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!

Mother's Day crafts, with a few Graduation things thrown in!

Hey my friends!

Yes, I realize this is about the 4th (or 10th) week in a row I've only posted once or twice. I could promise you that it will eventually get better, but I would probably be lying.  How about if I just promise to post at least once or twice a week?

At least I have a good excuse this week. I've been working on crafts for a March of Dimes benefit that was held today. We had a great time, even though the massive rainfall we've had kept most people away. Since my crafting has been getting in the way of blogging, I thought I would share a few of the things I've been working on.

Since it is almost Mother's Day and graduation is right around the corner, I tried to make things that people could give for those occasions.

 

These are full of sequins. They are fun to pick up and shake around.

 

Munford is the name of our local schools

 

These are customized money holders. Perfect for that graduate in your life!

Inside of Money holders.

I found this file HERE

I found this graphic online. I love this verse!

So that, my friends, is what I've been doing instead of blogging. Do y'all still like me?  LOL

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll try to talk to you again before next weekend.

Crafty Christmas!

As most of you know, I participated in my very first craft show over the weekend.  I stressed and worried and worked myself to death trying to get everything ready.  In the end, there were several projects that I had worked on that just didn't get finished, but that's OK.  I can use them for other things or for Christmas presents.  It's funny, the things that I have been working on forever didn't sell that well, but the things that were literally spur-of-the moment ideas, got a ton of comments and/or sold well.  I guess that just goes to show that you never know what people will like!

I didn't know until the night before that most of the vendors would be set up outside.  I wasn't too happy about the prospect, but in hindsight, that was the best place to be.  When we got there, the temperature was in the upper 40's (yeah, I know, laugh all you northerners.  HAHA) and I was seriously not liking the idea of being outside.  But, the sun came out and the temperature quickly rose to the 70's.  It could not have been a more beautiful Fall day!

The show was supposed to start at 10:00 am, but we had a steady stream of patrons starting at 9:00!  Thank goodness we got there early and had almost everything set up and ready to go when everyone started stopping by.  I was worried that there wouldn't be much of a turn-out because it was the first time our town decided to do something like that, but was thrilled when tons of people showed up! 

I was also thrilled that a great friend and her family set up right next to me. Our husband's kept each other company and our kids had a blast playing together!  And of course, we talked each other's heads off, too!  LOL 

Now on to some pictures!

These frames were HORRIBLE when I bought them.  They were black with gold crowns and some sort of phrases all over them.  With a little paint and a lot of elbow grease, this is what they ended up looking like.  I know they look a little odd in the photos, but in person, they look much better.  LOL

The tags say 'The bell still rings for those who truly Believe"

These next couple of shadow boxes were the hit of my table.  This was one of the spur-of-the-moment things I made.  (Like literally making these at 11:00 Friday night).  The kids loved to pick them up and shake them....as did a lot of the adults.  HAHA!  I sold all the Christmas ones and I'm hoping I have enough materials to make another one to keep for myself!

I saw this idea on HomeTalk a few weeks ago.  I loved the idea and just had to try it for myself!  These generated a ton of positive comments, but only sold 3.

And these are just a few shirts I made to bring to the show.

Gorgeous fall day!

These next few pictures are of the table display.

Who needs a clothes rack when you have trees?

That snowman frame to the back left is supposed to be standing up, not falling! LOL

This was my friend, Jennifer's table.  She had a TON of awesome things!

And this was one of my very special surprise visitors!  This is Miss Emma!  Emma is the daughter of a teacher at Jameson's school, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor during the summer.  Emma was celebrating Saturday because she just finished her 30th (and LAST) day of radiation on Friday!  It really made my day to see her out and about!

Even though I was dreading this Saturday, it turned out to be one of the best Saturday's yet!  I'm not sure if I will do other craft shows in the future, but if I do, it's going to be hard to top this one!  Crafty Christmas set the bar high for any future shows!

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Don't forget:  You still have until Tuesday night to enter The Outlet Shops of Grand River $50 gift card giveaway!

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I hope you all have a wonderful week!!