Another Christmas Past

All the presents have been wrapped & unwrapped, cookies eaten
and alot more memories made!

One of my favorite Christmas decorations is my Christmas Mice.

My next door neighbor growing up was also my kindergarten teacher (and my husband's also!)

and she made this darling Christmas Mice Choir.

I adored playing with them when I would visit her house & she gave them to me

one year for Christmas. Since then they have graced my piano each year & hold a special place in my heart.

Hope you had a very Blessed Holiday Season & wishing you

a Very Happy New Year!

A Mind is a Terrible thing to waste!

You can probably guess why I make organizers & notepads!

I HAVE to make lists and write down what I have due & when.

I used to be able to remember alot of things before children.

Somehow things like people's names, my phone number & even my age

have been lost in my brain somewhere & replaced with things like

where my oldest son left his jacket, where is the match to the shoe

we can't find, and did someone let the dog out????????

I organize what we are having every night

so when I go to the store with my lists I get everything I need.

I have to do lists and even a calendar on the fridge to keep track of who goes where & when.

So what happened???

I wrote on my to do list to make cookies for the teachers, I even made the cookies, packaged them up & printed out the recipe!

I just wrote it on the wrong day!!!!!!

Maybe I need glasses?

Happy Holidays!

That was quick!

I finished my craft shows so for the season so I have been

listing my extra inventory in my Etsy shop.

The other night I listed this magnet set and then ran upstairs to tuck

the boys in bed, kiss them goodnight & relish in some quiet time!

When I returned downstairs & checked my views,

the set had already sold!

Thank you Whipstitch!

You can check out her neat Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6442881

Don't worry, I have more neat magnet sets listed at Etsy!

http://www.bittybooks.etsy.com/

Polar Express

The son's class is doing their Christmas Party at school in the Polar Express theme.

They will wear their pj's to school, drink hot chocolate, watch the movie

and eat goodies. The teacher asked for a craft for the kids to make and

I volunteered to come in & help the kids make a little something.

I picked up some foam ornament shapes for the kids to decorate, but the more

I thought about it, the less I liked that idea.

So in keeping with the Polar Express theme, I decided to make tickets

for their 'trip.'

I found a vintage looking train gif and used that as the graphic for the ticket.

I printed the tickets up on gold paper and after cutting them out, inked the edges in gold.

I then decided to have the kids make little 'travel journals' of their trip on the polar express.

I have been cutting out mat board for 22 kids and decorating the covers so they can make their books. I will cut all the pages and have the parts ready to go so at the party they can assemble their books, punch the holes and bind them for a little keepsake of their day.

We can add the tickets in the book too!

I am going to bring in lots of ink pads so the kids can ink the edges of their book & pages

to age them. I have alot of scrap paper , rubber stamps & stickers for them to use to decorate
their books too.

I have one more week to get all my items cut before the party, will post pictures of the class with their finished books!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

Every year at Thanksgiving we all gather at my Mom's.

Aunts, Uncles, Cousins come from all over for the big feast.

This year we won't be able to make the trip and neither will alot of Aunts, Uncles

and cousins so I am cooking at home for my family.

There were so many of our traditional favorites that

I love, but with a small family it just was not possible to make it all so I had to

decide which ones made it to my Thanksgiving menu!

I asked for every ones favorites and started planning.

My sons requested turkey with legs, so the turkey breast was replaced with

a turkey big enough to feed 12! My husband requested sweet potato casserole,

my oldest requested broccoli , cauliflower and chocolate cake! I was hoping for broccoli casserole, but I will make caraway cheese sauce to pour over my cauliflower & broccoli! My youngest son asked for mashed potatoes instead of our usual rice.

One dish that has been my favorite since I was a little girl is my Mom's fruit salad and it just wouldn't be the holidays for me without it!

I also love it for breakfast too!

Here is the recipe for the fruit salad, hope it becomes one of your favorites too!

Mom's Fruit Salad

3 apples diced

1 16 oz can pineapple tidbits (save the juice)

1 can Mandarin oranges drained

1/2 cup raisins

2 bananas sliced

1/2 bag mini marshmallows

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 small pack instant banana cream pudding

Mix apples, raisins, oranges, pineapple and marshmallows in bowl.

