I Got the Message

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Other than she is young, thin and blond, this looks just like me. My massage therapist uses these hot stones - love them. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my Wednesday appointment due to financial considerations - just not in the budget at the moment.

The reason I bring this up though, is because last week I received a post card from a massage therapist near my house. I went to her once several years ago, because she had an introductory special. I liked her very much, but at the time, she didn't take my insurance so I went elsewhere, eventually ending up with Mary, who is now my friend - and a fantastic message therapist.

But the postcard says this, "Schedule your next appointment now and bring this card for a savings of $25 off a full message session!"

As much as I'd like to save $25, I just can't go to someone who sends a postcard out with such a glaring typo. Yes, I'm that kind of person - just can't do it. (And Mary would kill me if I went elsewhere. And really, why would I - she's the best!) (And yes, she occasionally reads this blog, but I would say that anyway. I've referred two people to her.)

~ ~ ~

You know how sometimes you have those weekends where you feel like didn't accomplish diddly? I didn't have one of those weekends at all! After Saturday's dog walk, I cleaned up part of the garage, washed my car and finally put the clings on my windows that I bought late last year.

Doesn't that look fantastic? It's on both back windows, the inside. I bought them from Ernie, on Etsy. Very reasonable I thought - $40 for both including shipping. Except you know what I realized? Now I have to be a good driver. Darn it! I really didn't think this through first.

I got my hair cut. I cleaned up my studio and spent lots of time getting my new laptop set up. It's not there 100% but pretty darn workable. This thing sings! And that photo of my car? I just took it with my camera, stuck the memory card directly into a slot in the laptop - and voila! I'm back in business with downloading photos! I'm so relieved because we leave on vacation in a few days. (We're going to Maine for a week.)

As I moved my old laptop out of position on my desk and moved the new one in, and plugged things into to the USB ports - holy cow! They are so tight and secure! I knew the old ones were shot, but I had no idea how sloppy loose they were. I'm very happy with my new computer.

I still have lots of paperwork to catch up on before we leave and I have to make sure I have plenty of pieces ready to stitch on vacation. I always worry about that more than any other element of vacation. Socks & underwear? Whatever. Stitching? Must have! Since this year, like last year, we're driving to our destination, Steve drives and I stitch. Plus there's plenty of down time in the hotel. Just like at home, I'm stitching during every available free moment - and loving it.

(Mom, I may or may not get more business card punched for you to stitch - we'll have to play that by ear.)

And all my old email is still on my old computer. So Dad, I'm half-thinking I may end up taking my old laptop on vacation with me to work on cleaning it off. I have such an incredible backlog of email - and plenty I want to keep - but I'm not sure I want to transfer all of that big mess to my new laptop. But you can definitely use it when I return, or sometime soon.

I must say that the setting up of this new computer could hardly have gone smoother. I love the "fresh start" feel. I, like lots of you I'm sure, go through stages where I purge blogs that I read, newsletters, etc. Then I have a run where I find all kinds of interesting things that I must know about and the glut begins all over again. (Disclaimer: I never discontinue reading blogs of my core group of online friends on purpose, just get too darn busy to check as often as I'd like.)

~ ~ ~

Check out that new badge in my sidebar that tidies up my Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. links. I found that on another blog this morning.

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The Fast & the Furriest

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Is that a happy dog or what??

Saturday we joined one of Steve's work friends & her family with their 3 dogs to walk in the fundraiser for the Verona Street Animal Society. Steve's daughter went with us. I think we could have talked Simon into it too but he was going to his girlfriend's graduation that morning. The article in the Sunday's paper said there were 175 walkers.

The weather could not have been better. Did you notice the stylish bandanna that Reggi is sporting? There's a story. Before we left the house, I told Steve that I was sure there would be plenty of dogs wearing bandannas and shirts and the like. He looked at me like, "Oh no, please don't!" So I didn't, but I noticed after the walk as we were milling about the vendor area, listening to the live music, that a veterinary practice was giving away leashes and bandannas. I made a bee line for one of the volunteers and asked for a bandanna. So it was mostly to mortify Steve - but c'mon, Reggi is so cute!

What really caught my eye was a small dog wearing a colorful jester style collar. But even if I could, I wouldn't put one of those on Reggi for fear she'd look like an inverted hippo in a tutu, ala Fantasia.

But seriously, does this look like a fun collar!?

Take a Hike

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I absolutely love my Urban Dictionary daily emails. (Thanks for turning me on to that years ago, Gretchen!)

It's weird though - some are such well-known phrases to me, I'm surprised to see them there. They must be there to school the youngsters. Like this one:

Drop a Dime

To snitch on someone. Often, to save their own ass. Comes from the old cost for a payphone call, ten cents.

"John got popped, so he dropped a dime on his supplier and they let him go."


Others are as timeless as today's headlines:

Hiking in Appalachia

To have an extramarital affair. Stems from the disappearance and subsequent reappearance of South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford(R). Gov Sanford was thought to be hiking in Appalachia. In actuality, he was having an affair in the South American country of Argentina.

"Girl, I just saw Susie's man hiking in Appalachia."

~ ~ ~

Strawberries

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Photo swiped from World Community Cookbook.

I sliced up two quarts of strawberries for a birthday treat at work today, to be served with angel food cake and whipped cream. The birthday girl received the requisite Stefani Brownies last week but for various reasons we were unable to celebrate with our usual sweets in the afternoon. It's a departmental thing we like to do.

When I was slicing the strawberries, I made Simon his only little container because I was afraid he'd dig into these and go hog wild. We do love our strawberries.

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Raccoons Rescued From Vending Machine

Back in the Game

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Perfect timing for $600, Alex.

On our way to the show in Syracuse on Friday, I received voice mail from the owner of Artizanns in Naples, for an order of 20 Sticky Notes. Saturday, I received an email from the order of Heron Creek in Corning, for 15 Sticky Notes. (And she's opened another store in Watkins Glen and wants to know if she can carry my Sticky Notes there too.)

These are their first orders in 2009 - and how funny is that they practically came in on the same day!

The next show is mid-August in Canandaigua, the new Riesling Festival. I think it's weird that I haven't heard back about my application, one way or the other. Usually shows work pretty far in advance. So Sunday afternoon I checked their website. I looked under Arts & Crafts Vendors - and there's Pine Tree Designs! I recognized a friend's company name too so I emailed her to see if she'd received official notice. She has not. There are only 9 craft vendors listed and the site says they are adding new vendors daily. Guess that's just their process. It is a new festival, though it seems to be very well run (other than the late notification thing).

If you Google Riesling Festival - one of my blog entries about it is the 2nd site listed! That happened the other day too, but now I can't remember what I was Googling that time. That always surprises me for some reason.

And if life isn't grand enough - I get my new laptop today! That's always a project, getting a new computer set up just how you want it - but I'm very excited. A new feature of this current laptop that's limping along - every once in a while it will go into hibernate mode for no apparent reason. Yep, time to retire this baby and move on.

~ ~ ~

I woke up Sunday morning feeling so totally exhausted. It was mental exhaustion more than physical exhaustion. I got up, fed the animals and sat down to read the newspaper. One of the first things I read was an article about President Obama spending time with young men, some fatherless, talking about fatherhood.

I felt sad that he grew up without his dad. I felt sad that his parents died without knowing he became President. I felt sad that his grandmother died the day before he was elected.

I burst into tears. It was the trigger, but clearly, I was exhausted by the stress of the unknowns of this last craft show.

I proudly reported to Steve when he got up that he missed my "non-specific post traumatic stress letdown" cry.

Except during breakfast, we started watching season five of 24 and 8 minutes into the first episode, the black president is assassinated. I covered my face with my napkin and sobbed some more. Whew - guess I've got some stuff to get out.

So we watched something else. And I took a 90 minute nap.

Yep, Sunday was Chill Out Day. Felt good, having no pressure. Except it's days like those that I worry that I'll never climb out of it and have renewed energy. But I felt normal by the end of the day, nicely recharged.

Steve and I are about to leave on vacation on July 2 so this week will be my week to bust ass at work and get lots accomplished. I admit I was very distracted last week.

