Turquoise Web Paper Art Pin

.Wearable Paper Art Pin, $4.00

I love how this turned out. That green circle is only 1-1/4" diameter!

I mentioned yesterday how I get all nervous and jerky when sending out a Pine Tree Designs email. How many times will it take for me to remember what a good experience it is? I always hear back from bunches of people - mostly friends and craft colleagues. They are all excited for me, happy to hear from me and we get to catch up with each other.

It's all good.

Sunday - May 3, 5:00-10:00 pm

Spot Coffee's First & Last; Arts & Crafts

(first & last weekends of the month)

200 East Avenue

Rochester, NY

~ ~ ~

Wednesday - May 6, 10:00-3:00

Nixon Peabody Art & Craft Show

1100 Clinton Square, 14th Floor

Rochester, NY

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I'm an Idiot, I'm a Genius

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Hand Stitched Wearable Paper Art Pin, 2-3/4" diameter, $4.00.

First, why I'm an idiot.

I've mentioned before that I turn into such a nervous wreck when sending an email blast to my customers. It used to be that I hesitated because I didn't want to be considered to be a spammer. I have never sent out enough email to be considered spam - and this is an email list that people sign up for! So I got over that.

I just want the email to be perfect. Is that asking too much??

I wanted to send the email last week because I often feel like I wait until the last minute before an event. But first I wanted to post more things in my shop, but before that I wanted to . . . and the list goes on and on. Finally, I had to just do it.

I posted 5 new paper art jewelry pins in the Shop last night. This morning I updated my Shows page. So I was ready to send the email. I tell you, I reread that thing 100 times, I sent it to myself first to see how it looks, checked the links, etc.

Finally, the big moment - send! My list is so large I have it broken down into groups alphabetically so the mail server can handle it. First group - I sent the group as "to", not "bcc". This is one of my pet peeves in that I think it makes one look amateurish to expose recipients names like that. Darn.

Not to worry - I did it correctly for the rest of the groups.

I immediately get a small number of auto-replies, as expected - address change, mailboxes have been deleted, etc.

Then I get a live response from a woman who politely asks about the new shows, "Sounds great! What town are those in?"

Crap! I gave the addresses but neglected to say they are both in downtown Rochester, NY. I forget that my mailing list has grown beyond the 18 friends and family it started out as.

Oh well. The complete address is on my Shows page, so there's that. (And I immediately replied to her personally, of course.)

~ ~ ~

Now, want to hear what a genius I am??

Long ago I needed graph paper for a project and figured I could find some on the Internet - and I did. You can specify the size, color lines, etc. Worked perfectly.

When working on these new pins the other day, like the one pictured above, I was making the patterns by folding paper in half, quarters, eighths, etc. to mark off the sections. Particularly when working that small, being off even just a skosh makes the design look sloppy. I liked the direction I was heading but any slight imperfection was bugging me.

Shazam, I says to myself, I bet I can find round graph paper on the Internet! I Googled and found it helps to call it circular graph paper but whoomp, there it is! Every kind of graph paper you could possibly want, all turned into a free downloadable pdf, made to your specs.

So yeah, I'm a genius. I invented Googling the Internet.

First & Last Arts & Crafts Show
May 3rd
5 – 10 PM
Spot Coffee
200 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14604

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Laura W Adams

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I watched a segment on Laura W. Adams on HGTV's That's Clever yesterday and her paper collage faux painting blew my mind! It's made of layers and layers of itty bitty pieces of paper. She starts with 1" square pieces of interesting papers and adheres them in diagonal rows to the canvas with acrylic medium. The she builds the various elements one by one on top of that base. As I recall, each tree trunk was cut in one single piece but everything else is made from tiny bits of paper. One of my favorite parts is how she literally sprinkles paper bits so delicate they almost resemble large dust particles.

And she works on some big canvases. This piece above is 30" x 40". Her website shows a lot more of her work, all incorporating nature, some are larger, some are smaller.

After I wrote this, I had to go back and watch the segment again. Just fantastic!

First & Last Arts & Crafts Show
May 3rd
5 – 10 PM
Spot Coffee
200 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14604

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Franc Grom Eggs

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Check out more photos of the incredible work of Franc Grom.

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Photographers Against Hunger

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I feel so special when Bruce emails me. (And 80 skillion other people. So what??) Here's what I learned about today.

