Post craft show crash

Hey friends...or all of you that have managed to stick around in my absence. It's only been, what?  3 weeks since I've posted. I've never gone that long without posting since I started this blog. The thing is, I've been so busy with everything else, I just completely ran out of time to post. Insane!

Thanks for all the well-wishes for Marty in my last post. Fortunately, he was able to go back to work a couple of weeks ago. He's had some problems after a few long, overtime days, but he's still managed to work through it. As much as I loved having Marty home, I'm glad to be back in sort of a normal routine again.

The craft show was this past weekend. The weather was cool, but good. It started off full of sunshine, but ended with overcast skies. I didn't have the best sales day, but I managed to squeak out a tiny profit for the day. But, I did have a wonderful time spending the day with my sister and brother-in-law. I am so thankful they came to spend the day with us! My space was also sandwiched between some of my favorite friends in the world, so that was an added bonus! I also enjoyed seeing many friends and family. Thanks to all of those that came and supported our community!

Here are a few items Blueberry Hill Handmade offered at the show:

There has been a couple of articles in our local paper about recent Bigfoot sightings in our area, so a couple of us took the Bigfoot idea and ran with it. They were a big hit!

If you like anything you see here, please visit my page Blueberry Hill Handmade.

I thought this was awesome. Two of my friends had their own booth and we thought it was so funny that our shirts matched!

We had to get Mr. Harmon in on the picture!

Even though I had a wonderful time with friends and family, I'm not sure I will be doing any more craft shows.  It was WEEKS of stress, planning, work, and time away from my family (and a lot of money) for not a lot of profit. Most of the things I make are personalized, so coming up with things that are "generic" is difficult. I'm not saying I definitely won't participate any more, but for now, I'll keep working and growing the business online.


For the past two days, I've wanted NOTHING to do with crafting and have tried to just spend some quality time with my family. We spent yesterday at church, then out to eat, and then to the movies to see Thor. Once we got home, we did nothing but watch cheesy Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel.  Today, I didn't want to deal with anything, but ended up spending most of the day responding to texts, answering e-mails, getting up a t-shirt order, and cutting some things that should have been cut weeks ago. I'm completely in crash mode. Now I get to spend the next two days 100 miles away from home at work. Hopefully, by the time Thursday rolls around, I'll be back into the crafting groove!

I hope you all have a wonderful, no-stress week!!!  Hopefully, it won't be 3 weeks before I am back again!

Mama's Mumblings I've been away a while!

Hey friends!  The few of y'all that have stuck around in my absence.  I did not have plans to take an impromptu break. It just sort-of happened.  At the end of my long days, I just haven't had the energy or brain power to come up with any sort of decent post (if you can consider any of my blog posts decent. lol).  So, I thought I would just pop in and let everyone know that I'm still here!

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We should have known something was going to happen.  Every time Marty gets something new at work, his job or position changes and he doesn't get to enjoy his new equipment.  Well, Marty has been waiting several years for a new work truck, and he finally got it about 6 weeks ago.  About 4 weeks ago, Marty starting having a lot of pain in his hip and leg, and finally broke down and went to see someone about it.  They initially found out his hip was out of place, and after several chiropractic treatments, it was much better. Suddenly, his pain became worse than before.  After a MRI, they found he also has two bulging discs in his back.  He sees a neurologist on Friday, and may be having an epidural next week.  Of course, during this time, he's been out of work, and his poor new truck has just been sitting, waiting on Marty to come drive it.  Prayers for a complete recovery would be appreciated.

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Jameson and I went on a fantastic field trip to Stone Mountain last week.  The weather was perfect and all the kids behaved.  It was pretty much a perfect day!  We left Talladega at 6:30 that morning, and didn't get home until around 10:00 that night.  It was a LONG day, but we all had a blast!

I LOVE THESE KIDS!

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After several years of having the same schedule at work, things are changing.  We've had some staffing changes over the past few months, so I am being moved around to where I am needed the most.  I'm still doing phone triage, but am also working some out on the floor, too.  It's been a huge adjustment after sitting on my bootie for the past 7 years!  It is nice to actually be able to see some of my patients face to face now.

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Blueberry Hill Handmade has been booming!  I pretty much spend every waking hour that I'm not at my bill-paying job, working on Blueberry Hill orders.  My poor house is definitely suffering!  I could probably clean for a week and still have a ton of work left to do!  Oh well, the housework can wait, right?  Here are a couple of the fun Halloween things I've been working on.

My customer sent me a picture of this and asked me to recreate it.  I think it turned out really cute!

The pumpkin shirts have returned!  These are some of my favorite shirts ever!

My friend Katherine from Grass Stains sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, asking if I had ever thought about making reusable tote bags.  I hadn't thought of it, but decided to try making some, using Kat's great ideas!  I think they turned out SO CUTE!  I love making these!

If you are interested in anything you see here, or have something you would like for me to to make for you, visit my page Blueberry Hill Handmade.

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Speaking of Halloween, this is the first year since we've been in this house, that I have not decorated for Halloween.  I am SO BUMMED!  Since Marty hurt his back/hip, he can't get into the attic to get down all of our stuff, and my big ol' bootie ain't fitting up those steps, so I guess there won't be any witches' legs on display!  Also, our temporary front porch steps have been moved to get ready for more permanent front steps, so trick-or-treaters can't even get to our front door!  Not that we ever have any trick-or-treaters.  But those are on hold, too, until Marty's back/hip problems are fixed...and we try to bounce back financially from his not working for a month.  It's always something, right?

