The Craft Show is Over.....

For three years, I hosted a Holiday Boutique in my home. It was usually held in October so that Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas things could be included in the sale. Each year I would invite friends to participate and we would use the entire first floor (living room, dining room, family room, kitchen and entry) to display our art. Some of the artists changed over the years but there were always at least 4 of us participating. I thought that this year we might have to rent a space to hold the boutique. Several other friends expressed a desire to be a part of the event and I knew our house could only hold so much. As we started to move closer to Fall, two of the crafters, one who had been with me since the beginning, felt overwhelmed with other things taking up a lot of time in their lives and asked to be excluded. Maybe the time had come to let it go for a year. I decided not to have it my home, but instead, to share a table with my good friend Bethanie at a local church's Craft Show. It was a good idea for this year. It gave me a break from having to whip my house into shape, print invitations, make sure I had cookies and coffee or cider for the shoppers and then put the house back together, in addition to getting all of my things made for the sale.

The church, where the show was held, did a wonderful job of advertising the show in the community. We were told that 550 people visited on Saturday. The crafters were given free snacks all day and the committee at the church had everything very well organized. We were allowed to come in at 7:00 AM to set up. The show was open to the public from 9-2 (which was perfect-any longer and I would have passed out from exhaustion!) As I said, Bethanie & I shared a table and another good friend, Mimi, and her mom, Joni shared a table right next to us. The tables were all dressed in red tablecloths and Mimi and I also brought quilts for our tables. Joni is a quilter and she made beautiful handbags and jackets, baby quilts and cute pillowcases. Mimi had a lovely assortment of her soldered charms and her baby scrapbooks, cards and art boards. (I'm sure Mimi will be posting pictures on her blog, too) Bethanie and I are paper people. She had vintagestyle cards, flash card banners and beautiful gift sets for baby with decorated and filled suitcases of goodies. She also had magnetic notepads.

My big project is a set of cards called "The Girls". There are 7 cards (and envelopes) in the set and they are the kind of cards that women send to each other for no particular reason except to laugh. I happen to think everyone must laugh every day to keep their sanity. Anyhoo, the cards are done up in an acrylic box with a fancy label. Many people bought the cards with the intention of giving the set as a gift.I had them displayed in a basket and had samples of each of the cards so people could read them before they bought them. My happiest moment is when someone picks up a card to read it and starts laughing. Then I know I've succeeded in my goal!

These are the cards from this year's set.

Are you curious about what they say inside? I'll tell you at the end of this post. (I made 17 sets of cards with 7 cards each....paper pieced and decorated. You can do the math, it makes my head hurt)

I also had small decorated journals and collaged canvas art boards. The boards are one of my favorite things to do. I use vintage images of postcards or other pictures, ribbon, buttons, sheet music and whatever I can find in my vast collection of "stuff".

The journals are purchased inexpensively and then I decorate them with bits of music, scrapbook paper, vintage images or embossed dies and tie them in ribbon. We can never have too many journals to throw in our purse, right?

I even made new business cards. They have my blog address on them so I knew I better get blogging again.Also on our table, were some hand-sewn felt items made by my neice Wendi, who lives in New Jersey. I will show you pictures of her work in my next post and also some other things she has made. She is an exceptional woman!

Now for the phrases on the insides of the cards....

1. I'm not perfect............but I'm so close it's eerie!

2. Just how many Healthy Choice cookies can I eat before it's no longer a healthy choice?

3. Mid-life is when we no longer have upper arms...we have wing spans and look like flying squirrels in drag.

4. Girlfriends.......who else can we be ourselves with?

5. Elanore & Ruth were always a hit at the church choir picnic....they brought their Mixed Berry & Beefeater Jell-O Mold. There's always room for Jell-O.

6. I used to think I was indecisive.......now I'm not so sure!

7. My idea of housework.....is to sweep the room with a glance.

That's it for now. Did you laugh? Or at least smile? Good! That's my goal!

My fingers are aching and I'm sure you're tired of reading if you've even made it this far! I will post more very soon.

I will leave you with this because I always leave you with this....Charlie the dragon on Halloween!

And Papa (David) got to be there to see him. I was home doing the final crafting for the show! In less than two weeks we will be in Maryland for his First Birthday! Where did that year go?