New Year with a give- away

Happy New Year 

Bring on 2011

I got the above clock from a blogger online - Can't Stop Making Things.  She had a great idea to just print it out and center it on a Christmas wreath to carry it over a bit longer.  Well this is a big wreath that did not sell in the booth space so I knew it was meant to come home and ring in 2011.

As promised I am going to ring in the New Year with a give away.  Somehow over Christmas I passed 400 followers and 300 posts- I must talk a lot and a lot of you must like to listen.  Thank you so much for being such great friends.

So, to thank you I am giving away two items I made myself.  They relate to winter and the new year.

First up is a burlap banner telling us what season we are in- not that many of us need to be told after the snow we got but it is cute none the less.

 Secondly, is a journal. I always wanted to work more with paper and fabric together so yesterday I created this journal.  It can hold all your plans, hopes, dreams or whatever you want this upcoming year. It was created using paper, twill tape, lace, sheet music, glitter, glue crepe paper and of course a graphic from our queen of graphics - the graphic fairy.

It is simple- just leave a comment to enter and I'll draw a number on January 7th and if it is yours - you win.  I'll leave you with one more "happy new year wish and glimpse of my wreath" enjoy.

 linking this up with the Graphic Fairy's Brag monday..
 

and with Faded Charm for White Wednesday

OMGosh..

Oh my goodness...heck 301 posts and 402 followers- 

I NEED TO DO A GIVEAWAY.  

Please pardon me while I put one together.....stay tuned.

An end to a year and a business dream.

Lets see, the booth space looked like this in August:

 This is Hubby working in the terrible heat of August constructing the walls for the booth-

 Here he is putting it all together- remember I had just had surgery so could not help much except in a supervisory role.

 Here it is all done except the ceiling treatment.

 Here she is in all her glory.  I loved that booth - it was my baby.

 And sadly, this is what happened to her today.  Today we had to take her apart.  My lease is up the end of January but we had time now to do it so we did. 

 Very bittersweet indeed. She is empty with bare walls that the paint doesn't match on, she has no personality or wonderful ceiling or chandelier anymore.  She just has furniture in it that is clearanced in hopes that I don't have to haul it home.  She is naked and has lost all her luster...all her joy. 

An end to a year and an end to a business dream.
**edited to add: This is not the end of all dreams just this one.  I still have many business dreams that have not come to fruition.  I hope to see them someday.  This is just the end of this particular one.  I am down but not out.  I know I am meant to do this - I just need to keep my chin up and find a better locale for it to flourish. **

2011 I am going to focus on the home front more.  More on paying down a Home equity loan and more on home projects.  I will still do my two festival days in Cameron - in May and October - and may take a stab at etsy.  Otherwise I will wait out this down turned economy we have going on and always keep my eyes open to that new door or window of opportunity that may reveal itself to me.  

Here is to a calm and happy 2011.

What do you have planned for the new year?

What a white wonderland to awaken to...

We had all the plans- we were leaving the house at 6:30 to hit Target, Joann's, Michael's and more..

But Mother Nature forgot to send us the memo and we awoke to this:

 The kids loved it,

 The dog loved it,

 Oh well we can shop another time, this only happens once in a great while.

It was for the best anyway.  We finally hit town and half the stores just chose to take another day off and not open.  This is rare for NC- kinda the reason we moved down south - to get away from these northern storms.  

oh well. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

First off,  I'd love to say thank you to all the wonderful friends who have left me such encouraging words on the closing of my booth.  

Like you all have said - it is not failure just a new road to follow.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  

I will be taking a bloggy break till after the new year to catch up on family, household things and to get a give away ready.  

I am at 395 followers so I think a 400 follower celebration will be in store.

See you all then.

More Christmas Decor- White Wednesday

White Wednesday time at Faded Charm.  

I have to admit having white as the color for holiday decor is so calming.  It actually makes me pause to look at it each time I see it.  I adore it. 

Here is the remaining white holiday decor I have in the house.

I hope you enjoy it as I do every time I pass it. 

This will be the last White Wednesday with Christmas decor.  See you in the new year with winter white.

One door closing...

Well after many weeks of thought and running the numbers over and over it is clearly plain to see.  

Not what I wanted but what must be.

Yes, my booth that took so much time, sweat, tears, and every ounce of creativity I could muster will be closing soon.  

It was something I had to do, to learn some very important lessons for later on.

#1 Don't be afraid to just try.  

#2  Give it all you have - it is your name after all

#3  But when the dance is done don't be stupid and keep on.  

My items are me.  They are what I feel and what I see when I buy a piece of furniture.  

I do them because I love it.  

So, my big lesson this go around on the merry-go round is this:

LOCATION is key.  

It is the utmost important ingredient for any venture.

I wasn't sure about this location but I took a chance. 

My gut kept saying it wasn't a good location for me but I didn't listen. 

I should have.  I will from now on.

This mall is a great place IF you like country or primitive.  There is nothing wrong with that.  It just isn't what I do.  My items are neither.  

Everyone said my booth was the most beautiful and their favorite but I think it was their favorite to look at - not what they buy. 

Business needs sales. 

So, I will be closing shop - probably in January.

I am disappointed and sad and honestly feel a bit of a failure but that will pass.

I need to find a place that is ME. 

So, I will keep doing my two shows in Cameron each year and keep my eyes open for a window of opportunity to open up for me. 

That being said- the booth is closing - not my creative soul.  

Location can't even kill that.

Mercury Glass find at Walmart?

