4th of July Holiday

First let me start by saying Happy 4th of July!

I remember the 4th of July back when I was a kid.  We lived 7 houses away from our grandparents and the 4th of July celebration was usually held at my Grandmother's house.  She had a nice shady yard and that seemed to be her holiday.  We would have a picnic dinner out side under those trees and there always seemed to be watermelon, chocolate cake and homemade vanilla ice cream. 

My dad was BIG into fireworks, so we almost always went to the American Legion Fireworks display and then came home to shoot off a huge assortment of roman candles, Black Cat firecrackers, Red Devil chasers, those horrible ash snakes, and my favorite sparklers.  He also had rockets, cone displays and then some big finale, not to mention the hundred or so bottle rockets.  Remember all these things?

Now this gal had nothing on my dad, except maybe she hadn't been drinking beer all day. {Explosives and Alcohol are always an exciting mix!}

I can hardly believe that the year is half over {makes my hands shake just to type that!} and we are in the long stretch of Summer.  I am behind on so many things that it seems like I will never catch up, but guess what? I am throwing caution to the wind and getting the hell out of Dodge!  Mr. MySpareTime and I are heading to Tulsa to make the acquaintance of this little cutie.

Finn is my new great-nephew.

On the way we are going to stop in for Trade Days in Canton, Texas.  It is going to be 102 degrees in Canton tomorrow so we are getting there as early as we can to beat the heat.  I have several vendors I want to look at and then we will do some junkin and be on the road again before noon.  {I will take some photos of Canton and all it has to offer!}

The return trip will be just as hectic.  We are going to try to squeeze a lunch in with our oldest son who lives in Grapevine, Texas. {a suburb of Dallas}  All in all it will make for a very busy holiday.

I have a few new things almost finished. {almost is the operative word} I have been feverishly working on Snowmen in the time I have been crafting.  These are three of the things that were ready for pictures.

Snowman Bowl,

Believe Plate,

and three SnowCones!

I have a snowman lamp and two really cute canvases and some fabric things almost finished and then there are the gingerbread items I have in the beginning stages.  Hopefully after the holiday I can really whip right through these things. 

So for now I am trying to fill orders, do proofs, print, pack for a trip, finish a project I made for Finn and a few hundred other odds and ends that need to be finished before I leave in the morning. 

Have a great holiday and thanks for stopping by.



Oh, and one more thing.

 I forgot to mention the Fall Fun at the Farmhouse over on Etsy.
Come by and take a peek at all the things the talented members have to offer.{type in FFOFG in an Etsy search for All Items}

Toodle-loo!



Ticked Off Tuesday!

First the Good News, I had my first sale of Halloween items!

My friend Sharon stopped by to talk about a few projects I will be doing for her daughter Kelli's wedding and had to take a peek at the new Halloween stuff.  She snagged the Witches Boots first thing.

Knew these wouldn't make it to the show!

Know the Bad News, I'm aggravated!

I know this comes as a shock that I could lose my patience with a customer {just ask Mr. MySpareTime about my saintly demure personality}, but I had two customers that really got under my skin yesterday.

The first one had been a very nice gal who wanted to know about my Baker's Twine and then said she didn't want to pay the Priority Shipping.  I know better than to change my way of handling orders. {hence the need for Store Policies, which no one reads, but that is a whole nother rant!} I spent the good part of 30 minutes talking about her crafting and how to sell on Etsy and I agreed to ship regular post.  She needed time to think about the colors and said she would email me the order later that evening.  I sent a PayPal for the products and the Regular Postage.  She never paid. I sent follow-up email. She said she couldn't pay right now and would have to put it off until after the 15th, that was over a week away.{Total was under $8} Never got back to me after the 15th.  Yesterday she calls and tells me she is ready to take care of the order and wants my address so she can send me the payment.  I explained that I only accept PayPal or credit cards, no checks.  She says she wants to send me cash! I told her NO. Now she starts questioning my policies. OK, now I'm starting to get a little miffed.  She says hold on and I can hear her talking to her husband about the length of her son's hair and how it should be cut and so on in a conversation, now I'm steamed.  When she returned to our phone conversation I explained that these were my policies and I was sticking to it, she then said she needed to handle the whole haircut problem and would get back to me in 15 minutes.  As I hung up the phone I knew she would never call back.  All this over 3 spools of Baker's Twine!

So I let this frustration pass and I receive an email from a customer telling me that she is very unhappy and that her experience with Kraft Outlet was a big disappointment and that as a customer she would never be back.  She goes on to explain that her package was damaged in the mail and that she didn't like what she picked out {the dreaded Baker's Twine!}

Usually I try to smooth ruffled feathers and make amends to my customers even when I don't feel like it has been my fault, but boy did she write on the wrong day!  I told her {very nicely, I assure you} that the problem was with the Post Office and there is no way Kraft Outlet could be blamed for a wet package, and I offered to replace anything that was lost or damaged.  I told her the description and photos of my products are accurate and that the items she had purchased were her own decision.  Of course people are quick to rip off a snotty email to you to complain, but I almost never hear anything back when I respond.

So today is a new day and those two customers are just a few speed bumps in the road!

I didn't even work on anything crafty this weekend, so I don't have any pictures to share.  Instead Mr. MySpareTime and I did a little bit of house updating on the upstairs, we are re-decorating all the bedrooms and we got one finished this weekend.

Thanks for listening to the gripes and thanks for stopping by. 

Happy Birthday, Finn Patrick Thompson!

Just had to announce the arrival of my Great nephew, Finn!

He is as cute as a button and both he and his Momma, Aubrie, are doing fine.

