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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween


Dressing up can be a scream and playing tricks is dandy...
but when it comes to Halloween it's all about the candy!

It's so fun to paint and decorate for Halloween and my favorite's by far are
my Gaye Shoell pieces.  What a talented person she is.  I've enjoyed many
painting seminars learning and painting with her.  She's quite an inspiration to me.
This trick or treater is 'Wierd Wolf'...just one of her many awesome designs.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Show and Tell Friday

I don't know what happened to this week, it has flown by for sure.  My son and I drove home from Reno on Monday. Tuesday I caught up around the house, shopped for food and such, and did a demo at the crafters guild meeting. Wednesday I cleaned and had a Pampered Chef party, Thursday I did paint a little, completed 10 of these turkey plaques (they were also my demo Tuesday night, I gave those two pieces away).  Timm and Chris poured concrete, we're in the process of building an outdoor kitchen.  And well, here it is Friday already. 

These two cabinet doors I finished just before I left for the craft show last week.  I sold the scarecrow to a gentleman that bought a couple of doors from me last year so he's starting a collection of sorts.  He also donated 4 more doors for me to paint on.  What a nice guy he is.  I'm telling you the folks I've met in Reno are the nicest people...and loyal craft shoppers.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Home at Last


I'm back from my show in Reno and it appears I got out of there in the nick of time.  We left Monday morning and they had snow on Tuesday...whew...just made it.  The weekend was beautiful and the trees were awesome shades of red, yellow, rust and brown...that's a real treat for us Vegas folk.  We left a day early and came home a day late so it was a longer trip than normal but certainly less tiresome.  It was also nice to spend more time with family.  It was my only out of town show this year.  Shoppers were out in full force at McQueen...thank goodness.  This year my friend and split 3 booths, it was a good move and we plan to do it again next year.  Thanks to the ROTC and students that helped move product, set up and tear down...you guys (and gals) were awesome...makes this show so much easier on the vendors.  Looking forward to next year. 

Friday, October 23, 2009

Show and Tell Friday

Pumpkins galore around here this week.  I don't know what it is about a pumpkin that makes them so appealing to me but I love them...and I know I'm not the only one.  I've recently stocked up on faux pumpkins to make a few crafty things.  I really want to make some giant, life size topiaries for the front of the house but until the guys are done cutting trees there's just no sense in doing it.  Soooo, I decided to make some smaller table top versions.  Some are simple, some are made with beaded pumpkins, others are more elablorate.  Which one is your favorite?
I lost count, I think I completed 14 of them in all.  Anyway, they are all packed up and ready to go to Reno this weekend.
I've also completed a few more sets of the lettered pumpkins.  They sold fairly well at the last show.  They are pretty cool too. All of them have been fun to make. 

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Next Show...McQueen Craft Faire

Chores are done and I'm heading out today for Reno...it will sure beat leaving at 3am tomorrow.  I'll participating once more at the McQueen HS Craft Faire.  They do such an awesome job and draw a large crowd.  If you're in the Reno area stop by to shop with some really awesome crafters.  All handmade, and they are really dilligent about making sure of that, which means you'll find lots of one of a kind items, great quality and unique gifts.  See you there.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Show & Tell Friday

I've decided to give you a peek at what's new each week, so...Show & Tell Friday it is.  It was always such a great day at school, the highlight of the week.  I hope it will be a highlight here too.

Anyway...this week I've been painting on skates. I sold out of them at Art in the Park and need to have some for McQueen.  Here are a few of them.
I've also been working on a few other things over the last couple of weeks.


















There are lots of them to choose from with a wide variety of pumpkins that also include Halloween prints, fall prints, plaids, stripes and solids. 
I made about a dozen of these fun scarecrows (pattern from Farmyard Creations) in assorted prints and plaids as well.  They were my jumping off point for the pumpkin patch. 

Friday, October 9, 2009

Tagging your work

Today's crafting topic is 'tagging'. It is much more than just the price for your work, it is information that your customer takes with them after their purchase. One way to look at it is to consider it a small business card. You want your customer to be able to contact you in the future for more products from you.


First you need to consider how you keep track of your sales. Do you pull the price tag off your product to keep track? Do you let the tag stay on the item when it sells?

A central checkout system normally pulls the tags off items and pays the vendors from the collected tags. I do this in my own booth to keep track of sales. If you do this, is there more information than just the dollar amount? Do you put a brief description of the item on your tag? This can be very helpful when reviewing tags to see what sold and what was a popular item. A description can also help decrease tag switching of items by shoppers. If you handle your sales this way you really only need an identifying name or mark on your tags since you'll be the one that keeps them in the end.

