Craftmas Events!: "First Friday" Reminder

Hello! Just a reminder that tomorrow kicks off my Etsy Street Team's "Craftmas" events!

Craftmas: Etsy Style! First Friday Holiday Craft Sale

TWO DAYS! (although I will only be there on Friday)

Friday, December 2nd, 5:00PM - 9:00PM

Saturday, December 3rd, Noon - 4:00PM

(you can RSVP to the Facebook event HERE)

"A Handmade Holiday hits the Hungerford Building! Come shop from a selection of quality items made by local artists. Give the gift of handmade this holiday season!" There will also be a scavenger hunt for a chance to win our handmade "Garbage Plate" (an RNEST group project that has been about 2 years in the making).

Be sure to check out the other Craftmas events! (the links will take you to the Facebook Event):

• Clothing Swap (Monday, December 5th, 7pm-9pm)
  It’s time to clean out that closet! Bring in your unwanted clothing and take home some new-to-you pieces for your wardrobe...all for free! RNEST artists will also be available to teach demos with techniques for altering and upcycling your clothes into fun, new items!
  *Any clothing left over at the end of the night will be donated. Nothing will go to waste!
  
  
• Creative Play Session (Saturday, December 10th 7pm-8:30pm)
  Creativity boosting activities and exercises to spark your artistic inspiration and get out of a rut. Come with an open mind and leave with ideas for new projects! (For ages teen and up)

• Open Craft Night: Etsy Style! (Thursday, December 15th 6pm-9pm)
  Demos: glass pendant soldering, knitting, bead weaving and MORE! Everyone is invited for a handmade, fun-filled evening of simple planned projects and unstructured time with RNEST artists. Bring your crafty works-in-progress, share our supplies, experiment with our tools, and ask us about tips and techniques. A small sampling of our works will also be available for sale.

Hope to see some of you there!

RNEST & Etsy Present: CRAFTMAS!

Hello! You regular blog-readers know that I am a part of the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team (aka: RNEST), a group of Etsy sellers in the Rochester area (and surrounding areas *wink!*).

A while back, RNEST applied for (and was awarded) a grant from Etsy in order to organize a series of crafty events at the Hungerford Building on East Main Street in Rochester. We originally planned to have Halloween-themed events in October, but scheduling conflicts arose with the location and those plans fell through. But, not being an easily discouraged bunch, we switched gears and decided to do some holiday events in December instead. And for the past month and a half have been scheming, planning a series of handmade holiday events which we have dubbed "Craftmas"!

I'm organizing a Clothing Swap!...

"It’s time to clean out that closet!

Bring in your unwanted clothing and take home some new-to-you pieces for your wardrobe...all for free! RNEST artists will also be available to teach demos with techniques for altering and upcycling your clothes into fun, new items!

*Any clothing left over at the end of the night will be donated. Nothing will go to waste!"

(click here to RSVP to the Craftmas Clothing Swap Facebook Event!)

I used to regularly organize clothing swaps (or "swap meets" as I used to call them) at my old church. They were always a hit! If I didn't keep on top of it and do one every few months, I'd start getting regular inquiries from people about when the next one would be!

Be sure to check out the other Craftmas events! (the links will take you to the Facebook Event):

• Craftmas: Etsy Style! First Friday Holiday Craft Sale (Friday, December 2nd 5pm-9pm &Saturday, December 3rd noon-4pm)
  A Handmade Holiday hits the Hungerford Building! Come shop from a selection of quality items made by local artists. Give the gift of handmade this holiday season!
  *(I will have a table there on Friday!)*
  
  
• Creative Play Session (Saturday, December 10th 7pm-8:30pm)
  Creativity boosting activities and exercises to spark your artistic inspiration and get out of a rut. Come with an open mind and leave with ideas for new projects! (For ages teen and up)

• Open Craft Night: Etsy Style! (Thursday, December 15th 6pm-9pm)
  Demos: glass pendant soldering, knitting, bead weaving and MORE! Everyone is invited for a handmade, fun-filled evening of simple planned projects and unstructured time with RNEST artists. Bring your crafty works-in-progress, share our supplies, experiment with our tools, and ask us about tips and techniques. A small sampling of our works will also be available for sale.

