Tales of Peace

It is December and I am late again with my blog post. It just seems like the days are so full of things to do that blogging gets pushed further and further behind. As a Folk Art crafter your whole calendar revolves around the craft show season. You set your mental clock to that time, and right now next year's first craft show seems light years away. But the worrier that I am, I always have a little voice saying, "you better get started, time goes by quickly and that first show will be here before you know it." December is suppose to be the time of Peace and Joy so that is what I am going to focus on!

Peace of Mind - that comes when the craft shows are over and they were successful. It seems like we work so hard leading up to the shows and then they are over in a twinkle. I like seeing the inventory dwindle down to just a few things. I find peace of mind in knowing that my customers like my work and keep coming back to see what I have been doing in My Spare Time.

Financial Peace - let's be honest, we craft for the creative expression it gives us, but it doesn't hurt when you make money at it. In these tough economic times I really did think sales would be down, not only at my craft shows but on-line as well. I am happy to report that this was not the case. I get a huge sense of accomplishment when someone truly loves one of my items, but at the end of the day when you count the cash register that is a pretty good feeling too! As a professional crafter we all want to make more than just covering expenses.

Not only do I have my Folk Art business but I now have two online craft related businesses, www.PrintMePrim.com and www.KraftOutlet.com. I have owned Print Me Prim for over 3 years and love the site. I design and print business products for crafters and small business owners all over the world. I love talking to my customers and seeing all the things they have to offer. I just acquired Kraft Outlet right in the middle of the busy craft season. The site is wonderful and we offer blank Kraft card stock, text paper, labels and grungy tags to a wide variety of people. All of my sites and my folk art are all connected in some way so they all feed off the same creative energy.

Creative Joy - That, for me, really comes when I have lived up to my own standards. I don't really think about what others are doing or use their yard stick to measure my success. As my grandmother Martha would always say, I am as independent as a Hog on Ice! I like making my own rules, calling the shots and pushing myself. I make a business plan for my little companies each January and set new goals, it gives me a great sense of Joy to see those goals met each December and thinking of new directions to travel.

Personal Joy - I have so much to be thankful for, and I am sorry to say that sometimes I get so busy that I don't always express my happiness in all I have. I have a wonderful husband that is my best friend, my partner and work mate and the love of my life. The man has his moments, but he must be a saint to put up with all my craziness. He has embraced the craft businesses and works as hard on my Folk Art as I do. I have three wonderful sons, they are 24, 23 and 21. There were days when I understood how in the wild Mother's eat their young, but for the most part they are wonderful young men, and I love them very much. I have a crazy sister that is my biggest cheerleader and most honest critic. I am very lucky to have her and her husband as close members of our family. I had all boys and my sister had two girls, so I have the benefits of those two girls without all the PMS! Both of the girls have followed in their father's foot steps as a public servant, my brother-in-law is a Fire Fighter and his daughters are an EMT, working on her Paramedic license, and the other is a Cop. But they have also inherited their mothers sense of style, they love antiquing and decorating, so you can imagine their homes. My mother passed away many years ago, but her strong sense of family lives on in all of us and this gives me great joy!

Peace and Quiet - That is something I am really working toward. I am happy to say that I have many, many wonderful friends and we all love spending time together at the holidays, this week alone 5 parties, but I am looking forward to the Christmas Break! All the parties will be over, the kids will be home from school, the web sites will be closed, the craft shows are over, the cooking is finished, presents unwrapped and I am going to settle down for a long winters nap! I plan on reading a book and going to movies and sleeping late (that's 7:30 am for me)and watching TV in the middle of the day. I will take this time to do nothing particular and recharge my batteries. I can spend endless time on Etsy and eBay looking at new and fascinating ideas and expanding my horizons.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Holiday and a Happy New Year! May you find Peace and Joy in your life.

Talk to you next month,



PS - the photos this month are some of my favorite Christmas decorations in my house!

Tales of Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving: the act of giving thanks.




It is hard to believe that it is November and the Thanksgiving holiday is just around the corner. We always head to my sisters house in Oklahoma for this gluttony fest. She does Thanksgiving like my mom always did, more food than you could possibly eat and a warm feeling of family.

I am late posting my monthly tale because there has been so much happening around here. It seems like once your craft show season starts the days just turn into a blur of activity. I don't think I have fully grasped that it is almost Turkey Day. Halloween went by in a flash and now I am looking at Christmas decorations.

This is the time of year to look at all the things that each of us has in our lives that are blessings. This year has been full of them for me. Several months ago I read an article about a "Vision Board". This simple concept is to take pictures of things you want to happen in your life and place them together on a wall, a poster, your computer or anywhere else you would look at them frequently. You can make a vision board for a week, a month, a year or for your life. I thought about everything I wanted to happen in one year and wrote it down in a journal, then I thought of exact steps I could take to make those things a reality. I looked at that journal almost every day. I am a list maker and I truly enjoy checking off completed tasks, so this gave me incentive to get these things done.

