The Last November Day

I don't know how it happened!

I have heard all my life about how time goes faster when one gets older.

It's true, but I can't figure out how!

One minute it's still early November and we're talking with the Roof Guys and setting a date mid-month.

Then we get a call and the roof replacement is postponed to the end of the month and it's time to plan Thanksgiving dinner.

Now here it is, the last day of November, we still have the same old roof, and time is just zipping by!

Well, rather than focus on the negative (and flying time is a negative, right?), let's show you what I've been up to these days...

My sister gave me these vintage printed dish towels to embroider years ago. I love turtles and she saw these and thought of me (Thanks, sis!).  There's supposed to be a towel for every day of the week, but I only have two of them- Sunday and Friday. They've been sitting in a box for awhile, and I came across them and decided it was time to work on them.  The washable ink is starting to fade in some places, so better get to it before I'll have to start making it up as I go! I must say, I really like the detail I came up with on the stomach and the hat. Almost done with this one, and then I can start on the next.  The real question here is: Can I use them as what they were intended for when I'm done with them? We shall see!

Every year I do hand made ornaments to give as gifts. I try to keep it different and not too difficult since I have to make mass quantities of them. I get inspiration from other people, magazines, stuff I see in the stores, but this time, inspiration struck at home! Remember those spirograph drawing sets we had as kids?? Evelyn was drawing one night with the spirograph and I noticed how they could be snowflakes... ornament snowflakes!! Evelyn and I drew a bunch more onto tissue paper, then I embroidered right through the paper onto felt. Still a work in progress, but thought I'd share in case anyone wanted to try this.

We set the tree up two days ago. Only lights on it right now because I like to wait until kids and cats are used to having the tree around before adding ornaments. You can just see the curiosity getting ready to kill this cat, can't you??  I'm glad I don't have ornaments on this yet, because yesterday morning I found Peter somehow tangled up inside the tree, lights all wrapped up around him!!  Wha...?!?  A firm warning that the tree will get put up if he does it again and so far, no more mishaps. I'm thinking the ornaments will go up tonight after dinner.

Christmas shopping is just about done with, a few more items and I can call it good! Soon I'll be able to focus solely on crafting and baking and wrap presents little by little. I don't yet know what our Christmas plans are, but whatever they will be, as long as it's with family and friends, it's perfect! 

Let's just hope December doesn't fly by as fast as November did, hmm?

Booth Update

I have had my antique booth for 3 full months now and I have been enjoying it very much. Make no mistake, it is hard work to maintain, but it's a labor of love. Here's a look at what the booth looked like on August 1st, three months ago:

Pretty bare, huh? 

The space felt HUGE and I had fears that I wasn't going to have enough stuff to fill up all the shelves! 

Despite such a bare booth, I did really well that first week, which was very encouraging and I kept going through my boxes, re-discovering stuff I bought years ago, and hitting every yard sale I could find to get more stuff! This was great!!  I finally had a legitimate excuse to go yard sale-ing!!

Here's what my booth looked like on November 5th:

 What a difference!!

I find it really hard to cram things in there, so I keep it kind of open, space-wise. I don't have stuff piled on top of stuff because when I think of my own shopping preferences, I never really enjoy having to move stuff around to get to something all the way in the back of the shelf.  I'm clumsy, so I'm always worried I'll knock something over and then I'll have to pay for something I broke. As a klutzy person, I prefer to keep it light, but with enough stuff in there to keep you interested. 

I'm doing pretty good-- I don't know what is average monthly sales that other booths make, but I'm satisfied with what I am making.  I have exceeded my expectations and I'm not stopping anytime soon! We have been diligently going to every yard sale and thrift shop and trying to buy extra to last us through the winter until next yard sale season. I feel like I have enough inventory to last me through the winter. 

In fact, I feel like I've been doing so well, I opened up another booth at another antique mall!

Here's the second booth:

 A smaller space in a larger, busier mall. So far, I'm not making what I make at the other place. I moved in October 1st, and have only made a quarter of what I made at the other booth for October. Hmm.. I need to figure out what sells here! I just added over 50 items on Monday; then we had Election Tuesday with zero sales at both places; Wednesdays, this mall is closed... There's a Holiday open house at the mall this weekend, hopefully I'll have good sales and figure out what sells and bring in more of that.

I have a few holidays pieces at both booths, but this weekend, I plan to work on a few more items and bring those in next week.  I'm not going to go all out green, red, and gold, but I will have some nice decor items to scatter among the shelves. I want to sell not just decoration pieces, but gift items as well. A lot of things I sell would make nice little hostess gifts or if you know someone that loves vintage kitchen items, you could find something here to give. I sell what I love, so that if it doesn't sell, I'm happy to take it back home with me! 

There's my booth update!

Anyone looking for anything, maybe I have it! 

Halloween 2012

Before Halloween becomes old(er) news, here's the pictures of the kids in their completed costumes:

It all came together so easy this year, I can only hope future Halloweens will be this smooth!

Meet Little Girl Ready For Bed, Witch, Kitty Cat, and Shark!

My little girl dressing up as a Little Girl.

  She'll always be my little girl, no matter how big she gets! An easy costume- warm pj's, pigtails, freckles and... done!

Maybe this should be Silly Witch!

Even easier costume than the Little Girl: a store-bought costume we had already for dress-up, and all we needed was a witch hat, which we got from the dollar aisle at Target. It's attached to a headband and it's the cutest little witch hat ever!

Kitty Cat, meow! 

Leopard print pants and shirt, kitty ears from Target and all I needed to make was a tail from an old black shirt.  I made it belted-style, so she can continue to wear it in imaginary play. She likes pretending she's a cat pretty often these days. When we got the kitty ears a couple weeks ago, I predicted they'd break before Halloween came about, and sure enough, Peter broke the headband part of it yesterday. Have no tears, sewing mama to the rescue! I had a repair plan for just the break I imagined and added elastic to turn the head band into an elastic headband. Phew, disaster averted!

Shark boy!

He ended up really enjoying wearing the fin hat and teeth and I'm so glad people played along with him when they figured out what he was. One lady asked him if he would bite her if she put candy in his bucket and he vigorously nodded yes! So funny!  He kept the hat and teeth on the entire time!

Andrew joined in on the fun with these silly glasses! Sort of what Harry Potter would look like if he was older, eh? I like that we can laugh at ourselves and play along with the kids!

Living out in the country, there's really no place to trick-or-treat, so I can appreciate when churches and other organizations host 'Trunk or Treats' in the parking lots. We went to two such gatherings, one at the local elementary school and one at the church in town. The kids came away with big smiles and nearly full bags of candy and treats! The nice thing with the church is that it's not all candy-- there are pencils and little games, rubber band bracelets and bouncy balls, little Halloween activity books and even a full-sized bible for every kid! 

The local shopping center gets in on the fun, too, and we stopped by to get more milk and juice, and then to each of the stores for more treats.  It's fun to see the people that work there all dressed up and seeing them out of their usual work outfits.

It was a fun night and the kids happily sorted through their candy when we got home. They traded what they didn't like and after being allowed a couple pieces to eat, I hid all the candy, to be doled out little by little.

Hope your Halloween was just as fun!!

Happy November!!