I hope you can make it to at least one of these events! They should be a lot of fun!

Etsy Craft Party...

I hope some of you are able to attend or host an Etsy Craft Party today!

I'd love to have done one today, but my anniversary is a little more important! And just because I didn't have one today on the "official", "global" party day doesn't mean I can't have one on another day! Right?

If you hosted/attended a craft party today, and blogged about it, or took pictures, be sure to leave me a comment with a link to your post! I'd love to see what people did!

Rochester Zine & Craft Fair

This is the show I'm doing this weekend...

I've never done this one before, so I hope it goes well!

RSVP to the Facebook Event

Presence on the Patio in Review...

I know what you're thinking..."That picture doesn't look like you were on a patio!"
Well, the weather wasn't nice enough for us to have the event outside on the Shirt Factory Cafe's patio. It was a gusty, blustery day all day, and the wind would have turned our canopy into a big kite and sent all our various wares flying across the street. Plus it was cold and rainy later in the afternoon. So outside wasn't an option.

Thankfully, when I was freaking out earlier in the week about weather reports predicting a rainy Saturday, my husband had suggested that we ask the cafe if we could use their large back room as a backup plan...so that we could still have the event and not have to cancel in case the weather was yucky. What a smart guy! (I'm so glad I married him!)

He's always very helpful and supportive when I do these shows too. He helped rig up the rope lights other stuff. I don't know what I'd so without him. :)

Here's my table (yay!). I think I like this setup the best out of any I have done before...because I have never set up my table the same way twice. I want a banner with my KiraArts logo for the front though.

My Mom came and we set up a mini-table for her to sell her cards. She is still recovering from surgery, but is doing very well. Spending the day together at the show, and then going to dinner afterwards was how we celebrated Mother's Day.


My friend Char ran a table with a free craft for the kids. I taught her how to do the coffee filter flower craft.

My friend Rachel (Char's daughter) was my partner in crime in organizing this event, and she and a friend did facepainting.

Rachel turning our friend's son, Micah, into an elephant...


Our other friend's son, Matt, wanted to be an elephant too.

This "alien" monster Matt picked out was one of CJ's favorites. I suppose I should make more monsters with eye stalks.

Matt's sister Emily picked up this monster and walked around hugging him the rest of the day. She was so cute! She loved that monster so much! I'm glad she picked him. I made him a long time ago and he's been in my Etsy shop and was even at Moonflower for a while, and no one ever wanted him...so I'm glad he has a home now.

And I found out that the facepainting girls started doing paintings of the monsters!

So cute! This picture is of a fellow vendor's daughter. She is so sweet. After both Presence on the Patio shows, during teardown/cleanup, she asked me if I need any help when I'm packing up.

These two 12-year-old girls came to the Presence on the Patio show we had back in December. I remember the girl in the hat had green hair then and she was the one who bought the Cheshire Cat pillow. They (and their mom) bought a lot of stuff, including some of my monster-ear hats, and were my best customers! I think I may be starting a fanbase in Medina!

Despite the nasty weather and having to have the event inside, this turned out to be my most successful craft show ever. I said the same thing about the show in December...it seems each show I have turns out to surpass the last. I can't wait until the next show! I'd like to plan one for the Fall. I've had people ask if we'll do one in the summer, but I think I need a break. Plus, there's enough craft shows during the summer. I don't need to add another one into the mix.

Presence on the Patio Advertising

I've finished the flyer for Presence on the Patio!

And Rachel and I started making the sandwich board sign to put on the sidewalk outside the cafe`.

I can't wait to see it out on the sidewalk!

Decorating the Shirt Factory Cafe for Christmas

So, remember back when I helped decorate the Shirt Factory Cafe for a baby shower?...well, we're at it again! I've been helping my friends Kim (on the ground) and Rachel (on the ladder) decorate our favorite cafe for Christmas!

