pin it

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Happy Holidays!

max

goofin

kids

These were the best pictures we could get out of the kids.

It’s been a wonderful and amazing holiday selling season for us and we are grateful to all our wonderful customers. We will take the weekend off and get right back to work (well maybe a more relaxed schedule) after the holidays.

Monday, December 05, 2011

Henry’s 9th birthday party

 

DSCF0839

Wednesday November 30th was Henry’s 9th birthday. We had a great good time at the Wacky Bounce in Corvallis. Once again Safeway saved our butts with their birthday cakes. His birthday comes during our busiest time of year. Our house sinks to new levels of filthiness that make it unfit for anyone “normal” to enter.The Wacky Bounce has become a tradition for us. The kids had a great time running around and sweating, eating cake and opening presents.

DSCF0841

DSCF0842

DSCF0853

DSCF0867

He’s a happy boy.

Now back to work….

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Coming up for air

  We have been very lucky to be crazy busy with our Etsy sales this holiday season.  (Knock on wood and every other good luck mojo that causes a reverse hex by publicly proclaiming current success.)

I’ve been selling at the Eugene Holiday Market every weekend which hasn’t been quite as successful as we’d like but still can’t complain given the current economic conditions.

My laryngitis is mostly gone although I still have somewhat of a husky Brenda Vacarro type voice going on which I’m thinking might just end up being my permanent voice.

I took this picture on Thanksgiving morning and then forgot it was on my camera.

deer

Our friendly neighborhood deer decided to just sit right down and make themselves at home and “occupy” our yard.I guess they know we are vegetarians.

fidel

This is our old man cat Fidel who decided to occupy my boxes of shipping supplies under my desk that I work at all day. He just pushed everything over,crushed part of the side and made himself at home. I’m just hoping he doesn’t decide to make it his litter box too. Although generally he prefers the hard floor in our dining room and bathroom to pathetically relieve himself which is why he is mostly banned to the laundry room.

OK now back to work ….

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Last weekend

me 

Last weekend was the first weekend of the Eugene Saturday Market’s Holiday Market.  As the sign says- “I have laryngitis.” It was a cold gone awry that settled in my throat and left me unable to speak above a whisper and now has improved to a gravelly ,froggy Brenda Vacarro impersonation.

I attempted to give our shoddy booth somewhat of a makeover this year. After 20 years of doing the market and using variations on duct tape and plastic pull ties it dawned on me that I have all this awesome malleable aluminum wire that I can make into useful and pretty spiral swirls that can hold up the electrical cords,the pretty curtains I picked up at Goodwill and the special canvas sides to our revamped booth.

booth

I was overwhelmed by the generosity and help of my two dear long time marketeer girlfriends Nome aka Blessed Beads and Heather aka Ellie of Earnest Efforts.

nome

Here is Nome in front of her gorgeous jewelry booth. She provided the canvas material for the sides.

nomesshoes

Check out Nomes awesome boots. She and I share a love of shoes and the goodness of Zappos. She wears them so well.

heather

This is Heather in her perfect woodsy booth. She sewed the sides together and hemmed them for me and put in the grommets.

DSC00014

Check out their amazing boxes they make from found wood.They even make their own knobs.

And so I give thanks to my home girls for getting my booth spiffed up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Yay! I found my lost favorite pliers…

 foundpliers

About 3 months ago I dropped my favorite pliers and they disappeared into a hole in the universe.I’ve had these pliers for about 20 years and I can’t explain why but they just fit perfectly in my hands and don’t mar aluminum wire the way all my other pliers do. I’ve lost them before and always found them in a reasonable amount of time in a typically weird place like in a bag of jewelry supplies under something. I had searched all the typical places. I pulled all the crap out from around my desk. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a slob.I knew eventually they would show up in some other messy place I hadn’t thought of. Well that day came on Sunday. I realized I needed to reclaim the shelves next to my desk so I could put our bubble mailers and tissue paper I use for shipping.

shippingshelves

So I reorganized and purged the shelf crammed with games the kids never play.Then I pulled out the big tote on the bottom full of massive amounts of kids crafting supplies like stickers and paint and watercolors and brushes and googley eyes and glue and low and behold the hole in the universe reopened and spat out my precious pliers. I can now cross off that one irritation from my massive irrational psychological list of unfinished business.  

