Halloween is tomorrow, Thanksgiving next month, but these are what I”m working on….Christmas

I’m thinking the tree ornament needs something. I might have to line the white edge with something. Love the chicky. I think I’m going to make some Christmas chicks to go with the ornaments. And this fellow isn’t done…he needs something. Anyone have any ideas?

There are several other things done or part way done. I have only 3 more weeks to get everything made and finished. I’m getting really excited about my first show but at the same time a little nervous because a lot of booth and people that come are more into primitive country, maybe they need a little breath of fresh air, happy colors and smiles. Lets Hope.

I just dropped in to let you know…anyone who is waiting for a package and swap from me, that it’s on it’s way. 

I finally made it to a few printers the other day. One was helpful and encouraging and the other, not so much. I’m excited about this journey and hope to share my experience with you. Maybe you can learn with me. There are only 2 printers in my little town so I thought I’d try them first. The first one I visited was very nice and helpful. He really liked my product and felt there was a market for them. He also added that if his wife saw these she would “Just fall in Love”. Those were the most encouraging words I could have heard. The down fall was he didn’t have the press to capture the look I wanted. My guess is that I will have to take a digital picture, maybe some touch-ups and possible have it printed using a pdf file? He did know some friends that were in the printing business and he was going to get a hold of them and see what they could do for me. He is suppose to get back with me this week.

The second printer, well I can take a hint when I’m not really wanted…LOL He did mainly business logo’s and sports items so my cute red elephants and blue check puppies were probably pretty silly to him. He copied it and said this is what I can do for you?? There was one good thing about that store, the lady behind the counter really liked them and said I should get into the towns craft show coming up next week. I decided to pass on that show as I’m still trying to get ready for the one coming up in November. It suppose to be a real nice one and the fun part is for the first time ever, I’m going to have a spot right beside my mom. As a young teen I helped her a few times but this is great to share these time with her, Willingly this time around. So Christmas here at my house has come early, with stockings, snowmen and little putz I’m making. And if I can find a printer, I’m hoping to get some Christmas cards out, using vintage fabrics of course.  So I’ll leave you with a collage print I’m working on using this fabric.

WOW, Where did fall go? I woke up to freezing temperatures and saw glimpses of snow today, YEAH real snow!  That was OK because I was in company of my lovely sister.  We sat chatting and crafting over warm cups of Chai tea. She made a cute little pouch using this poodle fabric and I made more Halloweenish craft.  I tried to make his ears small but I just couldn’t turn the thick felt. My sister said he looks like a weird bat, so I guess he’s a Batty Cat. This pattern is on a calendar that was a nice little extra in a Cotton Time magazine.  Check out this announcement on Crafting Japanese about ordering these and other great japanese craft magazines.

I went to the printers yesterday. I will post about that later.

This morning I went to the kids and ask them to give me a number between 1 and 10. My daughter quickly said “five” and then she added “five always wins”, while giving her brother a look of ‘ha-ha’.  My son after a few moments of thinking told me ”seven”, then they stared at me waiting to hear who and what they had won.  They were a little disappointed to find out they were not the winners, but after I told them they had picked the winning names for a fabric drawing, they were excited.  So much that they wrote there numbers down on a sticky and stuck it to the computer screen so that I wouldn’t forget. So comments 5 and 7 won, The WeirdBunny and Touch the Spindle, you are the winners. I think that I may do this again in about a month, as I’m still trying to seperate what I really want to keep.

Speaking of games I’ve had this book for awhile and thought it would be fun to share a few of it’s pages which I found quite amusing. It did however make me feel pretty uneducated in the playing games area. I always thought it was call “Blind man’s Bluff” but they call it “Blind mans’ Buff”. I guess we learn something new everyday. And then spin the bottle, I thought was a kissing game when I was growing up, but it actually started out as a primitive 8 ball game, Who knew? You ask a question and instead of shaking the 8 ball and then looking into the little window waiting for the yes, no, maybe so answer. You ask your question and spin the bottle waiting for it to land on the person to which the answer was suppose to be.  I made the pictures to small, so if I get time I may, not for sure but MAY enlarge them so you can see the cute details of the retro style pictures.

