HAPPY DAY HAPPY DAY

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! YAY! MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY!!

Pumpkin carving party!

Wahoo, we had a pumpkin carving party! My cousin Sarah and her fiancee Mike came down from Dayton to join us, as did my brother Jeremy and our friend Jeremy J. So much fun! I made a huge pot of GHOULash to give us some energy for the carving action. The girls had a blast! Lydia was all into getting her hands into the pumpkin guts and getting messy. Arlene; not so much. She didn't want to get dirty. But she did enjoy posing with her pumpkin. I took a bunch of pictures and put them here on my Flickr site. Happy Haunting!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! This week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday is all about Halloween, of course! I found some delightfully spooky things! Enjoy!

Little Drac Print $15 by Rustic Goth
Such a cute little blood sucker!

Halloween Shelf Sitter $10 by The Green Pumpkin

I love his toothy smile!

Black Beard the Pirate fake stash $14.25 by Born Lippy
Ahoy!

Witches Brew Painting $2o by Irena Sophia

I think next year I'm going to decorate for Halloween with prints from artists on Etsy. There are so many great artists with cute little scenes such as this one!

Vampire Charm $37 by MomoMatic

This charm MOVES - how cool is that?!

And, an extra this week:

Jack Skellington Wristlet purse $35 by The Green Apples

I absolutely LOVE this purse. I just found it this week. I want it very badly! Jack fabric is impossible to find - I don't know where this crafter found it. I need that purse.

New items in my Etsy shop

I just finished an update to my Etsy shop. I added new dolls and my brand new resin bobby pins. Some of my favorites from this update:

Numbers Girl


Mermaid Girl


Resin Bobby Pin with yellow beads


Black resin bobby pins

Home for the Holidays doll

My craft show Saturday was the "Home for the Holidays" show that benefited the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. All of our table fees went to Habitat, and they were offering an auction of donated craft goods. I found this great hand-made house fabric on Etsy and whipped up a doll with it. I added a little heart button. I think she turned out super cute! She received a lot of attention. I was a little sad to part with her, to be honest!

Craft show recap

I had a craft show on Saturday and it was FUN! It was soooo much better than my last show. There was a completely different crowd of customers and a completely different type of crafters selling their wares. I had great succcess. I sold eight dolls, six pendants, a pair of bobby pins, four magnets, and a pair of earrings. Not too shabby! (last show I sold five dolls and 10 magnets) I had a new display for my pendants - a pink Christmas tree! It was a huge hit! I had had my pendants hanging by themselves on a board, but decided that it might have been hard for people to envision what they were. So I strung them with chain and hung them on the tree. It was very cute!

I didn't have any stupid comments about my crafts either, which was a relief! Last show people kept telling me that my dolls were "slammit doll" which, ah no, they are NOT. I received a BUNCH of compliments on both my pendants and my dolls. I was surprised that I didn't sell more magnets. I was also surprised that I didn't sell more of my brand new bobby pins.

I think I might try to get into one more craft show this year ... there is a show in December that I could get into, but it's outside. I haven't decided on that one because I don't know if I want to freeze trying to sell my crafts! I am looking for another indoor show to get into. I'd love to be able to sell all of my pendants so that I can concentrate on making dolls and other fabric items. However, I'll still do some resin stuff - if my magnets and bobby pins take off, then I'll restock those.

Here's some pictures from the show:

My two tables.


The pink pendant tree! I put the tree on a lazy susan so it turned.


Pendants hanging on the bottom of the tree.


I put my bobby pins on the right side of the table. (yours truly in the mirror!)


Magnets on the left side of the table.


Dolls!


Close up of dolls - I love that cupcake dollie! She has sprinkles on her legs.


I had found these cute little doll chairs at an antique store and used them as a display.

My favorite new Halloween decoration

My dear friend A. made me my favorite Halloween decoration of this year! These pictures do not do it justice - it's a lot sweeter in person.

A., I love this and I love it that you made it for me! I will keep it always!

The stitched text says: "On a clear and starry night, Halloween is such a fright. Witches roam and goblins too. Then home to bowls of pumpkin stew."

Happy Birthday Mike!

Michael Myers says "Happy Birthday Mike!

You better have a happy birthday, or ELSE!"

Awww, isn't that nice, he tied balloons to his knife for you!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

Tomorrow is my dear husband's birthday! He can officially say today, "Tomorrow is my Birthday"* When I was thinking about this week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday, I had the idea to feature a few of the great manly items that can be purchased on Etsy! I picked out these items that would suit my hubby.

Leather Journal - $46 by Lapaperie

I love the rugged look of this. While Mike likes to write in little journals that can fit in his pocket, I think he'd like to carry around this hunk of a journal too. I just noticed that this Etsy seller is from Nova Scotia, where Mike and I stopped on our honeymoon cruise! Awwww!

