Ricks B-day

Monday was my husband Ricks 34th Birthday. As an accountant it is tax time so he only comes home in time to read mail and go to bed, even on his birthday and usually weekends.
I had to get groceries in the morning and forgot about Easter. How I could forget it I dunno. So I got more than I could carry which means no bus. I usually manage not being able to drive pretty well. So damn I am stuck, now what, can't call Rick, have NO $ for a cab. Jamie! Right she said she'd help if I got stuck. So she came and rescued me. I told her it was the mans B-day and she got an odd look, but I dismissed it as a "how did I forget that?" look. An hour later she texts saying she had a cake mix and is baking hima cake and plans to deliver it to the office. naturally I plan to tag along. She called the receptionists and told them, so they sent a message around and several people came to watch. just as we got in the door we saw him leaving the front, and thought he was gonna see us. nope, phew so we get ready and they called him down and ta-da! we embarrased him pretty well, had to sing "happy Birthday" and all that, and I wore his least fav shade of my brownigh lipstick, and smooched his forehead.
Later that night he said it was the highlight of his day. Apparently the files he had for the day were all difficult, and poorly organized. People, please organize your papers before they get to the accountant, it costs more the longer it takes to do.
Today I have hot meal day at the school with Kaylen and Geran and then off for a massage. Rick won a radio contest and got the massage but it expires before the end of tax season, so I get it, yay!!

craft sales

On the 20th Elaine and I did a craft sale in the small community of Herbert, half an hours drive from Swift Current. It was a very well planned and advertised event, however there were too many things going on, and VERY few people showed up for it:(
I booked 2 tables and didn't make enough to cover even one table fee, which was cheap.


Then this past weekend (27th and 28th) we did the local Gun and Hobby show.Yeah it doesn't sound too good a place for crafters, but it's usually a really good show for me, lots of hunters wives and lady gun enthusiasts go. Day one was busier than i have ever seen this show! Tons of people. Didn't do the best I ever have but did well enough. Elizabeth from my Tuesday crafters group also had a table with her bags and antiques. actually all but 1 person from the group came to look about. A lot of the people I know came at some point. Day 2 not so much, still a lot of people came after the worlds womens curling closed ceremony, but not many shoppers. But I did hand out a lot of cards and there was one interested in hosting a home show. And funny enough even though I do this show and the fall one every year and have for the last 4 years there were peoiple who had never seen crocheted wire. Elaine had a wonderful show and got several people interested in taking her polymer clay class in April at the art gallery.



No other shows on the radar this spring, so I can chill and fill purse orders. I like doing shows/sales, but it's nice when they are over too. It does go by faster with a friend in the next booth though!

Makers

Ok so recently i joined a local group of knitters and crocheters who meet twice a month at the library. I am the only crocheter so far and I crochet odd stuff, but it's a great group!
And I joined a weekly crafters group meeting on Tuesdays called Tuesdays with Laurie: Meet other makers http://swiftcurrentmakers.blogspot.com/ at the art gallery, which is in the same building as the library. We have met 3 times and on 2 of them there was a film crew for the local TV stations. It's a lot of fun and although new there's a variety of crafters including Elaine of Tooaquarius http://www.tooaquarius.com/. Laurie Wagner whi is the education co-ordinator of the gallery is the head of the group, and she does amazing work needle felting, there are 2 collage/asemblage artists, a painter, and several people who have stopped it to look and say hi but don't stay and craft with us.
Now my church has a group of crafters who want to meet on Fridays, so I will be a busy lady with 3 different crafting groups. Should be fun as they are all quite different.
Well I do have a 2 day show this weekend I suppose I should get off the 'puter and do something today... although a good soak and a book is tempting too...

Featured!

This is my week to be featured on NatureManipulateds blog:
http://naturemanipulated.blogspot.com/
You could win a cutom made wallet in your choice of colours


or this earring and bracelet set:


Details on how are in her blog feature!
I am pretty excited by this. I wonder who will win, where are they from, how did they know about the contest/give away?
Well I will find out at weeks end I guess. Meanwhile I am learning a lot from the comments :)

The Demo

Yesterday we did the usual go to church, and I sold a strawberry shortcake to a family who gets me to bake cakes for them at least once a month. Got a message this morning apparently their cousins who were at the party the cake was for wanted them to pass on their compliments. How nice is that? Makes a good start to the day I tell ya!
So after church we had a quick lunch and off I went to the art gallery to set up for my display and demo of wire crochet for a couple hours. It went really well, I had quite a few people come to look and ooh and ahh. Always flattering, even had a request for teaching a class! There was a pottery class in the next room, one of the students came out to get something saw my diplay and was quite impressed, a few minutes later the rest of the class all came out at her insistance to see the crocheted wire jewelry. The one lady wanted to buy a set but didn't have $ with her so I gave her a card and told her I'd be at the gun and hobby show the 27th and 28th. Laurie the amazing gallery education co-ordinator bought a set too, it suits her really well. She's the lady in the wine coloured shirt with the purple and green fluorite set.

