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Here are a few more pics from the Art Star Craft Bazaar. It really was a great show. If you live in the Philly area and haven't checked it out, you should do so next year! Here are some more pics from my booth:
...and here are some of my friend Laura's booth. She has some really great designs and had a very colorful set-up.
One day of the Art Star Craft Bazaar is complete and one day is left to go! Today was a lot of fun, though definitely a long day when you add the driving, setting up, and standing at your booth for seven hours. I'm really pleased with the results and it was nice meet customers as opposed to anonymously sending them a package in the mail. Here are some pics from my booth (or should I say, my wind tunnel - it was SUPER windy).
Today, I spent the entire day getting my stuff ready for the Art Star Craft Bazaar tomorrow. I hope I remember how to repack all of it at the end of the day tomorrow... everything just fits in all of the boxes. I'm actually hoping that I don't need all of the boxes on the return trip ;) I've never been to this show as a vendor or as a shopper, so I am looking forward to seeing how everything goes down. Wish me luck!
My 2009 New Year's Resolution has been to blog at least 10 times per month for the entire year. The first part of the year was going so well... and then came May. I haven't been too bad, but I really need to post a lot this week to get back on track.
I've been really busy lately; yet, at the same time, I haven't had too much going on. I'm pretty much either busy with my job or busy getting ready for the Art Star Craft Bazaar (three more days left). Luckily, most of my preparations are on schedule and I just have a few more things to wrap up by the end of the week - yay!
I haven't had too much time for new design work, but yesterday, I was able to complete a custom design for someone that wanted use one of my illustrations in their birth announcements. I think I like this newer version of my astronaut boy better than the old one.
More soon!
I started cutting the pieces for these twenty wallets two weeks ago on May 3rd. As of this morning they have all been sewn together, turned inside out, shaped and ironed, and have all had snaps attached. Now, the last step is to stitch around the exterior with embroidery floss. It takes me about 20 minutes per wallet, so for 20 wallets... we're talking over six hours of stitching. Hopefully, they will all be done before next weekend!
Today is one of those gray rainy days (though it hasn't rained yet) where it would seem appropriate to stay in your pajamas all day and spend a good portion of the day horizontally. That being said, I somehow managed to get myself up and out of the house before nine or so. I've needed some clothes for work and decided to go check out the outlets at Libery Village in Flemington.
On the way to the outlets, there was a church community yard sale and I couldn't resist stopping. I found this cool turquoise pyrex-like salad bowl with matching serving utensils. There wasn't much else there, though I did find four vintage 9.5" Fiestaware plates. A few dollars later, I was back on the way to the outlets.
I actually had quite a bit of luck at the Calvin Klein and J. Crew outlet stores. Some great deals and a lot to choose from. Those outlets are hit or miss. The coolest part about my time at Liberty Village was seeing this Richard Scary kiddie ride. If there weren't any people around, there would probably also be a picture of me riding it :)
Yesterday was the Holland Township town wide yard sale. This can be a frustrating afternoon with a lot of driving and parking and LOTS of yard sales with kids toys and clothes. In my book, current kids toys & clothes are followed closely by baskets and country arts & crafts as ingredients for a horrible yard sale!
After a few duds, I eventually found a couple of good sales. I'm not really a collector of most depression glass stuff (it's a little too fancy-pants for my taste), but these items were too good a deal to pass up. They are in great condition and all six pieces were $5 total. The depression glass score was great, but this collection of five old salt and pepper shakers was the winner of the day.
The artichoke was orignally what caught my eye. The guy that was selling them had a whole box of old shakers. He actually asked me if I wanted the whole box and I am kicking myself for saying no. He sold me these five sets for $1 a piece! The artichoke and those lettuce head looking guys are ceramic, the atom bombs (?) are plastic, the bird shakers are wood, and those gorgeous orange beauties are bakelite. I think all of these sets were never used except for the white bombs.
I have to get busy on figuring out ways to display all of this cool stuff I keep finding. As of now, most everything is in closets or packed in boxes. I need some sort of large display to enjoy it all... maybe I will find one at the next sale?
I was really happy to come home from work yesterday and find these happy sweets notepads waiting on my doorstep. I took an older screenprinted notecard design of mine and reworked it into this little notepad. Each notepad is 4.25" by 5.5" and has twenty five sheets of paper and was professionally printed. Each pad is chock full of happy ice cream cones, cherries, strawberries, milkshakes, popsicles, cupcakes, and more! They are available for sale in sets of two pads in my etsy shop.
In preparation for the upcoming Art Star Craft Bazaar, I've been trying to build up a stock pile of my more popular items. Today, I needed to get started on some of my cat wallets... each of which takes me a little over an hour to make. So, having decided to make twenty of them, I am essentially talking about one full day of work without eating, working, or sleeping. Since that isn't going to happen any time soon, I will probably be working on these in my free time right up until the day of the show on May 30th! Today, I managed to get a good deal of the tracing and cutting done... 20 cat heads, 20 cat bodies, 40 little cat eyes, and 40 little cat ears. Tomorrow, I will try and cut the fabric for the wallets and then I just have all sorts of crazy pinning, sewing, and hand stitching to do. Sorry hands, it's gonna be a long week!
I don't know how it is possible, but until a few days ago, I had completely forgotten about the existence of Mr. Sketch scented markers. I remember that my fourth grade teacher used to have some and would break them out every once and a while for us to use... probably when she needed a little mental break because all the students would just start grabbing markers and smelling them over and over again. Imagine twenty or so nine year olds in a blissful scent induced state (some with color marks at the tips of their nose).
I found this box at the rummage sale I went to this past Thursday. They're pretty amazing because they must not have changed the chemical combination since the early 80's... they smell exactly the same as I remember from when I was younger. I've spent the last few minutes smelling them and trying to pick a favorite: a toss up between the melon (pink) and the cinnamon (brown). The worst of the bunch: mint (smells like Listerine) and lemon (smells like bathroom cleaner).
Jealous? Want your own Mr. Sketch markers to bring you into a nostalgic state of sniffy bliss? Well, you are in luck because they are still being made and you can get some here.