Fourteen photographers, in conjunction with Backstreets magazine are raising money for the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. For a $25 donation, your name will be entered in a drawing to win an original signed print of Bruce Springsteen taken by these photographers.

I know some of my reader friends are fans, so I'm posting this link because I think you'll enjoy not only seeing the photographs but reading what the photographers wrote about their memories of taking the photos. It's fascinating stuff.

The above photo is one of my favorites - from 1978 - because of Steven VanZandt. Not only am I familiar with his work in the E Street Band but also on The Sopranos. Look how young he looks!

~ ~ ~

I just finished my best week at work in forever. You know I've been struggling. I was seriously thinking I just didn't like my job any more. Then my mentor is laid off? Coulda been a big ol' downward spiral.

But it was a week where I didn't have my Friday conference call with The Bully - and no auditor. Life was good - I love my job, felt accomplished and had fun. Whew! I honestly thought those days were gone.

First & Last Arts & Crafts Show
May 3rd
5 – 10 PM
Spot Coffee
200 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14604

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Happy Earth Day!

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I love Earth Day. Just because. I tried to think of something purposeful and meaningful to do at work to celebrate it but came up blank.

I kept fearing I would come off like one of our former employees who was always wanting to promote the ESOP, with poster contests & stuff. I never understood what that meant. We are an ESOP company, we all know what it means, we're vested or not - it's not something you join or sign up for. I only have my perspective, of course, but I'm more about productivity and making money for the company (and thus me) than a rah-rah campaign.

Still, I'm happy that Earth Day is back on the world's radar screen. I remember the first Earth Day very fondly, back in 1970 when I was in the 7th grade, age 14. Here's what I wrote last year about the subject.

~ ~ ~

Happy Administrative Professionals Day too!

I ordered one of these Edible Arrangements for our "gal". She likes to eat healthy so I think she'll like this if she doesn't freak out about how much it costs. She knows that stuff and is extremely frugal. I may have to remind her how to accept a gift graciously. :-)

I'm a nut for little compartments. How cute is this?? By day, it's a piece of art on the wall. At night, fold it down to hold stuff, even specifically custom-made to fit your stuff!

First & Last Arts & Crafts Show
May 3rd
5 – 10 PM
Spot Coffee
200 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14604

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The Aftermath & New Opportunities

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A few years ago our entire Education team resigned at the same time and left the rest of us feeling like the rug had been pulled out from under us. What surprised me is how the employees immediately rallied and dug our heels in to move forward.

So I wasn't surprised when the same thing happened yesterday after the 2 people were laid off last week. We got the mourning out of our systems last week and over the weekend and circled the wagons and moved on together. It's nice. The bagels and donuts I brought in were appreciated more than I imagined so I was glad I did that after all.

I've heard tell that one of the people laid off is calling employees and vendors to tell them the sky is falling. People that do that always fail to understand that the only person who looks bad in that scenario is them.

I did find myself having irrational thoughts yesterday. There's one person I think should have been let go instead - I can't even look at him. And I overheard our CEO laugh yesterday - at who knows what - anything at all and I was all, "How dare he be in a good mood when our friend has lost his job!?"

I'm such a goofball.

~ ~ ~

Let's get back to talking about art, shall we? I have two new interesting opportunities coming up in early May. I'll provide more details as the time gets closer.

On Wednesday, May 6, I'll be participating in a show that Nixon Peabody, a law firm in downtown Rochester, puts on in their office. A couple of vendor friends have taken part in this before and recommended it. It's very inexpensive and they provide lunch even. Should be a natural fit for my Sticky Notes in particular.


But first is Spot Coffee, a micro-chain of cafes, says that Wiki page I linked to, with 4 locations. (The other 2 are in Buffalo, the 4th is in Toronto.) My friend Vickie turned me on to this. She was contacted through Etsy Shop Local. I have no idea how many vendors are there at a time. Vickie will be there May 1, 2 and 3rd, 5-10 pm - and I'll be joining her just on Sunday, May 3rd. I'll be there again in late June on a Friday & Saturday. It should be interesting - it's located in an artsy part of town (near the Little Theatre) and has a reputation for being very hip. (Who me? Hip? Sure, why not?!)

Always good to get in front of new people. I'm excited about both opportunities.

