THE BEST TIME OF YEAR

OH YES....FALL, been a long time coming!!!
I'm not one of those warm weather fans, anyone who knows me knows this. Fall could come and STAY!

I have news about my business - I FINALLY decided to stop doing shows.  It's just getting way to hard to do the set up and take down. A show off property is hard enough but when it's in your home it really takes a whole lot of effort.  This is the first year we asked for help taking furniture and things out and shop displays and products up from the basement. When it gets to that point then it's time to stop what is taking you down.  But once the decision was made I felt a relief come over me.
I LOVE doing the show, making the products and seeing my wonderful faithful generous customers - oh my customers....they were so surprised at this revaluation but so agreed.

But that being said, YES, I will still make things as I go along.  Just when I feel like it...sell it...move on to something else.  I want to concentrate on making more of my Civil War era penny rugs and designing punch needle (they have taken a back seat lately).  SO ONWARD I WILL GO and happy about it.

We are trying now to get a vacation in the books.  Nothing big, nothing fancy - just go someplace we've put off for quite awhile.  Thinking it might be the New England states.  It makes us feel so comfortable going that route, seeing nature, antique shops, prim shops...oh what fun is ahead!!!!

This past Saturday was our last show.  We had a fantastic turnout and the weather was perfect Fall weather!!!
Looking at the pictures they aren't that great and it looks like stuff just put anywhere but in person it worked!!!
We had things in the family room, den, kitchen, bath and dining room and all the garlands and dried items were in our E-Z UP  tent. Plus some of the garden items were by the courtyard.

The pictures were taken right after finishing setup - then it was tweaking time...move this here and that there. 

LOL, I see the last remnants of my donut on the counter - and Doug still needed to put the Open flag out.

A friend of ours lets us come out to their place in the country and forge in their acreage for whatever we can find.  We love dried things!!!  We found tons of wild Rose Hips that I de-thorn and remove the leaves, then I bundle them up with kraft tissue paper and tie with twine.

Rose Hips all tied up

Doug is always in charge of the outside and I think he did a great job 'again'!!!

A dear dear friend always give us his dried grungy sunflowers...I LOVE THEM in displays.

Dividing up the cornstalks for all the fence corners

Bundling them up!!!

Corn all tied up for the fences

One thing I did different this year with the gourds was to dye some.

I used Mahogany leather dye, then Briwax....they turned out just beautiful.

A few I did with an undercoat of red then the Mahogany!
Depending on the natural color and patina of the gourd it made the colors come out all different.

So I don't really have a more to chat about because we have been so busy with the show prep this past summer.
I think blogging will get better now that I'm not tying myself down.

Happy Fall

Karen and Doug

SO MUCH TO OFFER AT OUR SHOW!!!

Time is growing short till the Oct. 5th show.

I have been working non stop making more merchandise.

This week it was hand drawn gift tags and leaf/fruit wreaths among other things.

Our face pumpkins called

'The Rejects'

were so much fun to make - I made over a dozen a few weeks ago
and then last week a few more, plus some plain ones.

The ones that don't sell at the show will be posted here and on my
business FB page so if you want one speak fast

when they are posted because they will go fast.

Just a few of the finished products

I will be taking orders for these gift tags as of now.
Email me if you want to order.

Click on the sheep on the right side of page.

They will be available after our Oct. 5th show.

The 8 Snowmen/Christmas are 8/$16 plus shipping

The Willow Tree and Pineapple are $2 each plus shipping.

These are my designs that I draw freehand and paint.
No rubber stamps used!!!

There is soooo  much more than what I'm showing here!!!
Oh and don't forget all our wonderful
Gourd Garlands!


If you live close enough to attend our show here's the information.
It's not your 'granny's craft show with
crocheted doilies, dish cloths, jewelry...none of that!!!

FRIENDSHIP!

Helen Keller wrote: 

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.

How very true is this....friendship is so valuable and I enjoy the friendship we have here in blogland...

I don't post as often as I would like and I don't get to visit your blogs like I want to but know

that I think of all of you often - I miss the chats back and forth.

I would love to designate one hour a week to doing a post if I can get my work schedule like I want it.

I have been working every day from about 8 am to 5 pm on products for our October show. One would think making things every day one would be caught up...nope....some items take a process. It isn't just stitching something and calling it done. Many of my products have stages.

Last month (wow...it has been OVER a month now) since my last post I've made several

other products for the show besides the Gingerbreads and Pumpkins.

The most time consuming are my sheep and rabbits - oh I'm loving how they are turning out.

My sheep have real sheeps wool that I attached - I just need to add the legs and paint on their eyes.

They started out with just coffee dyed batting as their bodies but I didn't like them

so searching in my stash I found wool roving I have had for years and they look much better.

I made 4 mama's and 4 babies - because of the time consuming steps I won't be making more.

And these fellas were fun too - I had a problem with their ears standing up but finally got smart and added tons of Mod Podge to the aging liquid and walla!  We used cinnamon sticks for the legs.

Look at those fluffy little tails! 

Another project I loved doing were the SUGAR CONES

I had a hard time finding the right size vessel to form them until we were grocery shopping

and I saw these perfect 8 oz. plastic tumblers - they turned out great

after some trial and error in the ratio of water to sugars

Took a couple days for them to dry so when they were I sanded off the dried white sugars and softened the edges and tied them up with aged cheesecloth

Just a few things I've made - I need lots of small lamp and candle mats - people like to buy smaller  and less costly items sometimes so I like to make several of them

  

The Gingerbreads are going to be ornaments, the snowman heads

are for runners and pillows and the cats and sheep will be for runners.

I found this set of mache stacking boxes at a rummage sale last month - they were from 'Lang' and had some really primitive sheep scenes on them but I bought them to cover them in fabric.  They are really small - the largest is 4" tall and the smallest 2". They weren't easy to work with being so small.

On Monday we went to Madison to the wholesale show and we found just a few 'handmade' items.....I can't make EVERYTHING for our show, especially things like these. My talents aren't that creative or maybe I just haven't given myself the chance, regardless, we bought a few items for the show.

This particular one is a bag that hangs on a door or a knob.

We do have a few more items that will arrive in July 

sometime that will be in the Christmas line.

Well I guess I have bored you enough today - but being it is storming out I thought this would be a

good day to sit and relax and share some things with you.

The 4th is coming fast and it feels like we hardly had a summer.

The last 2 days were soooo hot here and very humid but those kind of days are rare this season - 

if it isn't cold then it's storming.

I'm not a Summer person so the cool days are fine with me...

Be safe with your 4th activities

Karen