Let's get real...

Okay, I admit it. I SUCK at social media. I'm terrible about posting. 

I HATE PROMOTING MYSELF!!!!!!!

I just want to make stuff. NO. I love making stuff. It's my hobby, it's my wind down time. Do I want to sell what I make? YES! Do I want in any way to make you feel like you have to buy my stuff? NO!

So here's where it gets hard. If I don't promote, you don't see what I'm up to or where I am, if I promote, I feel like I'm in your face making you think you need to show up to my show, buy my things. 

But here I am, wanting you to show up to my show. First though, let me tell you about this show. It's not just about me. I belong to a wonderful group of ladies called Handmade'ns. This group started back in 1977! A bunch of gals, wanting to make things and share their talents. Over the years they have changed members. What hasn't changed is the mission. To put together an awesome pop up of all HANDMADE items. Most years it's only one show, a few select years a Spring show has happened. 

This year we are doing our Holiday Open House the weekend of November 7 & 8th. I do hope if you are in the area that weekend, you carve out a little time for us. Our show is in a historical house in Kearney Nebraska, if nothing else come look at the beautiful home. 

When you look at the collection of Handmade'ns members, you'll see we all have different talents and niches. I'm going to share a little of what I do, without giving away too much. If you want to see the finished product, come to the show... There, see? I'm starting to promote!

I spend the year looking for new interesting things to make. I came across some large paper mache boots and knew I had to have them. What do you think they look like finished?

Trees trees and more trees. I use bottle brush trees in so many of my makes. I'm not a fan of the green color they come in so I usually bleach them white and then dye them to the color I desire.

If you haven't figured out by now I have a case of craft A.D.D. I do not like working in one medium, I constantly change the art I'm working in. Clay always tries my patience as you must wait for a layer to dry to move on. I do enjoy adding little butt cheeks into my characters desings.

Other than crafting one of my other passions is to thrift and treasure hunt. I love repurposing items into wonderful new things. Vintage jello molds show up in a lot of my makes. These tin trees are a work in progress at the moment.

A look into my craft room show you stacks of totes and drawers. I am a hoarder of things. I hunt for treasures throughout the years and keep them until the correct inspiration hits. I might keep something for 15 plus years before I know for sure what I want to make out of it. (It may drive my husband nuts, but he knows better than to comment...)

Having multiples of things happens. Especially if you find things on sale after the holiday season. Trust me, they will get used. Eventually.

And lastly, a few sneak peeks. I've been toting up every thing to prepare for the show so only the things not in boxes are shown here. I've working with greenery and arrangements the last few days according to this picutre.

In these totes we see some of my clay creations on top and fabric items on the bottom.

I guess if I have enticed you at all with all of my ramblings, I'll see you in a little over a week! If nothing else, just come by to say hi!

 

New Things!

I'm back today with a couple of fun things that I've recently finished. These mixed media pieces are truely unique. A lot of the elements that went in to them were made by me.  They have been added to eBay. Click on the photos to go to the listings. 

 

Whatcha Doin Tomorrow?

 So I looked at the forecast for tomorrow... it's going to rain. Which is a good thing. Right? At least it isn't snow. We've had enough of that recently. 

 

So we've established that it's going to rain. Gardening is not going to happen this weekend. (it's too early for that anyways) So what are you going to do? I know, I know!

You're going to come and see me at the Vintage Spring Market! I'll be at the Kearney County Fairgrounds in Minden tomorrow from 9-3. And you all have to help me out. It's going to rain (we've established this). You don't want to put me in a position where I have to pack all of this up and take it out to my car in the rain... Right?

There are a lot of fun things, if I do say so myself. I have handmade and vintage/antique items in my booth.

Besides, my booth, I did get a sneak peek of some of the other booths. LOTS of awesome things. Seriously, you're missing out if you don't check this show out.

 

And I'm still cranking out stuff tonight. Just finished this one of a kind piece.

Hope to see you all there!

New Video and Ebay Listings

Today I actually had a day where I could stay home. ALL DAY. The whole day. Well I guess the day isn't over so I hope I didn't just jinx myself. It is very rare to not have to take someone somewhere. I think the kids have enjoyed it too. I've barely even seen them, they're perfectly happy lounging in their rooms. Oh how times have changed. 

