So Busy

Just a quick hello and to let you know I probably won't be checking in again until next week. I decided to have my driveway Craft Sale/Garage Sale this weekend. I am really busy pricing things and making signs and getting things ready. I'm hoping to sell some of the things I'm not making for FourDogDay any more so I have some extra money for new supplies! I have some great things I want to make and I can't wait.

In addition to that, I'm also still working on baby shower things. Tresa is doing well. I will see her on the 31st when we have a "Ripping out the Carpet in the Baby's Room" party. I will take pictures. I can't wait to see her.

I sold a couple more things at the consignment shop last month. Remember the Skull and Roses Fabric Wall Clock? Well that sold, along with another cake stand. It was nice to get a little check in the mail. My goal is to sell four items or more per month. Hopefully the clocks will start to really sell as fall approaches and people start thinking about the inside of their houses.

Well that is it for now. I have more things to price this evening....I'm doing that while watching So You Think You Can Dance. Man I love that show! If you like dancing and haven't watched it....you are missing out!

Have a great rest of the week and a super weekend and I will chat with you soon.

Being In Control

I am a person that likes to be in control. I like to do things myself. I like doing things my way. It isn't that I'm not cooperative when dealing with joint ventures....I am. I am also a team player when I need to be. I just prefer things that are mine....my project, my crafts, my room, my office....well I like to control those things.

That is why I wasn't sure if selling my crafts in a consignment store was going to be for me. I am use to my etsy shop FourDogDay...where I make, price, display and sell everything myself. With the consignment shop, I make and price but that's where it ends. Someone else will display my things, talk to customers about my things and hopefully sell my things. I thought I might have a problem with that.

Guess what? I'm not having a problem with it at all. In fact, I'm pretty darn excited. The consignment shop is giving me an opportunity to make things that I would not have made for etsy. The clocks were big to ship, cakestands were a nightmare and I would never even attempt to ship one of the lamps.

Now I feel as though I have the best of both worlds. I can make and sell my fabric things on etsy and I can make and sell big and fragile things at necessary exTRAVagance. How lucky can one person be?

Do you like to be in control or are you comfortable letting someone else run the show? Do you find it easier to turn certain things over to someone else than it is some other things? Please share....

Fun at the Flea Market

Irv and I had a nice time at the flea market. We walked around for about three hours and found some great stuff. You do see some strange things and some interesting people...and that's what makes it so much fun!

We came upon a guy that had a huge trailer full of boxes of dishes and glassware. He took the boxes out of the trailer and opened them and put them on table. Everything in them was wrapped in newspaper. He didn't even unwrap the stuff. People were swarming the place digging, and digging through the boxes. I am not much of a digger...I like things nicely displayed, but when I saw some of the stuff....I decided to dig. Nothing was priced. You just took your treasures up to his table and he would say, "How is $12.00?" I was shocked! Yes, I got everything you see in this photo for $12.00!

I just love this plate. It's going to be turned into a wonderful wall clock for the Chicago consignment shop.

This little cup and saucer are going to be part of a lamp of stacked china! Have you ever seen one of those? Irv and I will work on that together. There will be lots of drilling and gluing. I will be sure to show you when I get that one done. It will be a while. I'm still searching for the right parts!

Everything else you see is going to be turned into a wall clock. Yes, you heard me right. It will all be for the shop in Chicago.

This photo didn't turn out very good, but this is a vintage "straw" woman's hat. It's wonderful! I will probably do silver hands on it so you can see them good. I've not made one from a hat before, but it should be fun!

Can you believe this one? I am so in love with this feathered hat. I almost hate to make a hole in it, but I will.

These are old photos taken at the University of Chicago. The guy that was selling them said his dad was a photographer and took them many years ago. I'm not sure what I am going to do with these. They would be awesome just matted and framed. My original intent was to do that, but to make them into clocks as well.....still thinking on this one.

Miss Betty Boop is just a replica of an old sign. I think she is darling and yes, she will be a clock and so will the espresso metal picture. It's just a cheapie TJ Maxx thing. It was still dusty and dirty when I took the photo, but I've cleaned it up and it is really cute.