In a measuring cup mix mayonnaise, pudding and juice from pineapple

til smooth. Pour mayonnaise mixture over fruit and stir.

Before serving, add sliced bananas and mix.

Hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Game Weekend

My sister & brother in law live in Columbus, Ohio and we are headed up tomorrow to go visit and see the OSU vs Michigan game Saturday.
I had the opportunity to go see an OSU game last year, but my husband has not. It is quite exciting to see & I know he will really enjoy it.

The kids really want to go, but I do not think they can sit in the cold for the whole game.

My sister has planned alot of other fun things around the game that I think the kids will enjoy, I know I am looking forward to them!

We will get there late Thursday night so we can sleep in Friday morning!!

Friday afternoon is an OSU pep rally and we are trying to get to the band practice also.

My oldest has just started band this year & both boys love hearing the OSU band too.

After that we will grab dinner at the Ghanna Grill, one of our favorite burger places, then head to Pickerington to hear the Michigan band play.

Early Game Day we will try to get into the skull session to hear the OSU band. After that we will go to the stadium and check out everything, get pictures with Brutus and checkout the tailgating parties!

When it is close to game time my sister & I will head back to her house with the kids to watch the game by the nice warm fire & no lines for the bathroom!

Something New!

I have had several requests at craft shows for a Birthday Book so I finally sat down and started creating one! Here is my first one that I just listed in my Etsy shop.

I made 12 sections for the book, one for each month.

I choose to split the month into two pages, 12 pages in a book just seemed

a little too thin for this size book. On page one of each month is numbered

1-16 with a space to the left to write in all the names of people who have Birthdays or anniversaries that day. The second page is numbered 17-29, 30 or 31 depending on the month.

I choose a daisy print paper that has an aged look to it and keeping with that aged look, I inked the edges and stippled the pages with gold & black inks so they would look a little aged too!

Inside the front cover I also added a sewn pocket to hold a book of stamps or maybe a few small cards too!

I think on my next one I will not make the dates more of a number with line beside it instead of table form. What other changes do you think I can make to improve this?

Lunch Date Day!!!

Since we had kids it seems harder to get to schedule date nights with my husband.

The weekends are filled with either household chores, family activities, traveling

and is over so quick it seems.

For the past two years my husband & I have set aside Wednesdays to meet for a lunch date.

The kids are in school so no sitter to worry about scheduling either!

It gives us a little one on one time to talk without interruptions and reconnect.

Nothing fancy, not a long date, but a hour with no little ears listening in on our conversation!

It is amazing how much we can talk about in such a short time.

I would love to hear how you sneak couple time in your busy schedules!

Please post a comment & share!

TeamSC Holiday Hunt

All these wonderful items were handmade by members of TeamSC to go in our Handmade Holiday Stocking that we are going to give to the winner of the 2008 Holiday Hunt that begins tomorrow!

Be sure to check out the rules for the Hunt at our TeamSC blog at

http://scstreetteam.blogspot.com/

Since we only have one stocking to give away, all those with correct entries will be eligible for special sale promotions at several of the TeamSC shops!

My Etsy-versary

Today is my 1 year anniversary of opening my Etsy shop!

I listed my first items and my etsy addiction began.

Doing My 'Home' work

My Mom, after retiring, moved back to live in the house that my grandmother grew up in.

The house has been in the family since it was built in 1839 and when Mom moved in the house she wanted to update a few things.

Growing up I had heard stories of my family that built the house and about life there in the 1800's, but it never really hit 'home' til my Mom began work on the house.

The house had one closet that was original to the house and over the years changes were made such as adding a kitchen to the house and raising the roof on the second story.

If you go in the cellar you can see where they chopped down trees to use as the foundation, the logs still have the bark on them. Also upstairs there are little doors to attic storage areas where you can see the original log cabin style to the house.

The house was built by Thomas Young Greenlee and he is in the picture above standing under one of the oak trees in the front yard. Thomas & his wife had seven children (4 boys & 3 girls)

One story I often heard was about how Union Troops camped on the front lawn during the Civil War and they left behind some of their things when they left.

When Mom was redoing some of the ceiling in the dogtrot downstairs she noticed something

stuck in between the joists in the ceiling & pulled it out.

What she found was the Union sword left behind when Stoneman's Troops camped on the lawn during their raids in the spring of 1865.

