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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Open House: Success!


Today I hosted a holiday open house for myself and 5 other local crafters/vendors.  This was the first time I've ever done anything like this and it was exhausting, nervewracking and fun.

I completely flaked out on taking any pictures of the event, but I was pretty impressed that my relatively small house was able to accomodate 6 crafters and vendors plus a bunch of guests without feeling too claustrophobic. I had to rearrange some furniture, but some things, including the fireplace and the piano, served quite nicely for people to display their wares.

In addition to making a nice little profit for the day, I also got some Christmas shopping done.  I won't post pictures of any of the gifts I bought (don't want to ruin anyone's surprise!) but I did purchase a nice little piece of holiday decor from my friend Hannah, who just started making wreaths:


She doesn't have a website or online shop at this point, but if she does start one, I'll be sure to post the link here! :-)

Other wonderful crafters and vendors at this event included:
  • Krystyn of KameKnits, who makes gorgeous scarves, hats, gloves, blankets, and even stuffed animals! 
  • Kristin, a Miche Bag rep (Check out her website for great Cyber Monday deals!)
  • Jo Marie, an Arbonne rep (Also check out her website.  She's super nice, and I think I may now be an Arbonne convert!)
  • Sue, who doesn't have a website or online shop, but she designs BEAUTIFUL handmade greeting cards.  If you live in the Lehigh Valley and would be interested in checking out her work, send me an email with your contact info and I'll pass it along to her.
It was definitely a nice way to close out my 4-day Thanksgiving weekend.  Other festivities included not one, but TWO Thanksgiving dinners, a trip to the dog park, playing with the Easton Municipal Band at the Peace Candle lighting in downtown Easton, and a pre-birthday outing at The Bookstore.


Lilly (Kristin's dog), Molly (my "niece", who belongs to my older brother-in-law and his wife), and Elvis

At the candlelighting ceremony.  It reminds me of something that would happen in Stars Hollow.

It generates quite a crowd!


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

New Living Room Decor

When we first moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago, we put sooo much effort into tearing down wallpaper and painting that I couldn't bring myself to put many nails in the walls.

Which is why until last week, these were the only things on the wall in the living room:

The posters are Casablanca and His Girl Friday, we've had them since we lived in the apartment.
So until recently, the wall where the fireplace is was empty, and the only way to tell what time it was from the living room was to crane our necks to see through the archway to the kitchen and squint while we attempted to read the clock on the stove.


That's the rat cage on the right. 
I really wish Nory and/or Sery were poking their little heads out when I took this!


But when a 50% off clock sale at Kohl's coincided with a 30% off coupon, I decided this one would be perfect above the mantel:


It's a really small change, but it's functional and helps to give at least a little more personality to the space. ;-)


Note that we have taken to protecting the couch from Elvis fur with a Spiderman blanket. 
Next on the shopping list: a blanket that somewhat matches the couch. :-P

 Tomorrow's my last day of work before a 4-day week, and I am SO ready for a break!  This year I'll be eating two Thanksgiving dinners - one at my parents' place and one at my in-laws' place.  Are you doing anything fun for Thanksgiving this year??

Friday, November 18, 2011

Another Openin', Another Show!

Ok, actually it's just another craft show, this post has nothing to do with the theatre, but Sinatra Night 2011 is just around the corner and I've been listening to (and playing) a lot of Cole Porter pieces. ;-)

Anyway, I've officially added my 8th and final show for Fall 2011. I'll be at Holland Township School on December 4 from 1:00 til 4:00. If you're in the area, stop by and say hello!



And if you're in or near Lopatcong, NJ tonight, stop by the holiday bazaar at the middle school between 6:00 and 9:00!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I'm Gonna Need a Lot of Coffee...

...if I expect to make it through the rest of this month!

This past weekend wasn't too bad, especially since I had Friday off from the day job.  I did, however, have a holiday bazaar from 6-9 that night, and that went fairly well.  I switched up the display just a little bit though.  I've kind of starting to not really care for the acrylic easel-style displays I've been using for the past two years, as seen on the risers here:


I decided to swap them out with the velveteen easels that give the buyer a better idea of how the necklace will look on.  I think it makes the display look less cluttered, as well:


Anyway, that show went well - I made a decent amount of sales, and I found out about a group on Facebook for local vendors and crafters, so hopefully that will help me find lots of shows to do next year!  I worked at the library on Saturday, and Glen and I spent Sunday afternoon doing yard work.  There was a solid layer of leaves covering our entire yard.  It was pretty bad, I'm still kind of sore from all the raking.

