Shop Update!!!

Hey, Everyone! I've finally updated my Etsy shop. Ouija board placemats, planchette napkin rings, kitty-mon rolls, and cat donuts are now available. Get them while they last! Just click the link above or my mini-shop on the right hand side of the screen.

Will Craft for Pyrex

I spent last week making felt candy [pine] cones for the 50 swag bags given out to the first to arrive at Maker Fair last Saturday. I really under estimated the time it would take me to cut all the pieces out and assemble. It is a simple enough craft, but each one had 13 different pieces to cut and assemble to create the final product. >_< I was quite pleased with how they turned out and even made 5 more with brown bottoms to give out as additional swag bags to people who spent a certain amount of money at my booth.

I was entirely too positive in general about this show. The forecast was beautiful weather- for Minnesota in October, which I forgot to take into consideration- so I went without a jacket... There was frost on the ground when we arrived and our inside booth actually ended up being colder than many of the outside booths. I got frost bite being inside for 6 hours! On top of that, my booth was a lot smaller than I'm used to and I didn't have room for everything to be arranged the way I wanted. I think I did have one of the best looking booths, though.

I brought Scary Grant along to set up a cute little vignette with many of my products. The kids liked him, the adults thought he was stupid. The crowd was not at all shy with rudeness. I truly believe that "Minnesota Nice" is extinct. Why couldn't we have parted with the long good-bye instead? Maybe we're still trying-ha!

Using my quilt rack was a last minute idea I came up with last week that ended up being a life saver in terms of product display. BJ and I made the baskets out of chicken wire we bought a few years ago to make the balcony cat-friendly. Then we wrapped the sharp edges in ribbon.

Overall, I was happy when the day ended. My hands and feet were buzzing when I finally got warm again. Of course I had to do what any Pyrex addict does when they're feeling feelings- hit up some local junk shops.

The occasional sales in MPLS opened on Wednesday and I picked up these two pieces. Imagine my surprise when I found the 4 little ramekins that complete the hostess set all the way in Ormsby, MN a few days later!

I also finally found an actual red 501 to complete my primary fridgie set. The only turquoise Pyrex I found was this snowflake divided dish, but it is so minty! I also picked up a vintage knee hugger elf, a Radko white cat ornament because I'm obsessed, and a delightfully creepy West Germany diorama ornament with what I'm calling a bearded snow witch inside. The mushroom candle holders were so much cheaper than the ones I passed on last winter at an occasional sale, so they came home with me as well. I just can't believe the lack of awesome vintage Halloween, or even awesome new Halloween for that matter, this year.

I made a Halloween advent calendar, which we have not really been following since we've had so much to do in preparation for the show last Saturday. We have started trying to catch up with it, though, so I'll share our creations soon! Also, I will be adding some of the things that didn't sell to my Etsy shop this week. :)

Maker Fair

I'll be in building A this Saturday at the Maker Fair in Garden City, MN from 9-3. The first 50 people receive a gift bag. I'm contributing to the giveaways and have been working hard all week finishing everything up! If you're in New Ulm for Oktoberfest, it's only about a half hour drive for some all handmade awesomeness! I've got a special guest coming along who might inspire a great photo op, so come on by and shop local and handmade. :)

In other news, there is free worldwide shipping from my Society6 shop through October 12, 2014 at Midnight Pacific Time by clicking this link. Offer excludes framed art prints, stretched canvases, and rugs. They have recently added long sleeved t-shirts just in time for our transition into MinneSNOWta.

Tain't No Sin, Take Off Your Skin, and Dance Around in Your Bones

It has been a very gloomy week here. I've been wanting to take pictures for a Halloween house post, but the light just hasn't been right. I've also been waiting for a certain guy to finally take out the recycling that's been piling up over the summer, but since his motto in life is 'I'll do it tomorrow' it still hasn't been done. >_< So I decided to just hide the mess and hope the gloom adds to the spooky ambiance of the decor.

