Snowflake Boutique is over, now I'm working on putting items on Etsy... I'll keep you posted

My craft show, Snowflake Boutique was the 5th & 6th of this month and it has taken me this long to recuperate.  It is always an exhausting, exhilarating, and exciting week of flurry from set-up to take down.  I sold pretty well.  I have a fair amount of items left to put on Etsy, which I am working on listing.  I wish I had measurements of the room the show was in, but it is huge and empty when we start and the same when we leave... but in between it is transformed into a boutique with over 80 vendors and items put in categories like Christmas, garden, fall, kids, kitchen, etc.  After the lattice, tables, benches, & cloths were ready, I ended up setting  up the whole Christmas area by myself  until someone helped me towards the end of the day.  I must say my favorite Christmas area ended up being the Vintage/Shabby Chic table.  I decided to make one table in that theme when I emptied some boxes with lots of pretty goodies that fit together with my bottle brush trees.  Another vendor did lots of vintage looking snowmen made out of papermache and another did some sweet snowmen with old quilt bodies.  I had to have one of them!  I promised I would share some pictures, but I really need to be careful with other people's items, so here are some far away pics along with the fairgrounds sign with our show...I will post in a few days about my Etsy listings and get it all figured out how to add it to my blog.  I have other things in my life on the horizon that I will talk about later; but for now I send you my heartfelt thanks for reading my blog, leaving me comments, compliments, advise, and just friendship in this land of blogs!  What a joy I receive when I discover a new follower or a comment for me from someone taking their time to write.  I cherish them all and I continue to find new blogs that I also enjoy, learn from, or just take in their *eye candy*!! 

Blessings,
Cindy 

I Won the Home and Heart Giveaway...here it is in pictures...

I won the Home and Heart giveaway "Hands of Friendship" necklace; but it was so much more...  Jody made receiving my package a gift in itself.  From the outside package wrap to unfolding each layer of gifts tucked inside and then another behind that, until I got to the actual prize itself... the necklace.  I have never taken so long to open a gift and what pleasure it brought me, especially when I must admit that I was sick with the flu and feeling rather down.  But I won't go on any more about what treasures my package had; I will show you. I took pictures every step of the way to let you see what I saw as I opened my package from Jody at Home and Heart...

The outside box was decorated with this sweet girl!

Upon opening the outside box, I found a lovely box hand decorated with lots of sparkles, a decorated envelope, and a nice package of black napkins.

Inside the envelope was a handmade card with a sweet not from Jody, behind that was some black checked file dividers wrapped with a ribbon and charms...sensing a theme??

 

 

Inside the beautiful hand decorated box was a black crinkle tissue tied with black ribbon, a flower and a beaded hat pin.

And inside that little package was this fabulous little handmade pocket with buttons, bows, glitter, papers, tulle, and beaded trim, ready to hang all by itself!!

Here's a close up... there are even beads on the wire handle!  Sweet!!

And tucked inside the pocket was this special gift...made by Jody!  Isn't it beautiful??

Please visit Jody's beautiful blog at http://ahomeandheart.blogspot.com/.  You may need to copy & paste this address.

I want to thank Jody again for having such a wonderful giveaway and express how honored I am for winning. I will never forget it and will cherish my gifts.  May you find your gifts in unexpected ways this week.. through a friend's call, a child's laughter, a beautiful sunrise or sunset, or in whatever comes your way.

Blessings,
Cindy 

I Won a Giveaway from Home and Heart! Craft Show set up starts tomorrow...

First of all, I WON A GIVEAWAY!  It really made my day to win and then to receive such a wonderful present in the mail while I was sick.  It was the 'Hands of Friendship' giveaway at Home and Heart.  I will be posting pics when I have a little more time.  All I can say is that I have never took so long opening a package... that's in a good way!! LOL!  I say a huge thank you to Jody!  You must check out her blog.  She is a talented lady and has a fantabulous blog.  http://ahomeandheart.blogspot.com (probably will have to cut & paste this)  I will share everything I experienced opening my giveaway gift from start to finish soon.