But that's not even the best news! We're doing an event on the Shirt Factory Cafe's patio on December 19th from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. The event is called "Presence on the Patio" and we are calling it "a winter fair". There will be wreath-making, donuts and (best of all) handmade gifts made by local artisans like me! We're currently working on securing either a sound system or live music, and I am working on a flyer/logo.

We're friends with a guy who is good friends with the owner of the cafe (yay for connections!)... and Kim and Rachel got asked to help organize an event. And they've been so kind as to invite me to help too! I'm so excited to be involved in the planning process of this event!

More details (and a flyer) to come!

Heading to the Second Storie

My mom and I are going to second storie indie market today.
I found out about second storie by finding a postcard-sized advertisment for their "I Heart Handmade" show in February 2007 in the ladies restroom of Joanne Fabrics. Unfortunately, I found the ad one day too late and had missed the show! They've had other shows since then that I've missed due to prior commitments on the days the shows were on. So this will be my first time attending one of their events. I'm really goig to check it out to see if I'd like to apply to be a part of their next show. Here's hoping!

Check out their blog and Facebook page.!

Nancy's Baby Shower

The baby shower I went to last night was lots of fun! I went an hour early to help my friend Kim set up and decorate. I'm all about decorating and so is Kim, so we had lots of fun. She and her sister Tricia had made these lovely tissue paper balls...

And they are so simple to make! You just accordian fold the layers of tissue paper (sorry, I don't know how many layers), cut the ends if desired (that's how they got that flowery look) put the wire around the middle and make the loop to hang the ball, then fluff the layers out to make the puff/flower. (I helped fluff them out when we got to the coffee shop).

The shower was at a local coffee house, The Shirt Factory Cafe`. The building used to be, guess what!...a shirt factory! My hubby came along too for the set-up and was instumental in hanging the puffs. We only had a short ladder, so it helped to have a tall (and artisticly inclined) man to help!

And this is how it all looked when it was done! (I want to have a party just so I can make more of these pretty puffs! Housewarming party maybe?...)

It was nice to see some ladies from the Rochester church who I haven't gotten a chance to talk with in a while. Nancy (the girl the shower was for) was completely overwhelmed. She was in tears when she walked in and saw the place! I was glad we were able to be a blessing is such a simple way.

It was cute how all the little girls swarmed around Nancy as she opened her gifts!

The obligatory "pregnant women" baby shower picture! Lined up by due dates left (most pregnant) to right. It worked out well, because it just happens to be that Nancy is in the middle!

The woman at the far left with the baby is Nancy's sister, Karen, who was included because she just had her 4th child a few weeks ago. (some may alrady know about it, but check out her blog for the amazing story of her 3rd child, Jacob).

Tonight's Open House Event

I went to an Open House/Silent Auction fundraiser event tonight for Eating Disorder Awareness Week. It was sponsored by the woman who comissioned the Emoti-Nubbins. Here is the whole set..including the purple Silly Nubbin.

One of her friends fell in love with Ellowilla and bought her...

Another one of her friends, who is originally from India, was doing henna. So I had her do a design on my palm...

This is what it looked like when I crumbled the dried henna paste off when I got home (ideally, the paste needs to stay on for 2-3 hours so the paste has a chance to dye the skin)

I haven't had henna done in so long! I used to do it all the time on myself, but then when I was working at the school, I couldn't have it on my hand, which is my favorite place to have it, besides my feet... (below is the design I had on my feet on my wedding day)...

I think the lady was kind of impressed I knew so much about henna/mehndi. I was explaining about it to the other ladies' and answering their questions about what it is, how long it lasts, etc. I was the first person of the night to have it done, and we drew quite the crowd while she was putting the design on my hand. And so a lot of the other ladies ended up getting designs too!

I have a sudden desire to visit India someday...