Meet Scary Grant and his cat Bone-aby. He looks a little Trish-ish in BJ's Northstars hat, though. 

I found both of these little pumpkin pails at Arc's for under a dollar each. Goodwill is charging $2+ per pail this year- even if it has someone's name scribbled on in permanent marker. I'm not really sure what they're thinking. People can go to most any big box store and get a brand new one, sans name, for less than that. Also, they way overcharge for blow mold lights as well. I'm sure they think everything might be "vintage" so let's slap a crazy price on it. Black tag items (Halloween) are not eligible for the ReUse coupons from Hennepin County either, so I passed on a cute witch blow mold light that I thought was cute, but didn't want to drop that kind of cash on. I've already overspent on the big outside cat, bleh.

I picked up the pumpkin on the right at Arc's this year as well. I've put my giant color changing ball lights inside of them, but there are two extra lights. I'm trying to find a couple more nice vintage ones to hang on either side with some sticky hooks so that each pail has one light. The others I have are too small to fit the light through the holes.

I've just been having the most awful luck the past couple of weeks. BJ took me out thrifting last night to try and lift my spirits. I happened upon a nice load of old Halloween stuff! I found this cat and some vintage candles and a family of ghosts. I feel bad because I only brought one ghost home.

I also found a  Dept. 56 string of lights with cute little jack o lanterns. One of them reminded me of Halloweentown, which I'm a sucker for of course!

I made a Halloween advent calendar out of playing cards painted with chalkboard paint and glued on googly eyes. It took FOREVER! Last night we (I) were scheduled to paint Pyrex pumpkins. I've been waiting to do this since I saw a picture of this on a blog back in July! I used embroidery patterns from Twin Maples with graphite transfer paper. It worked really well except for all the pressure from my hand holding the pumpkin smeared the graphite all over the pumpkin. Luckily I had a fancy graphite eraser that picked up a lot of it, then I tried washing it with warm soapy water which didn't do much. I decided to break out the Bar Keeper's Friend and that worked! It did take off some of the paint, but the designs look better with a second coat anyway. I used Martha Stewart paints that I found unopened at Arc's on the Labor Day sale for 50 cents a piece!

                                   

TGIF, estate sales tomorrow! :)

Halloween Shop Update!

I've added all sizes of candy corn plush to my Etsy shop. I'll add the Ouija boards, kitty-bons, and cat donuts as soon as I figure out shipping costs. I've got a show coming up on October 11 in Garden City, MN for everyone in SW MN, so I'll be listing these as made to order so that I have stock for the show.

This past Saturday I was at No Coast Craft-o-Rama Takes a Field Trip and I couldn't have asked for better weather! It started raining during tear down, but it didn't start raining hard until we were on the road. 35W North was closed which I think may have detracted from the crowd. There was a kids game in front of my booth that was way too close most of the day and didn't even allow people to walk in front of my booth at times. A lot of people walked past and grumbled, "Well, tis the season I guess..." about my Halloween stuff. It's the end of September and it's not as if I was selling Christmas trees, People. Seriously. Where are my Halloween lovers?! Not at that craft show I guess. I had a decent day, but nothing like I'd expected. If anyone has the secrets to being a success as craft shows, I'd love to hear it because I can't live off compliments.

Anyway, I'm off to figure out how I can possibly live my life without Dawson's Creek on Netflix. >_<

Up Next... Halloween House Update!

The Thrift That Dreams Are Made Of

BJ and I had to head down to my hometown to borrow a canopy from my brother for No Coast, so we decided to incorporate some thrifting. (Duh!) There was supposed to be this big to-do of flea market hopping and whatnot all along HWY 74 for King of Highways day or something. One of the towns participating was Lake Benton, home of my fave thrift/antique store. We drove down SUPER early and this flea market did not exist and the store I was dying to go to was not open. We waited around until noon and decided it probably wouldn't be open for the day. I went to the two others that were open and found a bunch of stuff I liked, but was saving my money incase I found turquoise. I did buy a cute rooster mug and a tiny pumpkin. I thought the day was a bust. We were actually going to go camping down there, but it was supposed to be freezing at night and we only had a tent and no desire. My sister took me to Lamberton last time I was down there and we stopped into a couple antique stores. I suggested we check them out since we were heading to Redwood anyway. We stopped into one in Tracy where I found the Fire King tea cup that matches a saucer I bought at Arc's. I was actually really hoping to find both of these cups while down there, and I did!

