 3pm-5pm), free concerts, Tractor pull (1pm-4pm), Bounce house (10am-4pm) and more! Spectacular fireworks at dusk (10pm)!"

This was the second most successful craft show I did last year (second only to Mayday Underground of course!), so I am looking forward to it again this year!  Hopefully it doesn't rain! (they are calling for rain...but I'm praying God holds it off until Thursday!)

*Blog post from last year's show