Project Thursday

Yay! The homemade mannequin works! Here's my first completed piece using it.

I also made this little work of art this week.

And I'm working on these hand painted shoes.
 

I painted the heels aqua (like the toes), but not sure what else to paint there. My thoughts so far... 'spunki' on the left one and 'doodle' on the right. =) I could leave it blank and let the buyer pick something. Or maybe a lady bug on one and a patch of grass on the other? What do you guys suggest I paint on it? I also haven't decided what I'm doing with the inward facing side. I did the outward facing side stripes. Should I paint the inward side the same, leave it solid brown (as it is now), or something else all together?

Update: The heels now have ladybugs playing in the grass, and I've added the mushroom shoes and the apron top to my etsy shop. 

homemade mannequin

Sewing without a pattern is a little tricky without a dress form or mannequin. I try to pin it on myself, look in the mirror, and then carefully take it off ... usually, having to repeat a few times. The vision is a bit lost during this lengthy process.

A mannequin has been on my want list for a few years now. An adjustable dress form would be the most helpful, but a mannequin will still work for now. Well, the pricing for a new one is a bit more than I can spare, and used ones are hard to come by around here. So I made one out of wire, industrial strength duct tape, glue, and newspaper.

It's by no means perfect, but I think I can get some use out of it.

Next, I need to figure out how to attach it to this stand. If it works out well, it might get a new paint job.

Bizarre

Last Thursday, I stayed up late working on stuff for the bizarre. At some point, I opened the front door to do something and to my surprise, it had snowed. It was so pretty in the starlight that I just had to snap a photo (though didn't do it justice).

 

And as soon as the sun came up, I was back out there (loading my car up) and it was just as pretty. 

I mostly set up on Friday and then Saturday was the bizarre. It looks pretty similar to the last one, though it was inside in a 6x6 space. I was able to borrow the grids again and luckily they fit in my little car. I'm gonna have to get me some of those. They really make a difference in presentation and are fun to play with. I kept shifting things around all day. 

I only sold 2 ornaments and a custom made neck warmer. So sales wise, this wasn't a successful show. However, I gained more experience, got some business exposure, and made a couple new friends. I am happy to say that all 3 legwarmers shown in the first picture above (on the bottom rung = camo, beige, and sage) have all since sold through etsy, along with 2 other items this week! Woohoo! 

Produce and Pine Cones

It's been a busy last couple of days. I worked at the nursery on Wednesday and picked (well, I should say 'dug up') my very first potatoes and beets! So maybe it doesn't sound all that exciting but I thought is was super cool. And not only did we dig up 3 different kinds of potatoes, one of them was PURPLE! Everything's cooler with fun colors. ;)

They are extra purple when they are wet. (top 2: dry. bottom 2: wet)

I made sure to bring my camera this week so you can see the corn stalk bouquets I was referring to last week. 

And a few other farm-y things.

Look, we have egg plants on the way.

And I have also been hard at work transforming my painted pine cones into ornaments. Yesterday, I hung some at the Art Center (where I have my paintings) and also brought some to Made in Lake Tahoe (where I have other handmade goodies on consignment). I also worked at MILT yesterday and painted a few while I was sitting there.... and sold my first one. =)

I made all the curly Qs different.

Let's see... oh, and today I dusted off my sewing machine. (No really, I did. Somehow even with a cover it got dusty.) And I put it to work for the first time in months.

 I made these cute legwarmers and plan to make more aprons. 3 out of the original 4 have sold.
Alright. back to it.

My Booth

This past weekend, I participated in an outdoor craft fair. We literally set up in the parking lot...see the car parked in the stall next to me?

I picked the spot that led right into the store, Heartstrings. I thought it created a pretty good flow.

A few took the space on the sidewalk/'courtyard' area in front of the store.

Here's my cute table of painted pine cones.

I had a Christmas Side.

And a Fall side. 

I had most of them in sets of 6, although I have since started making more individual ones and have turned them into ornaments.

 I sold this spunky one to a cool chick from Oregon.

Here are some of the dried flowers I mentioned in my last post. I got the two big ones from the nursery and the rest is actually sage brush from our back yard. And isn't my orange pitcher the coolest! My mama gave that to me for my birthday last month.

 And here's the rest of it. The owner was super helpful. Not only did she let me borrow her table and grid panels, but she also helped me set it up.

And here are my best sellers. Since I list these on etsy, I have pictures of most of them. So I printed up my favorite picture of each and made little tags for them. I used diaper pins to fasten them to the legwarmers and keep the pair together. I was so excited to sell my first one of the day, that I forgot to ask for the pin back. =( That was sad and so was that fact that they took home my very favorite pair. Anyone remember which pair is my very favorite? Well, even if you don't remember, you can probably guess. The rainbow striped ones of course! They sold first, then I sold the black sparkly ones, and then the grey/black/red and white pair.

The weather was totally cooperative. There was sunshine and no wind. At exactly the time we started packing up, the slightest little wind started to pick up. Perfect timing. So it turned out to be a pretty decent day.