Busiest. Weekend. Ever.

How was your weekend?

Mine was incredibly busy, but also incredibly fun.  And now I am incredibly tired.

I spent Friday night frantically trying to replenish inventory, since I managed to sell quite a bit of stuff at the open house on Sunday.

I was up bright and early on Saturday morning for my second-to-last craft show of the season, Crafts in the Warren Tech.  I had to leave my house at 7:00, and the show ran from 9:00-4:00, the longest one I did this year.  No sooner did I get home and unpacked than we had to leave for our friends' Chrismukkah party. (For the record: My friends and I started celebrating Chrismukkah before The O.C. made it cool.)  We didn't get home until nearly 2:00 in the morning.

Up bright and early again on Sunday for my final craft show of the season, then went to my husband's show at SteelStacks.  His guests were both folks we went to college with, both of whom I haven't seen in quite awhile, so it was great being able to hang out with them for a bit!

Here they are interviewing comic book journalist Jill Pantozzi of Has Boobs, Reads Comics and The Mary Sue:

And here they are interviewing Eric Smith, of Geekadelphia and ordering-custom-made-Master-Chief-armor-with-money-he-got-from-selling-his-cheating-ex-girlfriend's-engagement-ring fame: 

Note: While Eric and I DID date for a few months about 10 years ago (ugh, typing that made me feel SO old), I am NOT the cheating ex-girlfriend.  I am the girlfriend he dated to get to Glen.  They were even roommates one year back in college, and Eric was a groomsman in our wedding!  Now my husband and my ex-boyfriend do things like snuggle and go on road trips together.  Not awkward at all. ;-)

And I couldn't possibly end this post without sharing a picture Eric took of me wearing the helmet from his costume: 

 

Stylish, I know.

After about 5 hours of sleep last night (we didn't get home from dropping Eric off in Philly until around 1:30) I feel like I should be more tired than I am.  Perhaps I was energized by such a fun weekend.  It is equally likely that I've moved beyond tired into delirious.  Probably the latter.  But so worth it. :-)

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!



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??

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!

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?? ;-)