little wood pieces

It is that time of year again when I start ramping up production for upcoming holiday shows, etsy orders and wholesale orders. So needless to say, our house turns into a bit of a workshop. Here are a fresh cut batch of soon-to-be earrings waiting to be sorted and assembled. Lately, Jasper has taken an interest in helping me sort my “little wood pieces”, as he calls them. I guess it is never to early to start crafting.... although I think if it were up to him the wood pieces would be  robots, dinosaurs and ninjas.

sew happy

My sewing machine usually doesn't see much action unless I am hemming pants... but alas, I am running low on kraft notebooks for the upcoming holiday shows, so time to fire it up again! A bit of a twist to the book design this time... a zig-zag stitch. Being the sewing amateur that I am, things like zig-zag stitches are very exciting. And after some trial and error, I think the zig-zagging looks really cute on these notebooks. Yes, I get excited over the lamest crafty things...

good wood, bad tv

And so production for fall/winter merchandise begins. Yes, I know it is only August, but with the wee one running around now, I figure an early start this year is a must. I'm aiming to do three holiday shows this year, so to keep my sanity, I think an early start is key. Here is some progress so far, cutting out veneer for my wood gift tag sets. Hey, but it's not all just work and no play... I must admit I cut them while watching awful TV (multitasking makes me feel less guilty, especially when watching the Jersey Shore or MTV's Teen Mom... really bad, I know!).

stepping up production

I can't believe it's already November! I swear the time in between Halloween and the winter holidays seems to go in warp speed every year. Two more craft shows coming up for the holiday season, so it's time to jump into production again. I have been working on some more mini cards these last couple of evenings... so thought I would share the progress so far. Hopefully these will be as popular as last year's fairs, or I am going to be sending everyone I know and their families these little notes every day for the next year.

Also, I have a new product up my sleeve, but am keeping it a surprise... but I will share with you very soon! (wooooooo the mystery, the suspense is killing you isn't it!)

painting panels

Oh where did August go?!! Somehow, I am feeling a bit behind on my production for the craft fairs this year. And with one of the bigger shows soon approaching in October (One of a Kind Vancouver), I am having to ramp up production big time. For the last few evenings this week, I have been busy painting small wooden panels for my woodburnings... 100 small ones painted so far... 150 more to go. And then it will be burn, burn, burn time. I am not in a state of panic just yet... but perhaps check back in a week or so and it will be a different story!

production nerves - part 2

In my attempt to alleviate my production nerves for the upcoming craft shows this fall and winter, I have been trying to chip away at making a bit of inventory, so that I don't drive myself crazy this year with my last minute-ness. Made some great headway this week - managed to glue all the vintage images I had cut out onto the first batch of notebook covers (last count was about 100 books - if these don't sell, I will have a problem)... next step will be to stitch borders around the images with my sewing machine. The sewing part is easy (it's just straight lines)... it seems my problem is always trying to get the tension right and just threading the darn machine... arghhh! This is what happens when a non-sewer tries to sew!