In third grade, they learn about the Civil War. I was talking to my oldest son's teacher & told her about how we found the sword from the Civil War hidden in the ceiling at my Mom's house.

The teacher was very excited about our find and asked if I could bring it in for the class to see.

This year my youngest son is in the third grade & his teacher remembers me bringing in the sword a few years back & asked if I could do it again for her class.

I have been going through old photos to bring of Thomas Greenlee & his family, some newspaper articles about the Stoneman Raids and accounts of it from books so I can

tell them the history of the sword & the family who lived then.

It has been a great learning experience for me and when I go up and visit Mom

now it is almost like stepping back in time.

Thank you Sweetie!

I have a show this weekend and my sweet hubby has been such a trooper with all my requests for help and then some. When I had my first show, he made me weights so my tent would not blow away. Not only did he make the weights, but being the engineer he is, he designed them so I could easily attach them and even hunted down little bungee cords so they would not be knocking into other things. When I make my clipboards, it is my hubby who seals them for me.
He built a special board so they are off the ground and quick to dry. I get my hubby to seal them because he is much better with the can of spray sealer than I am and he understands what I want!

I made some magnets for a show a couple of weeks ago & they really sold well, so I have been making lots more for this show. The display I used in my previous show was a 10 x 10 punched tin picture that I covered with paper because it was just too country!

It is now way too small to display all these magnets. I told my hubby what I needed & my deadline and he made me a new frame with a smooth tin insert about 2/3 bigger than my old one.

Thanks Sweetie!

Love You!

The Candy Witch

My oldest son has a severe peanut allergy. From day one when we found out I have been creative with things I can do to keep him safe, yet still do all the other things like all the other children. Halloween was my biggest challenge. Dress up and go door to door collecting candy that 90% of it is unsafe for him to have.

It wouldn't be alot of fun to dress up and not ring the door bell & get to go out with friends.

My solution,

The Candy Witch!!!

All kids have a candy witch, but they don't know it.

You leave your stash of candy with Mom & Dad for safe keeping and when you get up the next morning, or home from school it seems a little lighter than before.

It is the candy witch, she comes & eats it!

Our candy witch was a bit different.

After trick or treating all the candy was put in a bag & placed on the

front porch as an offering to the candy witch.

When she arrived, she would inspect the goodies & if she found them acceptable, then would leave a small present in return.

This went over so well that after 3 houses my son was begging to go home so the candy witch would come! This year will probably be the last year the candy witch comes & I am a little sad.

My son is growing up too fast & I will miss the excitement of them trying to get a peak at the candy witch!

Just like Mom used to make.....

There are certain foods that remind me of my childhood and that bring back memories of growing up. Sunday lunch my Mom would make Sally Lunn bread & I remember it rising on the stove when we left for church. Christmas morning Mom would make a candy cane shaped coffee cake for breakfast, our week at the beach house always included a lemon pound cake.

When I graduated college I received the classic better Homes & Gardens cookbook which my Mom used quite a bit. Although it is a great cookbook for just starting out, it didn't have alot of those special recipes .

I started writing down my favorite recipes in a little notebook several years ago because I was not too fond of keeping them on recipe cards that I seem to easily misplace. When I began making notebooks & organizers I had a request for a recipe journal. At one of the first craft shows I had a very nice lady was looking for something to write down all her recipes for her daughter in law to give as a present. I knew from the one I use what my ideal recipe journal should include! The one I use is not really organized, I have my M&M cookie recipe right next to my chicken & dumplings so I added tabbed sections! I also added a pocket inside the front cover to put recipes that someone gives me til I have the chance to add them to my journal. Since then I have added them to my craft shows and Etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14908270

I have also started two for my sons. It will be awhile yet before they are out on their own, but I am adding to it as they grow & learn to appreciate my squash casserole! I like to leave notes about the recipes too, like which ones were their favorite when they were 6!

Another thing I love about the recipe journal is that it is hand written by me. I am one of those who save old letters, there is something about the handwriting that

makes me feel like they are still close by.

Learning Experience

I have been playing around trying out new things for a little change of pace.

One of my boys laid a glass disc on my work table and I have been moving it around

my papers thinking magnets would be fun to make!

While I was out at the craft store last week I picked up the supplies to try a few.