~ ~ ~

Hey, guess what? Another loony has commented on the Bruce Jenner entry:

what kills me with you haters is this.....he weas all that over 40 years ago....dont you think he look different at that time of your life???//damn........true enough he was a gread looking man when he was young.....now he is just a older man.....get over it.......why dont you goo liik in the mirrow....and you tell me what YOu see?

So yeah, I have something against excessive plastic surgery, especially bad plastic surgery. But I really have something against illiteracy. Would it kill you to, minimum, reread what you've written before hitting enter? I know it's beyond reason to hope for punctuation and capitalization - but spelling isn't that difficult, people.

Okay Punctuation/Capitalization/Spelling Haters - bring it on!

There is Good News

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Simon is a natural mechanical genius so he was instrumental in figuring how to securely fasten the tent to the top of the car.

What made this load-in different from local events is that I would need to fit in the car with Steve. Usually we have the passenger seat pushed forward as far as it will go, leaving no room for a passenger so I drive my own car to the venue. That works perfectly for local shows so Steve can head home as soon as he helps bring everything into the booth.

Simon helped Steve with the new configuration that worked beautifully. I don't think they were joking when they asked me to take a photograph so they'd have it for future reference. We thought we'd have to put a lot more stuff on the roof of the vehicle so we were all thrilled.

I left work at noon on Friday and Simon helped me set up the tent in the front yard so I could have one more practice under my belt and we could try staking the tent to the ground and give the weights a test. We left it up until Steve got home a couple of hours later so we could give him the tour so he'd be at least a little familiar with it.

We hit the road at 4:30, checked in at the hotel and went to the church where the show was to be held. My heart sank when I saw how small it was. As if I wasn't depressed enough. There were about a half dozen tents already set up so we set to work setting up ours after I checked in. (We didn't put anything inside the tent - we did that the next morning.) It went almost perfectly (more on that later) and we went to dinner at our traditional out-of-town restaurant of choice, TGI Fridays.

We got back to the room about 9:30 and were both so full and tired we could hardly stay awake. We had left home later than I thought we would, but I had somehow envisioned having hours to work on product in the hotel so I had brought a box of stuff to work on. Never touched it.

The forecast had been for the rain to start at 4:00 am. The show started at 10:00 and it didn't start raining until 11:00, sprinkled until noon and downpoured the rest of the day. So based on the delayed rain, I would say my expectation of the entire ordeal was about 99% accurate. So much for being pleasantly surprised.

This is my beautiful new canvas sign I had made to go on the outside of the tent. (Don't you love that font??) The one little mistake we made in setting up the tent is that we put the top on facing the side. Meaning, the loops that we were to attach this sign to were on the side of the tent, rather than the front. Good thing I had a Plan B in my head, to hang it inside on the back wall. Of course, I then sat in that chair all day, my big fat head blocking the the word Handstitched, the most important word on the sign. Seriously, it must have been okay though because there are a lot of people who read out loud so I could tell they read the whole sign just fine.

I met another paper artist, Philippa Schrader, who was very interesting and her work was outstanding. She offered lots of paper earrings, some using spirelli elements, also paper boxes, a bit of origami and some framed work that was really interesting. She has a website but there's nothing on it but her name at the moment or I'd link there.

A potter I know from a show in Rochester, Jeannie Nutting of Drafty Rafters Studio in Conesus, gave me her friend's name who owns Bridle Creek Bed & Breakfast which caters to quilters, among others. So I'll follow up with her.

Jeannie is interesting in that she owns a former ambulance. It serves as her camper and how she hauls stuff to craft shows. Looking at her show schedule on her website, I see she does quite a bit of traveling, lots in the Adirondack mountains. Nice!

I made lots of notes about things to bring for future shows, outdoor shows in particular: Bandaids (nothing serious, just a staple stuck in my finger), paper towels, hand sanitizer, small sandbags to steady the standing rack.

I had been so focused on keeping my product dry inside the tent, I never once thought about my customers keeping it dry once they bought it. Fortunately everyone who bought a quantity deserving a larger of my bags that were paper already had a larger plastic bag that we could slip my paper package into.

I was very pleasantly surprised at the high quality of vendors there. When I saw the small church I thought for sure we were in for the church bazaar level of product. (No offense, not that there's anything wrong with that.) They had a barista inside selling interesting coffees, there was a psychic who had a very tasteful booth. I would have gone for a reading if I'd had time - I've always wanted to do that. There was a guy making wood flutes who played one off and on throughout the day so the music carried throughout the yard. That was nice. There was a nice Native American man across from me with beautiful stone sculptures. He's the only one I talked to who had done the show before. He said with nicer weather, there's usually a really good turn out. It's on a very busy street.

I was shocked there were any customers at all in that rain. I tell you, I love crafts and I would not have left the house! I think I counted about 6 empty spaces where vendors didn't show up. Believe me, I considered it but just couldn't live with myself if I did that. It's so unprofessional. (I should have counted but I'd say there was room for maybe 20 vendors on the lawn. There were painters and jewelry people and others inside, so maybe another 6 in the church basement.)

Leslie, my carpet didn't work there because the grass was too long so it made the carpet really lumpy and it looked too dangerous to me. Also - now I see how to rig the weights! I'll have Simon figure out how we can attach a rope to our existing weights. I saw several people with set-ups like you suggested and people with really inadequate weights. I fell right in the middle of the pack. Thank goodness the forecast of no wind held true - the rain came straight down and the tent didn't budge, nor did it leak. Though I will be looking into how to waterproof the seams. I got a few drips on the back of my neck, sitting in my chair, but my product remained dry, to the best of my knowledge. (Just don't get me started on people with umbrellas at craft shows.)

At one point it was raining so hard, I swear I couldn't hear myself think inside. And as I said to another vendor, at least I got lots of stitching done, not having to deal with many pesky customers. She laughed, "I know, with the making change and bagging orders - who has time for that??"

I think it was Bonnie who suggested I package my Sticky Notes in cellophane sleeves like I do the cards but I pooh-poohed the idea. Now I'm all for it! I'll set my notepads out to dry today. Even though they never got rained on, they definitely absorbed some moisture. I think packaging them in nice right-sized cello sleeves will also keep them pristine with the packing and unpacking of them too.

I was very happy to see that we could pull Steve's Explorer onto the sidewalk, right up to my location so packing the car in the pouring rain was as good as it could be.

That man deserves a medal for all he put up with this weekend. I paid for late check-out at the hotel so he could stay there until 2:30. He then drove to a park and read there for about 90 minutes. The show was to run until 5:00 but the organizers told us at 4:15 that we could pack up and leave if we want to. We all did.

Lessons learned, made some money and I survived.* I'm still gung ho on doing outdoor shows. I'm still waiting to hear if I've been accepted at a new 2-day outdoor show in August, then a 3-day mother-of-all-shows in October. That's outdoors in October - when it's been known to snow in this area! Then the indoor shows begin, which I guess will seem like a breeze! Meanwhile nose to the grindstone, baby! Build that inventory.

*In the interest of full disclosure, I didn't have Pine Tree Designs pay for the hotel, meals or gas. With the rain predicted I knew it wouldn't be a matter of if I lost money on this venture but how much would I lose. I just couldn't let my precious Pine Tree Designs take that financial hit. So Stefani treated Stefani & Steve to the hotel & meals. Steve's vehicle was already gassed up. I know this isn't good business practice, income tax implications, blah, blah, blah. So sue me.

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Dunking Devils

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(I'm not sure if that's supposed to say "Best of" - or it's really "Best Off". Guess it kinda makes sense either way.)

New Things

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I cannot wait until this Saturday show is over and here's why: I need to get this first outdoor show behind me so I can stop obsessing. I'm overthinking things so much I am even boring the snot out of me. Poor Jen at work - I'm surprised she doesn't run & hide when she sees me coming. (Wait. Maybe she is, some of the time. How would I know, right?)

I sucked it up the other day and peeked at the forecast for that area for Saturday and it's 60% chance of thunderstorms. Not regular rain, people - thunderstorms. Hey, shit happens and I'm going to run into this from time to time with outdoor shows - might as well get some experience from the gitgo.