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*whew*  That's a lot to cover, and I'm sure there are 100 other things I meant to tell all of you, but just can't remember right this minute.  LOL  I hope you all are doing well, and I hope you have a fabulous week!

HELP! My life has been taken over by SHIRTS!

Hey friends!  I hope y'all have had a wonderful weekend (and Monday, too!)

Lately, my life has been just a random jumble of craziness!  Not only was last week the first week of school, I've also been slammed with t-shirt orders.  I'm not sure of the exact number, but I've made at least 90 shirts over the past week-and-a-half!  Talk about t-shirt overload!  Thankfully, my fabulous husband has been learning to master the heat press, so my back and shoulders have been spared.  I definitely would not be able to do it without him.  Maybe one day I'll be able to afford one of those "fancy" automatic presses that press and release on it's own, but I will have to sell a WHOLE LOT of t-shirts to be able to afford something like that. HAHA!

Here are some of my most recent designs:

These are the elementary school staff shirts. I've made 60 of these!

For was a gift for one of Jameson's friends!

My saving grace this week was actually getting to do what I love the most, making a frame!

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week, and if I go missing, just look under the nearest pile of t-shirts!

I'm officially bona fide!

Photo from HERE

Who doesn't love this movie?  LOL

Well, as Penny (Holly Hunter) said to Everette (George Clooney) in the movie about her new man, I am officially BONA FIDE!

I'm an official business owner in my hometown!

Things for my business Blueberry Hill Handmade have exploded over the past few weeks!  I am a little overwhelmed, but I know I can do it!  I would have never thought a year ago I would be getting to do what I love the most (except for being a mom)  and getting paid for it!  Maybe by next year I'll actually make a profit! HAHA!

Thanks to all of you who have supported my new business! I appreciate you more than you could ever know!

So, you want an ostrich?

Hey friends!  I've spent the last few days in blogger heaven while attending Haven in Atlanta.  I was thrilled to meet and spend time with many of my favorite DIY/Home bloggers!  I had a fabulous time and can't wait to share with you all!  I have to finish downloading (?uploading) some photos, but will tell you all about it then!

In the mean time, I had my most unusual craft related request yet.  "Can you do an ostrich?"  Hmmm, well, I've never done an ostrich, but I guess there is a first time for everything, right?

Isn't she the cutest, ugly ostrich you've ever seen?

Even though I wasn't too sure about it in the beginning, I think it turned out pretty well!  So, if any of you are in the market for an ostrich, let me know! HAHA!

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Mama's Mumblings

Hey friends!  I hope you all survived the holiday weekend.

Ours was RAINY and BORING!  Marty either had to work or was on primary call from Tuesday through Sunday, so we spent a ton of time at home. The ONE time I decided to go out and about, I got SOAKED!

Since we didn't go anywhere on the 4th, I thought I would cook a big meal that we could eat on all day.   Wednesday, I cooked a huge pork roast, with the plans of shredding it up on Thursday and making BBQ sandwiches with it.  WELL, that didn't quite work out like I planned.  I left the tenderloin in the oven just a little too long and I may have burned all the "drippings"...maybe:

The meat itself wasn't that bad, but it definitely wasn't the juicy succulent pork roast I had imagined:

Fortunately, most of the sides (baked beans, corn, potato casserole, Texas toast) tasted OK.


Blueberry Hill Handmade has been doing well since I "officially" opened the Facebook store last week! The response has been fantastic! I've really been shocked (and excited) at the positive response to the page! Thanks to all of you who have helped me by "liking" my page! It REALLY means a lot to me!

Not only did I decide to officially open my store, I had another huge change at the very same time.  Remember a couple of months ago when I told y'all that my computer was on it's last leg? It actually completely died on me, I bought another computer, and that second computer died on my the first day I had it. CRAZINESS I tell you. I managed to get my old computer back up and running, but every day it would let me know that it was on it's last leg.  I've had it for over three years and I've REALLY put it through the ringer, so I guess I can't complain too much.  BUT, I have to have a reliable, working computer to do all of my Blueberry Hill designs. So, after MUCH thought and research, I took the plunge:

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the computer and I know that in the long run, it will be the best investment, but BOY have I had a huge learning curve! After using PC's for the past 20 years, learning an entirely new operating system has had it's challenges! I mean, for the first day, I couldn't even figure out how to get online. Talk about feeling DUMB! But now on week 2, I can at least pull up my design software and create again.  **baby steps** LOL

Speaking of Blueberry Hill designs, this is my newest creation:

This monogram is on burlap. I love the way it turned out!  I made this for my friend Julie's birthday. The split letter monogram I made for her on her birthday last year went on to be my most ordered item! I figured I've made over 100 split-letter monograms since I first made Julie's!


I went to Hobby Lobby on Saturday, and this is what I saw:

It IS JULY, right?

I may have watched this movie AT LEAST 10 times over the past two weeks (probably more like 20 15 times).

Photo Credit

It's to the point that I can pretty much recite the movie word-for-word. Rebel Wilson (Fat Amy) KILLS me! She is so hysterical! I love the music, too.

For all you gardening/landscape people out there, any clues to what type of mushroom this is?

Not my photo...my friend Cassa took this.

My co-worker, Cassa, noticed this in her yard a couple of weeks ago, and nobody seems to know what kind of mushroom it is. She said it was HUGE. She saw it when she was backing out of her driveway and thought it was a CAT because of all the "fur".  It's really nasty looking, that's for sure!

Well, I guess that's enough for now! I hope you all have a wonderful, calm, beautiful week!