The magnets I picked up were not very strong so I checked out a supplier on etsy

who had some rare earth magnets & ordered a few.

I packed a little busy box for me to work on while watching my son play football & off to the field we went.

I made quite a few and had them all spread out on top of my box getting ready to attach the magnets. I had a devil of a time getting the magnets apart, they ARE strong! I gave that job to my hubby beside me.

So I start putting the magnets on and these things are like Mexican Jumping Beans!!

If you get too close to another one it will jump, which in turn makes me jump, which in turn ends up with a blob of glass, glue & magnets stuck together!

It takes awhile for the cement to set up too!

You should have seen us driving home with me gingerly holding a tray of magnets & hubby trying not to it any bumps, potholes or quick turns!

I think I like less stress in my crafts!

Something Fun!

I saw these neat clear little pails awhile back and knew they would be fun to make into a cute decorative container. I played around with one and made it into a teacher themed goodie pail so I could give it to my children's teachers for the holidays or teacher appreciation week.

Last week I had a request for one of the banks in my Etsy shop to be custom made for a gal who makes these awesome cupcakes. (check out her blog http://www.cupcakeshop.blogspot.com/ )

!!!!!warning it will make you VERY hungry for cupcakes!!!!

Well I have a habit of running across different things and altering them as in the case with the banks. So I couldn't make any more like those, I asked if she was interested in turning the pails into banks instead.

Now the fun part!

The pails had solid tops, just like a paint can, and I needed to make a slot for the money to go into. Talked to my hubby to see if he could cut one with a dremmel tool, but he was worried about messing up lids trying to get it just right.

He did come up with a good solution though! One of the machinist where he works owed him a favor so he took the lids to him after I marked where I needed them cut & did a wonderful job cutting out the slot!

The banks were so much fun to make so I ordered more today to make for upcoming shows in October. I am going to owe that machinist some homemade cookies!

Thanks for the inspiration Charity!

Lucky!

I have an unusual hobby or past time that I started when I was about 5 years old.

'Aunt Lou', who was a next door neighbor who babysat me when I was little, and I were out in the yard one day. She stopped at a patch of clovers and asked me to help her find

a four leaf clover. As a 5 year old my attention span was very short and I gave up after a bit.

Aunt Lou played a trick on me! When I wasn't looking she pulled off a leaf from a clover and

stuck it in with another to make it look like a real 4 leaf clover! I was surprised and she said I

had to be patient and take the time to look closely or I never would find one. I took that as a
challenge and ever clover patch I came upon I would scan in detail for four leaf clovers. Soon I was finding them left & right! Everywhere I looked seemed to be a 4 leaf clover and sometimes

when I wasn't looking there one was staring back at me.

Last night at my son's football game I found three more. My husband is just amazed by this.

I was going to meet my best friend for lunch. Buzzing down a back country

road, thinking about all the things I need to do, errands, orders, who needs to be where & when.

I see a familiar car coming from the other direction and it is slowing down really fast.

Just about that time I see the 35 mph speed limit sign!

Too late!

I pull over with those blue lights flashing and start digging for my license.

I have not had a speeding ticket in almost 20 years.

I am going to be late for lunch now and I can't speed off after this!

The Highway Patrol officer was very nice and asked if I had seen the speed limit sign.

I said yes, but I saw it too late!

We chatted a bit while I was trying to find the registration and off he went to his car.

A few minutes later he returns with my paperwork & that little slip of paper.

A warning ticket!

That is lucky!

Geography Lessons

I love it when I get an order (or two!) at my Etsy shop! Not just for the sale, but I use it as a teaching tool! Etsy reaches far & wide across the globe. My boys love hearing about where my Bittybooks are off to live & I like learning about where they go too. So far they have traveled coast to coast in the US (still waiting to hit all 50 states) and to Canada twice! I have another that is hoping to travel to Australia soon! My oldest did win the school Geography Bee last year in 5th grade & did advance to the state finals as one of 100 4th-8th grade students!

How it all started

I did not start out to make handmade crafts to sell online or at craft fairs.

Believe it or not I was a Home Economics Major in college!

I majored in Food & Nutrition and had enough course for a Minor in Chemistry.

So, how did I end up with a little shop on Etsy doing Craft Fairs??

