A Country Christmas Show

This really is the most enjoyable show to participate in.  With a selection of some of our best local vendors, a pleasant and enthusiastic crowd and a great location that includes easy accessibility for loading and unloading…it’s an all-around great show!

One of the things that I really enjoyed was being with friends.  There are so many great vendors and shoppers that I call friends {my parents even came to this one to see me! :)…way to go mom and dad, thx!}.  Some of the friends who stopped by were Boho Gals…ladies who have participated in one of my Boho Art Retreats.  I love all of these growing friendships and look forward to opportunities to connect.

Here are a few of the pictures that I took over the weekend…all from my booth.

A journal…just for ME!

For years I’ve enjoyed assembling journals…customized just for…ME!

There is so much functionality in a journal made just for YOU.
uniques papers, tabs, pockets, embellishments…Oh, my!

For Christmas, my sis and I gave our mom The Cinch.  She had taken my journal workshop at one of my art retreats last year and loved making her own journal.

I hadn’t had a chance to use this sweet little tool so I borrowed it to finish this journal that I had made for myself.

The result:  I loved it!  ♥            {I need my own!}

…designed for Bσhσ business.

I love it…I just like to look and it and touch it and thumb through it and put fun things in the see-through pockets…

enjoy the little things in life…

Fall beauty & new creations!

The beauty that I woke up to this morning nearly made me gasp.  It’s possible that waking up when it’s daylight helped to frame my morning better than my average waking-up-when-it’s-pitch-black ‘normal’.  Someday my ‘picture taking’ skills will improve enough to actually capture the beauty of the scenery that surrounds me!

Here’s a fun creation that journeyed from mind to reality!  I really like it…a lot!  With some ‘time’ I could make…well, 60 of them because that’s how many silver rings that I have.

But for now I’ll relish in my one-of-a-kind ‘E’…for Elaine.

all comments left during this month will enter your name into a drawing

new idea…turned reality~

I have a friend who challenges me to move in directions that are slightly out of my comfort zone.  However, she has a way of making them seem easy.

She’s gifted in nearly every area that I’m not.

Chances are she’s even gifted in many areas where you aren’t.

As a matter of fact, she owns a back hoe and a dump truck, she can tear apart just about any motor, carburetor and a variety of other things…she can build, wire, plumb and I could go on and on.  Yesterday we went to pick up a 250 gallon fuel tank, with stand, and the poor 80-something-year-old lady said, faintly…”are there just you two girls here”.  My answer was, “yep…just us two girls!”…knowing that with Diane we could absolutely load that thing by ourselves.

We’ve decided that dump diving might be our new thing.  Because of my admiration for the Farm Chicks I told her that we could be the ‘Dump Chicks’ but after doing further research {my thesaurus & looking up gals} I decided that ‘Doxy Dump Divers’ might just work.  Our dumps of choice happen to be those that are near old homesteads.

We picked up a load of barn board this week from a 100-yr-old barn that she helped take down a couple of months ago.

Like I said, she keeps me challenged and, when I have time, I love it.

I’ve been thinking about the above pictured table/bench for a while.  Handling those barn boards made me think about it more.  Yesterday we spent a little over an hour and had it done and then this afternoon I added the paint.  Really, it looks exactly like I expected it to.  I’d like to make about 20 more…

Barn wood racks~

I made these racks for my last show and sold them for $35.

As I finished them up I packed them away and I neglected to do a post on them so today I took pictures of the ones that I have left.

The frames were made from re-reclaimed barn wood.  My friend/neighbor makes garden gates from old barn wood (w/our tough winter we had a few barns in our community collapse).  I took his leftovers and made these frames (w/the help of my friend, Diane).

Each frame includes  a piece of original collage art that has been topped with a 2″x8″ bevel glass and then enclosed with a soldered frame.

~.Θ.~

It was fun to see one of my aprons in this post yesterday.   Joy bought two aprons from me @ the Farm Chicks show.  Sweet, sweet gal.  I have been looking for my post where I originally wrote about it but when I couldn’t find it, it dawned on me that I never wrote one because I didn’t finish the apron.  This was one of the items that I put finishing touches on the night before the show.

Carpenter’s Apron * Retailored

I worked up a new apron this morning using an old carpenter’s apron that I picked up on Monday at our local 2nd hand store {for $1}.

Oh, boy…was it ever filthy.  I soaked it in Oxyclean, washed it with more Oxyclean and then I mended it here and there.

I really love how this turned out ~I find it incredibly fun to work with vintage and re~purposed fabrics.  The main, stripe fabric is from a {cute} jumper that I wore in the 80’s.

I would love to keep this one…but I won’t!

*the only ‘new’ element used in this apron was the thread! 😉

Post #200 & a give-a-way! Yay!!

Here’s a new, fun {thing} I want to make to have for sale at the shows I do this summer.  It is inspired by a couple of things.

1. When I moved to the hills this year, I decided that every trip to town needed to count.  I had to come up with a way to keep lists going so that when I ‘went’ I was ready.  I came up with this idea that has worked really well for me.
2. I made children’s chore charts about 15+ years ago and I have quite a few of the wood boards left.  I really wanted to dump them when I moved but I just couldn’t.  They’ve just been sitting there challenging me to try to come up with a fun & functional use for them, so I combined my #1 idea with my #2 problem and came up with this.
   

   I picked up these clothspins @ a recent estate sale. They couldn't believe anyone would even want them. 🙂 I love how they have been well used & loved. I'll also use them on my own clothes line this year~It's hard to find good clothespins anymore.

a label I made for the back

OK…so this brings me to an important item I need to mention.  Because this is my 200th post I really want to do a give-a-way and it only makes sense to give this fun, organizational board away to someone who could use a little help with some New Year’s organization.  Does that speak to anyone???? Just leave a comment and in a couple of days I’ll draw a name for a WINNER.  Besides, I love to read each and every comment and a give-a-way seems to drag a few more of you out of the woodwork cyber-space.

I’ll also show-off a few of the soldered items that went out today: