Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Fairy Wings!!


Ellie is a fairy for Halloween this year. She's all pink and tulle with pink sparkly wings!! Thanks to some inspiration from Martha I made the little fairy wings you see above. I made mine a little differently than the ones Martha did, but they work pretty well, especially for Ellie! They are made from 18 gauge wire and an old pair of tights Ellie ripped the toe out of. I'm sure I could have fixed the toe, but this was way better! The best part is that the waistband of the tights is what secures the wings to Ellie's shoulders. No sewing or cutting involved! Add a little glitter paint design and *voila!* you have a cheap pair of fairy wings perfect for Halloween!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Craft Fair

Well, the craft fair did NOT go like I expected. First off, it started with a car accident. You can read more about that here, but basically, it was a bad way to start off the morning. The accident happened about 8 miles from the craft show and rendered my car inoperable. My FIL drove out to get us and we transferred almost all of the craft items to his car and went the rest of the way to the show.


I debated about even going, since the two things I had to leave behind in the Prius were my 6 foot table and my 6 foot hinged screen display (that I'd spent so much time plotting and building and arranging for the show!). That left me with a 4 foot table and a card table, which I had been planning on using as workspace for things that needed to be personalized on the spot. But I decided that we were so close, I might as well head over and see if I could still make it work.

Now, I had talked to a couple people who have attended this craft fair in previous years and they led me to believe that this was a decent sized craft fair. It was described to me as "a really good one." So that's what I was prepared for. I had a 10x10 canopy (like a tent with no sides), and the set up for 12 feet of table space, plus a hinged display screen (at least before the accident). I had it all planned out for a table on two sides of the tent with the screen at the joining corner and a small round table in front of the screen for a (hopefully) seamless display that would rival those I'd seen at Sweet Pea or other outdoor craft fairs I'd attended. Everything was color coordinated maroon and black, from the screen to the table cloths to the baskets and display easels. And we'd planned to arrive early so I could stake out a good spot and have time to set up.

As you can imagine, we spent a good deal of time at the crash site, so we arrived at the craft fair just about 15 minutes before it started. Imagine my surprise, then, when we pulled up and I didn't see anything that really looked craft fair-ish. In fact, all I saw were two card tables with vinyl table cloths on them - one held candles, and the other was empty. I was shocked, and sort of speechless, to say the least. Apparently, there were supposed to be a few other vendors, but they were all driving in together and one of them went into premature labor, so none of them showed up. But still - a craft fair with less than 10 vendors? All told, there were 3 of us. I had paper crafts, another had soy candles and picture frames, and the third had beaded barrettes and Mary Kay. The others each had one card table with items, so I felt crazy for being prepared with as much as I brought! I didn't feel too badly about not having my 6 foot table, though, and I used the card table, round table, and 4 foot table to hold things. I didn't put up the tent, though, since it was nice in the sun, but a chilly in the shade.

Embarrassed though I was to have made such a big deal out of this, only to find it tiny, I still took pictures for you guys. And I set up my stuff by a bunch of hay bales so I could use them for a little display space, too. So... Here's what my set up ended up being:

There are a few things about my display that I do like, and if I ever do a craft show again (which is unlikely, at least for an out of town craft show) I would like to remember. I like the case I used to display my paper bag albums. It's storage and display all in one. It was an old cassette tape holder that my grandpa had - I swiped it from the garbage pile last time I was in Texas. =D


I also liked displaying some irregularly shaped things (tags and smaller cards) in this 2-drawer unit. I picked it up for $1 at the Holiday Festival (another craft / antique show) last year. It usually holds my paints in my craft room, but I like it for this purpose, too.

I'm also a big fan of these baskets I got at the Target $pot. They're in the back, raised up. They aren't as clear in this picture, but they worked really well and looked really good, I thought.

Here's a close up of the card table display. I used some easels ($ store finds!) to hold up cards and an album. The scrapbook pages (in the ziplock bags) on the table were supposed to be hanging from the display screen that got left behind, so I just stacked them on the table for lack of display space.

So... it didn't turn out like I expected on the display front. And it certainly didn't turn out like I expected on the craft fair front! However, I DID sell enough to recoup my costs (except for the crunched car...) and even make some money. And I DID get a lot of compliments on things, even if a lot of people didn't buy stuff. It always feels good to be complimented. All in all, though, I think I'm done with out of town craft fairs. I might look into a booth at the farmer's market next summer, but we'll see. Right now I'm in the process of listing everything on etsy in hopes of still selling some of it. I personally like the stuff, so maybe someone else will, too.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Thanks

... for answering my questions, guys! I traded in all of the change I've been saving ($78 worth!) for bills at the bank, plus the random cash I had in my wallet and came up with...

27 - $1 bills
20 - $5 bills
7 - $10 bills
2 - $20 bills

It's not exactly what was prescribed, but I hope it will do. A majority of the items are priced at $10, so hopefully that will be easy for people. I guess we'll find out tomorrow!

