Smart Dog

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This dog knocks me out!

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Rescued Horses

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My cousin Joni sent this link to my family recently. Maybe you've seen it already - about the rescue of over 100 horses stranded on an island in The Netherlands. It's long (6 minutes) but worth watching. It would be good anyway, but the music, reminiscent of Chariots of Fire, makes a great soundtrack.

Here is an article with a few more details.

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Purple Hearts

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Love This Thread

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Black and Blue

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The rose bordered circle is harder to fill than I thought it would be. And I wasn't too keen on this simple embroidery center but all in all I like how this turned out. I need to work with this border more, to help it find its niche. Maybe layered borders.

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I Love Copper

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This one is for an order from a woman (hi Kathy!) who bought ten :-) Sticky Notes at the Schlegel Road School show. She wanted another of these, which of course I don't have on the website, so I made it from her description. The heart is 5 punched hearts glued together for dimension, which you can't tell from this picture. When I told Kathy that at the show, she was surprised, thought it was actual thick copper metal.

And while I was at it, I made this one for her as a gift for being such a good customer. I wanted to try out this new embroidery design (it works!), then I went nuts with the copper layers. I have this metallic paper in gold too and will buy a ream in silver, which I assume they have. By they I mean Bazzill, the best paper maker evah! This paper is solid color throughout, no white edges showing like some metallic papers.

I love making these things! And because they are such a hot seller, I'll be making lots more. I have at least two other designs in my head at the moment, which I'm sure will beget more!

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New Opportunities

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I love it when I can use "card parts" from my stash to make a new card. This background, stamped with Versamark watermark ink, worked nicely with this newer embroidered piece. Unfortunately I left it in the scanner and didn't take it to last weekend's show. Oh well.

(I'm told next year's Valentine's Day Fine Art & Craft show will be held at Webster Schroeder High School instead of Schlegel Road Elementary School - much better visibility because it's on the main street - and probably room for more vendors. All good news!)

I'm this close to putting a whole new batch of cards on the website - should be done this weekend.

I had a call last night from this past weekend's show organizer, asking if I'd be interested in doing the Webster Village Days show this summer because she's thinking of accepting an offer to run it. The deal on rent she has advised them is unbelievable. The thing is that it's an outdoor show so I'd have to invest in a tent. That's not really a big deal to me now that I'm bringing in money more steadily/year-round than in previous years.

But I had decided not to do outdoor shows, because of weather considerations with my paper. Actually, I realized, my plan has been to do indoor shows for a year and see how that goes, then think about branching out into outdoor shows. I did 6 craft shows last year, which isn't a lot by craft show veteran's standards (did I mention I work full-time besides??) but enough to tell me that I'm going in the right direction. So maybe that time is now. I package my cards in cellophane sleeves now so that's a plus. And I'd obviously have a tent with sides. Other crafters deal with the weather - it's not like anyone is immune to it, no matter what they create.

This opens a whole new world to my business. Exciting stuff!

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Brownie Edges Pan

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For those of us who love the brownie edges! Sent to me by Ann.

I stayed home from work today too - felt crappier than yesterday! But as the day wore on, I started feeling better - not so fuzzy headed. The cold has dropped into my chest so now I'll have this cough that lasts forever. I was doing a little medical self-diagnosis online this morning and confirmed that even if it is or turns into bronchitis, antibiotics do no good. So I'll keep treating the symptoms and let it run its course.

Poor Simon has it too - he powers through everything but this really hit him. He called in sick to work, which he never does. And he didn't go to class this morning even though his college did have school in spite of the weather (about 10" of snow overnight). I think he's about a day behind me because he has literally slept the day away. That's one way I know I'm doing better - not able to sleep as much as I did yesterday. Simon's bedroom is in the basement but I got him to move upstairs so I can keep an eye on him. That kid is zonked out.

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I stayed home sick today. Steve had a cold last week and several people at work have been sick. I thought I had this thing beat. Guess not. I was worried this morning that maybe I just wanted a Stefani Day off from work. So I took a shower as if I was going to work. It wore me out. So I made the necessary work arrangements and went back to bed. I slept a total of 11 hours last night, got up for two and went back to bed for 4-1/2 more hours. Crafting never entered my mind. So I guess this is me being sick, not me trying to wrangle a day off.

I still hope to feel better in the morning and go to work tomorrow but that's hard to imagine at this point, I'm so congested. We're expecting a bunch of snow tonight and tomorrow - 1 to 2 feet I think. You may have heard in the news recently, about Upstate New York getting a lot of snow- that was Oswego, east of here. Even us natives are finding it tough to imagine 10-12 feet of snow falling at one time. Now that's some snow!

One of the women at work suggested a Potluck lunch on Valentine's Day, just for fun. I suggested we tie it into one of the charities our company donates to annually, The American Heart Association. So people are bringing in food, and we're charging $5 for the all-you-can-eat-luncheon, to go to the Heart Association. I said I'd bring in my Stefani Brownies but I don't have the ingredients, didn't get to the store in the last few days. Simon's sick too or I'd ask him. Steve is working late again tonight so I don't have the heart to ask him to go to the store for me. We have some bananas I could use but it's now 7:30 and I haven't made a move towards baking so I think that's my answer. If I do end up going to work tomorrow, I'll stop at the store and buy some chocolatey fun something or other. That's the way it goes sometimes.

