We are pretty much just baking cookies and hanging out the rest of the year.
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xo
Andrea
make time to make.
I had my last holiday show on Saturday night - a trunk show at Lazy Jane's. Chad and I were both able to go this time, yay! The show was organized by the Wisconsin etsy street team which happens to be an awesome group of people. I have to say that for a short event (5-9pm) it had a pretty great turn out of shoppers. Chad sold an original drawing and people were definitely picking up lots of gifts for the upcoming holiday. This is also the first craft show this season where I've been able to do a little shopping and I took advantage! I found a few great gifts and a couple of things for myself, too. Yay!
Chad's going to brave this obscenely cold weather and take a box of goodies down to Anthology today. We've been so busy with shows lately that we've been neglecting them so it's time to restock! I'm hoping to get downtown for some last minute gifts before Christmas next week. Wow…is Christmas really next week?!
I still have lots of fun things in my etsy shop and listed some new and awesome Star Wars items over the weekend. My kids helped me tear and cut some of the images for these. I think that we need to work with them to make them understand why we rip up some books and not others, though. Lars was reading one of his books yesterday and just started ripping the cover off (it was a little rough looking but not ready to ditch!) and when I asked him why he was destroying the book he was totally nonchalant about it and said that he just wanted to rip it. I tried to explain that if he wants to rip a book he needs to ask us first and that we only rip up the books that mommy and daddy have set aside for crafting. I hope that this sunk in because we have a LOT of books that I would rather not have torn into pieces for the sake of art!
Okay well if you're in Wisconsin I hope you're staying inside today because it's COLD out there! Have a lovely week!
I had big plans to print a big batch of tote bags, a small batch of onesies and finish a custom order that includes 3" buttons. Well, I literally couldn't find ANYthing I needed to finish any of those projects. I was missing the right color of ink for the onesies, can't find where I tucked away the tote bags to print on, and I've managed to misplace the mylar covering needed to make the buttons. Grrr! Things are just not coming up Andrea tonight.
Instead of scrapping my crafty day entirely I decided to give up tearing apart my house to find the needed crafty stuff and work on different projects. I decoupaged 3 pretty frames, listed a few new things including this french text mirror in my etsy shop, and finished up the items I'm using for the swag bags for upcoming shows.
So it all worked out okay. But...I seriously need to get organized. How many times have I said that on this blog? A lot.
But for serious this time.
I made this little card the other day. It's simple and makes me smile. The brown and the tree print make this have a definite autumn feel so I guess I'm not exactly on the ball if I'm trying to be seasonal.
Fall is too brief. So sad.
This 'mix it up' magnet set is my reminder that I need to stop mixing up my priorities this week and get busy! The messy house and random projects can wait, it's time to kick out the craft!
My first holiday show is next weekend and I'm super excited. I'm hoping to finish up some more inventory before then but time is short so I'm going to try to keep it to a handful of projects: printing bibs, printing more 'i'm totally into' bags, making and packaging one more batch of magnets/magnet sets. This along with all of the heat setting/tagging/packaging should keep me plenty busy in the next week!! I'm even thinking of taking a day off from my regular job just to have a relaxed day of crafting before next Friday. Hmmmm. There is just not enough time!
Have a lovely Wednesday everyone!
I am feeling my dark and brooding winter blues coming on already and I'm trying like hell to fight it. I had a long talk with my BFF jessi today and sometimes just talking to someone and reallllly venting makes a big big difference. I actually feel better having spilled all of my random frustrations to her. Thank goodness for good friends.
Luckily I've been too busy with etsy orders and preparing for upcoming shows to get myself in too much of a funk. Tonight I packaged a few orders and got my packing supplies organized in preparation for the (hopefully) busy upcoming holiday season. I really need to get printing this week so I have a decent amount of inventory for the shows coming up. I made Chad promise me that he'll help me print and heat set tomorrow. We have a show next weekend already, gaaah!
Oh! My cupcake tote was featured on cuteable today. Yay!
Okay that's all I've got.
I scored these adorable vintage owl figurines at the thrift store yesterday. Aren't they sweet?
I also spent literally an hour cleaning two gocco screens last night (it's tough when you let them sit in the fridge too long, ugh) and printed a small batch of cupcake onesies and a small batch of owl onesies. This weekend and early next week I plan to print tote bags, bibs and possibly new shirts. Then I will be all gocco-d out and ready to send some items off to consignment shops and hopefully be closer to being ready for upcoming shows.
That's the plan. I'm sticking to it.
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
I know the picture isn't the greatest, but isn't it CUTE? I colorized Chad's cupcake design that we used for the tote bags and made it into a sweet BIG magnet. It's available in my etsy shop along new star wars pins and other fun stuff.
I really can't believe that our first winter show is in just over 2 weeks. Does that mean it's going to start feeling like winter soon? So crazy. Well, I am going to try to get my supplies taken care of this weekend so I can make make make up until the DIY Trunk Show on the 22nd. I don't have much for inventory now so I'm planning to make LOTS over the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck!
This picture is from a national geographic ad from the early 1940s. The ad was about the manufacturing boom and why manufactured is better than handmade. The text and goofy picture totally crack me up. Enjoy!
Since I can't do custom pins at the shows this weekend, I made a big batch of random stuff that people may or may not be totally into right now.
I think I need a SLEEP DEPRIVATION pin for tomorrow.
make time to make.