So... what have I done all day? I actually (gasp) made a crafting video. I am so rusty when it comes to making videos! It is a horrible one, but it's been shared, so there is no going back now. If you are wanting to spend 20ish minutes getting dizzy on my fast speed altered tag making, check out the video here:

ALTERED TAGS 

 

Once I finished fiddling around with movie making, I finally took some photos of my recently finished works and got them added onto Ebay. Check out my listings HERE.

I also was able to finish some cups this last week. I had some special orders, so I worked on some new ones for my upcoming craft show at the same time. These will be added to my website later tonight.

I'm itching to get back to creating, so that's all for now!

 

More Antiques and I Need Help With a "What is it?"

More collections today! 

These buckets come from both my mom and I.  Who doesn't love little buckets. It's hard to imagine that this is what you used to buy your groceries in! I believe I have another one or two of these in my decor. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with these yet.

Another fun group of items are these wooden containers. The one on the left is a two sided measure. I have had it for year. I don't even remember where I got it. You can measure out two different sizes, depending on which side you scoop with. The middle piece was something my mom picked up. Just a large scoop bucket I believe. There is a hole for hanging it up. I can see it being something used in a barn a long time ago.

Now the piece on the right came from my mom's collection. I do not know what this piece is or was used for. A round cylinder of wood. But the pieces wrapped around to make the shape are different sizes.

This picture shows the pieces from the top.

Here are two more pictures of the "what is it"piece. The wood is bent in uneven portions around to make. I didn't know if it was some kind of mold? Or just a use what we have bucket? Let me know what you all think.

I hope to have some more to share soon.  A lot of my spare time has been spent cheering on these two. 2 more games and then we are on to track season!

 

Being Busy, Antiques and Works in Progress

It's 2024! I looked back and I did a horrible job blogging in 2023. Probably my worst year. So what happened in 2023? Well, my mom passed away after a long battle with cancer. We all knew it was coming, but I wasn't ready. Not by a long shot. I still reach for the phone to call her daily, then remember I can't.

One of the things my mom and I liked to do together was go antiquing. We collected a lot of the same things, that led to many debates when we found something we both wanted. A lot of the time she won, telling me it would be mine later on. Well here we are, later on. These last few months, I have been slowly moving her antiques in and marrying them with mine. It's going to be a long process and I am going to part with many things. Some originally mine, some hers. 

So I figured this would be a good time to get back into blogging, and record the process. There are a lot of items that are family heirlooms. I know some stories and some I don't. This will be a way to document things as I go along so they can be remembered.

I will also be posting items for sale on my website and blog as I decide what I'm parting with, so if you are also a collector, keep an eye out for more posts.

This first photo is of my entryway. All the items on the dry sink were either my finds or my moms. We love primitive treenware as you can see. Measures, pantry boxes, bowls and boxes.

I have started organizing my items in like groups, and snooping around online for others with similar collections.  First up, wooden utensils. I have a lot more than my mom did in this category. While I was looking online, I saw an article on washing your primitive pieces. I had actually never washed them. I've picked random things up here and there and shoved them in a crock or box for display. Since I had them all out together I figured I might as well wash them. I'm glad I did! They show off their age better when cleaned.

I almost didn't take a picture of the water after, because it was super gross. But I then figured what better way to show why they should be washed!

While I was washing I rinsed out some of my old salt glazed crocks that will house the utensils when they dry.

The second collection I want to share today are firkin buckets. I love having a large stack of these! After combining the collections, I do have multiples of different sizes. So some of these will be up for sale soon. Also, unfortunately I do have quite a few without lids.  The smaller ones in this photo got washed to possibly help hold some utensils... 

As part of my recording process, the wooded butter churn next to the buckets had belonged to a family friend in Odessa, NE, Esther J. Holoubeck Reynolds. My husband purchased it for me at her auction. She told him she remembered as a child having to churn butter with it. The stick connected to the dasher is worn down where it was repeatedly run through the lid hole.

Now, on to works in progress:

I have been commissioned to make a small rabbit for a collector. So while I have my clay out, I've been working on a few other pieces. Hopefully these will be completed soon.

And lastly I have been working on some more cards to replenish the spinner rack at the Central Merchantile downtown Kearney. I hope to have the cards there tomorrow afternoon.

To close up this (long) post, I wanted to mention that I will be participating in the Spring Market Show in Minden, NE on April 6th. I will have a mix of handmade and antique items for sale. 