I think the biggest hurdle is the often-mentioned tent weights. Leaving them until the last minute was making me crazy.

I finally decided on a 2' length of 3" diameter PVC pipe, filled with sand and capped at both ends. We'll use 2 straps on each to attach it to each of the 4 legs of the tent. White, unobtrusive, heavy, quick to make - very do-able.

I bought the fixins for one the other day to test my theory. I used the primer and the cement and attached one cap to the pipe - worked great. But it said to let it cure two hours before putting weight on it so Simon filled it with sand and capped the other end when he came home from work, after I went to bed.

I was worried it wouldn't be heavy enough even though I know sandbags are heavy. This morning when I checked the one that Simon finished last night - dang, that's heavy!

This morning he went to Home Depot and bought the materials and made the other 3. Bless his heart, he did a great job.

I didn't get as much practice with the tent as I had planned but oh well. It's not hard.

I feel guilty dragging Steve to Syracuse with me for a little over 24 hours. He'll have plenty of Steve time to work on his laptop and read in the hotel room, the same stuff he'd be doing at home.

Enough, Stefani. Shut up already.

~ ~ ~

My laptop is wheezing it's last breaths of air. I mentioned in another post that it wouldn't recognize my camera so I couldn't download photos. After the quilt show, it didn't recognize my credit card reader, which momentarily scared me because I had over $300 in credit card sales in there. I had the customers' phone numbers but I didn't want to have to call them for the rest of the credit card number after impressing them at the show with my handy-dandy card reader. (It worked fine with Steve's laptop, just like my camera did.)

Then I realized I hadn't had sound in a while. I fiddled with the settings - everything is grayed out in that portion of the control panel. It could not be fixed.

That's the 3rd strike I was waiting for I guess - time to buy a new laptop. I went to the HP website, just to get an idea, and built the machine I wanted. I printed the spec sheet. It was $711. Not too bad. I was tempted to order it right then and get on with it but I forced myself to wait and check with the guys at work. Sometimes we have access to "deals". My friend in Purchasing found me the exact same unit I was looking for, nice & beefy, for $445.

Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed and I made myself wait a few hours - and saved almost $300! Talk about a no-brainer, eh? I was stressing over spending the $700 even though I use the hell out of my laptop - it's an integral part of my business and my life. But I can spend $445 without batting an eye. I'll have it Monday.

~ ~ ~

And I just got back from the eye doctor's. If my eyes were any more dilated, they'd be inside out, I think. I pick up my new glasses next week. I had new lenses put in my old frames 4 years ago, the frames I had purchased 6 years ago. I don't know diddly about fashion but I know I have been dying to get new frames!

My current glasses are wire at the top, rimless at the bottom. In my head I'd been envisioning my new self as the naughty librarian.

Turns out I'll be the naughty librarian with GREEN Banana Republic frames! I was looking at dark frames when I remembered I'm an eccentric artist so I started looking at more colorful frames. Get this though - the most colorful frames are for kids and younger people so they aren't made to accommodate bifocals. What's up with that?? Thank goodness they always provide a helpful person to steer you in the right direction. A mere mortal could get overwhelmed at the volume of frames available. I kept saying to her, "You'll tell me if I look stupid, right?"

The frames are tortoise shell with a green rim or something. They don't look atrocious at all, quite the opposite. Snazzy, I dare say. I tried to find a picture online but I didn't catch the name of them and even the frames online are all starting to look alike to me. Guess you'll have to wait for the grand unveiling next week.

I need a haircut too, which will add to my sassy new look.

I think it's time to spring for a new Stefani photo too. I knew I couldn't use that one (upper right of the blog) indefinitely - but I was going to sure try!

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Saturday, June 20, 10:00-5:00

Unity's 8th Annual Arts & Crafts Festival

300 West Seneca Turnpike, Syracuse, NY 13207

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TGIF

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These are some pieces I'm working on to embellish with dragonflies for Sticky Notes and cards. After the success of the dragonflied (it is too a word!) Sticky Notes at last weekend's show, I'm determined to step up my game with those and other like items. I have some little butterflies I think will be popular too. Frogs, geckos, lady bugs, hearts - off the top of my head. Horses, dogs, cats. Just picturing the punches I own.

For those who used my link for iamneurotic.com in Wednesday's entry, the site has been fixed. Stephanie alerted me to it yesterday and when I tried it, I got the same scary message. Here's what the site says today:

sometimes it doesn’t matter how neurotic you are

I apologize for the lack of posting over the past couple days. The site was hacked as some of you know which caused google to put a big red warning sign on the site. But thankfully the problem has been fixed. I neurotically checked at least 15 times over than past 2 hours. Unfortunately, the Twitter account is temporarily down, but hopefully they will realize the problem has been fixed and will no longer suspect iamneurotic of suspicious activity. Thank you for your continued readership! Neurotics United!

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I'll post my own neurosis here. I can't post a blog entry that doesn't start with a picture visible within the first screen's view. I could never post an entry that has no picture whatsoever, even if it's just a logo I lifted from whatever I'm talking about. I'm not about to check old entries to verify what I just said but I'm pretty sure the above has been true for the last few years anyway.

~ ~ ~

I'm happy to report that cold I got from Steve was very mild and very short-lived. And my little broken toe is finally healed. I feel like I've been tired all week but I think that's just the adrenaline crash from last weekend and I'll be back in balance tomorrow after sleeping as long as I can Saturday morning. Yep, I see a 7:00 on my horizon!

~ ~ ~

Simon helped me with my first run of setting up my tent Wednesday night. The directions weren't very good but we figured it out. The sides came in bags labeled A, B and C but the directions never mentioned a single letter. Simon is even worse about reading directions and manuals than I am, if you can believe that. (Sorry, Gretchen!) He was very annoyed that we had to take it down as soon as we set it up but it was going to rain the next day. He got over it.

I'd like to set it up at least one more time, with Steve this time. I haven't totally decided on how I'll weight it down but I'm leaning towards the kitty litter jugs, as suggested by Leslie. No time to make kitty litter cozies but I can at least cover them with opaque garbage bags or something. :-)

~ ~ ~

So yeah. TGIF, people.

Saturday, June 20, 10:00-5:00

Unity's 8th Annual Arts & Crafts Festival

300 West Seneca Turnpike, Syracuse, NY 13207

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Little Autobiographies

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I love, love, love biographies and especially autobiographies. Even as a kid, that's the first section I headed to every time we went to the library. That's why I love blogs so much - seeing how other people live their lives.

Along those lines, here's a site I found the other day that I keep going back to, to see the newest postings.

I love this one too. In my head, I alternately think, "Me too!" or "Wow, that's nuts!"

Here's one I've posted about before. I thank Gretchen for it because it was due to her recommendation that we visited the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore last year. There was an exhibit of Post Secret postcards trailing throughout the museum. Some brought tears to my eyes.

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I'm not sure I told you the conclusion to the Steve/Stefani tiff. I texted Steve Sunday from the show and asked if he wanted to be reinstated on Team Pine Tree Design. He said yes, he had been about to text me to see if I wanted his help packing up after the show. Things were still a little chilly but we talked later that night and I felt like we were both heard. That's all humans want, to be heard.

Over the weekend I had become a bit panicked about the next show, my first outdoor show - in Syracuse, about 90 minutes from here. I had not bought my tent yet and wasn't sure I'd have time to practice putting it up, etc. I had been thinking I had 2 full weekends between shows but it's only 1. I'd still like to make more stuff too. I have enough but I'd like to have more than enough.

So I emailed the co-ordinator to see if my space could be switched from an outdoor space to an indoor space. I figured it was a long shot - and it was. The indoor spaces go like hotcakes. So once I knew Steve would be going with me to help with the tent, I decided to suck it up and get moving.

I bought my tent yesterday. Depending on the weather, Simon is going to help me set it up the first time today or tomorrow after work. I want to have set it up and taken it down 3 times before the show. I need to figure out the weights for it too.

I ordered a canvas sign to hang outside the tent.