Well, all the hard work is coming to a close as I prepare for my craft show this week.  I've been tagging & boxing while being sick.  Yep, I got the flu.  I've been sick for 4 days now and finally over the worst of it.  Set up starts tomorrow and it will be a super-duper busy time for all of us involved setting up, doing the show, and taking it all back down again.  I still have more to do, so I will go for now.  I will have pics to show you of more things I made, plus a few sneak peaks of the show.  

Hope you are having a nice November so far...and here is a couple of pictures from last years fall colors I thought I'd share...

Blessings,
Cindy

Wonderful Wedding and finished spoon project... Comments appreciated!

After many months of procrastination (I blogged about these in June!) I finally got my nesting spoons done and ready to bag!  I really am pleased with how they turned out.  I took advice about adding wire and decided some beads & bling would be fun.  I redid the tags also.  I had even more fun & made some with seashells too.  Now the most fun part... pricing... NOT!  LOL!

Blues...

Greens...

Seashells...

My favorite!

How do you like my full size hand embroidered table cloth I got at a garage sale for $2??!!  It is in exquisite condition and I know I will enjoy it for many years to come.


On to the wedding...
Our son, Nathaniel married his beautiful bride, Jessica on Saturday.  It was a wonderful day with some glitches...for one, the minister was sick & arrived one hour late!  It makes a memory we'll never forget, after the stress of the moment is over!  There always has to be something happen that doesn't go as planned!  The weather was perfect for October and there were many family & friends that shared in Nathan & Jessica's special day.  It is such a blessing to meet people that your children know in their every day lives that tell you great things about your kids!  There were several people who told my husband and I about how special our son is to them.  We are blessed to have a new daughter-in-love to join our family.  It was a day full of love, merriment, making memories, and many blessings.   May your week be filled with such as these...



Blessings,
Cindy

Bleached, Dyed, Glittered, Decorated, DONE!

Well I got my bottle brush trees finished and ready to tag & bag.  This was a very messy project with many days of work involved from start to finish.  I had found the bleached bottle brush trees by googling when I had seen one on a blog somewhere.  I wish I could remember where but there have been a lot I've looked at since and many different versions of how to achieve the bleached/dyed bottle brush look on the green Lemax trees.  I tried different ways to bleach the trees, after ruining a bunch of them, I ended up finally finding a process I liked.  Anyway, I had searched many hours at thrift stores and yard sales to find items to use on my trees.  I had gotten a wonderful surprise one day when I went to a newer thrift store, Humane Society Thrift Store.  There was a baggie of vintage glass bead garland, filled full of several different colors for a price I couldn't pass up!  I had gotten a green string of garland at an antique store for much more for just the one string than I paid for the 6 strings!  I was doing the bargain dance inside... outside I was composed (alright I was smiling from ear to ear)!! LOL!  I also had gotten several packages of vintage laces, again stuffed full.  It was a wonderful day in my neighborhood!!  When I saw online how much the garlands go for I nearly fell over & bonked my head on the computer!  So started my endless search for more vintage items.  I got more goodies along the way and found old thread spools to use as bases.  I hadn't seen any trees on spools like that anywhere, but that doesn't mean someone hasn't done it...but I like to think I thought of it in my own little crafting corner.  If someone else has, I would love to see them.  So after many hours of bleaching, dyeing, glittering, and decorating...I finally finished my sparkly trees.  I had decided when experimenting, that less is more.  The trees alone without decoration are pretty enough, but the added vintage was icing on the cake.  I'd love to know what you think.  I wish I could capture the lovely glistening glitter on pictures.    Here's my trees that I plan on putting in the Snowflake Boutique in November...and maybe a sneak pre-sale...

These are 8 1/2 inches tall.

These are 4 1/2 to 5 inches tall.

More 4 1/2 to 5 inches...