Until next time... Stay Warm!

Works in Progress

I'm back today with some works in progress. It's been quite some time since I've posted. My mother lost her long battle with cancer in April. Since then I just hadn't gotten into my craft room much. I've had special orders and little things to get done here and there, but the full out creativity to make new things just wasn't there. Partly because of the busy schedule we keep with 3 teenagers, but also, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I spent a lot of time just doing nothing. And that is not me. I'm not a chair lounger or idly lay in bed kind of person. I like to keep busy with projects. I have to believe there is a correlation between my loss and my behavior. My mom was rediagnosed with cancer late 2019, which means she went through the bulk of her treatments during the Covid breakout. Because we couldn't be together much we spent a lot of time on the phone. I talked to her every day for hours. I also sent text pictures of what I was working on. For a long time I just didn't have it in me to create. Maybe because I couldn't share it with her. Anyway, I really didn't mean to unload all of this in my post. I just wanted to say something about my long absence. 

On to today's WIPs. I missed the last two shows I was planning on doing, due to getting nothing made. The next one I'm hoping to do is Labor Day weekend. For this one I am planning on bringing mostly Christmas merchandise. So time to design new things! I was given some small rusty buckets. I thought making some funky trees to have "growing" out of them would be fun! I drew up a tree and made it come to be.

I'm never certain if my paper pattern will come out right once it's sewn out of muslin. The tree was a happy surprise. I liked the look once stuffed and painted. The finished look will come later on. In the pic below there is an extra thing on the tray...

Last year, I was working on a new snowman design. I had quite the time getting it right. When you draw out a pattern, it may look good on paper, but once you transfer it to fabric, sew it and stuff it, it can look completely different. Here are some of the tries I did to get my design right. Mind you, in the end I got the look I was going for, these were just the rejects.

Today when I was making my Christmas tree design, I mixed up some green paint. My cast off snowmen were sitting near by. This is where lightning strikes... These funky dolls would made great Frankensteins! One down, 4 to go.

In the end, it feels great to get back at it. I needed a respite I suppose, but now I think I'm ready to move on and bring my creativity back out.

 

Recent Works

I switched from working in fabrics to mixed media on canvas'. I was able to complete a few new ones. They are all on my website so go check them out! Click on each photo to go to their page with more photos.

This last piece I entered at gallery and it was picked to be in a show. If you are local and haven't been to the Brickwalk Gallery, make sure you take time to visit. They do some art classes from time to time, I'm hoping it works out for me to make it to some soon. They have a couple calls for some future shows, if you are interested in submitting check out their facebook page.

 

Wednesdays Works

Here in central Nebraska, we have a SNOW DAY! As of now, there is at least 6" of the white stuff and it is not going to stop for awhile. 

So I am hunkered down in my craft room working on things for my upcoming spring shows. I've turned this box of stuffing...

 Into this box of bunnies awaiting paint and stain.

The other day my kids were in a basketball tournament. I was able to bring some stitching along to work on when they weren't playing. I completed 3 simple oval designs that I was able to add to finished boxes today.

Fun springy designs mixed with primitive fabrics.

I slightly stuffed the lids to make them more of a pincushion top.

These will be available at my shows coming up in March and April. More on those shows later!

If you are snowed in today as well, I hope you are also able to make the most of it!

 

Still Making Cards...

I have a few more cards to get done before I switch gears, so I thought I would share a few more with you.

The Doodlebug Designs stamp set I was using in the last post had this layered cake in one of the sets. While it could be made to look like a birthday cake, I decided to turn it into a wedding cake.

I did some pretty simple designs, letting the cake be the focal point. I only colored the embellishments of the cake, covering the main parts with my Wink of  Stella brush for a beautiful shimmer.

I just wanted to add this work in progress.. Most of the time when I'm trying to get work done in the craft room I have music playing. Sometimes I put youtube on my tv and watch other makers at work. One of the videos I just finished was from Jennifer McGuire showing inking techniques. The cards were gorgeous. I especially loved the beveled diamond embossing folder ones.

The next day my daughter wanted to go to Hobby Lobby to look for something. I found myself in the die cutting isle. I don't know for sure what is going on there, but every last die, embossing folder, and accessory were clearanced. And they were highly clearanced. So of course I HAD to look through them. And what was there... the beveled diamond embossing folder from Spellbinders.

Ahhh.... so beautiful.