Since I'm not feeling the least bit creative today, I'll leave you with this recipe that I tried a few weeks ago. It's a keeper. The crust is Bisquick mixed with refried beans - love that idea.

Burrito Bake

• 1 cup Bisquick
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 can (16 ounces) refried beans
• 1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
• 1 cup thick salsa
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese

Optional Garnishes

• sour cream
• sliced green onions
• chopped fresh tomato

Grease pie plate. Mix Bisquick with water and refried beans; spread in prepared pie plate. Add, in order, ground beef, thick salsa, and cheese. Bake for 30 minutes at 375°. Serve with sour cream and chopped green onions and tomatoes, if desired.

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Schlegel Road Wrap-Up

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I'd call Saturday's craft show a success. I think I had the proper expectations set, considering it was the first show at this location and it was a very cold February day. The show was run beautifully and I'm not just saying that because Ida (the promoter) reads this blog! You can tell that she and her husband are craft show participants because every single detail was covered. I hope I'm lucky enough to participate in future shows by them. <---- Okay, that part was blatant flattery. Hi Ida!

I may have mentioned before that a craft show veteran friend of mine says if her sales are 10 times the entrance fee, she considers the show a success. This is her full-time gig and I'm not at her level of experience so my formula is 7 times the entrance fee, which is one reason I call Saturday's show a success. The other reason is I think I reached a whole new audience on that side of town. And I networked with some other crafters, always a good thing. There really was some nice work at this show.

Sunday was a planned day of rest. We walked Reggi in the morning. I felt warm enough as we walked (it was 17 degrees F) but after breakfast, while reading the paper, my core felt chilly, just couldn't get warm. We even had the fireplace going. I'm just never chilly! I finally took a hot shower to warm up.

I got caught up on some paperwork, then made myself a little nest on the couch. I read for a while, surfed the net for a bit and took a nice nap. I was deep sleeping! Reggi was on the recliner and Verona was on my feet. We all fell asleep in our respective sunbeams. It was heaven.

By the time I went to bed I felt a little "throaty" but I feel better this morning. The woman I share an office with has been sick and Steve was sick last week so I've been pounding the Echinacea like crazy. I asked my massage therapist to use her best mojo last week to make sure I don't get sick. She then told me that massage can actually bring on a low-lying cold with a vengeance - but it will be shorter in duration. I just wanted to get through the craft show feeling good. This happened at another craft show last year. I was fighting a tiny cold all week, running on adrenaline, then the day after the show - kaboom - sick. I love that - how our bodies take care of us (usually).

I had hoped to clean my studio yesterday but the whole vegging on the couch thing worked out nicely, just as I'd hoped. Felt good.

Now I have some orders to fill and time to start replenishing the inventory. I didn't sell a single framed piece but sold a fair number of cards and as usual, the Post-It-Note pads were the hot item. The framed pieces have to grow on people - it's usually something they think about and come back to purchase the next time.

I learned a couple of things. I'm going to make a nice sign that says my products are all hand-stitched. It's a question I hear from time to time and it's so obvious to me - but duh, how would someone else know? They are always amazed and impressed - so think about the people that don't ask and don't know. I need a sign.

I sold a fair number of pins too. I always display them in groups on the table, each in a co-ordinating organza bag with one out of the bag for display and touching. That way people feel like they are getting a "fresh" pin that no one has touched. But I'm thinking of finding some trays or shallow baskets or something to display the various pins in. I was poking around the Pier One website yesterday - I love their stuff. But I didn't really see the right thing. I looked through some display catalogs I have too - I saw a tilted basket set up I kind of liked. I guess I'll know it when I see it.

The next show is March 29, 30, 31 and April 1. No rest for the weary - yay!

Busy, Busy

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I'm doing that pre-show bi-polar thing again. I worked about 15 hours yesterday on Pine Tree Designs stuff.

4:00: I'll never have enough stuff! I work as hard as I can - what's wrong with me?

7:00: (After putting together a batch of cards) My work is fantastic! I love these cards! I'll be a huge success!

Sheesh, already.

Here are a few from yesterday:

Saturday, February 10 - 10:00-6:00
St. Valentine's Day Fine Art & Craft Sale
at Schlegel Road Elementary School, Webster, NY.

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Spring Postcard

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As you know by now, the closer I get to a craft show, my blog posts are fewer & further between. The postcard mailing for my Spring Craft Shows went out on February 1, just as I'd hoped. I mean, planned.

Work has been kind of bear this week, probably not my best week to change from a weekly massage to an every other week. (But when is?? Just trying to make each 6-pack of sessions last a bit longer, financially.) But I white-knuckled through and now it's Friday - whee! I made a note on my work calendar to not allow a week long audit to happen around the time the 1099s must be sent to our contractors. Too much to do at once.

I took this morning off from exercising so I can do Pine Tree Designs stuff. I'm punching patterns in paper pieces, ready for stitching. I'll stitch some on my lunch hour at work today. I'm going to a friend's house for lunch tomorrow - there are 4 of us. So I can stitch while we sit around gabbing. Or I might just relax and chat - we'll see. Either way, it's my only commitment this weekend and I'm taking Monday off so I should be able to finish up lots of Pine Tree Designs stuff. The Schlegel Road School show is a week from tomorrow - I can't wait.

1st annual St. Valentine's Day
Fine Art & Craft show featuring over 40 of the best local artisans.

Saturday, February 10th, 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM
1548 Schlegel Rd, Webster, NY

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