These were the tops of the larger trees I ruined... I salvaged the tops.  These are 5 inches tall.

I loved the blues together (4 1/2 inches)

These are the baby ones... 3 to 3 1/2 inches tall.

My baby pastels.

All glittery!

Well I guess that I need to get on to the next project.   I am working on the spoons with nests that I had on a previous post.  I'm adding beads...the beads are a nice added touch that was recommended to me by fellow bloggers.  Aren't online friends wonderful??  :-)  I'll post pictures when they are done too.  Here's hoping you are accomplishing whatever you are working on, whether it is crafting, decorating, or your hearts desire.

Blessings,
Cindy 

Working on lots of goodies for upcoming craft show...

In a few days I'll re-post with some pictures.  I have been really busy crafting, which I'm sure I'm not alone in that activity!!  I am the Jury Chairman for the Snowflake Boutique here in Redmond, Oregon.  We have had a lot of new vendors with some really beautiful and creative things.  I'm going to have a hard time resisting spending money on other people's crafts!  We have two more juries and 3 more meetings.  The show is at the fairgrounds here on November 5th and 6th.  We will be very busy setting up for 2 1/2 days before the show, working during the show, and then the take down on Saturday at 4pm for a couple of hours.  The final chore is counting a & organizing all the tags for checks to be made.  Then the whole process starts again...  But for now I craft!  Hope you are all having a wonderful week!

Blessings,

Cindy 

Life happens sometimes

The past month has brought many things that I don't necessarily want to deal with, but I can't just run and hide.  I won't dwell on the hard times in this blog, but touch on them.  I have thought many times about writing a new post, but just couldn't bring myself to take the time to do it, to create one, to sound positive & bubbly when I just don't feel like it.  I have read other blogs that the blogger got comments that complained about them sharing health issues or some other woe.  The commenter only wanted the fun crafting ideas or decorating designs.  That is sad to me.  If we can't share our ups & downs then we are denying they exist...a perfect world.  Just be happy!  But life isn't like that.  Yes, there are joys, but there are also sorrows.  If we only had wonderful moments in our lives, I think we wouldn't appreciate them as much as when we also have tough times.  That isn't to say that heaven should have sorrows!!  We will be in a totally different realm of understanding then and this world doesn't compare to that.  I think that sharing our ups and downs in life gives other people going through hard times a hope that they couldn't get any other way... a knowledge that they are not alone.  Sometimes sharing a problem can bring an answer or a snippet of help from another person who may have dealt with the same type of pain or sorrow and discovered a solution in their journey.  

Angel Sculpture in Newport, Oregon

I hurt my back this summer and after an MRI discovered that I have 5 bulging disks, two major and pinching a nerve.  This causes back pain and pain radiating down both my legs.  Walking or standing for more than a few minutes brings more pain.  I had a epidural injection hoping it would help my pain, but it didn't help much.  I also have seen a chiropractor twice to try to help also.  That has caused more pain.  I am trying to prevent surgery at this point.  I am waking up about 2:00am every morning in pain and then am restless the rest of the night.  I am using that time to pray for others and for answers about what I should do about my back.

I also have an uncle who is in the process of dying.  He is my mother's last remaining brother from a family of 5 children.  I live several hours away and just try to be there for my mother with long talks on the phone.  

Our middle son is getting married on October 16th.  His fiance & our son have done most everything themselves so it has been easy for my part.  But I will be getting the house ready for company.  All the while I am crafting for a craft show November 5th & 6th, plus I'm the jury chairman for the show.  I have 5 meetings left, then a 4 day marathon of setting up, the 2 day show, then taking down.  There are other things that I won't go into that are also going on.

All in all, I know that God is with me.  His Love Never Fails!  I know that there is a reason that I am going through this and maybe someday I'll know why.  

So now you know my story as it is right now.  I will continue on making my way through each day and thanking God for my many blessings.  There are always blessings to thankful for, even in the dark times. 

Blessings to You & Yours,
Cindy