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Happy Halloween!

 nickcarving

The manly way to carve a pumpkin.

We had the kids draw the face they wanted and then Nick carved it out with his little power saw.

pumpkins

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Family Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

 

family1

We took a fun family and friends trip last Sunday to a Airlie Hills Harvest Festival and Pumpkin Patch.friends

This was the patch of super large pumpkins.

hayride2

We took the classic haybale tracter ride.

henryhaybag

They had fun activities like the potato sack slide.

maxhay

Max is sitting at the bottom of the hay bale pyramid that has a fast slide from the top to the bottom.

bikes

Big tricycles.

pumpkinhuinting

Max found his perfect pumpkin.

maxpumpkin2

It was a good day except for the “Dark Maze”  that was a hay bale maze made in a green house and had dark plastic over the top so that it was very very dark and hot. The kids convinced me to go in with them after they had already been in by themselves earlier. I had a full on panic attack when it was completely dark and I couldn’t find our way out and then I banged my nose into Henry’s head. 2 days later and my nose is still sore. Luckily a kind older child sensed my panic -perhaps it was my shrill yelling- and led us out of that hell hole maze. Totally embarrassing…

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Big Menorah Ornament

This time of year our sales for the “Menornament” start to pick up.

menorahornmt1

This morning we got a request from a customer to see if we could make one extra big to hang on a wall or over a door.

This was the biggest I could make it and not have it too flimsy.

bigmenornamnet2

 

bigmenornamnet3

For a size reference I had the kids hold it.

bigmenornamnet4

bigmenornamnet

Thursday, October 13, 2011

So what’s new in the shop you may ask…

With both kids in school all day for the first time ever and a little slow down in Etsy sales I had time to get a few ideas made into new products in our shop.

clrpyrmidvase3

Hanging Vase -Clear Recycled Glass Pyramid Celtic Spirals - for flowers or rooting cuttings or just looking pretty

alembrchrtornmt1

This is my new Celtic Embraced Heart design as an aluminum ornament.

 

brassembracheartpendt2 

As a brass pendant…

cuembrchartpendt4

The Celtic Embraced Heart Copper Pendant

ssemrchartpendt2

The Celtic Embraced Heart Sterling Silver Pendant

almadonaswrlornmnt3

I had been wanting to make this Madonna Swirl design as an ornament and jewelry for a long time.

Almadonnaear2

Big Madonna Swirl Aluminum Earrings

almadonnapendant3

and Aluminum pendant

brasdragonlypendt2

And now we have the dragonfly design in a brass pendant.

cudragonflyear2

Dragonfly Copper Earrings

Cudragonflypendt5

The Dragonfly Copper Pendant

ssmadonnapendt4

Almost forgot the sterling silver Madonna Swirl Pendant

Cucltcrosspendt1

And the Celtic Knot Cross Copper Pendant - Celtic Knot Infinity Swirl

I also had time to take some new improved pictures of some of the things that just weren’t looking good enough like these:

skullearr3Alswingspirlcircear4

Altreeornment2

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Henry’s 3rd grade trip to the Newport Aquarium

onthebus


Yesterday I went with Henry’s class and one other 3rd grade class on the big trip to the Newport Aquarium.We had lots of room on the bus.Henry and Ethan sat together.


emitt


Emmit was used as volunteer to show the features of the Oystercatcher bird.


inthetank


They had fun goofing around in the tank that you get to crawl under and into.


inthejaws


More hijinx.


group


Goofy pictures of Henry's class


group2


The day went well. I was able to be fully caffeinated thanks to the Aquarium coffee shop and the best part- I got to take a nap on the way back on the bus. Any day with a nap is a good day.