Okay so this morning I had to go to Walmart to get some groceries.  I was unaware that today was SUPER SATURDAY. Or that such a day even existed.  But I guess with the amount of people that were out at 9am they all knew. Anyway I was taking a gander down the ornament aisle to try to find something that would make nice place cards for the table on Christmas and came across these:

 Yes they are acorns and not associated with Christmas that much I think.  But I love to use mercury glass all the time so these just screamed that they'd be awesome for some vintage decor next fall.  I snagged about 7 of them at $2 a piece.  I may need to go back and grab more.  I think next fall having them fill an apothecary jar will be a wonderful look.

And who would have thought that they'd be available at my least favorite store in the world- Walmart. 

Guess it never hurts to look as you might be surprised sometime.

Have you found anything at Walmart that totally surprised you ?

linking to Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

White Wednesday - Christmas decor

It is that time again- wonderful White Wednesday with Kathleen at Faded Charm.

I thought I'd show you some of my white Christmas decor- I truly love the neutral/white palette so I do it in most of the house- not the family room though- as the family LOVES traditional Christmas color. 

But this is about white.  

Enjoy. 

Check out White Wednesday with Faded Charm.

Silver balls, silver balls...

I just love silver at Christmas.  It is like bling with out so much over the top.  I bought up a bunch of silver ball ornaments and then decided to make some wreaths with them.  They are a pain to do - a pain on my fingers from all the hot glue burns but they are so worth it in the end. 

This first one is made of small ornaments so it measures around 9 inches across. 

 This one is made of 3 inch balls so it measures about 20 inches or more across.

 Have you made these?  If so do you glue them to a Styrofoam base or did you master hooking them to the hanger?

Advent calendars for my kids

I literally waited till the last weekend in November to finish these.  Nothing like last minute is there?

I had seen some done like this last year in blog land so after Christmas I snatched up little paper mache boxes everywhere on sale.  What I didn't get then I did get this November on sale also. 

Here they are :

 The two of them are very into who has what and are they the same.  You know that sibling rivalry - where all must be equal.  So they each have the same boxes for the same days in the same papers but seeing as if I had to make them both exactly the same I'd go crazy.

I made Jacks tall with a red background and laid out one way.

 And I made Sophie's wider with a green background and her boxes in a totally different layout.

 It was a lot more time consuming than I thought it would be.  Those dang small boxes were hard to cover and then trying to get it all to fit on the board with all those boxes was a puzzle all unto itself. 

But in the end it all worked out fine.  I like them and they are all ready for years to come.  

Yeah one less project each year. ha ha

Holiday Front porch

Yesterday I showed you my remade cornice boards into flower boxes and showed you a glimpse of my front porch's holiday decor.  I thought I'd show you the rest today.

This year I scaled way back and also purged a bunch of items.  I used to set up a tree on the front porch all in an outdoor theme and also on the back screen porch in all white.  Well I got rid of those trees and all the primitive-outdoor theme decorations.  And well my back screen porch is full of furniture projects awaiting my touch.  

Basically, I wanted to scale back to make it easier on me and allow myself some time to enjoy the holidays instead of days of putting decor up only to have to spend days taking it back down. 

Here is my simpler front porch- and honestly I like it better this way. 

 I adore these snow shoes.  I found these at my habitat this summer. Why in summer and why in NC I am not sure but I am glad. 

 Got this adorable sled from Clines a couple of months ago- it just goes so well with the snow shoes on the other side of the door.

 The front door in its entirety..I really need to redo that wreath for next year..ideas?

 And I got this basket from the mall where my booth is- a vendor and I did a swap- she got 4 of my stuffed pumpkins and I got the basket.  I love swaps- no money woo hoo.

 It is simple but means more- 

Less is more is something I am embracing this year.

Cornice box re-do's

You all remember these correct?  

 They were cornice boards that I found in a field at Clines.  Well I saw them the first time but they would not fit in my car so luckily they were still in the field the second visit.  I snatched them all up - four in total.  Two long ones and two short ones. 

I knew what I wanted them for and with a bit of trimming and adding a back board,

we now have :

WINDOW BOXES

 The two large ones were only inches too long- so hubby cut then ends off, reinforced them and backed them with another piece of wood that I will admit is not painted white yet.  (Too dang cold here to paint).  Don't they look amazing?

 The two shorter ones are a about 4 inches different in length.  I took them and put them around my front planter of flowers.  Hubby will have to make them look better later but I just wanted to see how it looked and I like it.

So, now all I'll have to do is plop down flower pots of flowers come spring.  They will hold more water and be easier to change out when the mood hits. 

What do you think?  You like?

Holiday Silhouettes

Silhouettes.  They are timeless aren't they?  I did some silhouettes of Christmas scenes and children on the cricut then just basically put them in frames for a timeless decor piece. 

I did some in reverse of the normal black on white. 

 And here is the more recognizable ones- black on white.

Do you do silhouettes?  If so of what or who? 

linked to 
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

A forest full of trees....

Here is my take on the ribbon trees floating around blog land:

First I did a traditional colored one of red and green but then made it more fun with polka dots and other printed ribbon. 

 Next I did a brown and blue one with checks, trees, polka dots and stripes. 

This is Sophie's fave.

 Lastly, I did a neutral one.  You know the colors that scream to me- 

tans, creams, browns all in checks, snowflake print, and grosgrain ribbon.

This is my favorite. 

 Have you made any trees for this holiday? 

linked to:
What the Craft at Not So Crafty
A Crafting Soiree at Katies Nesting Spot