more show goodies

these are what i am calling my "Cworky" dolls. i made them from wine corks, bottle caps, stick pins and beads. the items in the first picture (red box) are my "pixie preserves". i'll take a close up picture of them later.

getting ready for the big show, sat. sept. 1st

I don't know if you've ever done a craft show or not, but they are a lot of work! so many things to work out - like you display, what to make, how to price things (my least favorite part - i always do that last), etc. i've been finishing up some altered things today and then i have 8 small mosaic mirrors to grout tomorrow (another least favorite thing to do!). then after that i have to read the manuel for my new credit card machine, so that i can now take credit cards at shows - which i think will really boost sales. then there is the weather factor as well. is it going to be a nice weekend? will it rain? ugh, don't even want to think about that. that is the one thing i don't own is one of those tent/canopy things. i don't have anywhere to keep it, so i haven't bought one - but unfortunately with tempermental weather, they are handy to have. this show is rain or shine! here are a few of the things i've made for the show.

flea market today!

So today my husband and i got up and went to a different flea market - in Englishtown, about 30 minutes from here. it is really dirty and icky! most of it is new stuff and crap. however we did manage to find some really cool stuff. (i have to add though, we did stop at our regular flea market on the way home and that is where i got the patina keys, war letters and photos).

i scored big on vintage light bulbs. these tend to show up in old tool boxes and you have to really dig for them. i think i found about 28 in various sizes by digging (either wear gloves or bring wipes!). found some cute vintage matchbox cars that i like adding to shadow boxes. later i'll post a picture of a mini box i did with a car and some tim holtz paper behind it. came out really cute.

got a couple more fishing lures, some fuses with the metal cases they came in, a small box of what nots - screws, a lots of things i can't identify - but will be cool to use in various ways! doesn't matter what it is - if it is cool and appeals to me, i'll use it!

found a bunch of copper hinges that i will use if i make more doorways (3 canvas's hinged together - a la tim holtz). got a mini oil painting that i plan to add altered art over but keep some of the background showing. i've done a few of these and all sold on etsy. got a cute miniature globe, 3 cigar boxes and an old metal flour sifter plus a rusty skate and some old wood spools.

the war letters - there is about 300 of them! they are correspondence between a man, George and his wife, Sharon. they are all dated around 1967 while he is serving in the Seabees, which is part of the Navy (go Navy! i'm a navy brat myself!) he always tells her in his letters "to be good" and that he "loves her a whole bunch". he ends every letter with, Love Always & Forever, George, xxxxxxxxx. some of them are in air mail envelopes and then some are in plain envelopes. i plan on selling some of them in little groups, as i think they will be great in altered arts. anyone interested, just let me know and i'll get some off to you. i'll probably do like 5 letters for $6 plus a $1 shipping. the letters would be 4 airmail envelopes and 2 plain. the post marks are from all over.

i also got TONS of pictures, some of which i will be selling as well. i'll take some pictures of the pictures later to give you an idea of what they look like. they are very nice quality. the other cool thing i got was a bunch of negatives from the 40' & 50's. not sure what i'll do with them (and some i can sell), but if anyone has any ideas on using them, let me know!

did anyone notice the funky little box of Gumby's that i found? they are too cute! there are about 45 of them and i thought i might make them into charms for Artfest! how funny would that be? some are green and some are yellow (although i did not know there was ever a yellow gumby!) doesn't matter - they are great!

i hope you've enjoyed this post as much as i enjoyed finding all the goodies. i'm very close to doing another "blog candy" giveaway - so keep a look out!

how cute is this?

well, i finally finished working on this. i started with a chintz salad plate and then glued a nest dipped in glitter (on the bottom) down onto the plate. next i took an egg i had saved (and cleaned!) and then stained it with various colors of distress ink. i then sprayed the inside of the egg with color mists as it was too white for me. then i added the little girl that i glued onto some chipboard. i colored her dress in a light pink and added tiny dots. then i added the little bird to her arm. the nest contains feathers and tiny sticks from my yard. finally i added the dome which is from a cheese plate that i got at the thrift store. i finished off with some vintage ribbon. ok, will have to post pictures later when blogger is cooperating. until then go see the "dome nest" on flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/lemoncholys.

tim holtz weekend, continued

the weekend was very organized. tim's assistant, mario, was meticulous about organizing all our supplies, drilling holes when needed, handing out glue, paper towels, whatever we needed. women, in general, are demanding. now add women who are crafting and you are running back and forth! those 2 have a lot of patience! each class kit contained a goodie bag full of wonderful ephemera, vintage items (like faucets, jacks, light bulbs, etc.) - just fun stuff! they also had a little store in the back with mario as the proprietor, where you could purchase some of these fabulous items (and of course i did!). tim is also very good with tips and has found lots of clever ways to do things easy. i'm a big tip person (like at my hotel, in the morning at breakfast, i found myself handing out "tips" to make things easy. 2 older gentlemen wanted to take some hard boiled eggs, but didn't want them rolling around on their plate and falling off, so i piped in, put a napkin under the egg and then it won't roll. well, they looked at me like i was the most cleveriest person in the world!) those are some of the types of clever, but simple tips tim always had for you.

after each morning class, we would all take our things and our chairs and go outside to have a pre-ordered lunch while tim and crew set up for the next class. as soon as we were done eating though, it was back into the store to shop!

kate and her staff had an awesome system for helping us shop and to keep it organized. during each class, if tim discussed an item we wanted to purchase, all we had to do was hold up our pre-assigned # and someone from the store would put it on your account. same thing while shopping. you carried around a basket, then gave it to a clerk with your # and they entered it into the system. at the end of the night you just had to pay and viola - you were done! i never waited in line more than 5 minutes; and you have to consider that the store was PACKED with Tim Holtz crazed women!

Weekend with Tim Holtz, at Absolutely Everything, Topsfield, MA

I just got home from a wonderful weekend in Topsfield, MA - outside of Boston. The drive is long when you are alone, but i listened to some audio CD's to pass the time. it reminded me a lot of the times when i would drive from the beach in North Carolina where i was working for the summer back to school in Burlington, NC (Elon University) - usually took about 6 hours.

anyway, i left on thursday, the day before classes, so that i could meet up with Jackie, whom i met at the soldered tiara class. she had gratiously invited me to stay with her during classes so that i wasn't spending $ on a hotel room (that meant more money to spend at Absolutely Everything!). we were going to hit a few antique stores and then eat. We ate dinner at a really cool restaurant (can't remember name). we had a delicious, funky salad that had spiced, grilled watermelon in it! sounds weird, but it was really good! i also managed to suck down 3 yummy pomegrante cosmos!

after eating we decided that we still had a bit of shopping in us, so we hit a mega Marshall's where i found a great pair of jeans, a pair of shoes and 2 great tops!

Friday morning we are there early as we want good seats (geeks!), no, i wanted to make sure to get a seat at the end of the table so that i had room for these long legs of mine! i tend to get a little claustrophic, especially if i can't stretch out my legs. I saw many familiar faces and you could feel the excitement in the air! This was class one of eight! to be continued!