Well, it is such a good thing that we went to Lamberton because it made up for the morning. First I saw a butterprint casserole out of the corner of my eye for a really great price. BJ decided to go upstairs while I checked out the rest of the main floor. Something caught my eye in a little cabinet with the doors almost closed. I didn't like what originally brought me there, but I looked down and found a 442 black gooseberry! It is probably the best deal I've ever gotten on a piece of Pyrex in terms of resale value vs what I actually paid. This is apparently a rare piece (which I didn't know at the time, I just liked it and got it) that is part of an all black on white gooseberry promotional set of cinderella bowls. The more common version of the 442 is black on yellow. Not only that, but how cute is it for a Halloween display?! I was feeling pretty high on this find and picking up the little black cat S&P shakers (I think I've started a collection :/ ) when BJ found me and was crazy excited. I went upstairs and I saw it. A full MINTY set of turquoise butterprint fridgies!!! I think it was priced retail, which is expected at an antique store, but I don't even feel bad about paying it. I felt that I could end my day happily. I also picked up a box of Shiny Brite ornaments for a buck and another set of cats. There was some really awesome vintage Beisitle there, but definitely out of my price range since I found the BP.

Despite being insanely busy getting ready for No Coast, I did get all my Halloween up the first week of September. I'll do a little update on that soon. I've added a few new pieces to my collection this year and parted with a bunch of smalls that I didn't love anymore. I found the pumpkin/cat blow mold above at an estate sale on a half off day for $3 a couple of months ago. It didn't have a light, but that was an easy fix.

I found this cutie at the same garage sale where I got the atomic flatware and the kitchen conversion hot pad. I put a succulent called cobwebs in it! :)

This guy is from the Goodwill and was so overpriced! It's been there for a few weeks, but it's a black tag so it won't ever be on the weekly tag sales. There was a coupon for 25% off your entire order in this Sunday's paper. I'm still not sure if I feel good about the deal so I may return him. He's just so cute...

I finally found a milk glass mug at Goodwill- one that says HIS for BJ. It might be one of my favorite finds of the weekend. The yellow/orange bowl is going to get some removable jack o lantern stickers for Halloween!

Today I'm taking some much needed time to catch up on chores, I finally finished my 43rd book of the year, and Sleepy Hallow starts tonight! I'm glad I finally get to make some stuff purely for fun. I made this bag the night before No Coast and someone tried to look at it for purchase while I was setting up! I'm quite happy with the construction, but I couldn't get the interfacing to work so it's really floppy.

Back to cleaning >_<

No Coast Craft-o-Rama Takes a Field Trip

I'll be at No Coast Craft-o-Rama Takes a Field Trip on Saturday September 20th from 11-5 at Silverwood Park in St. Anthony, Minnesota at booth number lucky 13 with a ton of creepy cute handmade Halloween!!! Stop on by for my new line of plush, Cat Treats, and cat sleep masks to fulfill all your crazy cat lady needs. Ever feel a desperate need to Ouija after dinner? I've got spirit board placemats and planchette napkin holders! By local, buy handcrafted.

Also, there is free shipping on Society6 through this weekend if you're in need of some fun products with unique art.

I had a super-duper spectacularly awesome day trip down to SW MN last Saturday, so expect an update on that soon. Sorry I haven't made this post sooner, I've been crazy busy getting ready for Field Trip and it's seriously down to the wire here :/ That just means it's going to be awesome, so make some time and come for a visit!