This is another replica metal sign. I just laughed when I saw this one. I use to love Twinkies as a kid. Another funky clock......

This was is just too fun. It's a wood platter with just the funniest rooster painted on it. I can't wait to make this one. I would love to hang this one in my kitchen....but I won't. Someone is going to have this darling guy hanging in their kitchen!

Well, that is it. It was was a fun day and I am tired out! They have this flea market once a month so if my things sell well, I will be headed back at some point in search of more treasures!

It's Flea Market Time

I am sooooo excited. Me and Irv and Michael and Bern are headed to the Kane County Flea Market today. This is a one time a month flea market and it's usually pretty good. I bought a great vintage table cloth there. I always see awesome stuff when we go...so hopefully I will see awesome stuff today.

I'll be looking for vintage china of all kinds to make cake stands, clocks and lamps. I saw a lamp in a magazine that I just loved and want to try making one if I can find some good pieces. If it works out, I'll be selling them at the consignment shop. I can't believe they open in two weeks. I'm excited for them. I've always wanted to own my own shop of some kind.

Well, this is going to be short because we are going to be out of here early. If I find some good stuff, I'll post pictures tomorrow or Monday. Make it the best day ever, and do something really, really nice for yourself today!

The Excitement Mounts

What a fantastic day we had yesterday. We got up and headed to the grocery store. We even stayed within our budget for the first time in a few weeks!

Next we hopped in the car and headed to the consignment shop in Chicago. Since we didn't eat breakfast, we made a quick stop at Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. No, those things are not on my diet...not even remotely close to being on my diet, but you know what.....I have done so well on my diet that I felt no guilt whatsoever.

We arrived in the Andersonville neighborhood and knocked on the door of necessary exTRAVagance. The Andersonville neighborhood is filled with wonderful restaurants and shops. It is clean and it is everything good about city living.

The shop was wonderful. They did a wonderful job painting and decorating and filling it with beautiful and exciting handcrafted items. We had the opportunity to meet Travis, one of the owners along with some family members that were there helping check in, price and display items. Even grandma was there sitting at the sewing machine putting the finishing touches on some pillows.

My clocks and cake stands will be right at home among some pretty amazing art. There were glass pieces, pillows, quilts, rugs, napkins, wine stoppers, some refurbished antiques, paintings, dishes and more. The more I looked around, the more excited I got.

I am a country girl and don't spend much time in the "big city". I really wasn't sure what fabrics to use for the clocks or what kind of cake stands people shopping there might like, but I think I made good choices and hopefully things will sell.

The one problem that I had was trying to figure out how to price my things. This particular shop has you price your items and then you split 50/50. I have a formula that I use when pricing my items for my etsy shop, Four Dog Day. There was no way that I could price my items the same as on etsy and give them half. I thought long and hard and tried a couple of different ideas, but each one ended up with me not making nearly enough for the time I put into my things. I finally figured out a formula I was comfortable with and went with it.

While we were walking around the shop, I looked at a lot of the prices and I knew I had done the right thing. My items fit right in at the prices I decided on. Now, we just have to hope they sell.

Tresa and Chris met us at the shop and the four of us took a walk around the neighborhood. We went in a couple of other awesome shops. If I were ever to move to the city....Andersonville would me my kind of neighborhood.

The shop opens on May 15th. I can't wait. Next Saturday we are headed to a big flea market and I will be in search of "things" to use to make more clocks and cake stands. Should be fun!

It's The Weekend!

How fast do you drive? I ended up behind someone on my way to work yesterday that actually did the posted speed limit......now I am not a speed demon, but I will admit to driving a "few" mph over the posted limit some times. I kept moving over a little so the long line of cars behind me could see that it wasn't my fault that we were going soooooo slow!

Matt's 3 A DAY project has picked up steam. He started his Facebook Group and the last time I looked, they had 60 people signed on. Hopefully all 60 of those people are out there picking up some trash when they see any. That's how this will truly make a difference. If you don't know about 3 A DAY...check out my post from yesterday.