I made our reservation at a hotel. We'll drive to the venue late Friday afternoon, set up the tent, stay over and get a fresh start in the morning - I'll set up the inside. Steve can stay behind in the hotel and work on his laptop or read. It happens to be a pet friendly hotel so I wish we could take Reggi. To my knowledge, hotels that accept pets don't allow the pet to be in the room unattended, which is kind of a drag. We've only taken her with us to a hotel one time and we loved it, as did she.

The unexpected thing is - now I'm really excited about this show. I had been feeling all along that I really wanted to get my first outdoor show behind me because the first of anything is always the scariest. I'm happy I had so much experience working for MJ at her outdoor shows. But she and her husband always put the tent up and took it down. I was just there for the busiest part of the show hours. So I guess the tent part is the only thing I'm a little anxious about. But I know it will be fine. Like I said, I'm excited!

~ ~ ~

I mentioned being interested in the Pennsylvania National Quilt Show, so I emailed them to get on their mailing list. They emailed me an application yesterday, for the 2009 show. My show schedule is already set for the year so I was thinking 2010.

However, I did up a little spreadsheet on how much a big show like that might cost me, including fee, gas, hotel, meals, etc. My quick estimate was over $1500. Do you know how many little stinkin' notepads I'd have to sell to make it a profitable show?? It's 4 full days so I'd have to have a truckload of product available! I'm not ready for a big show like that. I think I was getting a little too big for my britches. Got a little heady with success, I did.

But I also took the opportunity to review my costs and decided I'm happy with my profit margins. A couple of people at last weekend's show told me I was charging too little. I do get that sometimes. Sometimes I'll joke and say, "For you, then, $7.00!" This time I said, "I try hard to keep my prices reasonable. I am making a profit. It's all about finding the right balance." It's almost like when I say that, they understand I do take it seriously, have done the research and "run the numbers" and I'm not just making prices up off the top of my head.

Anyway. Enough rambling out of me.

Saturday, June 20, 10:00-5:00

Unity's 8th Annual Arts & Crafts Festival

300 West Seneca Turnpike, Syracuse, NY 13207

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The Weekend Rocked!

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Look Ma! My name in lights!

The only "complaint" I had to enter on the vendor evaluation form was it would have been nice if the pipe and drape was behind each booth too. But I'm sure customers didn't notice - they are looking at our stuff.

So what do you think of my new 2-sided rack for my Sticky Notes?? Isn't it cool? Way better than customers having to paw through them stacked 4 deep in my old acrylic riser set up. It holds 126 notepads. This is the 3rd time I've used it but I made that new Sticky Notes sign for it recently - looks 100% better than the smaller sign I originally stuck up there. It was a huge attention getter.

I sort of wish the racks were closer together but this is how it came and I could put cards in there too. Better to have flexibility.

The little green signs say:

Hand Stitched
Sticky Notes
(Refillable!)
$5.00

Those are the signs I used on both sides before I made the big teal Sticky Notes signs. I used them Friday night then decided they weren't right. I made new ones to use that left off the word refillable. I had originally thought that would be a big selling point but it turns out, not so much. By not stating it on the sign, it gives me an opportunity to tell the customer about it, thereby engaging them in conversation. :-)

So my new signs feature the words Hand Stitched in bigger letters, with the price. Being a quilt show, lots and lots of these people are machine sewers so even more so than usual, people assumed I used a machine. And even though I still use my big white sign that says hand stitched, they haven't gotten that far yet because the Sticky Notes are the first thing you see in the booth.


These are the black shutter doors I'm using for my framed art and now for my magnets, which you see on the upper right there - 3 frames full. Remember my aversion to magnet clutter on refrigerators that I finally got over? I didn't sell a single magnet until mid-day Saturday. I was mentally writing my next blog entry, "One magnet, people? One lousy magnet?? I finally made the damn magnets, now where are those magnet people??"

I sold 2 framed pieces, both brand new paper quilts. Selling framed art always makes me happy.


This is my new table set-up. I say new because I used to have all my plates of pins flat on the table in a grid (naturally!) but decided I wanted to add some height to the display. I found 6 glass candle holders at 2 dollar stores. The tallest 2 are each 2 candle holders glued together. The shorter ones are just 1 candle holder high.

I didn't glue the plates to the candle holders because I wanted to be sure I was happy with this arrangement. I'm very happy, it turns out - it worked exactly as I envisioned. And now I don't think I'll glue the plates in place anyway, so I have added flexibility and they are easier to store unassembled. People pick the pins up very gingerly so I'm not worried about the plates falling off the candle holders.

Those are little square gift cards to the left. I only sold a few of those. I was thinking maybe I won't make those any more but 1) it's too soon to say that and 2) I think they will sell better in the holiday season, especially when I make them season-appropriate.

This is how my table looks from the front. That's my free drawing in the lower right, 70 people entered, most of whom gave me permission to add them to my mailing list! A lot are from out of town so I really need to do a better job of keeping my Etsy shop well stocked. How I'll accomplish that, I'm not sure. Always good to have goals, though. :-)

I'd forgotten how quilters love to take bus trips to shows and events together. When I pulled into the parking lot Saturday morning and saw a big bus idling in the parking lot, I didn't want to get too excited, so I thought maybe the bus was related to a college event. (The show was held at Rochester Institute of Technology.) Then I realized, duh, the college year finished in May. When Pam arrived an hour later, there were 3 buses in the parking lot she said.

At the very end of the show I was looking around my booth and noticed the Sticky Notes piece of the free giveaway trio was missing! I looked in the floor rack, under the tablecloth, then I thought someone must have stolen it! But realistically, I bet dollars to donuts that I sold it without realizing. A bunch of people asked me if I had any for sale so I explained I just made it for the show and had no idea it would turn out so darn cute, but I would definitely be making more. I was so brain dead by the end, that I bet someone who bought a stack of Sticky Notes, had it among their purchases and I didn't notice. I'll just make another one.

This is the single smartest thing I did for this show. I started using those drawers late last year I think it was. I put the drawer from my cash box in the top drawer during shows, misc stuff in the second and spare bags in the bottom one. Otherwise I fill it up and tape the drawers shut for transporting. During the show, the smart thing I did is, I put the drawer unit on top of one of my tubs, covered with that cloth. Now the cash drawer is the same height as my director's chair where I sit and stitch throughout the show. No more backache from leaning over to reach the cash drawer! I'm a freakin' genius!

I bought 1000 flat Kraft bags a few years ago and am just now finishing them up. Last year I bought a smallish amount of turquoise flat bottomed handled bags that I use for 4 Sticky Notes or more - or framed art. I'm almost out of those too. Vickie had told me she gets her bags at the dollar store. (Again with the dollar store! It's just never on my radar screen until someone mentions it.) I didn't see any in the 2 stores I was in recently, but I found some clear plastic "snack" bags in Target. So I bought 4 packages which is 100 bags.

I had been thinking I needed to upgrade my bags when I used up the old ones and I'd been thinking clear would be a cool way to go. These little bags expanded more than I thought they would but they are also perfect when not expanded, for little items like 1 or 2 Sticky Notes and/or pins or cards.

I was really happy with them - - - until I remembered that I'm anti-plastic! So I'm going to look around online for similar bags that are either made from post-consumer recycled product and/or recyclable themselves, preferably both. I bet I can find something.

The bags came with twist ties but I didn't use them. I'd thought about tying them shut with ribbon but it seemed like way too much work until my smart friend Pam suggested a way to do it. So I may try that next time

Steve had a cold last week but I knew my body would hold off getting it, if I was going to get it, until after the show. It's happened before. I love that, btw. I started taking echinacea right away. Sure enough Sunday, I started feeling a tickle in my throat. I was still flying on adrenaline a bit yesterday as I told Jen and others at work about how great the show was for me. Today, I feel worse, got my period dammit and have solidly crashed from the weeks of adrenaline. Hoo-boy, it's going to be a long day.

I'm happy to report that this weekend was my 2nd best show ever! As I've said, quilt shows are definitely my new market. This show had 60 vendors. Yesterday, I emailed for information for future Pennsylvania National Quilt Shows - they have 200 vendors!