Well I am happy to say that many of the things on that "Vision Board" are now reality and some of them will be ever continuing projects, but it does give you physical proof of things you can be Thankful for in your life. Many times people don't sit down and really look at all the little things that come together to make your life, but when you see it in words and pictures, when you see those wonderful little check marks next to completed tasks, it brings everything into focus.

Several of the things in my journal were about my family, building better and closer relationships with them all; other things were about my businesses. The family things will be ever changing and a work in progress, but the business things seem to be more tangible and easier to accomplish.


I have many things to count as blessings this year in my array of crafting businesses. First at My Spare Time Designs I have been blessed with another year of fantastic sales and the best customers anyone could ask for. Over the years I am happy to say I have turned customers into friends and these are the people I really work for. I have customers like Kim and her mother, who faithfully follow me to my yearly shows, and even read my blog! Kim bought the Santa door and her mom got this cute Santa's Toy Box.
I have a customer Deborah who had moved to Oklahoma and reconnected with us this year and what a pleasant surprise. I am truly blessed with great friends that support my crafting habit and seeing these people makes all the hard work worthwhile.

In my online business, Print Me Prim, we have enjoyed a very busy year, even with today's economy. But one of the biggest things to be thankful for is the purchase of the website, KraftOutlet.com. This is a wonderful site for the DIY crafter who needs to make business cards, tags, labels or just about anything to do with packaging your products. This blessing came to us right in the middle of craft season and boy was it hectic to have 4 large shows back to back, keep up with all the orders coming in on Print Me Prim and then add to that a whole new website. That is the main reason this post is late, just not enough hours in the day!




So hopefully you all will try the "Vision Board" for yourself and work this coming year on making your dreams come true. I know that sometimes life is trying and it is hard to see the blessings we are given, but gather together all the small stuff you are blessed with and then you will see the enormous things you are thankful for. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.


Talk to you next month,

Tales of Relief

Well my first craft show has come and gone, and what a sense of relief! You know that feeling you get when you have your first show; part excitement, part dread, part panic and then that horrible feeling of insecurity. It doesn't matter if this is your first show or you have been doing them for years, we all want our shows to be a success.

There is something very personal about your art work, it is an extension of ourselves. If someone doesn't like our work, it some how feels like they don't like you. Craft shows have always been a way for me to get customer feedback and luckily a great source of positive reinforcement for what I have been creating. Nothing feels better than a customer going on and on about how much they like your work and nothing is a bigger reality check than watching something you created being ignored.

The excitement of setting up is always fun and puts a feeling of anticipation in the air. You wonder will this be a good year in sales? Will I do better this year than in years before? Then as the time for the show opening approaches your feelings of excitement turn to worry. Will I be the worst booth at the show? Will I sell anything? Now the first customer of the day is in your booth domain and you can see the look in their eyes that they like what they see. Just like a shark can smell blood, you can tell a SALE is coming on.

The first sale of the show, what a relief! You somehow feel vindicated, renewed and all is right with the world! This one sale has turned the tide and you are positive you have a winning booth. All your hard work has paid off and you are so pleased, the weight of the show has been lifted from your shoulders. So for the next 5 or 6 hours you are happy with yourself, but as the show comes to an end that niggling feeling of panic creeps back into your head. Will I sell anything at the NEXT craft show? And so it starts all over again!


Talk to you next month,

Tales of Panic

Have you ever had one of those moments where you think everything is running along smoothly and then WHAM! out of the blue one little thing brings a reality check? Today I had one of those moments. I have that fun little count down gadget on my blog that counts down the days until my first craft show. Well I was looking over the blog and WHAM! reality slapped me right in the face, only 39 days until my first show. Boy is that startling and then the funny little feeling starts in the pit of your stomach.



I was rocking along fat, dumb and happy and thought I was well ahead of the curve on this years shows and then I see that number 39 and I didn't feel quite so smug anymore. Panic is a funny thing, it starts out as "Oh my gosh!" surprise and moves on to "What am I going to do?" fear and finally on to "What was I thinking?" full blown panic. Now I am the kind of person that always has a list for everything, so now I have to make a list of all the items that need to be finished. I guess that making that list helps me feel in control and at least I can see some progress. I get a huge sense of accomplishment from checking off those completed items on that list! Today that list is as long as my arm and still growing.



Now don't get me wrong, I have been hard at work on all the new items I have come up with for this years shows, but just when you think you have a little wiggle room something pops up. My printing business has had the usual summer slow down and I can usually expect sales to really pick up by mid-September, but it seems like all the kids went back to school on August 24th and I have been swamped with orders starting on August 25th. Now add to that my wonderful niece Aubrie, the cupcake baker, and her husband Frank came for a visit. These few days off offered me a needed break from work and it was like a mini vacation, we went out for dinners and took in shopping and antiquing. It was a great way to recharge my batteries, but now I need to put a full court press on getting things lined up for my first show.