First & Last Arts & Crafts Show
May 3rd
5 – 10 PM
Spot Coffee
200 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14604
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Oy

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A couple of people have emailed me to see if I'm okay because I haven't posted since last Wednesday. I did have a busy-ish weekend, but it's really events at work last week that have left me unable to write.

Our purchasing director and the assistant purchasing director were laid off on Thursday. Everyone is shocked and heartbroken. We are a computer reseller who provides product and service. Our service sales have climbed dramatically over the years and have remained pretty steady in this sucky economy. But our product sales are way down, which obviously affects our need to purchase product.

These employees have been there 17 and 28 years respectively. I like to believe that I am not one of those "us vs them" people, thinking all management is bad and "they" don't know what they are doing. (I felt this way before I became a supervisor.) But this is clearly that the highest paid people were laid off. (We have 2 employees remaining in Purchasing.) I have reason to believe the accounting department is on the low end of the company pay scale, but I've been there 15 years, so yeah, no one is safe. I mean, everyone knows that, but to see it in action totally sucks.

There are other factors involved that I can't talk about here, of course - so part of me does understand how the decision was made. Nothing is ever black & white.

It's so much easier to take when it's dead wood that's being trimmed. The purchasing director, Lonnie, is one of our very best employees. He is highly respected and very well liked. He is also my mentor and friend. Sunday was the first day I haven't shed some tears over this. I know we'll stay in touch but it won't be the same.

This makes a total of 5 employees that have been laid off in the last 6 months. In the grand scheme of things, that's not bad. Here it's quality that concerns me, not quantity.

The thing that makes this sort of okay is that I know Lonnie has been asking for more responsibility and I'm not sure we'd ever be able to provide it. He has a zillion contacts and a solid reputation and resume so not only will he land on his feet, but I know he'll do great things. I can't wait to watch him soar in his next position.

Truthfully, I would have taken a (small!) pay cut in order for him to keep his job. I bet there are others that would have too. But in my heart, I think he would have left the company eventually, on to bigger and better things. (He's in his 40s, I think.)

The other thing is that the person, Jim, who will be taking over some of his responsibilities is extremely capable. We could not be left in better hands. He's also a good friend so I'm happy for him personally and professionally. Lonnie was his mentor too, so he feels funny about this whole thing, but it will turn out good, I know.

The funny thing is Jim was off work Friday, having a colonoscopy. I knew he'd be checking his work email from home at some point, so I emailed him, "Why, oh why, didn't I think to schedule a colonoscopy for today??" He called me later on and we laughed about who would have thought that prepping for a colonoscopy would be preferable to being at work?

So Thursday and Friday were brutal; everyone is so upset. I let our 2 accounting people leave at 3:00, just because. Even the decision-makers are unhappy about all this. My boss (Lonnie's boss too) told me it was the hardest thing he's ever had to do. They were friends, worked together all these years, went to each other's kids' sports events.

I know this stuff is only meaningful to me. Thanks for letting me get it out. Organizing my thoughts about stuff always helps.

I'm going to take bagels and donuts in to work this morning. Food doesn't fix anything but maybe it . . . I don't know what . . . I just want to offer a caring gesture to a bunch of sad people.

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Stand By Me

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Love, love, love this video. I think this song will be stuck in my head all day. I hope! (Thanks Sue.)

Quillery Bakery Upcycled Cereal Box

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I found this over at Craft Stylish, by KraftinQT. Upcycling means recycling something into better than it was before. She made this from a Quaker Oaks box with some help from a Wheatbix box. I love the subtle colors.

~ ~ ~

Mom and I finished my 2nd (and last one ever, Mom tells me!) custom fit tablecloth for my craft show table.

I finished my taxes, which I'd started in February.

I worked on a large order for the Jr League of Buffalo boutique.

I killed my nephew's fish. (I'm taking care of Gretchen's cat and Paul's fish while Gretchen is in Florida on business and Paul lives with his brother for the school semester. There are a number of factors that could have caused the fish to die, but bottom line is they died on my watch. I feel bad.)

We took Reggi for a long walk in Ellison Park.

That was my weekend. The end.

~ ~ ~

April 25 - May 17

Jr League of Buffalo 15th Decorators' Show House

EB Green's Wallace Estate

697 LeBrun Road, Eggertsville, NY

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Flutter

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For my Twitter friends. (Thanks Gretchen!)