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My People

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Jane Sassaman is teaching 2 workshops at the quilt show this weekend. She is a contemporary quilt artist from northern Illinois, who is also a fabric designer, author and teacher. Her award winning internationally known quilts are known for their bold designs celebrating garden flowers and plans. She's quilting royalty!

As luck would have it, she stopped by my booth yesterday after her workshop, while I was in the ladies room. My booth sitter told me when I returned, "Jane stopped by and loved your work." I said, "Darn, I wanted to meet her!" The volunteer must have told Jane because shortly thereafter Jane came back to my booth, "I really think you're on to something here," she kept saying. We talked for a while and I told her about some new ideas I had and she pointed me in the right direction, "Look up Heather Bailey's website and see what she's doing."

And check this out. I started the show with a whole box of business cards. Because each one has a stitched design on it, a box full is less than the original 250 but still, it's a lot. I ran out yesterday so that's what I'll be stitching in my booth today. Very late in the day I was down to one card. Quite a few people stopped by my booth when I had just the one lone card sitting there - and no one took it. Like at work, no one wants to take the last cookie or brownie. Humans are weird that way.

Then Jane came into my booth and I mentioned my business cards in conversation. She asked if she could have it. That last card was sitting there the whole time, waiting for Jane! I love that stuff. (I do have a few in my purse, now that I think about it but don't ruin my mystical story with facts, okay?)

I could hardly get to sleep last night thinking about 2 new projects. I'm not ready to share details just yet. Still mulling things over and need to do some research.

I did get to the show early yesterday so I could walk around a bit. I had to stop at one point to go sit down in my booth and catch my breath - the colorful creativity was literally overwhelming. I'm completely serious. I'll go in early today too to look at more stuff. And a bunch of vendors came in my booth yesterday towards the end of the evening when things slowed down so I want to reciprocate and see what they are up to today.

The title of this entry is My People because as I said to Jane yesterday, while I've been to lots of quilt shows (I name dropped Quilt National of course), this was my first time as a vendor and I've definitely found a niche I was looking for. I said, "I feel like I'm among my people," and she smiled and nodded.

A fellow vendor asked me if I ever vend outside New York. I said, "Not yet, but I'm interested," so she took my card and is going to send me information about a big quilt show in Massachusetts. It's full for this year but is held every 2 years in September. I think that would be very cool.

Pam and I had fun hanging out yesterday. My head is swimming with ideas. I've met a ton of nice people. I've seen old friends too. I generally worry about setting my expectations too high. I had high hopes for this weekend and those have been exceeded.

I'm having such a good show. It feels like it's been a while since I could say that.

~ ~ ~

You may notice the post time of this entry is 4:47 am, the time I started it anyway. I got up extra early today to see Gretchen off at her first triathalon at 6:00 am. It's in Pittsford and Mom is volunteering with her old Parks & Recreation co-workers. I paid for Gretchen's entrance fee as her 50th birthday gift - I'm very excited for her! She didn't know I was coming so when she walked up and I was standing with my arm around Mom, Gretchen burst into tears. Score! (See? It runs in the family!)

In response to a couple of comments on yesterday's entry - Ann, re Steve's transgression, I know you're right. I just have to finish up being mad about it - I'm almost there. The fact that he forgot about something that means so much to me is 100% personal. If he cared, he'd remember. For him, it's 100% not personal. I know he can't put it on the same scale that I do. It's kind of a historical complaint with me that I've almost gotten over - that he never remembers "my stuff". I think it's rude. He doesn't. This quilt show is a big important deal for me though, that I've working hard towards for weeks. I wasn't totally shocked that he forgot about helping me pack the car, but the heavy sigh of inconvenience put me over the edge.

Leslie - I decided to quit worry about drinking water in my booth yesterday. Hell, I even ate licorice too! So far, the Food Police haven't shown up to cart me away.

Btw, the hand dryers in the ladies room are soooo strong, the air moves your skin around like you're in an airplane testing G-forces or something. Besides being fascinating to watch, it's incredibly quick! They should all be like this.

Must go punch more business cards before leaving.
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Love this Show!

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As I filled my rack of colorful Sticky Notes, I had one with a dragonfly in the center. I'd forgotten all about it. It must have been a prototype I never went back to. It sold right away and friends of the woman who bought it came back later after they saw hers and wanted one too. They said they'd come back today so I made up 20 or so when I got home last night. Thankfully, I had a whole bunch of notepads in the right palate ready for embellishing. I also have a drawer full of dragonflies ready to go.

Steve broke my heart yesterday morning by forgetting about helping me load up the car. When I reminded him before he left for work yesterday, the sigh he let out was a bit too heavy and I lost my mind and told him to forget it, I'll do it myself, I don't need your help, blah, blah, blah. This is the second time he's done this. The first time I ignored his sigh and figured it was his own damn fault for forgetting and not managing his time better. This time, I lost it.

I had loaded the vehicle about 80% when Simon got up to go with me to the venue. He helped finish it up and naturally, it made me cry that someone was being nice to me and helping me. You know how that goes. I have been very excited about this show and working my butt off extra hard for weeks. This show in particular felt important to me because it's the kind of niche market I've been looking for. And it's 2-1/2 days long so it's a "big" show.

My friend Pam is helping me for a few hours today. She's a quilter so I knew she'd totally love the show. The moment I first walked into the venue yesterday, I wanted to call Pam on the phone, "You are gonna die!" I haven't been to a quilt show in a long time. I've been to Quilt National in Ohio twice, once with Mom & Gretchen and once with my ex-husband, before Simon was born so that tells you how many years ago it's been. That's a major show of mind blowing contemporary quilts. I've been to bunches of local quilt shows over the years too. Both of my grandmothers were quilters. Gretchen and I have quilted, back in the day. We're a family of quilters.

This venue is a college field house so it's huge. The center is filled with hanging quilts and the vendors are around the perimeter. They had opening ceremonies last night at 5:00 complete with a ribbon cutting. They announced awards.

Here's the unexpected treat I'm totally digging. These customers milling about, most of whom you have to figure are quilters - not only carry beautiful quilted tote bags and purses they've made but lots dress in colorful, artistic clothing! Even if it's not a quilted piece, lots of these women are into color. I'm loving the eye candy.

I did well enough in the 3 hours last night that I know this is going to be a successful show for me. I'm going to get there about an hour early today so I can look around. As I sat stitching and selling and schmoozing last night I kept thinking I have to make sure I get a blog entry posted so I can encourage any local readers to come to this show if they are into quilts at all. You won't regret it, I promise.

Most of the other vendors, from what I've seen and read in the program (where I have an ad) are specifically quilt related. (My set up is easy compared to lugging in bolts of fabric!) I knew being different could be really good or really not-so-good. But I know my stuff appeals to quilters, based on the designs and color and it's got thread! What's not to like?

The only thing I'm finding a little tricky is figuring out the food part. Food and drink is not allowed in the room, understandably. There's a concession stand with tables where we can eat. When Pam is there, it's not problem, I'll grab lunch. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I'll do. They have "Helping Hands" booth sitters so I guess I'll take advantage of that service, but they don't make sales for us so I really don't want to be away from my booth for very long at a time. I have had a water bottle in my booth that I've been sneaking drinks from. Every time I sneak a drink, I feel like I'm an alcoholic glugging gin from a flask or something. (Maybe it's not as strict as that - they just post the rules so people are not walking around with burger and fries and touching the quilts.)

The weather is gorgeous, free parking is plentiful. There are classes offered, lectures and one can get a weekend pass ($15)or a day pass ($10). The show is worth that admission price, in my opinion. I'd pay it and I'm frugal! Today is going to be a long day, the show hours are 10:00-8:00 - but I can't wait to get back there.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Trio Giveaway

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You know how I frequently ask you guys for a second opinion? I don't need no stinkin' second opinion on this one - I love how this turned out! How freakin' sweet is this with the hearts, flowers and happy dots??