Our grandbaby to be has become quite the little kicker. Dates for baby showers are already being selected, names are being tossed around and we should know in a couple of weeks if it's a boy or a girl!

Today I will be in my workshop putting the finishing touches on some clocks for the consignment shop, and making a couple of other things. I think we are going to take our first little batch of things down on Sunday. I've been watching their posts on Facebook and it is going to be one fantastic little shop. I can't wait to see it in person.

My healthy allergen free eating is going well. I haven't had a chai latte in two weeks! Can you believe that? I might treat myself to one on Sunday. Not having any really yummy bread is probably the hardest part for me, but I know that if I want some I can have it.

I am walking 30 minutes per day without fail. Most of the time I go out on my lunch hour. If I can't for some reason, I am on the treadmill as soon as I get home. We got pedometers at work for a pilot program we are doing in the District Office and I am lovin' this little thing. I know exactly how many steps I'm taking per day. At night I plug it into my computer and upload my steps into a website that keeps track of everything for me. Pretty cool!

Well my friends I need to scoot. I have much to get done today. Make it the best day ever and don't forget to do something nice for yourself today!

I Am Almost Always Right

Besides the normal things that I have to do like shopping, cleaning and laundry this weekend....I also need to keep up with my exercises and my walking....in addition to that I need to make some clocks and cake stands for the consignment shop because we are taking them there next weekend. So, when I mentioned that I would like to set up the tent and some tables in the driveway on Sunday to have a little craft sale......Irv said this, "Can I say something without you getting mad?"

That always means that he doesn't agree with something I have proposed so I said, "Sure". He then said that he thought I had a bit too much going on right now. That maybe we should hold off on the craft sale for a couple of weeks and just concentrate on the consignment shop stuff right now.

He almost fell of the chair when I said, "You are right."

See, I AM ALWAYS RIGHT. No matter what......I am always right. :) It's just the way it works with me.

I said that sounded like a good idea and continued eating my dinner. Irv just stared at me for a minute (I could feel it) and then continued eating his dinner.

Make it an awesome day and do something really nice for yourself today too!

Shop Talk

I am making some major changes in my etsy shop, FourDogDay! I am really excited about it too. Part of the reason is that I am going to be selling my clocks and cake stands in the consignment shop in Chicago. I don't want to be selling the same thing in my shop.

As things in my shop have expired I have not been renewing them, unless it is something I plan to keep making. That means my shop is getting smaller, and smaller and smaller. The neat thing is that now my shop is going to have a "look". It's going to be mostly fabric items and you know how much I love fabric!

I'll be taking some things to Chicago on the 24th when we go downtown for our next family get together. Tresa only lives about 20 minutes from the consignment shop. I thought that would be a great time to meet the owners and drop off what I hope are the first of many, many items.

So, as FourDogDay gets smaller in preparation for growth, I am throwing around ideas of what else I will be adding to the shop and I have some awesome ideas. As soon as I have some of them completed, I will show you. I also have some neat ideas for the consignment shop, but I am still hunting for some of the materials I need.

Spring is just such a wonderful time of renewal and growth, not only outside, but in my shop and in my heart as well. I just love spring.

Topic change: Our grandchild to be....according to yesterday's e-mail update is now 4.5 inches from head to butt....about the size of an avocado. He/she is growing toenails and his/her little heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood a day. Is that not amazing? Tresa can feel the little guy/girl moving every day now. That was the most awesome part of being pregnant for me. Next month we might just know if it is a boy or a girl and that's pretty exciting too.

Be sure to do something really nice for yourself today....like take a walk! Chat with you soon!

Happy Veterans Day

First, I want to thank all of our service men and women for all they do and our Veterans for the sacrifices they have made. My dad was in the Army and both of my brothers retired from the Navy. The commitment these men and women make to their country never ceases to amaze me. My dad carried the burden of war with him his entire life. His nightmares were the most terrifying thing I can recall as a child. You can read about it here. Yes, their sacrifices are great.