My schedule for the next week and a half is pretty crazy.  In addition to working, I'll be going to Glen's show tonight, I have another holiday bazaar Friday night, a craft show Saturday, possibly attending another of Glen's shows on Sunday, band rehearsal Monday, Thanksgiving, playing with the band at the Peace Candle lighting ceremony Friday, and I'll be hosting a holiday open house for some local crafters and vendors on Sunday the 27th. 

I'm quite excited about that last one.  It's a relatively small thing, just 4 crafters and 2 vendors, but between the 6 of us we should be able to get lots of friends and family to show up and do some Christmas shopping.  I'm planning to serve coffee, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and plenty of appetizers and desserts.  And we recently inherited a LOT of old Christmas records, so perhaps I'll put some of those on.

Of course, Elvis will be banished that afternoon, possibly to play at the dog park.  I'm sure he'd love to hang out with the visitors at the house, but I don't trust him to not knock over someone's display or steal people's food. ;-) 

And speaking of the pup, we went to Petco the other day to pick up his food.  We feed him the Synergy variety of Natural Balance because of the high protein content, it's the only way he can keep weight on.  While Elvis and I made our way through the dog food section, I saw this:


Seriously, Natural Balance?  SERIOUSLY?!?!  I can't think of a single good reason for this.  But then again, there are probably people who can't think of a single good reason to save bits of filet mignon for their dog, but Glen and I do that... So I guess to each his own?? ;-)

Monday, November 7, 2011

A Shiny, New Dog Park!

Until this past weekend, the closest dog park was a 20-minute drive away.  Elvis is absolutely insane in the car, so it was usually a very long 20 minutes!

So naturally, I was incredibly excited when a new dog park opened on Saturday, a mere 10 minutes from my house.  The park is located next to the also newly-opened Karl Stirner Arts Trail, along the Bushkill Creek, and you have to walk a little ways along the trail to get to it - no problem for a high-energy guy like Elvis. ;-)


The park isn't huge, but it's certainly big enough for Elvis to run around like a maniac:

That's him on the right-hand side of the photo, near the rock. 

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Elvis with his new friends, but he did make a bunch of them.  One of his favorite games at home is for Glen or I to chase him in circles around the dining room table.  Well, I think that game has been supplanted by getting chased in circles around the dog park by 5 of his new doggy friends.  He had the biggest, goofiest grin on his face the whole time, with a hint of smugness because he knew he was faster than any of them.  We even got a mention in the local paper, as did Elvis' new buddy Nemo.  And for the record, Mr. Malone, Elvis is a black and white ball of energy, NOT a brown and white ball of energy. ;-)

I have to admit that at first I was annoyed by the lack of parking in close proximity to the dog park... but I guess if this is where I have to walk to get to the park, I can't be too mad about it:


How was your weekend?  Did you get to enjoy the same wonderful, crisp fall weather we had here in the Lehigh Valley?

Thursday, November 3, 2011

How Bazaar

Do I win a prize for lamest blog post title ever??? ;-)

Seriously though, it looks like I'll be doing quite a number of holiday bazaars/shopping nights this year in addition to the usual Saturday craft shows.  My show on November 11 is a holiday bazaar at an elementary school, and I just sent in an application for another one at a local middle school that's going to be held on November 18.  And I just got another email about a third bazaar that's being held November 17, which I'd like to do as long as I can switch my usual library shift to another night that week.  At this point, I'm really liking the whole holiday bazaar/shopping night thing because they only take up a few hours on a weeknight, as opposed to an entire Saturday. 

If I am able to do both of those bazaars, I'll be up to a total of 4 shows in November alone, and 7 shows for the entire season.  That's on top of my regular full-time job and my part-time job at the library.  And it occurs to me that it might be a good idea to bulk up my inventory a bit, since I was only anticipating doing 4 or 5 shows.  Plus I still haven't gotten around to posting any new items in my Etsy shop, which I would really, really like to do before Thanksgiving.  Think I'll be tired by the time December rolls around??


Edit : I completely forgot about yet another tentative date for a holiday bazaar - I got an email about one that may be taking place on December 4.  So make that a total of 8 shows this season.  Eek!
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