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Ducks in Spokane

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Here's a fowl story if ever I heard one.

(Note: I would never post an animal story here that ends tragically. I know sometimes I scroll through these things expecting the worst. I only do heartwarming.)

~ ~ ~

I literally feel like I've come out from under a 2 week depression. I got my new computer at work yesterday and life is good again. I can zip along like I want to. I'm even looking forward to going in to work today. And not just because we take turns bringing in breakfast on Fridays. And not just because the auditor is working from home today. :-)

The auditor and I set up the next two visits - 3 days at the end of April and a full week mid-May. He thinks that may be our last week but I am setting no such expectation.

~ ~ ~

Bonnie's comment on yesterday's entry reminded me that I forgot one very important fact in my story about Simon's car accident. Duh. Simon did indeed get a ticket for following too closely! In my heart, I know that sometimes accidents are just unavoidable, but I also know, speaking as a bit of a tailgater myself, that you can't leave too much room between you and the car in front of you. It's tough in that rush hour traffic he was in on the expressway, but well, then, shit happens. Thankfully, this wasn't bad shit, hopefully just wake-up-and-learn-a-lesson shit.

Because his headlights are busted, he's been borrowing my car to drive his girlfriend home at night. And now he beats me to the punch when he's ready to leave, "I know, Mom, I'll be quadruple careful."

~ ~ ~

I received my check from last weekend's craft show. Like I said, it's money earned, even if I wish it was more. What I learned this time is that I really need to have Easter themed stuff at this show. (Especially if I want to compete with the Easter bunny poop.) It's always held the week before Easter. I have those cute Easter egg rubber stamps now - where I stamp them on different colored papers, cut them apart then reassemble artistically. I think they would sell well there - pins, Sticky Notes, greeting cards. Always learning.

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Jasmine

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You know I'm a sucker for animals loving animals stories. Here's a great one about Jasmine.

~ ~ ~

All I can say is I'm glad that weeks ago I had the foresight to schedule a massage for Friday after work. I did that because I knew it was an audit week. Little did I know I'd be dealing with such computer woes at work. (I get my new one today!) Little did I know Simon would be involved in a not-his-fault car accident yesterday morning.

He's not hurt and his car is repairable.

He was driving to school when an idiot driver decided to suddenly swerve across lanes to get to his exit, causing the other drivers to quickly adjust, shall we say? Everyone braked of course, when suddenly the 67 year old driver in front of Simon stopped dead. Simon ran into her and the guy behind him ran into him. The back-end damage was barely a scratch but his hood is a bit scrunched and his headlight and grill are broken.

He called me, very upset, because he thought the first driver had left the scene. So while he called 911, I flew out of work to go to where he was. As soon as I was out of our work driveway I called him, asking him to stay on the phone with me. By then the cop was there and it turns out the woman had pulled off the road quite a bit further ahead. So they straightened it all out. Simon was calm and told me not to come, he'd call me if he needed me. Guess he didn't want his mom showing up at the accident scene after all.

I went back to work, feeling a little sheepish, like I over-reacted, but truthfully, any parent would have done the same thing. I stuck my head in my boss's office to tell him I was back and things were fine. A couple of co-workers heard me talking and asked what was going on. As I walked back into my office, I . . . wait for it . . . here it comes . . . burst into tears.

And moved on with my day.

Thank God it's Thursday.

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Blue Duo and Babyproof Drawer

.I'm really stepping up my stitching - just kind of worked out that way. It's always one of those I-wonder-what-it-would-look-like-if-I-did-this kind of things. The unintended benefit to using heavily stitched elements like this is they require very little or no embellishing so they are quick to assemble. More time spent stitching = less time spent embellishing, so it's probably a wash time wise, but lots of fun either way.

I don't know yet how I did at last weekend's craft show - I'll receive my check in the mail probably late this week. I expect to be down from last year, given the economy. As goal-driven as I am, I told Steve I need to get those things out of my head sometimes so as to not feel disappointed at things (presumably) out of my control. I need a more glass-is-half-full approach, in that I made XX more dollars than if I had not participated. (I know I easily covered my entrance fee.)

I worked Saturday morning and it was surprisingly busy! The weather was blustery - rain, snow, wind, the works. I knew people wouldn't be outside doing yard work which is always a "problem" when we have nice spring weather. But I thought it was so nasty out that people wouldn't want to leave the house. Glad I was wrong! We had lines at both registers several times. I knew 2 out of the 3 people I worked with so it was pretty fun.

