Woof Woof Woof Kathy

Woof,

Woof woof Wrigley. Kathy woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof Craft Show woof, woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof.

Woof woof woof woof,

Wrigley



Translated:

Hi,

This is Wrigley. Kathy asked me to let you know that she is at the Craft Show today, and she will be back tomorrow to let you know how it went.

Have a great day,

Wrigley

It's here! Chee Hoo!

Well today is Friday. Irv and I are both working a 1/2 day so we can set up our booth for the craft show this afternoon rather than on Saturday morning. I know this was a wise move for us. Michael was so sweet and took a 1/2 day off to come and help us set up, and then Bernadette is working the booth with us on Saturday and Tresa on Sunday. It's so nice to have the support of your family. :)

The truck will be piled high with the walls for the booth, all of the shelves and Irv's tools.

My little Prius will be jam packed with the little check out "table", three bins of cake stands, three huge bags of pillows, aprons, tote bags, coasters, light switch covers, bags, credit card payment stuff, my signs, my props, ruffles, skirting and me!!

We plan to arrive there around 3:30 this afternoon. If we aren't there all night setting things up, I will check in when we get home and let you know how it went and post a picture of my booth with all of my stuff in it. If you don't hear from me tonight, then you can assume set up didn't go according to plan.

Have an awesome day today and if I don't chat with you again tonight, I will pop in when we get home Saturday if I'm not too tired!

Search and Rescue

After many months of classes, my 26 year old son, Matt earned his Search and Rescue pager Tuesday night. That means when his pager goes off, if he is available, he will be going on Search and Rescue calls. I am so proud of him.

(For those of you that are new to my blog, Matt is a third grade teacher in Telluride, Colorado.)

Search and Rescue is a volunteer organization that works in conjunction with the county Sheriff's Department. They do exactly what the name says...they search and they rescue.

SAR emergency calls can cover everything from a skier with a broken leg, to a missing hiker, to a person falling off a cliff, to water rescues, to drownings, to a car over the side of the mountain. Sometimes they search, sometimes they rescue and sadly, sometimes they recover....and that is the hard part.

The team might use a snowmobile, an ATV, a truck, a boat, a helicopter....whatever they need to accomplish the task at hand.

SAR bi-weekly training sessions are open to anyone with an interest. A lot of what determines if and when you receive a pager is your level of commitment to the program. People that show up sporadically for training sessions probably won't be given a pager. People that attend session after session for a good part of a year...might.

The training also never ends. There are always new skills to learn and rescues to practice.

I know Matt will be a wonderful asset to the Search and Rescue Team...his level of commitment is unwavering in all that he takes on.

CHEE HOO Matti!

A Walk in The Dark

I walk the dog in the early morning hours before I get ready for work. We do a fast paced walk around our neighborhood that equals about one mile. We walk because we BOTH need it. All dogs need to walk. It's in their nature. It isn't enough to let a dog loose in your yard and expect that to fulfill their inborn need to "travel". They NEED to walk. I need to walk. I sit at a desk all day, then I come home and sit at my worktable all evening. I know I need to walk. So, the morning walks are good for both of us.

The problem is that I HATE walking in the dark in the morning. We don't live in a high crime area, but I don't like the dark. I have never liked the dark and the fact that I have been walking the dog in the dark amazes me. Am I comforted knowing that Wrigley my canine protector is at my side? Oh, hell no! Wrigley hates the dark more than I do. In fact, Miss Wrigley hates noises as much as she hates the dark. She hates the leaves rustling, car doors slamming, plastic bags crackling, dogs barking, motorcycles, cars, skateboards, bicycles...When we are walking I fully expect her to get whiplash as her head whips from one side to the other, watching out for anything and everything that just might make a sound!

(We haven't figured out what caused her fear of noises, but we are working on it...based on the advise of the "Dog Whisperer.")

Anyway, we don't like walking in the dark. Why don't I just walk her after work when it's light outside you ask? Well, there always seems to be something else calling my name after work and just like doing my exercises...if I don't do it in the morning...it just ain't gettin' done!

I have even thought about starting work a little later, like 8:00 instead of 7:30 so we could walk a little later in the morning....but that would mean not getting off until 4:00 and that would mean more traffic and that would mean more annoyance and you get the idea....

I just want it to be light in the morning at 5:30 and then everything would be perfect! Can anyone arrange that for me?