I do suggest a tag attached to your items that stays with the items after the sale. If you sew, consider having a cloth tag made with your contact information that could be sewn into the item. Your name and phone number or website would be sufficient for this.

A hang tag is a great way to leave your information on items. Consider a folded tag (business card size) with your information on the inside of the tag with a picture or logo on the front. These could be professionally made or you could design them yourself and print them from your own computer. Hang them with a string tag, small safety pin, or tagging gun to your products.

An address label is another way to include your information. These work great for hard surfaces that will be out of sight like on the back of a frame for example. I always place a label on the back of my signs. These are easy to print yourself on the computer.

How much information you include is up to you. If you work from home you may not want to include your address. Always include your name and website info. I include a phone number and email address as well.
Make it easy for your customer to contact you. Include a business card with the sale, but also have your information on your product.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Art in the Park

It was a breezy (okay windy at times...okay, most of the time) at Art in the Park this year.  Fortunately I was placed where I had asked to be and was next to the building, which blocked much of the wind for us.  We suffered no damage.  At least it wasn't a hundred degrees like it was last week.  With all that's happened in the last year, I shared my booth with a couple of friends...nothing worse than an half empty booth.  It made the days fly by and was good to be able to share and visit with them over the weekend. 
I see customers and friends here that seems I only get to see here.  Sad, I know...life is so busy for us all.  Thank you to all of you for shopping, saying hi, visiting and more.  I appreciate all of you.  And thank you to all my new customers and friends too, I look forward to working with you.  I have to say, it was really cool when one customer said she had been purchasing cookie jar lids from me when I was at the Quilted Bear, and that she has continued to shop with me every year at shows.  Talk about a loyal customer...that's awesome!!!!!  That was a long time ago. 

Despite the economy, I was pleased with sales and people were out shopping and happy.  Retail therapy is a good thing.  I look forward to a good craft show season.  Some wind has been put back in my sails...no pun intended.  So I guess I'd better get back to work.



Thursday, October 1, 2009

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 27th wedding anniversary!  Wow, where does the time go?  I remember our wedding day like yesterday.  We had to schedule around Timm's wedding party's deer hunting trips. LOL  It was much warmer than expected and was hard to keep the church cooled down...not like it is today (chilly and windy).  Didn't get married in a grove of aspens but it was nice.  Not too many of them around Las Vegas.

We did everything ourselves.  Mom, aunts, sisters and I did the flowers, we really had no clue as to what we were doing.  Grandpa and Grandma helped us all with the food, Grandpa insisted on making some little sandwich bites with olives in them...guess I had to give in somewhere.  One of my sisters made the cake.  It was pretty with a wrap around staircase filled with sugar flowers...and candles.  Some of the flowers actually caught on fire...I can look back now and laugh...not at that time though.   A friend's dad did the photography. I even made my own wedding gown.  For a while I thought I would try to crochet one but I really did want to get married while I was young.  Would have made Grandmother proud though.  Can you imagine how heavy that would have been!  John Denver records...yes, I said records for my kids...played in the background at the reception.  Family came in from Texas, New York, Alaska, North Dakota, and more.  Our wedding was the first for my family and the last for Timm's family.  It was a big day. 

We spent our honeymoon in southern Utah.  Timm's neighbor gave us a key to his condo in Brianhead at the reception, it was a delightful surprise.  It was decorated with velvetflocked and mirrored wallpaper, orange crushed velvet headboard and furniture...yikes  He was a painter at Ceasars Palace and apparently had acquired it all from there.  We also camped in Zion National Park.  It's a place we still love to go to now.  We stayed in a stone cabin at the lodge one night...the bed squeaked when you just looked at it.  The rest was spent in a beat up-run down tent trailer.  Good times. 

Here we are today, 27 years later.  We have 2 wonderful grown-up boys, a delightful daughter in law, and our baby girl, Cassy...she's a yellow lab.  Most of our family lives in Vegas, with a few within a day's drive.  We still live at the same address but now own the whole place.  Lots of changes in the last year or so around here.  We've been through school, scouts, trials and tribulations, adventures galore, a wedding, college, family events, remodels (with more planned), and life goes on.  We've truly been blessed.  Thank you, God.  I wouldn't want to do this with anyone else.  I love my hubby, Timm.  (photo:  Chris, Timm, Scott, Crystal (me), and Christy)

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