I wanted to make something special for my free giveaway for this weekend's craft show. (Also known as my cheap ploy to gather names for my mailing list. I state this on the drawing slip - omitting the words cheap ploy.) I also needed something of around $10 value to give to the organizers as part of their fund raiser shop hop raffle. So I made two of these sets - greeting card, Sticky Notes and magnet.

Naturally, they turned out so adorable that I wish I had lots more. That's a rubber stamp from Outlines Rubber Stamps, my most favoritest stamp company in the whole wide world. So last night while watching TV, I cut out a stack of stamped pieces. I've stitched the center element in other colors too, but I'm so in love with navy, green and white these days, it's hard to get away from it. I wonder if that means I'm officially out of my turquoise phase?

~ ~ ~

I got lots done yesterday but have a few more things to finish up this morning. One of the things I worked on yesterday was to try painting some 8" x 10" frames I'd gotten from a fellow Freecycler a few years ago. They were natural wood and I wanted them white, so I could fit them with the pieces of sheet metal Simon kindly cut for me, to display my magnets. My intention is to hang them on my black shutter bifold door. One side is for framed art (I framed 4 new paper quilts yesterday) and the other side will be for magnets.

I sanded the varnish off the frames and spray painted them with a white primer. I have spray paint of every color under the sun - except white, it turns out. But I had ivory, which is close enough. The wood grain was still showing through, even the ivory. I could have sprayed another coat of primer, I guess. But I decided I didn't want to deal with it any more and possibly still not be happy so I ended up going to Target and buying some inexpensive frames.

I was so proud of myself for my "free" solution with the Freecycled frames and the paint I already had - but I knew if I had to sit there for 2-1/2 days looking at grainy-not-what-I-wanted frames, it would drive me batty.

Target only had 4 frames of the kind I wanted, not 5, but good enough for now. I was going to throw the Freecycled frames out, but now that I think about adding another coat of primer first, I may give them another shot after all.

~ ~ ~

Simon will be going with me this morning to help me load stuff into my booth. Then he can leave and I'll stay to set up. I figure I should be home noonish, then leave to go back around 4:00. The venue is at Rochester Institute of Technology, 29 minutes away according to Mapquest.

(See Gretchen? I've got my own personal day laborer too!)

~ ~ ~

I still haven't figured out the solution to fixing my camera. But I had a brilliant thought in the shower this morning. Steve's printer is fairly new, an all-in-one type, so it probably has a memory card slot that's the right size for my camera's memory card. Turns out - no, it doesn't. But I plugged my camera directly into his laptop - and voila, my photos are retrievable! So that will be my work-around until I can figure out a more permanent solution.

I've been thinking that I wanted to get my camera fixed before vacation in July, but then I realized I want to take pictures today too. I'm still puzzled as to the problem, but happy to have a workable solution.

And I'm off to do some last minute printing.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Garden of Quilts

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After yesterday's entry about Lego Art, I received an email from emiko oye! I love the Internet.

Hi Stefani,

Thanks so much for posting my Cartier Blanc lego necklace on your blog! And for putting me on the same page as Nathan Sawaya....Looked at your etsy site and really like your paper pins--you should consider charging more for your work for all the time and energy that goes into them. I still think people would buy them at $10 a pop. if we all raise the bar for each other, we'll all earn a better wage, and the perceived value of our work will be higher. think about it.

best,
emiko oye
www.rewarestyle.com
blog.rewarestyle.com

Here's my response:

Hi Emiko -

It's so nice to hear from you, thanks for taking the time to write! I usually try to email people I feature in my blog but ran out of time yesterday. Your work is outstanding - I'm glad you are happy with my entry.

I appreciate your kind words and especially your suggestions about pricing. I actually feel quite strongly about what you've said, raising the bar and all. When I see "hobbyists" on etsy, I think the same thing, it drags down the value for all of us. I especially hate it when people say outright, "I'm not really in it to make money, I just want to cover my costs."

I have been raising my prices on some of my work over time, trying to figure out what the market will bear. I will definitely give your thoughts strong consideration, I promise. I truly understand and appreciate all you've said.

Have a great day - thanks again!
Stefani

Pricing is something we all struggle with, I know, trying to find the right balance. I use a handy dandy spreadsheet that Steve built for me to figure my costs. It's way more sophisticated than I could have come up with; he is Mr. Spreadsheet. It has a cell where I enter my hourly rate and the quantity, showing how producing in mass quantities, so to speak, lowers the cost per item. (It's weird figuring out how much thread or glue I use per item but I do include every little thing.)

I've never forgotten the words of a woman who owned a business where I was employed years ago, "There's no shame in making a profit."

I'm confident I'm making a profit on my work, but it definitely varies per type of item, depending on what I think the market will bear. I know I have bunches of fellow vendors who read my blog. I'd be interested in your thoughts on the subject.

I'm so glad I took today off to finish up stuff for the show. I'm feeling good about things, very much looking forward to it - so I'm off the get busy!

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

Lego Art

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I found this in my new ReadyMade newsletter, which I highly recommend. You can see more of emiko oye's amazing creativity at her website, including a link to her blog. While I admit you probably couldn't get your coat on over this piece, she does have more "practical" jewelry, such as earrings. So creative!

From there, I landed at Nathan Sawaya's site, The Art of the Brick.

Not only did he make a life size playable cello, but for only $60,000 he'll make a lifesize replica - of you! (That blows my mind to think he could make one of these per year and live comfortably. Not sure what materials cost, so it's not like the $60,000 is pure profit.)

His site is fascinating. Can you imagine being the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition kid that gets to live in this room!?

(More photos from that episode are here.)


It's not that I've much Lego experience myself; Gretchen & I were more of the Tinker Toy generation.

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Welcome to My Tizzy

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Here's a prototype for something I was playing around with yesterday. It would be for Sticky Notes and cards - maybe add some borders and frame it. I think I like it. The image could be stamped better and I think the black dots should be red. Because I've made so many of those Lone Star blocks with the tips a different color too, this one looks unfinished to me. As you can imagine gluing those little diamond tips can be a pain in the neck, and that's me talking, who generally enjoys pain in the neck stuff. Just had a thought - maybe I could cut those last diamonds away (easier) and layer it on another color star so that 3rd color shows through. Hmmm.

I didn't mean for this one to look Christmasy; those are just 2 of the colors I had stamped out long ago - found them in my to-do box the other day.

I'd appreciate hearing your suggestions and thoughts.

~ ~ ~

You know when I go days on end without blogging that I'm busier than a one armed paper hanger. As I've said I'm very excited about this upcoming Quilt Show this weekend. I'm actually in better shape than I thought I might be. I have been working my butt off. On Sunday I embellished 75 cards. I worked from 6:30 am to about 4:30 pm, with a couple of breaks for meals and Sunday paper reading. When I was done, I decided to take my laptop into the living room and catch up on some email. I wasn't there 5 minutes when I couldn't keep my eyes open so I laid down for a cat nap. Steve was there reading and he fell asleep too because he'd been helping his daughter move all day. We was w-o-r-n out.

I finished up the cards last night and counted them. I have 121 cards ready for sale. That's about 6 times the amount I sometimes have for shows. I've got 4 kinds of new magnets and bunches of pins - including several new ones. I'll concentrate on Sticky Notes for the rest of the week. Thankfully, I thought ahead to take Thursday off so I can focus on finishing everything and I want to make some new signage.

Vendors are requested to choose their own set up time on Friday. I'll have to review the paperwork but I think I picked 11:00 as my first choice and 2:00 as my second choice. My preference would actually be first thing in the am but I figured lots of people might want that so I tried to pick a "second wave" time. The shows starts at 5:00. So if I set up at 11:00, I'll come home for a while; if I set up at 2:00, I'll stay right through.

* Edited to add: I received an email from the quilt show co-ordinators last night - and it seems I chose 9:30 as my move-in time. Shows what I remember. That's even better - I can definitely come home before the show starts at 5:00.

I'm sorry. Now I'm just rambling, thinking out loud. I mostly wanted to check in and say hey. I miss blogging! And I miss reading blogs - I feel out of touch with my friends.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Fearless

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Don't worry. If you're afraid of heights, there's only a couple of
places you'll have to white-knuckle through. Mostly, it's amazing.