It has a few of the normal games like these,

Then things start to get a little strange, POISONED BALLOON.

And this one stuck me funny, FROG IN THE MIDDLE. I know my kids like to play Monkey in the Middle

A couple of these games would great for a Halloween party, like CATS MEOW or the MEWS-ICAL, which must have been a favorite as it has a read check mark beside it.

A few more that seem to catch my attention, are the BEAN LIFT, can this really be done?

 

And then we have SKIN the SNAKE, I can see boys loving this one and moms not so keen on it, as they try to remove the large grass stain out of there back side.

Here is a piece of fabric I found in the bottom of a bag of old fabrics. It reminds me of the Denyse, Flea market fabrics. I wonder if this was one of them that inspired her line?  It has a strong musty smell so I am going to try this that I read on Blairs blog. If that doesn’t work, I will sadly have to throw it away as the smell is just to much. If anyone else has any suggestions to removing the odor, let me know.

Well, once again I have been cleaning out closets, drawers, cabinets, boxes. This seems to be a monthly thing for me. I completely understand what Nesting with Style meant when she said a “10 year cleaning.”You would think that my house is piled sky high with junk. It’s not but I have a knack for hiding things out of view but just because I or anyone else can’t see them doesn’t mean that I don’t carry there weight. Sometime it’s almost consuming. Does anyone else ever feel this way? I have taken several bags and boxes to the donation bins(again). I’m surprised they don’t start calling me by my first name. This time around I’m really wanting to remove, remove, remove. If it doesn’t inspire, help, improve, needful, encourage I don’t want it. I want to stay focused on making a good supper, best cookies in town (or at least let my kids and husband think so) , reading a book here and there, having fun with my children, more canning and gardening, and my art. A lot of things I’m giving away are nice things just need to be with the right person. Mixed in with some of that stuff is a lot of fabric. Most of it will be going here, thanks for the link Be mused. But then there is some I would like to offer to you guys.  If you would be interested in getting in one some great fabrics new and old, as well as a few other things threw in for fun, just place a comment to this post. I will be drawing names of the few lucky wins. I think what I will do is take the number of comments, ask my children to pick a number between 1 and what ever it may be and those will be the lucky gals.  I will announce the winners next week.  Speaking of fabrics,

 I just can’t get enough of animal and kids fabrics. 
 

But I’m not new to liking animals, especially the wild kind, next to a soft cuddly pooch. When I was teething I had a giraffe we named Jerome. How I remembered him? I still played with him when I was older. I looked for one when my kids were growing up with no luck, until my youngest was almost out of teething and then I found Sophie. I never did buy her but I have seriously thought about it. Then as an older toddler I moved on to my LOVED monkey George. He went every where with me, as you can tell by his almost 30 year old worn face. My mom said there was one time I had lost George, I was in horrible fits, I had lost my most valuable treasure. She looked every where to only come up empty handed. and was exhausted from looking and hearing the desperate cries of a 4 year old. That evening when preparing supper she reached into the frig and found my furry chimp!.
 

There is one thing that I lost this week that can never be brought back and that was my most loved Grandpa. He lived over 6 years longer than the doctors predicted. He was loved by many, many people. I have never meet another person like him. I only wish I could be half the person he was. Never a mean word, patience like I have never seen. Really! Always a helping hand. And a sense of humor like few had, he could always find good or funny is a sour situation. I was so so blessed to have been his granddaughter.  Our loss is his gain. And he saw where he was going before he passed, he lifted up his eyes to the heaven, raised his hands to the sky as the tears ran down his cheeks.  My grandma asked why he was crying and he said he was happy, while a peaceful look was on his face. The next evening he passed away. He has ran his race and he does rest from his labors. I know he lived his whole life for that but we still miss him deeply.