My Sister.

My sister took some pottery class for fun. After awhile she began to sell her work and took the big leap, quitting her day to make pottery full time. I would help out with her craft shows.

For Christmas two years ago, I made her an organizer so she could keep her show information together until she got back to her studio. A section for contact information, one for orders, one to jot notes, an envelope to put checks in for deposit and another for receipts for tax purposes.

I personalized the organizer with her Studio name & made a little pocket for her business cards too! The Organizer was a hit and when she did craft shows it drew interest from others.

My sister encouraged me to make these & sell them. One of the small galleries she was in was expanding and she suggested I try it out. She offered to give me a shelf in her booth to see how it goes. The first day I put my little books in I sold 3 books! I got busy making more books and by the next month I had my own booth! It was exciting and I was hooked! In the fall my sister talked me into sharing a booth with her at a craft fair we had heard about. It was fun, a learning experience for me to get my feet wet and also talk directly to the people who liked my work.

The show did not have a lot of traffic, but I met another artist who told me about selling on Etsy.

I had signed up on Etsy as a buyer and took the next step & listed my first book on

Halloween 2007!

I have only been selling 10 months and love it!! I did my first solo craft fair this summer, my sister was close by (in the booth right beside me). We will share another booth again this fall at the Junior League Holiday Galleria in Shelby and I will have another solo craft fair two weeks before. I didn't set out to do this, but I am glad I took the journey!

This is one of my sister's works and my favorite! She hand rolls each grape and builds the bunch one 'grape' at a time. The leaves are made by rolling out clay very thin and pressing real grape leaves into the clay. She then forms them into handles and accents.

Tools of the Trade????????????

So you would expect some one who makes little books and other paper things to

have alot of the scrapbooking tools, the paper cutters, scissors, knife, glue ink,

bone folder, binding machine. As I was working the other day & picked up my push pin

I thought about how some of the things I use as 'tools' might surprise others and tried to think of all my 'not neccessarily thought of as a tool' tools.

1. push pins (great for poking a hole to put in brads)
2. sandpaper ( great for smoothing some rough edges off the paper & distressing
3. hot pad from my kitchen (it's made of cork so great when I need to push an awl through things and not poke me by mistake!)
4. make up sponges (even my books get a beauty treatment when I use these to paint!)
5. q tips (sometimes I need a little paint touch up or when I distress papers)
6. baby wipes ( my books get cleaned up after the sandpaper or inking! me too sometimes!!
7. my sewing machine ( I like sewing papers together to make pockets or sometimes instead of glue to hold things together)
8. toothbrush (my tools are sounding more like my things primp in the mirror alot!! The toothbrush I use to make splatter spots to distress or age the paper or book)
9. A piece of crepe rubber (like on the bottom of shoes, this is my magic eraser for glue smudges, rub it on the spot and it erases the glue off without messing up my paper!)

So there are my 'tools' of the trade, I like being able to find different uses for everyday things!

Unusual request

I love doing custom orders and part of that fun is creating something special and one of a kind

for special occasions! Weddings are always exciting, that one special day you dream about as a little girl! A good friend came to me with a request for an unusual gift for her neice's upcoming wedding. She wanted me to make her a guest book/photo album and a reception card box.

Nothing unusual there, have made quite a few for buyers on etsy, but the theme this time was a bit different. Camo! Not cameo, but camo as in hunting, army guy camo! I am up to a challenge so Chris & I discussed her niece's wedding colors and how the soon to be newly weds are into 'muddin', 4 wheeling & other fun things. She brought me the wedding invitation and drawing from that & the camo I started making the album & card box.

The invitation was a very nice casual wedding with great pictures of the couple with western hats and a twine bow. I took the invitation and cut it in half. The front I used to decorate the outside of the album/guest book. The base color was camo with a dark green textured paper on top. I really liked the bow picture in the invitation so I took some twine and coiled it around in a design to the left and tucked in two green hearts to accent the front. Chris also gave me a photo
she had of the couple and I inserted that in the inside front cover with two horseshoes intertwined. I made it so the couple could change the picture out later with one from their wedding day if they wanted. On the first page of the book I took the announcement part of their invitation and accented it with a little twine bow with beige card stock underneath.