I found this video through my pal, Ashton Kutcher who Twittered
it recently. Please note I was following AK before it was newsworthy. :-)

Sparkling Clean

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This is a good-bye card for employees to sign for a man who was laid off a few months ago. He's a veteran so I hope he enjoys the red, white & blue theme.

I don't know the particulars but when he was laid off, it was decided he could stay on until the end of May and we'd see if sales improved and he could stay. I guess? At first I thought that was good financially for him but bad in a mindset kind of way, you know? Should I look for job or not? That seems tortuous to me. He's 63 but he wasn't sure if he could afford to retire. This "stay of execution" has given him time to get his affairs in order and now he is retiring! He's totally at peace with the decision and is very excited about retirement. I'm very happy for him that it all worked out - and insanely jealous.

~ ~ ~

I hired a house cleaning service last week and yesterday was her first day. She'll come every 2 weeks. We tried this once before, having a woman come once/month, mainly because I was too cheap to have her come more often and honestly, I still struggled with my thinking, "I should be doing this myself, working harder, trying harder, I should be able to do it all." Even though I knew intellectually that was stupid thinking, I still felt very conflicted about it. In the interest of full disclosure, Simon and Steve do stuff too but, for all my strong thoughts of equality and men/women roles, etc. I found myself still feeling the burden of the traditional "housewife" role. I think that's really weird of me. Really weird.

This time around? I'm totally at peace with it - in fact I'm ecstatic about it. In the time that's elapsed since our last hiring of a house cleaner, I've embraced the fact that I don't like cleaning. At all. Love to declutter, organize, purge. Hate to clean. I've learned, from women at work, that there are some people who enjoy cleaning. Foreign concept, but whatever.

This way, we're stimulating the economy and Kerri and I both get to do work we enjoy. This isn't a luxury, it's a necessity if I want Pine Tree Designs to continue to grow. I put around 30 hours/week into PTD, on top of a full-time job. Not that I'm justifying or anything. Okay, maybe a little, because really, it is a luxury and I'm extremely grateful.

The house is so clean, poor Reggi wouldn't even sit in her favorite recliner, Simon told me. Guess it didn't smell like her anymore! Simon had to coax her back into "her chair". That cracks me up. I had left a dog treat for Kerri to feed Reggi when she got here in order to make friends with her faster. She said Reggi never barked or even came to the door. Reggi turned her head and glanced at her when she arrived but that's it. Reggi had met Kerri last week, but still, I think Reggi was hip to why Kerri was there and she didn't want to discourage her in any way. :-)

Kerri says next time she'll work on the walls, baseboards and the tops of the doors. Huh? Those things are supposed to be cleaned?? Who knew? I still can't get over the blinding sparkliness of the chrome in the shower this morning.

It's all good.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Turtle Magnet

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This magnet is 2-1/2" in diameter. I love the way it turned out, with the paper and thread suggesting ripples of water. I made similar pins too - they don't have the black final circle.

I took last Friday off to work on more product for the Quilt Show. Love a good 4-day weekend, that's for sure. I worked my butt off and still don't feel like I have enough to show for my time. I kept wondering, "What am I doing wrong?" I finally just gave myself a break - things take as long as they take, you know? I keep feeling like the show is next weekend, so I'm always relieved to know I have another full weekend to devote to it. (Plus all the days in between of course.)

I knew I really had my head down working when both of my parents had to send repeat emails to me, that I had not answered the first time. That's not like me. They understand but I still felt bad.

I had decided to not buy many flowers for the deck this year because I know how I am about watering them as the season progresses and figured this year would be worse, with big shows on the schedule. But I bought one hanging basket a few weeks ago and I've been really excellent with watering it.

Steve's family came over for a cookout yesterday so I decided to fill the two big pots that had wintered over on the deck. And I couldn't resist one of the nursery's combo hanging baskets. But that's it, I swear. That's 4 things to water. Surely I can keep on top of that.

I would take pictures of the flowers but my camera is on the fritz. It takes pictures fine, but I'm unable to download them to my computer or my printer. I took it the camera repair store on Friday and the guy told me I need to reformat the memory card every so often. So he did that and reset the camera to factory settings. I came home 100% confident that that was the cure. Nope. I'll call them and see if buying a new memory card might help. The thing is, we could see the photos that were on the camera on the Kodak self-serve machine they have there and he could see them on his computer. I don't get it. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any.

~ ~ ~

When I see a new comment has been left on the Bruce Jenner entry, I always open the notifying email with one eye closed, half afraid of what I'll read. Here's the latest:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Bruce Jenner":

shadddddappppp............

all u sons of bitches..

so he had a lift....

and he's trying to fix it...

you can all go suck a fat toe...

Besides feeling like I want to explain that I'm really a nice person, I didn't mean to be unkind, I really like Bruce Jenner . , . I want to state that I won't be sucking any fat toes. Ever.

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Accordian House

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There are more slides of this house here. I love houses and especially interesting architecture so I think this is really cool because it's so different from anything I've seen.

This, however, is not so cool:

Anyone who talks about their own legacies, is a little suspect, in my mind. And "I'm not sure what I would spend the money on,"?? That's really bad. How about helping others less fortunate, for starters? Oy.

I consider myself pretty anti-clutter (kindly avert your eyes from my desk and my studio!) - but this place is unappealingly sterile. Some of the comments left on the article are pretty funny. "I once dissected frogs in a room almost identical to the kitchen, in a lab class at college."

So yeah, it would be a nice place to visit but I don't want to live there.

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Yesterday around 3:00, I realized that I had not whined (internally) about my little broken toe once! I've turned the corner. It's not 100% yet but it's stopped hurting all the time. The first sign should have been that I forgot to take Ibuprofen. I'm relieved because I was wondering how long this healing was going to take.

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I slept pretty crappy last night and it's all my fault. I usually do a little surfing on my iTouch before I go to sleep. Last night I realized it was just after 10:00, which is already a problem since I'm supposed to be asleep by then, if not earlier. So I checked the American Idol results. I'm a big Adam fan, but I'm very happy Kris won. They will both have nice careers. As a result, I feel like I had Idol-related dreams all night! Mainly I remember that a young man, not unlike Kris I realized as I woke up, moved in with my roommate and me. My roommate was a woman at work with whom I discuss American Idol. Then more wackiness ensued, which I won't bore you with.

The good news is that today is my Friday. On Monday I decided to take Friday off to give myself a 4-day weekend. Lots of "paperwork" to be done!

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Lime & Navy Quilt

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8" x 8" Framed Paper Quilt

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Dude. The hate mail on the original Bruce Jenner post just keeps rollin' in. I'm resisting the temptation to reply.

Anonymous:
I think your all ASSHOLES for saying dumb shit like this! the man prob accomplished more in his life then you will ever...... to all you people who talk shit like you do KARMA IS A BITCH you'll be old,fat. and ugly one day you watch .. HAHAHAHAHAH

My witty retort:
Me? Old, fat & ugly? Honey, that ship has already sailed.


(Don't worry, I don't really feel that way about myself.)

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Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Paper Quilt

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I made this 8" x 8" piece for Pam for her birthday. She's a quilter so she loved it. I also made her a matching gift tag and magnet but I didn't scan those and for now, they are one of a kind. This looks better in person - the stitched squares show up better. Now I'm working on a lime green & navy quilt.

I worked on my new hand stitched quilt series all weekend and I'm so excited about it, I literally can't sleep. I couldn't turn my brain off to fall asleep last night when I wanted to. Then I woke up 20 minutes too early this morning so I reset the alarm to sleep a bit later. Again, I couldn't stop seeing paper quilts in my head so I didn't think I ever fell back asleep. But the alarm woke me up so clearly I did.

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My stupid pinky toe still hurts and the swelling has not gone down so I called the doctor's office on Friday. When the nice woman who called me back told me everything I already knew, I told her I just wanted to hear it from a professional. And then she told me something that made me slap my forehead, "Duh!" Take ibuprofen for the pain. I swear, I never considered that once in the 2 weeks since I banged it up. My defense is that it just hurts a little, but it does hurt almost all the time. Anyway, I started taking ibuprofen this weekend and it feels better. And I'm told it will take weeks to heal and feel better.

