simply-crafting

Wow I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve posted in here.  Life has been so crazy with getting ready for the holidays, everyone in our house being sick and me returning back to work.  I haven’t even been able to do any amount of crafting.  So since this is a crafting blog, I really haven’t had that much to report.

I did manage to complete one crafting project.  I made a wedding scrapbook for my father in law and his new bride for Christmas.  But other than that the crafts have been pretty much non-extant .  I’m really hoping that life will slow down a bit in the new year.  Maybe then I’ll have the time to work on crafts and be able to come in and post some of my accomplishments.

But until then, I am wishing you all the best for a fun and prosperous new year!  Hope to see you all more often in the new year!

So as you can see I haven’t been in here for a while again.  Time just keeps slipping away.  Most days I don’t even get time to craft and this really does displease me.

As you all know I was going to a craft fair.  Well I would like to say that I did alright.  I didn’t do as well as I had hoped I would but I made a few sales so I guess it was pretty good.  I really wish I had time to create more.  This way I would have had a wider selection to offer people.  I’m really hoping that during the next year I can create more handcrafted items and then possibly try to sell them during the next Christmas craft season.  But with the way life has been going these days I honestly think that’s probably a pipe dream.

But you never know.  So yes, I would do another craft fair again.

As you can all see by my little image posted here, I was doing a little bit of playing around today. Lately I have found that bloggging has become a little bit boring so I have been slacking off quite a bit.

When I first started this blog it was to showcase all my works of art as well as to give some helpful hints and advice on different aspects in crafting. Well somewhere along the way I have lost my focus and haven’t been updating this blog as much as I should be.

So I’ve decided to try to get myself back into the swing of things. Right now I have decided to dress up this blog a little bit so it doesn’t look so boring. Every once in a while you will see something different on here ( but it will pertain to crafting) and this will hopefully keep me motivated. So wish me luck and if I start to digress once again, please someone find a smilely that will kick me in the butt.

You’ve probably been wondering what I’ve been up to for the past few days.  Well now I’m going to tell you all!

A couple of days ago, I stopped in to our newest store in town.  That would be the newest beading and jewelry supply store.  Well, of course I picked up a few supplies (just couldn’t help myself ).  After I had made my purchases the owner of the store told me that if I needed any help with anything just ask.  So I did.  I haven’t been able to make earrings and I really wanted to learn so I could add them to my sets.

Well she showed me how to make earrings and when I got home I tried to make them myself.  And….I was able to do it!!   So for the past few days I have been making earrings, necklaces and bracelets.  My motivation has returned and I couldn’t be happier.

Today was the first opportunity I have had to visit the new bead and jewelry store that just opened up in our area.  I had planned on being the first customer in the store.  But with two little people coming down sick and then me getting it as well, my plans really didn’t work out the way I thought they would.

But, today I had to go into town to purchase a few bits of groceries (I kind of depleted our toilet paper stash with my runny nose) so I decided to stop in this new store as well.  Although it’s quite a small store, she has a lot of variety in beads, supplies and findings and her prices are really good.  So after making a few purchases (I know I shouldn’t have) I informed her that I will be back in the not to distant future.

If she keeps her prices the way they are now, I can see myself going back time and time again.

Well the Christmas Craft Fair season has begun. This coming weekend I have booked a table at one of the craft fairs in the town next to mine. Below you find some pictures of some of the items that I will be having for sale.

I will be charging $12.00 for the necklaces and $7.50 for the bracelets. Someone had told me that my prices are extremely low. But there is a reason for that. I really do enjoy making the jewelry as a hobby so if I can get my money back from the supplies and make a little bit of a profit as well, I will be extremely happy. Hopefully I sell most of what I have made so I can go out and purchase more supplies and make more jewelry.

Well I hope you all enjoy looking at the pictures and please let me know what you think of all my creations.

As most of you are aware, I am doing a counted cross stitch of a family tree for a friend for this Christmas.  This is a very detailed piece with lots of colors and I’m not even a quarter of the way finished.

I thought I would give you all a quick tutorial of how I go about creating a work of art using counted cross stitching.  First thing you need to do is find the center of the piece as well as the center of the aida cloth.  Then you start stitching from the middle out.  What I do is I will find the center and then work my way through the colors until I have reached the very bottom.  Once I’m at the bottom I will then work my way up the piece until it’s finished.

I have found this method to be the most effective on for me, as it seems to make the work go on a little more quickly.  So for all you counted cross stitchers out there, what’s the method you use to complete a piece?

As you can tell by my posts (or lack of posts) should I say I haven’t been accomplishing very much these days.  Between work, the house and the kids I’ve been pretty busy.  I haven’t even been able to squeeze much crafting during this time and this is really starting to get on my nerves as well.

As far as the posting, I haven’t been doing a lot of this either because I really have nothing to share.  I haven’t really worked on much during this time so of course I have no pictures to show you all.  Hopefully in the near future I can get on some sort of schedule and be able to get everything done that needs to be done.

Until then happy blogging and happpy crafting to those who have the time.

As you all know I just recently went back to work outside the home.  When a co-worker asked me what I had been up to in the past year and a half I just had to tell her all about my latest love.  That would be my love for creating unique pieces of jewelry.  She then informed me that she creates homemade jewelry as well.  Then she went on to say that she has a friend who is opening up a small craft store in a town very close to us and if I wanted she would contact her friend about me to see if we could work something out for me to sell my jewelry at her store.  I thought this was an extremely wonderful gesture on the part of my co-worker.  So hopefully she does contact her and hopefully I will be able to try to sell of my crafts there.

I will let you all know how I make out with this experience.  I’m just thankful that my co-worker is willing to talk to her friend on my behalf.

Well I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with myself today.  Normally when it comes to Christmas I am a last minute shopper.  Honestly guys I’m one of the ones that you see running into the malls on December 24 and I normally don’t even start shopping until December 1st.  Until this year!

We just got a brand new store in our area.  This store is a discount store and has tons and tons of stuff in it for very cheap prices.  So this morning I decided to take a look around to see what they have.  They have a ton of craft and beading supplies that would be very nice for my daughter so I just had to pick some of these items up.

All the craft supplies that I purchased today will go away for my daughter for Christmas.  It is because of these purchases that I can say that I have officially started shopping for the Christmas season.