I've mentioned previously that because we can sell buy/sell product at this show, I've hesitated to participate - and cite the candy-filled plastic American Idol guitar from last year's show as evidence. This year I saw a guitar shaped air freshener come through the line. I think it was an air freshener (no American Idol logo though!) I know I only noticed it because of the guitar theme. I was laughing to myself, "Here we go again!"

What I had totally forgotten about was a vendor who makes (I assume she/he makes them) little novelty items relevant to the season. In cellophane bags, with a computer-printed header tag, she bags up a dozen pieces of pastel colored mini-marshmallows and labels it Easter Bunny Poop. I've seen her do green mini-marshmallows for Leprechaun Poop and of course the always classic white mini-marshmallows for Snowman Poop. She sells them for 50 cents, I think it is. She has a bunch of different things but that's the only one I can remember.

In spite of the above mentioned items, as I looked around further on Saturday, there really was a lot of nice stuff there - far outweighs any lesser items. Mom stopped by and she'll vouch for the show. :-)

~ ~ ~

Work has been extra depressing this week. You'll recall I had a virus for a few days that we couldn't get rid of so I was given a new-to-me computer, using a virtual module. It turns out that I can't live with my slowish computer so our IT person told me yesterday she's getting me a new machine with a faster processor and she's doubling my RAM. I hope I get it today. I was near tears with frustration yesterday. I want the computer to respond as fast as I can type and click, which is pretty fast, if I say so myself.

Our Illinois sales tax auditor is here for the week. I honestly had hopes that this would be his last visit. Oh silly me. He is extending the time frame in which he has to finish the audit to June. June 2010. I really did want to cry! He thinks he'll be done in August though, including time for us to dispute any of his findings. He says he'll be back for another 2 or 3 week-long visits. He really is a nice guy, very reasonable, couldn't ask for a better auditor in fact. But woe is me. I would say that I think most of my part of this is wrapping up - now it's up to him to review all the information I've given him. But I'm trying hard to remove all expectations about how this will go because clearly, I haven't a clue.

~ ~ ~

I went into work early Monday and Tuesday but decided I need to do some happy, crafty work this morning to get myself "right". Another thing I did was I went to Stever's Chocolates on Park Avenue on yesterday's lunch hour and bought Easter chocolates for Steve, Simon, Simon's girlfriend, Steve's mom, DJ, Gershum, Lizz and "the girls" at work. The only thing I bought myself was a 5-piece package of dark chocolate covered pretzels. I ate them throughout the afternoon at my desk. Beats cryin'!

Another local chocolatier is Andy's Candies. They set up shop around town for various holidays so they are a lot more convenient but my problem with their chocolate is that it is always filled with air bubbles. Stever's Chocolates are pristine and perfect!

Oh crap! I just remembered a fellow vendor I met last year who has a shop in East Rochester. Darn - I would like to support her, wish I'd thought of this earlier. Stever's does have a lot of novelty (there's that word again!) chocolates - so I bought most of the aforementioned people chocolates relative to their interests: iPod, cell phone, laptop, Sodoku puzzle, etc.

Let's end with an infectious laugh, shall we?

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Craft Shows

.I could not be happier! I received my vendor packet yesterday for the Quilt Festival! This is the one new show I really wanted to get into this year. (Well, one of two - the other being Letchworth.) They cashed my check long ago, but the way some shows operate, even that doesn't mean you've been accepted. This show is held every 2 years and I can't believe I've never heard of it - or I just wasn't paying attention because it sure looks like they do lots of publicity. It's a show I would go to even if I wasn't in it because I love quilts - and if the vendors are quilt-related or appeal to quilters (as in my case), that would all be right up my alley. This is the kind of specialty shows I want to get into.

~ ~ ~

Turns out I bought my laptop in 2005. When I first looked it up at work I thought it was purchased in 2002 but that must have been one that Steve bought. But it feels like I've had mine for 7 years! Still, I asked our Purchasing Director to keep his eyes open for one for me. I'm excited. I love new toys - and to be able to work quickly and efficiently is cool too!