Teacher's Pen - $15 by Styren Designs

These pens are handmade on a lathe! This pen would be perfect for Mike's task of grading papers. Red and black in all in one.

Bottle Opener Belt Buckle - $25 by Metalogical

Genious! These suckers are steel - ain't nothing gonna break 'em!

Flask - $50 by Moxie and Olive

When life with three girls just becomes too much. Sip in style.

(You are going to have to click on the link to see the picture - Blogger won't let me upload it. What is up with Blogger and pictures these days?!)

Screenprinted Tie - $30 by Toy Breaker

I love the fall-ish colors of these ties!

* Mike had a radio show at BGSU that was called "Tomorrow is my birthday" It was on late. The 2-4 a.m. slot on Wednesday. Which is why I failed geometry. The class was at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Portraits

I was going to hold off on posting these photos because I'm sending prints to family and friends, but I can't help it, they are just too cute to keep secret. The photos are a bit pixelated here, so I've put them on my Flickr site too, which is here.

You'd think I'd be an expert

Since I love coffee so much, you'd think I'd know a thing or two about how to make the stuff. I don't. I can't figure out any type of coffee maker. When I make coffee at home it's either too strong or too weak. This morning at work after I poured the last drop of coffee into my own mug, I did the curteous thing of making a new pot for my office mates. In hindsight, I should have just ran back to my office and pretended like I didn't just drain the coffee pot like I usually do! The coffee in my pot was HORRIBLE! It was dark as tar, and I heard someone pour it into their cup, walk back to their office, and then cough and say EW! (haha!) I need to learn how to master coffee makers.

As a side note, remember when I got mad before because someone stole my creamer? WELL, today, I stole someone elses! heh heh heh. I even opened it - took off the seal and everything. So it would be obvious that I stole some. I am evil.

Etsy is in my brain!

So I wrote my delightful Faux Bois themed Etsy Favorites Wednesday last night (see, I'm sneaky like that, I write it on Tuesday night and then schedule it to appear on Wednesday morning!) and then when I got onto Etsy this afternoon, I was like 'WHAT?! This is my blog post that I'm looking at!!' but it wasn't! Etsy has a rotating list of items that appears on the front page. This one was all about faux bois, and it featured three of the same items that I had! I thought that was a bit freaky! Or cool? Or just freaky that I'm thinking the same as Etsy?

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

It's Etsy Favorites Wednesday time again, and for this week, it's all about faux bois - fake wood. I am in love with faux bois. It all started this summer, when my crafty friend Abby gave me a coffee cup cozie made out of faux bois fabric. (you can get your own here - except mine is sweeter because the reverse side of the wood is a sweet print of a bicycle, but that one is cool too) I found the woody fabric she used and made the "camper" doll out of it. She can be seen here. Wooden legs - love it! I have been searching out cool faux bois stuff on Etsy, and if I didn't put an Etsy-purchasing-ban on myself for this week (ha) I'd probably purchase all five of these items right now.

Would You Love Me Ring by Block Party Press - $18.00

Love the play on words, love how sweet this looks.

Woodgrain Business Card Case by Key Kalou - $18.00

I especially love the fabric she chose for the lining of this little case.

Woodgrain Gift Tags by Ashley Bug - $4.50

I think the next woody doll I sell needs to have a faux bois tag attached to it, no?

Faux Bois Earrings by Pulp Designs - $8.00

So reasonably priced, so cute. A little faux bois jewelry.

Faux Bois Pillow by My Imaginary Boyfriend - $40.00

I WANT ONE OF THESE PILLOWS! I want one very badly.

Major doll sale - hooooray!

I am over-the-moon excited! I sold SEVENTEEN dolls to a woman who owns a business in Tennessee. YAY! She owns an indoor playland called The Monkey's Tree House and has a small boutique store attached to it. She has it stocked with mostly handmade items from Etsy. I am so honored that she wanted to stock my dolls in her shop! I was surprised she wanted so many dolls, but I must admit, they are super cute! She picked her selections from the new dolls that I made for my craft show a few weeks back. Now that my supply has dwindled, I'm thinking I'm going to go on another doll-making spree for my craft show on October 25. The pics of the dolls that I made for the show I put on my Flickr to show her; if you're bored you can check it out here.

Craft inspiration

You've probably noticed that quite a few of the blogs that I follow (the links to your right) are craft related. That's because I can never get enough ideas and inspiration for fellow crafters. Plus I just looove seeing what other people have made! I was totally inspired tonight when I saw this post on Goody Goody, about home-made eye pillows. (I discovered the Save on Crafts site thanks to that post!) I am going to make eye pillows. Filled with lavendar and flax seed. I already bought the dried materials, from Save on Crafts, thank you very much. I already have the fabric because I have a ton of leftover fabric swatches from my insane run of 40 dolls that I made a couple weeks ago. Instead of throwing away the bits of fabric I'm going to put them to good use. The pillows could be used as wrist rests for the computer too. And as a hot or cold pad. Love. It. Maaaaaybe an eye pillow could be my next Two Stars give-a-way item? hmmmmmmm ....