Next for the box! When I started it looked like a hunting storage box & I was stumped! I needed to dress it up, you know it is going to a wedding so it needs it's Sunday Best!!!

The dark green paper just was too dark, so I pulled out a light brown and what a difference it made!! I accented the top with a green sheer ribbon bow, lighter green velvet ribbon with a silver buckle that reminds me of what I cowboy would have and I dressed up the card stock under the 'cards' tag like I did for their photo album.

Chris is on her way now to see the happy couple with a little something special just for them for their wedding day. The pics aren't my best, but you get a good idea!

What's next......

I had a great time at the Mount Mitchell Craft Fair in Burnsville, NC! Met alot of new friends (Check out http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5110832) , sold my books and got some requests for some new items. One of the newest additions are clipboards. I usually have one that I use for my booth and the week before the show I decided to spruce it up a bit because as with all my books, why have plain when you can have pretty???

After decking out my clipboard, I had so much fun with it, I couldn't stop there and went out and bought more to embellish. Day one of the show the clipboards were gone including the one I made for me :( so I am busy making more for the next shows coming up in October and a couple of custom orders.

Another suggestion was photo albums. I have a mini one I am working on and another one that holds 4x6 photos. Here are the rough drafts of the albums, without the bling as my youngest says!

The Tooth Fairy's House

I have been working on making lots of paper pretties for the Mount Mitchell Craft fair coming up and needed a display for my tooth fairy boxes. I ran across this cute little house while at Michael's the other day and thought it would be perfect to display my little boxes! I added some colored card stock to the back of each square & I am tickled with how it turned out!! Now off to make some more tooth fairy boxes.

Lined up

I am busy finishing the recipe journals today. My desk top almost looks like a battlefield with the victims scattered about! The tabs for the journals are lined up like little
soldiers waiting their turn to be added. There is a little more to creating the tabs than punching
them out, well for me, that is the beginning. I cut the tabs then fold them into shape. Next I use ink to outline the edges to give it an aged look. I love inking the edges of my paper, it gives it a more finished look & takes away the white edge you get when you cut paper. Sometimes I stipple the paper to age it a bit more, you take a brush (I like to use fat paint brushes with stiff bristles) and tap the end in ink. Then pounce the paint brush randomly around on your paper. Brown and black inks give it an aged look, white ink softens the look. I like using white on dark blue paper to give the look of aged denim. It is a few extra steps, but it adds a little something to your project!

Busy Creating!!

The past few weeks I have been busy creating guest books! This one is for Michele from Calicodaisy. She has an Open House coming up this week in Lexington, SC and I am sure
she would love for you to come and see all the beautiful items she makes. Michele was wonderful to work with on this custom order! She knew exactly what she wanted & I had lots of

fun creating this book for her! Right now her book is on it's way & I hope she loves it! It see more of what Michele creates check out http://www.calicodaisy.etsy.com/

After creating Michele's book, I knew I wanted something special to lay on the table at
the craft fairs for my visitors to sign. I ran across some cute ladybug paper while at the
paper store the other day & knew exactly what to do with it! I love it when inspiration
hits, it seems to make the project go so fast & everything falls into place! On the inside
cover I wanted a spot to put business cards, so I sewed a little pocket with paper. I just love pockets!! A ladybug paper cutout adorns the pocket.


On the front I used my logo printed on a matching yellow card stock and accented
the side with a silver buckle on black velvet ribbon. I am a fan of charms and tucked
a little heart that reads, 'made with love' on the buckle. The edges of my book are
painted red and I stippled them just a bit with black ink! I can't wait to use my new book!
If you are in the Burnsville, NC area August 1-2, I would love for you to stop by & sign my
new book!

Sleep Deprived....

My oldest son has to have tests ran and he has to be sleep deprived for these, so Mom is also sleep deprived. No problem keeping him up til after midnight, but I don't think it is going to be easy when the alarm goes off 4 hours later & I have to get up too!

I have of course been planning what are we going to do for 4 hours til the Dr's appointment.
I have decided we will go on a very early morning walk all over the neighborhood, exploring every street, maybe I will have him count steps! Now my youngest wants me to wake him up also so he can go too! He is not a morning person, so I think he will change his mind once 4 am comes! We'll see... After our long walk, we will fix breakfast of eggs, sausage & toast. He can't have anything sugary so that rules out pancakes with syrup, toaster strudels and most of the cereals. He of course is excited about the breakfast, all his favorites & my hubby (for the first time in our 17 year marriage) me fixing him breakfast before work, a luxury he only gets on weekends! After breakfast, I figure some time in the shower will hopefully continue to keep him awake before we head off to the Dr.