Because of those awesome men and women....I have the day off today, and it couldn't have come at a better time. I can't even begin to tell you how many things I have made since spring that I have NOT listed in my shop. No....you have no idea. I have cake stands, and brooches, and wine bags, and pin cushions, and pillows, and coasters, and tote bags, and picture frames and I'm not even sure what else....and I'm not talking one or two of each, I am talking MANY of each.

The sun is supposed to shine all day today, which means I might be able to capture some well lit photos in the morning in my workshop window and then in the early afternoon in my kitchen window. I figure if I can get most of it photographed...then over the next couple of weeks I can touch up the photos and get things listed in time for the holidays. That is the plan. We will see how it goes.

I also have given a tremendous amount of thought to my etsy shop situation and have decided to keep FourDogDay and eventually close MyOtherShop. Your comments were very helpful and gave me much to think about.

I really don't have time to promote two shops, and now that I know that fabric is really my thing..I plan to concentrate on that. I will list all of my new items in FourDogDay and slowly move other fabric things over. I feel SO great having made my decision!

So, without further hesitation....I am out of here today! Glad I charged all of the batteries for the camera. I will need them!

Have an awesome day everyone!

Off And Running

Today is the little craft show. We have to leave at 6:15 a.m. so we can be setting up at 7:00. The doors open at 9:00. I really don't know what to expect. This is the type of event where people stroll over to the "market" in the gym after church. Not sure how many will stroll over...it's suppose to be 70 again today. That isn't usually a good thing for craft shows, but we will see.

My 10 by 10 space will have two provided tables and then I am bringing my book shelf, a clothes rack and a coat rack. I am bringing a bunch of stuff from MyOtherShop like small cake stands, all of my coasters, light switch covers, pin cushions, ornaments, aprons, tote bags, my brooches and my new wine bags. Something for everyone and hopefully there will be lots of everyones!! :)

I will post tonight when we get home if I can and let you know how it went. Enjoy your Sunday and I will chat with you soon.

Craft Show 101

I had Matt on my mind yesterday, but I did have a few things to tell you about the craft show this weekend.

My location was pretty good. It will be a while before I earn my way into the prime rows, but we were in the middle on an aisle and it worked out well, except for an hour or so each afternoon when the sun blasted in the skylights right on my check out table! We joked around about it just being my "heavenly glow", but it was seriously blinding at times.

Instead of the "teaser table" I had out front at the other show, Irv added awesome shelves to one side of the front of the booth and they worked beautifully. I had a couple of cake stands, some coasters and some light switch covers on them and people would stop, look at those things and come in. It was great!

I did learn a couple more very important things. One is that signs are a must. I kept thinking they would look like clutter, but when I was busy talking to someone and another person looked interested in something....even though I couldn't talk to the second person right then....a cute sign with the right words....spelled correctly would have worked. So, Saturday night I made some cute signs and put them around the booth with little bits of info about my totes, the aprons and the coasters. People actually read them! I did them on the computer on card stock and accented with scrapbook paper. Easy, inexpensive and useful!

The other BIG thing I learned is that even though I am not a seasonal decorating or dressing type person...hundreds of people are. I saw so many people walking around with Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff. It's not my thing, but that doesn't really matter. I must learn to please the masses. So, on that note, I will be making some holiday themed coasters and aprons for my shop and for the little tiny show we are doing at the church/school where Irv works. We'll see how it goes.

Here is a funny for you....this was my fourth show. At shows one through three, my cakestands were by far my best seller. I had decided that I probably wouldn't make any more light switch covers or coasters because they just don't sell. HAHA! Guess what sold the most at this show? Of course, coasters and light switch covers. So, what do I know?

Craft shows are a whole lot more than I ever thought they were. They are like a little business venture of their own. I am having fun, I'm learning, I'm meeting so many wonderful people...customers and other vendors and I can see where with time, this could become a nice way to supplement our income.