OH! And in other craft news! At my last craft show, my most popular items were my resin magnets. I decided to buy some supplies to make more magnets to take to my next show (October 25). I scored 100 bottle caps for $5 from Etsy! The magnets are quick and easy to make. I'm not going to make 100 of them, but it never hurts to have extra supply on hand. I also had another idea: I'm going to make resin bobby pins for kids and adults. I have short hair, so when I want to make a change for a day, really my only option is to pull the front of my hair up into a bobby pin. I'm not impressed with plain bobby pins. So I'm going to make my own. I got some bobby pins on Etsy and some resin cups for them. Pics below. I'm way excited to get started. I think I'll take those to my show too to see how they do, and I'll definetely post them in my shop. Craft, craft, craft!

This is Goody Goody's eye pillow.



Some of the bottle caps I purchased. Mike could never drink enough beer himself to keep up with my supply demand. I like how there is a lot of variety to them!

These are the bobby pins that I bought. They measure 2 inches. I'll glue my resin part to the base.

These are the resin bases that I got. I'm so excited about these because they have lace edging, which means that the light shines through them and they really dazzle.

I have hair clips in my shop now - the bobby pins will be similar, but smaller. The resin base of the bobby pins is half the size of this one.

A side view of the hair clips. They have an alligator clip on the back of them. Which doesn't really work in all hair types. I'm glad I thought of the bobby pin idea!

Save on Crafts, where have you been?

OMG I just found the BEST site! It's called Save On Crafts, and it's the perfect store for buying in bulk! They have a ton of wedding supply things like apothecary jars for candy buffets at wedding receptions (Sarah!) and boxes for favors and beading supplies and fabric at discount bulk rates and craft supplies like glues and scrapbooking stuff (Amber!) and doll making supplies like the fluff and poly pellets that I use in my dolls! The site is easy to navigate, just type in your search words. I am in love. Save on Crafts, I love you. Oh, the link! Here you go. Shop on my crafty friends, shop on.

What a week! TGIF!

This has been one heck of a week. I for one, am super glad that it's the weekend. I kept the girls home from preschool on Monday because they both had green snot coming out of their noses. Yuck! The day went okay, I went to work, got home, had dinner, everything is fine. Then while we're playing games with the girls, Arlene tells us that her ear hurts. Oh no. Both of the girls had colds since Sunday. Just sniffely noses and coughs, nothing too severe. As we get closer to bed time, Arlene starts really freaking out about her ear, screaming and crying. We put them to bed, and five minutes later Arlene was screaming in bed. Now, you must know that this child does NOT freak out or cry about much. She is an easy-going child, and a tough one too. She rarely complains about something, unless it hurts her a lot. So for her to be screaming, we knew it must have been bad.

We tried everything - I rocked her, she fell asleep but then woke up five minutes later screaming. I read to her, put her in our bed, she nodded off, but woke up screaming. We couldn't take it - it was seriously freaking us out! We figured it was just an ear infection, but she was obviously hurting a lot. So at about 9:30 p.m. we decided she needed to get into urgent care. i didn't want her to be in pain all night. I called our urgent care office, they didn't have a pediatrician on hand, so she needed to go to the urgent care at the local Children's Hospital. I called them, they were "at capacity" for the night, so I was directed to the new Children's Hospital branch about 25 minutes north of us. We got in the car, and Arlene fell asleep.

We had to go to Emergency, which felt a little weird because I knew it wasn't anything too serious, but still, my child was in pain and I wanted it to stop so she could sleep. It took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. We got out of there at midnight - it took us two hours to get treatment. And it was just an ear infection. They gave her some strong Motrin and it allowed her to sleep - she was sleeping the entire time we were there, even when the doctor examined her. She's on an antibiotic, and woke up Wednesday with a bright smile on her face! Aren't kids funny like that - screaming and crying and hurting but then 12 hours later, just fine!

I for one, was not fine on Tuesday. I was super tired and felt like I was coming down with the cold, so I stayed home from work. The girls and I stayed in our PJs all day and rested up. By Tuesday night the girls were restless and feeling better and they were driving me crazy. I was pretty happy to go to work on Wednesday, I know that sounds terrible! They were just all cooped up and ready to have fun. They went to preschool on Wednesday and were fine today. This week just seemed messed up from our late-night adventure on Monday night. This week flew by!

We are going camping this weekend - and going to the Sauerkraut Festival, yay! Miles and miles of crafts! My heaven! I'm so just going to relax this weekend and enjoy myself and the family - sickness free!

* Isn't that picture cute - she was out cold at the hospital so I just had to take a picture. Sleepy angel!