Almost Done and Dog Gone Tired

We worked hard yesterday and finished up everything for the craft show, except if I want a vendor apron....I'll need to make it in the next four days. I have the fabric......Zzzzzzzzzz.....but I am SO tired. We'll see.

Our trial run setting up the booth went really well...better than we expected. The booth went up smoothly. While it was up, Irv did a little touch up, we figured out where all of the hooks had to go and my little Welcome and My Other Shop signs and we are good to go...and it is only Tuesday!!! Chee Hoo!

The girls look kind of cute hanging there, even though they are naked!

Wrigley kept peeking at us through the gate while we were working.

We finally brought her out to the driveway. She has to be tied to something or she just wanders off and manages to not hear you when you call her. Even dogs can have "selective hearing".

I do need to get some props like bars of soap and candy to display on my little baby "cake stands," and that's it. I put all of them on the kitchen table so I could pack them up. Just don't anyone sneeze! Aren't I daring? HAHA! With some very creative packing and a lot of bubble wrap, I managed to get all of this into one large and two medium bins!!

I looked at everything I've made and smiled. It looks good. Then I looked at the little bin of old buttons and jewelry pieces sitting on my desk....and smiled again, because I can't wait to start on my next project.

Have an awesome day today and I will keep you posted on my vendor apron progress. I put the fabric next to the sewing machine...maybe some little elves will come and complete it for me while I am at work today!

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you have a relaxing day planned with your family.

The clock is ticking away the minutes and hours until my very first indoor craft show next weekend! YIKES!!

Irv and I will be doing our "trail run" with the craft show booth today. Irv has it down and on the cart....next we will set it up out in the driveway (to see how long that takes us), then we will take it down and load it on the truck (to be sure the booth and all of the shelves and the check out table all fit nicely in the back of his little pick up truck). Then we will move it from there back to the cart (so it's ready to be loaded back onto the truck Friday afternoon). We want to make sure that when we unload it from the truck to the cart at the show Friday afternoon that it is in the order that Irv wants it in to set it up. Do I have you totally confused yet? HAHA!

The booth all stacked up on the cart. Irv had to glue felt to every piece so it won't scratch the floor if we have to move it around when we set it up!!

I finished up the last of my items for the show, and yesterday I priced all of the new items and did my inventory for the show. The skirts and ruffles for all of the shelves are also done. I even started making lists of what I need to bring.

My tote bags waiting to be pressed.

After our trial run, I will be ironing the aprons and tote bags so they will be ready to pack up. The only thing I haven't done is make myself a new vendor apron and I think I just might have time to do that too! Isn't it amazing what we can accomplish when we set our minds to it?

I put the little ropes on the girls yesterday.

The show is Saturday and Sunday, but they had an option to set up on Friday and Irv and I grabbed it. We are going to work a 1/2 day, come home and load up the truck and the car and head over to set up. What's really nice is that they have security, so we can actually set up the entire booth, items included, on Friday, close up the entrance to the booth with a tarp and arrive an hour before the show. If we have any problems, we will be able to address them Friday, and not when the show is about to open.

Remember the old sewing cabinet I plucked from our neighbor's garbage a few weeks ago? Here it is now. Irv threw a little shelf underneath so I have somewhere to put the credit card slips and some notepads and pens. I think he did an awesome job!
I finished some more cake stands this week too. They have been on the kitchen table all week, but it's okay, we never sit there to eat anyway!

I'm not setting any goals for myself for sales, because I have no control over it. If people are looking to buy what I have to sell, then it will be a good show. If not, I hope to just make enough to pay back my entry fee and pay for part of my booth. I only made 15 aprons and 10 tote bags. I want to see how they go at this show before I put any more time or money into them. I will have my pillows, ceramic tile coasters and light switch covers too.

I made these cute little signs yesterday to hang on the front of my booth.

Have a great day today and I'll chat with tomorrow!

The Girls

Irv has been working so hard on the hangers to display my aprons at the craft show next weekend. It was a lot of work to cut them out, sand them, paint them and attach a piece of wood to the back to attach the rope to....but he got them done this week!

Once he finished his part, I grabbed a bunch of markers from the drawer, drew a template for the eyes and lips and went to work. It's not really easy trying to color with regular little markers on painted wood, but I am more than thrilled with the results.

Meet the girls!

I think I will start watching at garage sales this fall for some really big long dangling earrings for the girls. I think that would be a great touch! What do you think?