Woodburn!

Good Morning all. Hope your weekends are going well, take in that sunshine. I know my weekend has been filled with it. Went to Woodburn yesterday and got a good amount of sun once the rain and clouds decided to leave. We had a long day, up at about 4:40 am (some of use even sooner), left the house by about 6 and rolled into the Woodburn Drag Strip around 7. We finally made it home around 7 pm, completely tired and warn out. The swap meet went really well though, being my first sale and all. Sy-clops and Voodoo Dolls were the top attraction, pulling kids into are little section. So a bunch of my little guys have new homes. I have a list of stuff to improve upon for next time (PIR August 4) and a handful of new ideas as well. My Brother-in-law did well. He was selling mostly bug parts. Didn't unload the two big items he had in the trailer, but he managed to find a few things he had been looking for for a few projects of his own. I think we all managed to get a little burnt as the day went on even after the sunblock was applied. And it looked like there were some good burn outs over at the drag strip. There were a few that smoked out the entire place, we could barely see the little road out in front of our little set up. The show cars were nice as well and we had the perfect view of those. Regretting the fact that I forgot to use my camera. I made sure it was charged up and everything. Darn it!!
Now on to the future. I think for the next week or at least the next few days I'm gonna be listing more things in my shop. Shuffle some things and just get organized once again before August rolls around. Maybe I can even manage to plan something for my upcoming birthday (14th).

So have a good rest of your weekends and as always, Happy Crafting.

Short, but to the point

Hey All.... So it's getting close to my trip to Woodburn. The crazy month hasn't settled yet. In fact it got even worse. We had cell phone and cable drama this month when we tried changing the billing name for our phones, then even more when we tried saving on the cable. But it's all sorted now, Thank God.

One Week till Woodburn and things are coming along great. I have seven new VooDoo Dolls along with some hats, scarves, patches and even a PopTart. Must get back to work now.

Happy Crafting!!

Busy Time

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, Crafters and Non.
Today is the 1 month anniversary of my little shop opening, YAY! Its slow going right now, but I have a feeling (and tons upon tons of hope) that it will pick up. So lots of positive thinking going on here.
This weekend has been focused on getting organized for the coming month... and waiting for my glasses to come in. If I didn't mention it before, on top of when I threw out my back a few months ago I also had the miss fortune of my glasses braking. So after finally getting an appointment with my optometrist on the 30th of April to get a long overdue check up, I went to pick out new frames the next day. They should be coming in any day now. My taped up pair are starting to be more and more trouble.
Back to my weekend though. I've almost finished planing out the month, setting aside Mothers Day next sunday and my fathers birthday on the 29th. All there is left to plan is what I want to get done, goal setting. I have to be all ready for the Swap Meet on June 1st. So I should get back to it and stop wasting time on the net (aka FaceBook). Speaking of, you can now check out my FaceBook page. Needs a little more work but it is up and you can check out what I've been working on and what will be showing up in the shop, as well as at the Swap Meet.

Goodbye for now. And as always Happy Crafting.

Why Why Why???

Okay so I'm surfing around on Pinterest, mostly searching for new patterns and ideas to crochet through their DIY & Crafts section. But I keep seeing these projects that involve defacing books. I know I'm not the only big book geek out there that cringes at the thought, but the idea of people actually taking perfectly good books and painting or coloring on their pages, cutting them out for flowers, or any other number of things you can think of is a bit depressing. I hate defacing books, even if its a book that I think never should have gotten published or that I think people put too much stock in or just plain hate. Books are sacred objects, they teleport us into different worlds, provide escape from our daily lives, make things not seem so bad, give us adventures and let us lead vastly different lives. Why would anyone take this and make a craft project out of it? I just can't wrap my head around it.
I know some of you think I'm overreacting, saying 'There are hundreds of copies of books, what's wrong with crafting with a few? Relax!' and some of you are on the same page with me. But let me share something with you, I freak out and get worked up if someone dog-ears pages in any book, not just mine. I have to unfold pages in library books and feel bad for these book. And when people write and highlight in books I get even worse. Its a distracting and harmful practice. People are bring down the material value of the book and just plan making it hard for someone like myself to read it. Worn covers and spines don't bug me because you can tell how much people love the book and how often they've gone back to it.
But back to the crafting point, I can see a few cases where it would be understandable. If the book is badly damaged, missing chunks of pages or just not worth repairing, fine. Use the poor book, give it new life. But taking brand new books is just plain wrong.

Now that you all know how crazy I am, at least about my books, Happy Crafting. But please leave the poor books alone, I beg of you.

GRAND OPENING!!!

.:GRAND OPENING:.

Yes I am opening the shop today! I know I said April 1st, but I had a few more things I wanted to do before I opened. Not to mention a friday just seems right to me. So please go over and check me out (Shop Link). I don't have a whole lot on the shop at the moment, but it is a start and I am very proud of what I have in there right now. 

Coming soon... a few scarves, more PopTarts, and other beauties. 

Happy Crafting all.... and let the chaos for being a shop owner begin. WOOT!!

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!!!!

So Easter Sunday or Zombie Jesus day, which ever you like better. I don't know what you all have planed, but we're having my sister and her man over, along with her dogs, YAY holidays and the weather warming up a bit. So tonight we have ham and pie (replacing the traditional cake we normally have), plus all the fixings that go with dinner.