And a set of ladies came in and bought some of my rings. I really wasn't thinking sales, so all this was an unexpected bonus, plus I get $50 for the demo. Elaine was there for a while and took a few pictures for me. She rocks, and her demo is next Sun so I'll have to return the favour and shoot a few pics. Crafty friends are the best aren't they?

Eureka

Yeah, I likely spelled the title wrong, you'll all live I am sure.
You know how many pop tabs I go through? Well it takes over 80 for a wallet and about 400 for a purse. Right, so a lot. Cleaning them before use has been a nightmare. However I discovered that a mesh bag originally intended for washing delicates (lingerie) works great, I can put almost an ice cream pails worth in at a time and run it through the washing machine with a splash of bleach. Yay!

Also on the topic of cleaning the pop tabs, several people collect them for me, and they rock. Sometimes I wonder about them though. In the last batch there were 5 pieces of uncooked maccaroni, a few barley pearls, and some fresh barley heads complete with chaff, a pink plastic bead, a maple leaf lapel pin in really bad condition, a very worn penny, a dime, and a couple green plastic pellets, and the usual bits of lint. Do they look at what else is in their pockets? Or just "I know I have a couple tabs for Cindy in this pocket" and dump them out without looking? Me I always look when emptying my pockets, you never know what might pop outta there, esp in jackets. My kids think I am their storage box when we leave the house even though they usually have pockets too.

Maker meeting

Well today the local art gallery hosted the first "maker" meeting. Basically anyone who creates anything is welcome to come in for 3 hours and we can work on our projects have a coffee, chat, and network. Already we have a few ideas to work on together how cool is that? There were about 6 of us and a few people just popped in to say hi. Quite a few people said they'd try to come in Sunday for my wire crochet demo, so that's awesome :) Elaine, aka Tooaquarius was there, the gallery curator Laurie I bellydance with, The others I don't know, yet. Laurie just started doing needle felting and has an increadibly detailed felt doll in the works. It looks to me like an ambitious project for a beginner, but she rocks at it, this doll has dimples, joints that look correct, and even individual teeth showing in the mouth! 2 of the other ladies do collage one had a sort of steam punk look to a few of hers, which was fun. I had a few people interested in my art, which is great, but I didn't think to bring a finished project to display, silly me. But next week I'll bring something. Looks like my afternoons on Tuesdays are now booked. 15 blocks there and back is good exercise too.

zombie blog

I keep forgetting to post every day or week, and months later I am sitting here going "well lets revive this puppy" My poor dead blog must be a zombie all the times it's died.
So I have had a lot of interest in my work recently.
I am being featured in a blog on the 22nd and doing a give away from there:
http://naturemanipulated.blogspot.com/
There is a local shop called Eden's Apple and the owner saw me out with my pop tab purse and wants to make a whole sale purchase for her shop. I LOVE this shop it's full of funky cool stuff.
There is now a local crochet and knitters club in town, yay!!
the local art gallery is having me do a wire crochet demo this Sunday! Totally pumped there!
There is a local crafters club starting tomorrow and I volunteered to do a demo for the members once we get established enoguh to do them.
I have 2 craft sales this month as well.
Whew all of a sudden there's a lot on my creative plate!

Kaylen my 8 yr old went on air with her school for a major provincial fundraiser, so yesterday every TV station in the province showed the telethon. They even got to sing with original Sesame Streets Bob. Too bad none of the kids had a clue how cool all of us parents thought that was LOL.
I was so proud of her! She is NOT happy being on stage at all and this was a huge event. She did tell me that she will never perform again but wants to sing with the choir for practices only. This is odd to me as she is normally the wild and crazy extrovert. But maybe it's different at home... which is a good thing, wild and crazy at school can cause problems.
Anyway This should count as a revival, ad I am off to make biscuits to go with the ham and lentil with wildrice soup for supper.