ME!?? Unimportant!!!???

One of my blogging and crafting heroes, Casserole, has tagged me with the challenge of sharing 6 unimportant things about myself. This could be difficult, since I'm such a narcissist I probably will believe anything I think of to be of HUGE importance. But I'll give it a shot. (Yes, that's my tongue in my cheek)

1. I wear a size 8.5 or 9 shoe, and they grew from a size 8 after I had my first child. I would have preferred that my boobs stayed bigger, but no one asked me...

2. I have a thing for men with dark hair and goatees. I just realized this after seeing Iron Man and drooling all over myself for Robert Downey, Jr. I already had a thing for the jello-knee-inducing Johnny Depp. Thankfully, Hubby meets my requirements for desireability.

3. There are some things I just have to pay brand-name prices for: Jif peanut butter, Kraft mac and cheese, Coca-Cola products, and Cottonelle t.p. Perfection just can't be duplicated.

4. I was named after a street in a southern California town where a great aunt lived. (Laurie Lane), and the gypsy woman sharing a room in the maternity ward with my mom (Michaela).

5. I hate licorice and cream corn. Seperately, not together - although that would be nasty too... I'll eat just about anything else, though. Unfortunately.

6. The first car I bought myself was a 1987 Toyota Tercel. Steel blue metallic. I guess if I still had it, it would be vintage and I could sell it on Etsy.com. Not in the handmade area, of course - I'm sure someone would report me to the admins.

I'm going to tag my brothers, Brian and David, and a couple of my favorite bloggers - Marcy and Fria.

Vintage lamps!

I'm in love with vintage lamps, and I feel an obsession blossoming in my gut like a craving for chocolate covered almonds or an infatuation with - who else!? - Johnny Depp. (although R.D. Jr. is running a close second for my crush right now...)

I picked up a couple of fantastic wooden lamps quite a while back, and promptly stuck them out in my garage because I have no idea what to do with them. They have bamboo trim, and a criss-cross pattern of thatch. VERY tiki room!! I would love to use them in the house, but I've already resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to find a lot of fabulous things in my hunts and rummaging, but some of it will have to be treasures found for others. Hence the business, right??

Last week I broke down and bought a couple of incredible turquoise lamps from the 1960's at my favorite thrift store, Samaritan Shop, in Springdale. They were a steal, and apart from needing a little new wiring (for safety's sake) they are pristine. One is going to go to work with me for my desk, the other one may be held onto for retail use later. I found a little shade to go on the one I'll keep and need to get it re-vamped. It's got a hand-sewn silk cover, but some hideous trim. The trim will come off, and I'm thinking of painting the silk, or dying it somehow.

Oh, it's fun to have a new object of my affection.

Blah...

It's been a few weeks now since the craft fair my sister and mother and I participated in, and I haven't even touched my sewing machine since that weekend. It's not that I've been too busy, really. I have had plenty of evenings available, I just haven't wanted to make anything.

Maybe it's because I only sold one bag at the fair. I was pretty discouraged, and frustrated - I thought that they were great (I know they are great) but am not sure why no one else feels that way enough to pay for one.

Or maybe I'm just so busy learning my new job and getting all that part of my brain up and running again, that I don't have any synapses left for creativity. Probably, it's a combination of the two. My lack of space on my inner hard drive feeds my feeling of frustration and I shrug my shoulders and say to hell with it. Admitting I have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?

Hopefully it will pass. I can't just let those stacks and stacks of fabric sit there forever...

Craft Fair vs. Swap Meet

When I was growing up my grandparents had a booth at the War Eagle Mill craft fair here in NW Arkansas. Grandpa was a cabinet maker and sold beautiful cedar chests, quilt racks, spice cabinets, rocking horses... to name a few. Grandma painted many of the things he made with her incredible tole painting. Both of them were primarily self-taught artists, but their talent was such that they shipped their items all over the world to people who bought them at the fair.

Lately, I've watched a trend that I'm not happy with at the craft shows I've attended. There are booths full of items that are NOT handmade, and sometimes, not even crafts or art of any kind. This was the case last weekend at the Spanker Creek Farms show that my sister, mom and I participated in as vendors.

I could probably count on one hand - MAYBE two - the number of vendors who actually made the items they were selling themselves. Now, granted, the application for this show did not require that the items be handmade. But they did say they didn't want the booths to look like flea market booths. So, that specification makes me wonder why there were vendors at the fair selling SUNGLASSES!!?? Or - my personal favorite - 400 count "Egyptian Cotton" sheet sets. In plastic zipper bags. What the....???