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Bruce Jenner does look better after his plastic surgery touch-up. Hard to tell since this isn't as close up as the first one but altogether, it's definitely a more flattering photo. Maybe he needs a different hairstyle. Heck, what do I know?

To save you some clicking (and artificially inflate my stats - ha!), here's the before.

And here's the way before. Wonder what he would have looked like had he aged naturally and gracefully like the rest of us?

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Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Collage? Me?

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The other day one of the guys at work was cleaning out a desk of a former colleague and found this card in an envelope and gave it to me. I made it in a class years ago! I have no idea how it ended up in this desk. The only remotely plausible explanation is that I sold it to him. If so, now that I have it back, I can resell it. Wonder how much money I can make off of this one card, over and over?

Seriously, I'm not going to sell it, but I do recall one time I offered for sale at work a bunch of stuff I didn't want anymore and this was probably among those things. I've generally kept all the stuff I made in classes over the years, unless I was in one of my purging moods. Since discovering that my brain flat out refuses to do collage, I probably figured I had no need for this.

Now I'm happy I have it, to prove that I actually did true collage once. Although I can guarantee this is probably an exact replica of the teacher's card. I remember taking a journaling class from her once and we were collaging a page. My stuff was so lined up and organized, it left her literally speechless. It still makes me laugh because I didn't realize I was doing it until I saw the look on her face.

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Paper to Pearls

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Women in Uganda make these beads out of recycled paper.



I wish this You Tube video showed the beads up close. But if you stick it out to the end, check out the collar! And there are a few moving stories at the end.

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Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Prison Paper Art

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My fellow crafters will appreciate this familiar notion that prison artists are using up their current craft supplies before obtaining more. (Be sure to click on the related stories link to see the photos of all the work featured.)

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I'm not sure how many people go back and read the previous day's comments so I'll post this here too. From all I can find, Bruce Jenner's new mug will be unveiled on the next episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which I understand is on Sundays. I'll post a photo of it here next week, stat-ho that I am.

This morning, while looking around the Internet to see if the Jenner photos had been leaked, I ended up spending way too much time looking at photos of other plasticized celebrities, like Lara Flynn Boyle. This is so bad I fully expect it to come out that she has a disease or condition of some sort. Poor woman.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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All Things Paper

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My new friend Ann Martin wrote such nice stuff about me and my work - check it out! You really should become a regular reader of her blog, btw - she truly loves paper and posts a lot of neat stuff. Obviously she has exquisite taste. ;-)

Here's a funny related story. I noticed that my blog stats for yesterday shot up 5 times their usual number. Holy crap, I didn't know Ann had such a large readership! So I went to Sitemeter.com to check it out - turns out Bruce Jenner had another face life to correct the previous one. People are Googling him and up pops this page. Figures, the only mean thing I've ever posted and that's the entry that gets the most comments and most hits.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

Genesee Valley Quilt Club's Garden of Quilts

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Riesling Festival

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I post this as a community service to my fellow artists - a brand new festival this year! I'm applying for what would be my 3rd outdoor show this year. Must buy tent soon and start practicing putting it up. And figuring out my layout within. (Mom, I don't anticipate any more custom tablecloths!)

I was sure thinking of my fellow vendors at this weekend's Lilac Festival when those strong winds kicked up Saturday afternoon. It rained too, briefly but quite hard at times. But the wind! No place for a novice outdoor show person like me. Reinforces the need for heavy weights - must give that serious consideration.

Because this festival was on my mind, Steve and I celebrated Mother's Day a day early by taking Reggi for a nice walk along Canandaigua Lake, where this festival will be held. It's one of our favorite places to walk since they fixed up Kershaw Park a few years ago.

I realized though, as soon as I put on my sneakers that I had not had tight shoes on since I broke/sprained/whatever my little toe last weekend. It hurt a bit but I could live with it - and it went numb after we began walking, so it was fine. Except now it hurts like mofo. It's not really that bad but it's definitely swollen and slightly painful.

Steve had asked me to pick when and where I wanted to go out to breakfast or dinner for Mother's Day. (What? No lunch option?) Simon worked all weekend so that's how we ended up taking my favorite child with us - the furry one that doesn't cost me a ton of money and does whatever I ask with a smile on her face and a wag of her tail. Just sayin'.

We weren't sure where we'd end up for breakfast since we had Reggi with us so after our walk we drove down Routes 5 & 20 to see what was available. I picked Panera Bread which I know made Steve a little nervous - he's not one for "girly" food, which is wraps and paninis and such. Being the true geeks that we are, we sat in the parking lot, connected wirelessly to their website and perused the menu. Steve thought he could live with it - so we both had smoothies and breakfast sandwiches on ciabatta. He loved it! We took our food to the City Pier and sat in the car by the lake and ate. It was delish!

A fine day was had by all.

Sunday, I awoke to find flowers and a giant mushy card from Simon sitting on my laptop in my studio. That kid knows one of the first places I head in the morning! I love that kid - he's a good son.

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Saturday afternoon my friend Vickie came over to take photos for a brochure she's putting together for me. We wanted, in particular, a shot of my hands stitching. So after a tour of the studio and the house, etc. we got set up. I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille! Then I notice blood on the paper I'm stitching! Apparently I developed a paper cut on my hand sometime, don't even know when. Figures. Luckily it was the hand that was not in the shot and the blood was on the backside of the paper so we got what we wanted without problem.

Check out the tons of events offered.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

Fine, You Win!

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I love these designs and hope they appeal to the quilters at the next craft show. These are 1-1/4" and get mounted on a coordinating colorful scalloped & embossed circle.

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A nice woman at Wednesday's craft show asked if I had any magnets. She doesn't wear pins but really liked my work and picked out two she would buy if they were magnets. So I said I would make them for her and took down her contact info.

She's not the first person to mention magnets to me, including my crafty friend at work, Jen. But I've resisted and I wasn't sure why until I was telling Jen about the conversation yesterday and she asked, "What is it about magnets that you don't like?"

I finally realized. "I hate clutter on the refrigerator!"

Alrighty then. Seems I have issues, eh??

So now I've gotten over myself and ordered 250 magnets from a wholesaler yesterday. For every pin design I make, I'll also make magnets. I even already have a metal board on which to display them.

Btw, I have anti-clutter issues in general, but our refrigerator . . . oy. Steve has a bunch of magnets on our refrigerator that annoy me. Some are from businesses from 30 years ago that he's probably never used and probably long gone by now. (My other annoyance with his inability to let go of things is he keeps his college textbooks. Why??)

I can't even remember what else is on the refrigerator because I've apparently successfully blocked it from my mind. I'm okay with a few "tasteful" magnets, which would of course be, according to MY taste only. So annoyed was I by his helter-skelter collection of magnets that I moved my select few tasteful, useful magnets to the side of the refrigerator so they wouldn't have to associate with the likes of his.

Oh! I just remembered something else! He gets a free advertising magnet with each purchase of chemicals for the hot tub. So he kept putting them on the refrigerator. As they accumulated, I'd sneak 1 or 2 into the garbage occasionally. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore so I took all of those down and put them on one of the metal lockers in the basement. (They came with the house, a row of 4 metal school type lockers.) He has stuff in the lockers, I don't, so now I don't have to look at them anymore. He can collect to his heart's content.

I crack me up.

Check out the tons of events offered.

Friday, June 5, 5:00-8:00

Saturday, June 6, 10:00-8:00

Sunday, June 7, 10:00-5:00

RIT Gordon Field House

One Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5603

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Blues & Greens

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I've been playing around with combinations of green variegated thread and turquoise variegated thread. Sometimes I try to match the variegation, light to dark, like the bottom one, but usually I let the colors fall spontaneously where they will. (I know! Me? Spontaneous? I usually prefer to plan my spontaneity.)

And it's off to the show! I'm feeling good about this and will definitely have fun hanging with my fellow vendor friends.

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