First juried craft fair

I have spent last month busy preparing for my first juried craft fair. The Bauer Drive Community Center holds Holiday Happening Juried Craft Fair annually in December. Although I have gone shopping there before, the "juried" part scared me from submitting my work for the show. Due to communication mix up, I didn't know I was selected until two weeks before the show. So the good part of last month was spent frantically stocking on items I promised to have on my table.

Although I am not cut out to be an outgoing person, the shoppers were quite nice with compliments. I enjoyed oos and ahs expressed over my work!

Chaan of Angels and Anchors had a stall next me and she was quite bubbly, drawing me out of my shell. I have learned a lot from her.  It was fun talking to spouses, usually elderly gentlemen, visiting stalls and giving some advice, coming from decades spent on craft shows, to newbies like me!

Cotton Time Bunny

Thanks to my sister-in-law in Korea, I have several issues of Cotton Time magazine. And yet I never got around to making one project out of it until now. Although there are so many tempting projects, without any knowledge of Japanese and good skills, it wasn't easy to even attempt to start one. I thought bunny on the cover of this issue was too cute to pass it by.

The gloves - courtesy of my dad who went to Super Q Mart get some for me -weren't as white as the ones in the Cotton Time. I think it's unbleached cotton.

I had to reposition the bunny several times to get it to sit. Mad, who doesn't know Japanese either, looked at the directions and said that it may need plastic pellets for weight. I think she may be right. I'd have to make some more to test it out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Taking a break from cooking to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving.
After preparing vegetables for today's cooking, I made a brooch late into the night.

Although I cherish autumn days, I must be anticipating a snowy winter.

Have a good one!

Busy autumn days...

The past couple of months have been busy with the beginning of school year for Mad and Gem. The days were spent at work, with so much to do! The nights were spent at schools for back to school nights and PTA meetings! For the fun part, I was invited to participate at the South Silver Spring Block Party as one of the artist vendors. When I first saw "artist" invite with phrases like "cutting edge," I was tickled pink. Then since I didn't check my email until two weeks before, it was pretty intense trying to create enough things for a table! Here are some samplings...

Pincushions

The gusty wind is rather threatening outside... We are comforting ourselves with chocolate [never fails] cake. Mad's birthday cake leftover... ^.^
I also made some pincushions over the weekend. An inspiration [well, of sort] came to me while driving at night, thus titled it "night street." However, the street light looks like showerhead. And the median strip looks too large compared to the street light. Okay, I could say this is a prototype. ;)



I also made a medium sized one to resemble a traditional Korean thatched roof cottage. People used to grow large, round gourds on the roof top. In the olden days, these would be halved, emptied, dried and used as bowls. I always liked the look; just as I always loved the climbing roses on the door way of an English cottage.

Valentine's day treat for my class...

Since today is the Sunday before Valentine's day. I decided to put together small goodie bags for my First Communion class [skipping sugar high party]. I have the largest class this year with 34 students!
I made some reusable fortune cookies with stiff felt. I was hoping for red, pink, and white but the craft store ran out of red and pink! Added a fortune with special note from me...

Added some candy and notebooks...

Packaged in favor bags and tied them with two different cotton yarn to distinguish boys' notebooks from girls'...

Kids loved them!

Is this an addictive behaviour?

I can't seem to stop myself from making matchbook notebooks. I love the combination of rescuing the unused portions of computer printouts before recycling the rest and making some cute usable notebooks out of them. Since the supply never seems to run out, I can't seem to stop!


[These are not all!]

There are many tutorials available on the web like here and here. I made my notes square because it was just easier to measure and cut with my paper cutter. For the cover, I used cardstock quality paper gleaned from old calendars, greeting cards, and even snack boxes. I add them to gifts or favor bags [especially girls, young and old, love them!].