I mean, I've come to terms with the people who sell relishes and soup mixes, and the ones who buy canvas bags and tee shirts and use their pricey machines to sew monograms and cute little sayings on them... but sheets and sunglasses were pushing my buttons. There was a woman across from us who was hand-lettering wooden signs to be hung over your tiki bar or on the outhouse door, but at least she was putting paint on something, even if she didn't make the signs herself!

Needless to say, the crowd was horrible, and our sales followed... we won't go back there next year, even to shop. Am I wrong to fantasize about arts and crafts fairs that ARE what they SAY they are??? Come on! We have to get back to honoring the roots of our craft... pass these swap meets up and seek out the legitimate handmade fairs - it will be worth it.

...continued

It was threatening rain as I got Griffin up and dressed this morning. We grabbed a couple of pieces of cinnamon bread, dusted off the wagon, and headed down the street to my favorite thrift store, the Samaritan Shop. It had started sprinkling when we got to the store fifteen minutes later, and by the time they opened it was coming down pretty hard.

It was the first day of their “50% off of everything” sale, and I was determined to be there when they opened at 10 a.m. Not that a lot of other people would be eager to dig through the pile of pillowcases and out-of-season clothing… but you never know. Besides, they were offering free cookies!

I headed straight to the fabric section, where I’ve found some sweet deals in the past. The offerings there were pretty picked over, but the pillowcase cabinet was full-to-overflowing so I picked up a dozen or so at a quarter a piece. Several white and cream for linings, and a number of vintage prints as well.

I scoped out the sweaters on the clearance rack, but there wasn’t much left. I added several nice ones to my stash recently – some bright colors for appliqués on bags and aprons. I did snag a few oatmeal-colored ones for future Snowfolk bodies. I won’t be working on them for a while yet, but I need to start thinking about the raw materials I’ll need.

Then, I headed over to the men’s pants and women’s skirts and picked up several nice things. Some corduroy, some tweed, and a skirt made of floral fabric that I know some craft fair-goers will enjoy next month.

Extra goodies I picked up included a little chalkboard to use in our fair booth, several vintage scarves, a set of four vintage napkins, and a fitted vintage Star Wars sheet for Griffin’s bed. All in all, a great haul for $39 and some change. And, it quit raining just long enough for us to enjoy a nice walk home enjoying the birds and spring flowers.

Tonight, the newly repaired van that was supposed to be left unlocked with the keys under the floor mat was not. Wasted trip to Fayetteville, hectic evening made more hectic, and now a hectic morning to look forward to tomorrow. Thanks Lewis Ford. Good thing I had a great day of shopping to keep me mellow.

To be continued...

I'm the kind of girl who likes to put pictures in her blog posts. I know my readers enjoy seeing projects I'm working on, or supplies for projects I'm working on, or just pretty pictures in general. I like to please them - my benevolent readers - but tonight I have only words. I will follow up with pictures tomorrow.

I got a perfect piece of mail a few days ago! It was a postcard from my favorite thrift store saying that tomorrow through Saturday they are having a "50% everything in the store" sale! Not only that, but the card was orange, my favorite color. It was a sign.

I was slightly bummed that I would have to miss out on the first day of the sale because I work on Thursdays. But then I took my van to the dealership to have a funny light checked out... Lucky me, it's still in the shop so I can walk to the thrift store tomorrow since I'm staying home from work. I'd like to think the promise of scoring some half-priced vintage linens and wool sweaters makes the broken vehicle worth the trouble... but I don't think I can suspend reality quite to that level. I'm no Britney Spears.

I'll report on the shopping tomorrow night - wish me luck!!

Etsy love and free fabric!

Hubby and I were shopping for a sectional to put in our dining room-turned-media room. We found a winner at Brashear's in Springdale, and as we were talking to the salesman one of the other sales people, a woman named Debbie, admired my bag; this one:

So, I spoke right up and told her I made it myself, and I sell them as well. She had me write down my etsy shop URL, and then noticed my sweet ring from Block Party Press... so I put her shop on the list, and added my sister's for good measure.

In return for my great marketing ability, she went to the back of the store and got a pile of discontinued fabric samples for me to add to my stash! Score! And, she told me to check back on occasion, because they discontinue fabrics pretty regularly. What a deal... sectional on sale, possible sales in my shop or at the craft fair I'll be at in May, AND free fabric.

Now, if I wake up tomorrow 10 pounds lighter I'll be ecstatic.