He was born yesterday evening at 7:56pm by C-section.
{Poor Aubrie tried all day but this little rascal just wasn't cooperating}

He weighed a whopping 9 lbs. 12 oz. and is 20 inches long.

My sister is over the moon and so relieved that her daughter is doing well.  We are going to meet this handsome fella over the 4th of July holiday!

Happy Birthday Finn and welcome to the family!

Love ~Aunt B

Thanks for stopping by.

Am I Crazy?

You know how you get something in your mind and you just can't shake it?  I have been toying with an idea for sometime now and I think I am ready to have a Home Craft Show.

I know the sign is classy, even for Texas, and I would be hard pressed to find a nice toilet for the yard, but I think I could come up with something!

I saw pictures of a wonderful Christmas Craft Show posted on PrimMart.com  last year and haven't been able to get them out of my mind.  I thought that Cheryl from HandmadebyCheryl did such a fantastic job on her show that it made me think I could do that too!  For all the money I spend in booth rent I could advertise and have a pretty nice show. 

I thought it would be nice to do it with someone else, but the reality is that I work better on my own.  I like to run the show and be the boss and I would only want to do it with someone who had a great customer following and that isn't anyone I know who's items would work well with mine.  I really don't want jewelry or baby things, so I think I would just do it alone.

I have a studio behind my garage and it would be perfect for the show. 

I used to work out there, but to be honest I turned it over to my son's for a Man Cave and they have moved out or moved on from that.  So my little studio is just sitting there being used as a storage room for all my craft show stuff.  So why not make it into a magical little shop for a few weekends in the fall?  My poor little studio needs a face lift {high humidity and heat, do a number on things in South Texas}.  We are going to reside the building and put in a new floor and this baby will be good as new.  I have some great ideas for my humble little building, but this was something that I paid cash for with my Craft Show earnings.  I was quite proud of this little building and know this is Craft Show is something I can make work.

If you have done a home Craft Show post a comment and let me know some of the tricks of the trade!  I mentioned it to my sister and all she said was "Don't you know about the Craig's List killer?"  I wouldn't want people in my house, but the studio is OK and Mr. MySpareTime would be with me, so I feel the freak factor would be low.

I guess what really got me to thinking about all this was I mailed off another booth rent last week and realized it would be the last time I did that show.  I just find it hard to let go. 

I also finished a few more things for inventory.

This is the seat of a cute wooden swivel stool

A vintage front door cut in half and made into a great wall hanging!

A few more wooden signs

A few wooden snowmen,

A cupboard door panel painted and embellished with vintage buttons,

and a cute door panel with snowman. 

{I cut off the part with the vintage scrabble tiles on his scarf}

Let me know if you have any great ideas on the Home Craft Show.

Thanks for stopping by.

Changed My Mind, Again!

I'm sure you all will relate to my dilemma, I am trying to cut back on craft shows this year and I just can't make myself go to just one show! 

I had been looking over my past craft show note books this weekend and realized I used to do 7 shows in 6 weeks! Boy was that a wild ride.  I really don't know how I did it.  I know that with my websites I have had to spend more time on them and less on the Folk Art. 

So, I had myself all talked into just one show and I was feeling good about that decision, but there must have been something in the back of my mind because I didn't throw away the application.  We have such wonderful loyal customers at the Judy Dierker Craft Classic at the Foundry United Methodist Church show that I just couldn't drop off the radar without saying farewell!

here is a picture of last years booth.

Mr. MySpareTime and I talked it over and we decided we would take the booth for this year and let all my faithful friends know that this would be the last year for this show.  {I also wanted them to know that they could find me online or at the Northampton Show} 

I feel better about saying goodbye, but the panic has switched to making sure I have enough product.  We decided to just make what we could and sell it at both shows.  If we only have a few things to take to this last show, well so be it.  At least I can say my goodbyes and feel like I did what I should do.

Now on to other things!

Mr. MySpareTime and I have really been burning the candle at both ends to get all the Folk Art ready because our niece, Aubrie, is getting ready to have a baby! 

Here is the pretty new momma, Aubrie

 I have a mini vacation planned for the 4th of July weekend to go and visit and get my fill of new baby. I want to be at a place with the crafts that I can relax and recharge my batteries, so that means I will really push it until July. 

We are all so excited to see this new addition to our family.  We know she is having a boy and she is due on June 14th, but boy is she ready. It could be any minute, so I will let you all know when I become Great Aunt B! {I think the little stinker is holding out to be born on my birthday June 12th} A new baby how exciting and the best part is I can love it and give it back to someone else.

Do you remember that new baby smell? All sweet clean baby powder and throw up, shooey diapers and heaven all rolled into one!

I saw the cutest definition of a boy: noise with dirt on it!

Better get back to work or I'll never get finished.

Thanks for stopping by.

Craft Show E-Book

As a crafter and website owner I get asked a million questions about participating in craft shows.  I don't mind answering questions, but it can be a long conversation about all the things you need to do to be ready to sell your crafts at a local show.  So, after a lot of thought I put everything into this new E-Book

Craft Show Fundamentals 

A Complete Step by Step Guide to Craft Show Success

This 26 page E-book is an easy to use step by step guide to achieving Craft Show Success. We give you worksheets, check lists, photos and useful information. It doesn't matter if you are a seasoned crafter or a first time newbie, we have great ideas on how to improve your booth set up and display your products for increased sales!

Our E-book is backed up with over 15 years experience as a successful craft show vendor and organizer.

Know what to expect before, during and after a show.

This guide will take all the worries out of signing up for those Fall Shows!

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.