~ ~ ~

At work I've been on the peer recognition award committee forever. We've had two different programs in place because they tend to get stale after a while. We're in the midst of revamping the program again and I thought I would be able to beg off doing this anymore because I've been feeling all been-there-done-that about it. Then I kind of agreed to stay on during the transition. Except, it feels like I'm a full-fledged member now. But it might be okay, I'm feeling better about it.

Yesterday we talked about wanting to do a survey to see how employees like to be rewarded. The IT guy on the committee told us about a survey tool we have so I volunteered to set up the survey. It was so much fun. I love that stuff!

We're talking about having employees accrue their earned awards and redeem them for gift cards, etc. This is reminiscent of the first program we had. The cool thing is how much things have changed since then. I used to have to go to the 3 stores we offered, to purchase the gift cards - now we can do it all online! (At least the ones I've briefly checked so far.) And websites like Starbucks, Tim Hortons and Dunkin Donuts allow reloading of an existing card so that might be appealing to employees. Sites like Fandango.com sell gift certificates so employees can redeem them for movie tickets to theaters near their home, for instance. Used to be we only provided Regal tickets which didn't help people who lived closest to a General Cinema theater for instance.

As determined as I was to bow out of this committee after the initial meeting, now I'm hoping I get to do the online purchasing of gift cards and track all that stuff. I love that part - I didn't realize how much.

~ ~ ~

I worked late last night so I didn't stop by the craft show after work but I wasn't really planning to since I'm working there when it opens this morning at 10:00. While looking for something else I found 6 photos of the craft show on our newspaper's website. I plowed through them, hopeful my stuff was shown, but no. Here are a few though, to give you a flavor of the show.

Powers Market is a log structure, about the size of a ranch house, I'd say. They really have a nice operation, including live animals to visit. One of their major claims to fame is 3 giant teepees they build out of corn stalks each fall. They fill them with hundreds of carved pumpkins. It's pitch black inside, except for the pumpkins lining the walls. It's very cool.

My friend Kathy makes these - taking old plates and chinaware and turning them into mirrors. She makes all kinds of cool things - a cup & saucer on a garden stake, for example. She combines, say a vintage glass candlestick with a crystal plate to make a cake stand. That sort of thing. I love her work - and she's a fascinating person.

This is some of the buy/sell product that's there. Not my cup of tea, but the variety is nice. Like I said the other day, far more of the stuff in the show is handmade, than not, I think.

April 2, 3, 4 - 10:00-6:00 & April 5 - 10:00-4:00

26th Annual Signs of Spring

Powers Farm Market

161 Marsh Road, Pittsford, NY

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Computer Woes

.This is one of my newly favorite threads because I love the way looks so festive on this dark blue paper.

~ ~ ~

I've had a virus on my work computer for the past week. The IT person and I tried everything to get rid of it. It was really only affecting my Internet usage (wacky windows popped up randomly and I was denied access to the pages I wanted to see). But, the cure - running Spybot and other virus detecting programs - was killing me - slowing my system down so badly, I could hardly work. I have zero tolerance for slow computers unfortunately.

So I was happy to see she had given me another computer yesterday. That's kind of a good news/bad news thing, isn't it? I was glad to be rid of the virus but setting things up again is time consuming. She was able to do most of it automatically, it wasn't so much me setting my preferences for this and that, so it really wasn't as painful as I'm making it out to be. Still.

Plus I'm learning VMWare because she's moving a lot of us to this - so we work in a virtual module and a host. The learning curve is pretty small and it will be good to know that if I ever get a virus again, I can quickly recover by working in the other module. (The VM and host share hardware but not software.)

On the home front, the 2 USB ports on my laptop have been funky for a while - like they are shorting out or something. Our IT person tells me they are part of the system board or motherboard or something so they aren't easily replaced. I'm still limping along but I can feel myself heading towards a new laptop. (Especially when I realized that Simon has had 2 laptops in the amount of time I've had one. Not fair!) (Not to mention he's had 3 cars in the time I've had 2, but I don't care about cars like I do computers!) I should probably give our Purchasing director a heads up now because we get really good deals from time to time that he can offer to employees.

I haven't looked online yet but I did check at a Radio Shack store for an adapter that turns a serial port into a USB port. It's not the long term answer but it's got to be better than this intermittent crap.

I'm open to other suggestions if anyone knows of anything I can do to save this laptop.