I do hope you all had a better week then I have. I've been mending a injured back. One of those things that happens I guess. Nothing special or interesting about how I hurt my back. Just stood up wrong as I was getting off the couch late monday morning. I pulled something and it made it very difficult to walk let alone do anything else. So I've been bound to a chair, using ice packs and a brand new heating pad to get better. Oh and lovely pain killers at that. I highly recommend not throwing out your back. It wasn't till this morning that I was able to get up normally and not use my fathers cane we just happen to have on hand when he needs it to hobble around (mostly when something of his makes it difficult to get around, usually his knees). Lovely feeling to walk normally again. Of course I'm not completely back to normal, so I mustn't push my luck. Sarcastically I said to my father when he noted I wasn't using the cane, "I can walk. It's an Easter miracle." Amusing and corny (and not meant to offend anyone). So as a result to this and being quite uncomfortable for the week I haven't been working on my projects like I should. So I'm looking at working in overdrive for the next week or so to make up. I did make some progress on a few scarves, but none of the 3 I've started are quite finished. They're only about half done for various reasons. But this also means I'm behind in my custom items for the VW events I'm going to in a few months. But I'm sure I'll manage.

So again Happy Easter all, and Happy Crafting!

Blarg!!

Hello All!!!

So I plum spaced one of the most important things for starting a business. THE BOOKS! Looks to be the bane of my existence. So I'm reading up on the best way to keep track of things like money. Oy, I wish I hadn't spaced this. But its all good, I have a few books to read and I should be set. *Fingers Crossed*, and once that and a few other legal matters are cleared up I will be opening my shop. No later then April 1st, I promise. (And thats no joke... Ha Ha Ha. Get it?....) 

Moving on. 

As promised I now have the dates for the VW swap meets I'll be attending. June 1st at the 28th annual Bug Run, Located at the Woodburn Dragstrip in Woodburn, Oregon. And then August 4th at the Rose City Bug-in at PIR (Portland International Raceway) in Portland, Oregon. So come out and have some fun, come find me. 

Another note of goodness is that my pretty business cards came in the mail last week. YAY! Its the little things that make life awesome right?

So I'm off to do more reading (blarg, it's not the fun kind). I had just stopped by to give a small update.

Happy Crafting!!!

Coming to a Web Page near YOU!!!

I am steps away from launching my Etsy page. A few more things to be done and listings to edit of course and I will finally be up and running. So far I know my Voodoo dolls are a popular crowd pleaser. I have four ready to go on sale and honestly I almost want to keep them for myself. They are too darn cute. Also I am happy to announce they I have order business cards via Vista Print. Cool site and I only paid $13.39 for the 250 cards, (the $10 deal is for one sided cards. You gotta pay a little more for a back, but you get that discounted anyway on your first order.) So they will be here in a few weeks. YAY!!!
I've also got an event or two to sell at. My sister and her man go to VW swap meets every year and they invited me to come and sell. So I have to drum up some more merch before then. Which reminds me I need to look into when that will be. I do know they go to Woodburn, OR and PIR (Portland International Raceway) in Portland, OR. So feel free to come check it out if your in town when they come up. I'll be sure to post the dates once I have them myself.

Well that all for my little update. Here are the favorites.....

Happy crafting.... And yes more in the future will have top hats and bows. They are too cute not to repeat. 

Coming along

So I've been working to crank out merchandise for the shop. My hands absolutely hate me right now for that fact, cramping and aching in protest to so many hours of work. So I've taken a few days off from crocheting (although all I seem to want to do is more of it. My hands have put me in my place though) to explore and search the net for sites and patterns. Thankfully there are a lot of good patterns and even greater people out there. It still amazes me some of the things people put out there. I've seen some shocking "why they hell would you make that?" things. Like I stumbled across crocheted, reusable and eco friendly tampons. I ask you why? I'm all for trying to save the planet and a few bucks, but that just seems a little out there for me, not to mention a little gross. Yes, you wash them but.... it's just not for me. Then you have to totally awesome and albeit at times geeky stuff that you just can pass up and really REALLY want to make. Like tonight I stumbled upon a pattern for Zero, our favorite ghostly K9 from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

But in the time I haven't been the crocheting machine, we've been cleaning up the house. Slowly we've been going through some things here and trying to get rid of all the unnecessary clutter, although sentiment does hinder this process. And then shipping it off to the GoodWill to find a new home or to the trash if there is no helping it. I'm amazed at the amount of stuffed animals that have called this house home over the years. We've sent two very full trash bags of them to find new homes, can be a little sad to see them go, but the room they leave behind is a welcoming sight. The main goal in our cleaning frenzy is to fix up the basement and put a tv/guest sleeping area, laundry room, tool grand central, and a little work place for my outfit. But to do all that we have to get stuff out of our basement and in other places. So its a slowish cleaning process, even if the plans are big. Once the weather gets warmer and maybe a little dryer around here we can rev up the speed and call in the troops to help out.

Well I better get back to it. Here's hoping my hands feel better and I don't go super crazy on crocheting again.
Happy Crafting everyone!