And I will DEFINITELY take pictures of my booth once I get it all set up and ready to go. I've been plotting and planning, so I hope it turns out nicely!!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Quesion...

Okay, for all you people who have done craft fairs (Jaime!!) or garage sales (Dana!!) before, I have a question for you...

How much money for change am I supposed to bring with me? Since I have no way to accept credit cards in person, I can only accept cash or checks. Checks are obviously not a problem as far as exact change goes, but how much cash should I bring with me for change? Everything is priced to the dollar, so I don't have to worry about coins. Help?!

It's all of these little things that are starting to get to me... Ack!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

I need to start a list...

Pretty much all my crafting time lately has gone toward getting ready for the craft fair this weekend. I'm getting close to being ready, but I haven't gotten any of my own scrapping done. In months. So once this craft fair is done, I'm scrapping like there's no tomorrow!!

So I need to write a list of pages that I need done. I'm going to hole up in my craft room with list in hand and my 2ps book of scraps open and I'm just going to do one layout after another until I'm all scrapped out. I've got plenty of pictures to deal with from Ellie's first year and I'd love to finish her first year book one of these days. Maybe I'll have to tackle just the 2006 pictures first. I doubt my happy scrap fest will happen until November (I'm having my own little retreat with a couple friends - no kids, just scrapping for 2 days!) but I DO want to pull out my SPS October kit and participate in the challenge this month. So I've got to do that by Oct 30th and will have to get on that RIGHT after the craft fair.

So... I need to write a list. Because I have GOT to get back to scrapping.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Karen Day

Karen Day is my new favorite scrapper.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Scrapdragons Challenge

I'm participating in my first Scrapdragons challenge ever. This challenge is called the...


... and goes something like this. Make two or more spooktacular cards using the same ingredients. They can be identical or just similar, but that's the gist. So this is the card I made - three times over. All of the goodies on these cards came from the treat bag I received from Andrea earlier this week. She's got the BEST goody bags ever and all this stuff was just perfect for 3 Halloween cards. Thanks, Andrea!!

I used puffy bat garland, felt bats, black and orange metallic tinsel, and Trick / Treat tickets. They're simple (and shiny, though you can't see from the picture...) and fun and I love 'em!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Cleaning...

I'm working on cleaning up my craft room. We (hopefully) have out of town guests coming in this weekend, and next weekend I have the craft fair. I still have a few projects I need to finish up before the craft fair, and I will be abducting one of my tables and transporting it for the event. Two reasons (three if you count my vanity and desire to give the full home tour this weekend) to have a clean craft room. It's on today's list.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Two Peas Update

Okay. I'm done pouting about the new site design. I've started to relearn my way around. So last night and this morning I...

.... updated my gallery!

In the process I learned that I still have a bunch of layouts to stitch together before I can post them. Erg.

And I want to scrapbook again. I haven't scrapbooked in... wow... um... since early August. I just looked it up. That's embarrassing. I seriously want to scrap.

In about a week and a half I have my craft fair, so once that is done I should be able to get back to scrapping. Real scrapbook pages - not just cards. I've been doing cards like crazy the last few months. It's time for a break. I need paper therapy.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Pumpkin Party!



On Thursday, Taylor and I had a pumpkin party! We pureed pumpkins to freeze and use in pies and soups and bread. Mmmm. Anyone have a marvelous recipe for pumpkin soup? We're thinking of having a pumpkin soup fest next...


Tuesday, October 09, 2007

How do you like them apples?


Let me tell you about 'them' apples. Glorious. Wonderful. And all but rejected.

You see, last week Ellie and I went to Rocky Creek Farm for a bit. And while we were there, I asked if they had any apples for sale. The girl said she'd check and then came back to say that, yes, they did. For $.50 / lb I could dig through the apple bins outside and pick out whatever I wanted. So, armed with a bag, I headed over to the bins. The apples weren't puny, as most seconds I've seen are. They were nice apples. Some had cosmetic blemishes, but nothing that I could see would affect their flesh. So I picked out some apples.

I picked out 8 lbs of apples, to be exact. They were Jonathan apples, with the exception of one smaller green Jonagold that I decided to add at the last minute. I felt sorry for the little guy.

You see, all of the apples in these bins were going straight to the juicer to be turned into cider. These were the apples who were rejected as firsts, or even seconds. Poor apples.

BUT... when I got home I learned that they were not only decently sized, they were crisp and delicious, too! They were glorious. Even Ellie thought so. So I took my $4 worth of apples and I made a batch of crock pot apple butter for Leif. Then I filled the dehydrator with apple slices for drying. With the apples I had left, I made a homemade apple pie that we ate for dessert last night.

So how do I like them apples? I like them a lot. And now I'm sort of curious to know how the cider at Rocky Creek Farm turned out.