~ ~ ~

I stopped by the craft show after work yesterday. I definitely sold some stuff. I don't have a count of what I started with but it looked like those little gift tags were selling well. And I'm pretty sure I unloaded some of those wholesale cards.

I almost forgot! I took this photo with my phone yesterday. Those are the wholesale cards on the right - see? - they are nice! The two little racks on the right of the table hold the gift tags I've mentioned. Out of range to the right is my black shutter with the framed art.

It's probably a little hard to tell but that table on those risers is just the perfect height. Right when I got there yesterday, I ran into a woman I used to volunteer with at the Ronald McDonald House so I got to witness how much easier it is for people to see my work when it's higher like that. (Thanks again Mom, for the help with the tablecloth - you rock!)

See what I mean about limited space? We don't have specified booths but it all works out. I had a chance to walk around a little bit - there is some nice stuff there - and more of it is handmade than I was remembering.

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They Say it's Your Birthday

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Happy 50th Birthday

Gretchen!!!

This is a little 2-3/4" square gift tag that I'm selling at this weekend's craft show, comes with a vellum envelope, each packaged in a cellophane sleeve, for $2. I'll get them posted in my Etsy shop sooner or later.

I used to sell these sunflower designs and some hand pieced ladybugs on cards that were a bit smaller at 2-1/2" square. A little drawstring organza bag served as the envelope. People seemed to like them well enough so I don't know if changing them will turn out to be a winner or not. But you couldn't close the bag with the card in it, which always kind of bugged me.

Anyway, you wouldn't think that 1/4" makes that much of a difference but to put those 2-1/2" square cards in 3" envelopes looked silly. So Tuesday night I took apart 23 ladybugs and 31 sunflowers and affixed them to new 2-3/4" cards. And of course I couldn't just slap them on the new cards, they needed an additional layer to look better. But I got them done. I really like them - I hope they sell well.

The place where this weekend's show is held is very close to where I work so I thought about running my stuff over there at lunch, then stopping back after work to set it up. But it was raining at noon so I didn't. It wasn't raining at 5:00 so it all worked out okay. I was able to park right by the door and with my little 4 wheel cart, carrying stuff in was a breeze. I was done setting up by 6:30. I had figured maybe I'd get home at 8:00 so I was happy to be done so early.

This is the first time I've set up my table using the risers with the new tablecloth Mom and I made. I must say, it looks spectacular! I'm soooo pleased with it. Everything is at counter height very easy to see, no bending over. I've been thinking about doing this for so long, wish I'd done it much sooner. Even making the tablecloth was much easier than Mom & I thought it was going to be. I'll take pictures next time I'm there. I'll try to stop by after work today and Friday, then I work there Saturday 10:00-2:00. (Say hi if you stop by then!)

If you recall I said recently that I had 351 Sticky Notes ready for the show. I might not have much else - which turned out to be kind of true. I'm not selling any of my cards there, though that might change if I can get some finished up tonight or Friday night. I have a floor spinner full of other people's cards though - some pop-up cards that aren't handmade but a bunch that are, that I like. These are left over from my Fairport co-op experience. This is one of my few (only!) chances to unload stuff that isn't mine so I decided to go for it.

I have more pins than I thought but not as much variety as I intend to carry as a rule. The framed artwork is the same old crap everyone has seen - I feel bad about that. I actually love all the pieces, don't get me wrong - it just doesn't look very fresh to me. Hopefully that's only true for me, not my customers!

April 2, 3, 4 - 10:00-6:00 & April 5 - 10:00-4:00

26th Annual Signs of Spring

Powers Farm Market

161 Marsh Road, Pittsford, NY

Tiny Heart

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Tonight is set up at the craft show directly after work so I need to get my gear "staged" so Steve can load up his vehicle for me. (I'll miss my little Prius today!) I'll be one of the last people to set up since most people set up during the day. It's good because it will be less crowded and I can park closer to the door. It's not so good because this show doesn't have marked off booth areas and I always feel like my two neighbors encroach towards my space a little bit. Maybe they don't at all, but I always want more space - who doesn't? This is always a bit of an abbreviated set up for me so at least I now know what to bring.

April 2, 3, 4 - 10:00-6:00 & April 5 - 10:00-4:00

26th Annual Signs of Spring

Powers Farm Market

161 Marsh Road, Pittsford, NY

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