Oh, I have to say hi to my sister Karen in Tennessee who informed me yesterday that she reads my blog every day. I never knew that. So, hi Karen! Love you!

Now I need to go make some Christmas coasters! Chat with you soon!

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!

The Vision Takes Shape!

It's not quite done, but I just couldn't wait to show you. I'll show you again when I have the skirting for the lower shelves and the ruffles for the upper shelves done. This is just the most awesome craft show booth ever! I can't believe that Irv was able to take MY vision and MY sketches and create from scratch EXACTLY what I wanted!!

I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing because it is still taking up our entire one car garage. We will be taking it apart and setting it up in the driveway next weekend for a trial run, and I'll get some other pictures then. So, for now, you get it in sections.

The three big shelves on the right are for my pillows. I plan to skirt the bottom shelf for some color and so we can shove some of our bins under it. The four corner shelves are for cake stands. I am thinking I might make little ruffles for the fronts of all of the shelves. There is enough room between the pillows and cake stands for cute little hooks of some kind to hang part of my totes on.

The empty section on the back wall will be where the aprons will be hanging on these funky wood heads/bodies that we are going to make, but haven't made yet. Then we have four more corner shelves for more cake stands.

The big shelf on the left side will be for the coasters and I will skirt that one too, and then it's a little hard to see them, but there are three skinny shelves above the big shelf and that is where all of my light switch covers will go. I am really excited that they will be standing upright facing people rather than laying on a table. It also has two little front sections where I will be able to "showcase" an apron and a couple of tote bags so people can see them as they stroll by.

Remember that cute little sewing machine cabinet I "removed" from our neighbors garbage? That will be my check out table....there isn't much room for anything else. This show only gives you an 8 x 10 spot, and that isn't much in the grand scheme of things. The cabinet is being painted white right now. It will be skirted on three sides and I'll keep my bags and things under it.

So I am sending out a gigantic CHEE HOO to my wonderful husband Irv for all of his hard work on this project....and even if I don't sell one thing...I will have the best looking booth at the show...but that better not happen or I will be in BIG trouble!!

Oh, and just so you don't think that Irv is some kind of God or something...I was teasing him yesterday and he told me that if I kept it up, he wouldn't finish the booth and he would just hand me the keys to the truck on the day of the show and I would have to figure out how to set it up myself! The nerve of the guy!

It's Getting Better

Well, we are back from the craft show and I am exhausted so this is going to be short. It actually went pretty well. Once again the sales weren't super, but I used Tresa's suggestions and definitely saw a difference. It was a pretty good show too. There were people around all day long. I wasn't in the main area, but still had plenty of traffic.

I sold a few cake stands, a pillow, a couple of sets of coasters, some switchplates and even some pin cushions! I either have to get a nice display stand for my cards, or not even bring them. People won't take the time to flip through them in a display box. Not sure what to do about the photos either.

My next show is an indoor show in September. Irv and I talked today about what kind of displays we want to create. It will be entirely different than the outdoor shows under a tent. I'm thinking, dog eared cedar fence panels painted white for a oouple of the walls so we could hang shelves on them. The space at the next show is only 8 X 10....that isn't a lot of room.

Well friends, I have got to go get my jammies on and chill out for a while. We are going over to Michael and Bernadette's house tomorrow morning. They closed and moved in on Friday. It's their first house and they are so excited! I am so excited for them!!

Have an awesome evening and I'll chat with you tomorrow!

Can I Do It All In 42 Days??

If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that I was reading the book, "Lost and Found". The book gets passed along from one person to another via our blogs. You can read about it here. Well, right now the book is on it's way to the UK to my blogging friend, Jam and Jerusalem. I'm hoping it makes it's way around Europe for a while and then finds it's way back to the USA!

I spent the entire day so far buying supplies that I will need to make things for Fair Diddley (my very first craft show) next month. It is very scary to me to spend that much money on things when I really have no clue if any of it will sell. Of course, I am hoping it will, but my understanding is that with craft shows, you just never know....they can even get rained out! I'm looking at it this way.....what doesn't sell at least can go into FourDogDay and MyOtherShop and also be used for the next show. It isn't like it will all just be sitting there.