After the tests are over, we both are planning nap time!

It's Summertime!!!!!

Well almost!!! I have been enjoying my summer so far! Last week was spent on vacation at Sunset Beach for our annual family vacation. Perfect weather, nice house & my 11 year old
broke out with chicken pox!! Yep he has been vaccinated, but didn't stop those pox! We were still able to spend time at the beach, kayak in the marsh behind the the house & fish.

This week I have been working on making inventory for upcoming craft fairs, a few special orders and some homemade peach cobbler...... yummmm!! Nothing like SC peaches!

I got into the Holiday Craft Bazaar in Shelby, NC by the Jr League coming up in October. That was happy news! Cleaned out a few cabinets, cleaned up my work area, boy I can make a mess fast! And boy do I have ALOT of paper! That is my next little project, to get my paper back into their storage units. I am bad about pulling out a couple of sheets til I find the one I want and not putting it back til I have a stack that is 6 inches tall!

Will have to post a story on my work area!

Have a great summer, go get you some peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream & enjoy the sunshine!

Summer Vacation

School is almost out here for the summer and every year I wish I too could take a summer vacation like I used to have. This year I am doing it! I won't be taking a break from making my notebooks or Etsy, just time off my full time job to get things back in order, spend a little time with my kids, work on a few ideas that keep rattling around in my brain and take care of Mom who is having double knee replacement surgery.

I have an upcoming craft fair in August (the Mt Mitchell Craft Fair) in Burnsville, NC so will have time to make plenty of goodies for that show and also work on building up more books for an October show I am hoping to hear from!

I have just joined up with other Etsy artists from South Carolina and we are getting a street team together so this time will be great to meet up with new friends to promote our work.
Look for more info about our SC team at: http://scstreetteam.blogspot.com/ or see our work at our flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/769694@N21/.

Have a great summer!

Happy Saturday!

It was a very nice day today, sun with a nice breeze, so perfect day to try out a booth display for some upcoming craft shows! I am doing the Mt Mitchell Craft Fair in Burnsville NC the first weekend in August & I am sending off my application for the Jr League Craft Fair in Shelby for October! I needed a new booth picture, the ones I took of my set up at Hill Skills in Greenville SC didn't come out as good as I hoped. My kids were very excited about the booth display & were very helpful in carrying all my things out to the 'booth'. The youngest, Christopher, really enjoyed hiding out under the tables. "Hey Mom, you could store things under here!"

This is a shot of the new set up. I had planned on using this old pie safe my great aunt had, but at the last minute pulled in a second table & like that arrangement better. A few more little tweaks, like weights so my booth doesn't blow away & something to make the riser shelf a little sturdier and I will be ready!

Ok Create Now! Now!!!!

How do I create these books? Well when I first sit down at my desk I piddle for the first few minutes, looking through alot of papers waiting for a little inspiration to hit. I have worked on a few books and hit a wall where I am not happy with it yet & the book sits on the shelf above my desk for a couple of days or so when I will pick it up again and find that missing piece that it needed. I sometimes start with my embellishments, tags, stamps, or colors that I have seen that spark the fire! After I play around a bit, trying out different techniques to warm up, then I get into it and before I know it the kids are coming in the door from school! I think that has been the hardest part, creating under a deadline! When I did my first craft show my sister was on me to be sure I had enough inventory to bring. When you haven't sold at a craft fair before, you don't know what to expect!! I would get up and be at my desk by 7 am and work all day. Now I work a little each day and a couple of days a week I will have a longer studio time to create! Tuesdays are usually my studio time, so be sure to check out my Etsy shop those evenings for the new items!

Hello!

Welcome to Bittybooks! I am busy creating new notepads this weekend to stock in my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=514424

After a nice break over the holidays I am ready to get back to making new items! I am doing a new supply shopping trip in the next two weeks, my youngest son will be joining me for this trip so he can fly on a plane for the first time, well first time that he remembers!