Tree Trimming

Rebecca was kind to take this photo of her Christmas tree with my wood and clay ornaments.  I love seeing how people decorate with my work.  Thanks for sharing Rebecca!

Thanksgiving

Ready to eat!

  Every Thanksgiving, we go around the table and say what we are thankful for and this year, I was thankful to have all of the boys under one roof.  We really miss Cameron being away at college.

I would say our sassy monkey Luna was thankful for a tummy rub.

I hope you had a beautiful and memorable Thanksgiving.

Mums

I found these large, beautiful mums at the market yesterday.  I thought they would look pretty on our Thanksgiving table.  The colors are so fall!

Christmas 2013 Inspired Ideas!

It's here! It's finally here!

Enjoy!

click here to get the online issue of Inspired Ideas for only $3.99

Joy to the World

A figural gourd snowgirl is available on my website.  I will have one more figural snowman and some Christmas wood and clay ornaments available on small business Saturday.

Holiday Open House at the Village Gift Shoppe

Gnadenhutten's little gem of a shop had beautiful holiday displays and it was perfect to get me in a Christmas kind of mood!  The chilly temps helped, but Lori & her shop partner did a great job with their holiday open house.  Julie and I had fun looking at all of the goodies.  After our shopping trip, we grabbed a late lunch at the Dennison Depot cafe (thanks for the suggestion Lori).  Anyone who loves trains, would go nuts at this railroad museum.  

The Village Gift Shoppe is located at

106 N. Walnut Street

Gnadenhutten, OH 44629

740-254-9530

villagegiftshoppe.blogspot.com

The Dennison Depot

400 Center Street

Dennison, OH 44621

740-922-6776

www.dennisondepot.org

craft fair

I'm getting ready for the craft fair at Alfredo's school this weekend. At the urging of some friends, I signed up for table . My father made rosaries to sell...and I asked sweet Kristen Robinson to make necklaces like the beautiful one she made me. I'm always, always getting compliments on it and people always want to know where I got it. I knew it would be a good thing to offer. She made 10 beautiful necklaces for me to sell. 

So inspired by these two very religious items to sell, I decided to run with it and offer other items with a religious theme.

I set up a table in my family room so I could plan out the displays. Want to see?
 

  

I used kraft wrapping paper with gold stars stamped on it (Dollar Store!) to skirt the table. I'll just use packing tape to tape it along the table top's edge. I had these table runners from my shop years ago. I just cut them in half and hung them along the table front, again using packing tape to secure. I topped the table with some kraft paper printed with scrolls. The nice thing about it is that everything is really sturdy. Sometimes using a cloth, especially a thick one, can make things wobbly.

 

I put my father's rosaries in this flat drawer cabinet. I sorted them by color to make them easy to find. Can you believe these are only $15? And he gives all the money, not just the profit, to his church. Isn't he a sweetie? He's going to be there with me on Saturday, with all of his supplies to make rosaries on the spot.

And how about that sign?

When I saw these chalkboard sandwich signs at Michael's, I knew they'd make great signs! I used white Saral transfer paper to transfer a printout of the sign to the chalkboard. Then I used a white chalk pencil to fill it in. Didn't it turn out great? And it was quick...I did all of these signs in less than an hour!

 

For the necklace display, I spray painted an old dress mirror frame antique gold. I added a flat board to the bottom for stability. I covered some foam core with osnaburg fabric using spray mount and I just used pins to hold the necklaces.

I put the extra necklaces on a velvet lined tray above. As the necklaces sell, I can consolidate the display to go in the mirror frame.

 

Aren't these necklaces breathtaking? Kristen did such a lovely job...I don't know which is my favorite!

These prayer journals were a fun project. I used those cheap plastic photo albums ($1 from Walmart and the dollar store) and filled them with prayers and scripture readings that I machine-stitched to scrapbook paper cut to 4" x 6".

I have a few more things to make but I think I'm ready! We're going to pick up my parents this afternoon (my sister is meeting us halfway with them).

If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop by St. Timothy Catholic School in Chantilly, Virginia on Saturday. I'll see you there!