We did price a tent though and that was a bit more than I am ready to invest, so I will be renting this time. If I do really well at this show, maybe I will buy one for the next show. Today I found a ton of candlesticks and three darling little plates at the Goodwill store to make cake stands with. I'm still on the lookout for more plates though. I bought some darling little cups and saucers to make a new thing with. I bought some boring ModPodge and sealer and about 8 different really awesome fabrics to make pillows. Yesterday I found a big piece of Waverly fabric at a resale shop for $1.00!! The pillows I make with that will kick butt! I also bought tons of ceramic tiles and sweet old Irv is in the garage right now sanding the rough edges down and cleaning them up for me.

So, as you can see...I have my work cut out for me. I have 42 days to make a ton of stuff and get it all packaged and priced!

Wrigley woke me up at 3:00 a.m. to go out and then I couldn't go back to sleep...I spent the next 3 hours sitting in bed with my paper, pencil and clipboard designing my booth for the show and making many, many lists! I came up with some fantastic ideas for the booth that I will share with you at a later date! One of the plans involves Irv dragging a very old and yukky bookshelf out of the very back corner of the garage that is full of gardening supplies right now....and turning it into a nice display piece for my booth! Poor Irv!

Have a wonderful rest of the day!

When Good Ideas Go Bad

How many times have you had an idea for your etsy shop, or just a wonderful idea for something you wanted to make or do and the whole thing implodes before your eyes?

I want MyOtherShop, my etsy home decor shop to have a big variety of items in it. I want people to be amazed when they enter my shop at all of the different things they can pick from. I want to have the decorative decoupage trays, picture frames and little bird houses, but I also want my cake stands. I love looking for plates and making a really unique and useful piece for people. That isn't enough though, so what I wanted to add now is ceramic tile coasters.

I did my homework and read up on how to make them. I thought I had it all figured out when I went and purchased some tiles, paper and sealer. I glued the paper to the tile, I let them dry and then I started spraying them with the sealer. After a number of coats and a couple of days, I tested one by putting some droplets of water on it and letting it sit for a while. Later I took and look and all seemed well. So I put more droplets of water on it. There is no way I would ever sell something that I didn't know was excellent quality.

This time when I checked it....the paper was soft and I could scratch it right off the tile! My heart sunk....I had a table full of partially made coasters and now they were all no good! UGH!

I searched the etsy forums for suggestions. I even posted a new thread on the topic. A few people told me what they use and it was pretty much what I was doing. I searched the internet again. I e-mailed some companies that made different sealers. I sent a convo to an etsy friend that works with tiles.

I ended up using bits and pieces of everyone's advice and got back to work and guess what??? Success!! Woo hoo!!! I am so excited.

I decided to switch to acrylic sealer and after many coats, I was even able to salvage the coasters I had started and I have another table full of coasters waiting to be sealed. When I tested them this time I practically dumped the water on them. I even put water on them and then put a glass on top of it. Hours later I was still able to just wipe it off and it looked great.

I must admit that I was near tears for a while. I just felt so bad. I really wanted to make the coasters. My thought was that these would be a great item to take to shops or to sell at craft fairs or to wholesale and the fact that I couldn't make them was really upsetting to me. I love the colors of the tiles and there are so many cool scrapbook papers. Rather than lose my cool though, I just took some deep breaths and tried to figure out what went wrong.

Have you ever had a project go wrong? Are you able to keep a level head and work your way through it or do things go flying and not so nice words come out of your mouth? Were you able to make it work after all?

The first batch of coasters need to sit for a couple of days and then they will be ready to list. I just need to glue the cork to the backs. I ordered some little boxes for them today that should be here next week. The second batch is waiting for their turn to be sealed.

I am really excited about the coasters, and I am already getting ready to start experimenting with the next idea. I'll let you know when it's ready to make it's debut!