Several of my girl friends have gotten wind that my store room is almost filled to capacity with completed items and they all want to come for "Preview Day". They like rummaging around that room looking at all the new things and trying to get a jump on each other. One of my friends, Barb, is to shopping what Tiger Woods is to golf. Her husband and I think she is single handedly keeping the American economy afloat with her retail therapy. Well Barb was my first customer this year and I know I can always count on her as a barometer for what she buys, so we are off to a good start!

Well, with extremely long list in hand and a husband off on a business trip, I guess I can get started on my unfinished projects and hopefully get many things completed. That is usually the kiss of death for my well laid plans. I think for the next 39 days things will get pretty busy around here and I will probably put in many long hours, but then the craft show season will start and it will all be over in a heart beat. One thing we can look forward to is that count down gadget will reset itself and I will have 365 days until my next show!



Talk to you next month,

Tales of Monotony!

Monotony: noun - boredom; sameness; dull; weariness.

That is what I feel like right now. This is the start of crunch time before the Fall Craft Shows start and I feel HUMDRUM! That is a great word, it expresses exactly how I feel, like everything is routine.


Have you ever gotten to that point in your crafting where the items that you make are selling successfully and yet making them is starting to feel repetitious? I guess that is why I have been moving more toward new projects and ideas. I WANT A CHANGE!!!


Here are a few things I have been excited about working on. I read somewhere that your brain actually works better when there is a challenge to be solved, I guess that is why I love finding old things at garage sales and thrift stores and making them into cherished holiday treasures. I like seeing the hidden potential in the discarded items.


These doors were found at Habitat For Humanity and I add wooden pieces to make them One Of A Kind. The old doors have antique door knobs and keys added along with original Primitive wood figures. These are embellished with rusty hearts and stars, grungy tags, painting or anything else that strikes my fancy.


I love the way these turned out and I know that they will find the right home at one of my shows. When I finish a project like this I feel like I have created something rather than manufactured something.


That is a fear of mine, that tedium will set in and I won't want to make my crafts anymore! I cannot imagine my life without my Folk Art. If I didn't do this I might have to take up drinking to fill my time and what would be the good in that?




I don't know about you, but I have noticed a trend in my customers; they want to purchase small items. That doesn't mean inexpensive things, just small in size.

Maybe that is because we have all accumulated too much junk and have to worry about storing our Holiday hoard. I know one thing I ask myself when purchasing a new Santa for my collection, "Where will I store that?"


If I am in love with the piece I guess I don't really care if it is the size of an elephant, but smaller is definitely better. In my search to escape monotony I have embrassed Altered Art. Here are a few items that I finished this past week. I love the vintage Santa's and they should be easy to store.


I think that I should be grateful that "the same old thing" sells as well as it does and count my blessings. There is always time to explore and dabble in new things. I can feel comfort in sameness and find pleasure in the routine.





Talk to you next month,

Tales of Time Off!

It always seems like the long hot days of summer start to run together and I get that same horrible feeling a hamster on a tread mill must have, going in circles and never really getting anywhere. That is my signal for a change in my crafting routine.


The temps in Houston this last week have been over 100 degrees and the heat index is around 105, so working in the garage on Santa's and Snowmen can be hazardous to your health! I usually try to start early in the morning so that I can be finished by the hot part of the day, but that doesn't always work out. My husband, John, works with me and by the time you have cut out and sanded 6 complete sets of wooden Snowmen you feel like you are made of paper mache'. Between the sweat and the saw dust you have a pretty good mixture of muck covering your face, arms and legs. So until there is a break in this heat we are going to work on new things, items that can be worked on inside, where the air conditioning is working and ceiling fans are running.



We have been working on our Craft Show items for almost 4 months now and a change is long overdue. This heat gives me the opportunity to finish up all the little odds and ends that have been piling up. Things that were waiting to be tagged or needed some small finishing touch in order to be ready for our first show in October. It always amazes me the amount of merchandise we can come up with. All of our items are original and handmade so they can take some time to finish. Here is a peek at my game room where we store all the finished items.

I know that summer will be over before we realize it and the craft show season will be upon us. I had better appreciate this week of time off and use it wisely, to bad I got a jury summons for Thursday! You know what they say, best laid plans! I will report next month on how this Time Off went and show you some of the new Santa's we will have at our shows this fall.

Talk to you next month,

Just Had To Brag

My niece Aubrie Thompson made these wonderful Gluten-free "Corn on the Cob" cupcakes for me. She covered the cupcakes with jelly beans to make the kernels and made the "pads of butter" out of Starburst candies. She even sprinkled chocolate shavings "pepper" over her creations and served them in Corn on the Cob dishes. Not only did they look great they tasted even better!


UPDATE - SHE DID IT AGAIN!




Take a look at these great Spaghetti and Meatball cupcakes she just made for her mother-in-law! The girl is too clever, she must take after me! Keep up the good work Aubrie, I think I will put you in charge of dessert for Christmas.