KiraArts News & Upcoming Events

So here comes another string of shows/events for KiraArts. (Which means I'll be sewing like a madwoman again for the next few days!)

• Tomorrow (7pm to 9pm) I have an open house event I was invited to attend by the woman who comissioned the Emoti-Nubbins. She loves the Nubbins and thinks they could be used to promote self-esteem. The Open House and Silent Auction in honor of Eating Disorder Awareness Week, which is February 22 - 28 (Someone close to her used to struggle with an eating disorder). She has some other local small business owners/artists coming as well.


• Moonflower emailed me today and said they're down to one Nubbin! So I need to stop by to replentish their Nubbin population!


• It's the last weekend of the month, which means the Spot Art Show is this weekend (and next weekend). I'll be there on Saturday this weekend (5pm-10pm) and Friday next weekend (same times).

Seeing my girl again...

Some of you know that I used to work as a one-on-one aide for a sweet little kindergarten girl with autism. Well, her father called me out of the blue yesterday and asked me if I could go with his wife to help with the kids (Angela, her twin sister and her little brother) when they went to a Christmas party at the elementary school I used to work at. A family member was originally supposed to be going with them, but couldn't make it, so they thought to call me. I'm so glad they did! Even though little Angela seemed very confused (she goes to a different school in the district now, and hasn't been to Ivan Green since last school year, and I think was searching her mental data banks, trying to figure out where she was), I was still very glad to see her again and glad to be able to be a blessing to her mom.
Last time I saw Angela was 5 months ago in July at her birthday party. I'm not really sure she remembered me tonight (she wouldn't say my name without her mom prompting her). I didn't see that look of recognition she gave me when I saw her in July. She pretty much wouldn't look at me at all. I actually think she was too distracted by all the stuff going on and trying to remember when she'd been to this place before. I did see a few kids from her afternoon classroom last year that remembered me (which surprised me) and I got to see the principal and a few of my old co-workers. They were thrilled to hear about my craft show and the consignment shop.

Here's Angela with Santa...
The poor thing ended up falling asleep after we had a snack in the cafeteria, and so I held her and let her snuggle up to me while her mother took her sister to the book fair.

It kind of felt just like old times (the familiar picture of Kira and Angela...always together...practically attatched at the hip!), but it was different. It was very nice to be there as a friend of the family and not just as "the aide". It felt good to know I was there simply because I love her and not because it was my job. I'm so glad her parents have decided to keep in touch with me. I guess I'm sorely missed, and the aide she has now (in her dad's words) "pales in comparison"...although I'm not sure how true that is. I don't think I was anything special. I just loved her...tried to do what was best for her, and listened to the more trained induviduals around me.

But as much as I know they wish I had stayed and been her aide again, I knew it was time for both of us to move on. I know God has me where He wants me to be. And He has her where He wants her too.

Although I really wish my mom could have ended up being her aide...she would have been wonderful with her. But she's an aide for BOCES 1 now for a 5-year-old who is at the cognative level of a 9-month-old.

Moonflower Opening Night

I went to Moonflower Handcrafted Gallery's Grand Opening tonight. Mom came with me. I was glad to see that a LOT of people showed up...to the point that it was kind of hard to get around the shop! There was a lot of nice stuff there...jewelry, art, candles, dog collars, etc. Mom bought a piney scented soy candle (called Ozark Mountian) and a felted Christmas tree brooch.
Here are my monsters...

I saw a lot of different people picking them up and looking at them, but they were all still there by the time Mom and I left. No biggie. I didn't expect them to sell right away.

I gave Brandi, the shop owner, one of my new sock monsters as a kind of "thank you"/"congratulations" gift. She told me that her friends are already threatening to steal it from her!

I'm also donating one of my newest sweater monsters to a toy drive my husband's office is participating in...the "Pirate Toy Fund". This guy is rather robot-y looking isn't he? I think it's the straight lines and how I didn't add a mouth. That first set of horizontal lines imply a mouth.
But he's a robot with a heart! I hope he makes some kid really happy.