The Final Touches!

Here they are all glittered!

Now to wire them up.

Project continued

Next I turned them all on their backs and gave them a couple of coats of green and yellow spray paint. Then on their fronts - I took a variety of spray paint colors and blended them by lightly spraying them. After they were dry I decorated them with a variety of colors of glitter glue. After this was dry I gave them a clear sealer coat. Now all I have to do is cut the hanging wires to the correct length and wire to each one of the ornaments!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day! We are going to Bob's Mom's house for dinner and I had been given the task of dinner rolls! They are baking in the oven as we speak - so I was able to use my time wisely today.

I have here, for you, the step by step of this years ornament for the Compassionate Friends December meeting in Leesburg this coming Wednesday night. I make these ornaments every year as my gift to this group, in Callie's memory. I chose butterflies this year.

Here you see the 'blanks', first I drilled two holes in both sides of their wings, and then I stacked them and painted all of their edges.

dream forest

I started listing this forest on etsy yesterday... I need to do individual photos of the trees today. I also need to 'create' more of the items that make up the forest. So keep a look out!

Birthday Week

Good Morning! I should have started this yesterday - with my #1 daughter's birthday -Virginia - where did those 15 years go??? Wow - friends Patty and Christy went with us to dinner at the Blue Ridge Grill at Brambleton and to see - shockers -- Twilight! Gin has only read this book over 30 times - no kidding!

Now today - my second daughter's birthday - little Callie would have been 13! It is amazing to think of how long she has been gone. I have learned so many things over the past years with her guidance. She has been my own personal and up close angel and through so many events I feel her guiding hands.

And now tomorrow - Gin's best guy - and all around good 'kid' Carter, turns 17!

Needless to say turkeys feature an important part in my collecting - figurals, platters, etc...Ginna was born on Thanksgiving Day and had two baby bracelets - Virginia and Butterball!

Handmade Holiday Open House

Hoping to see you today at our open house. Our hours today are from 10 am to 5 pm. See my earlier posts for directions to the shop and also photos of all the great handmade and vintage finds from my shop and great clothing and accessories available at my daughter, Virginia's shop, Moonshine Essentials.

As usual we have refreshments - I made oatmeal applesauce cookies yesterday and they are complimented with sparkling apple cider.

Abby the shop dog will make her occasional appearance too!

Felted Purses

Here is one of the felted purses that my Mom had left over after her church bazaar. Nancy - let me know whether I need to put this cute blue one back for you!

Two More Rooms

Here is a shot of the entrance to Moonshine Essentials - my daughter's shop and two photos of the tiny but awesome kid's room.

Other Goodies

Here are some of the scarves that my Mom made for St. Mary's Church Bazaar. I am selling what they had left over and the proceeds will go to St. Mary's.

Also included are some more goodies from the shop.

Jewelry Boards

Here is some of the jewelry we have to offer. If you double click on the image it will get larger so you can see individual pieces.

Handmade Holiday Open House

Wow! We were busy from the time we opened at 12 noon. I packaged up all kinds of goodies in gift bags tied with pretty bows for Christmas giving. Here are a couple of photos showing some of the treasures we have to offer.

Wow - featured in a blog - sneak attack!

Thanks to PinkPolish Design! Back in September - the 7th - I was featured along with a host of etsy artists in her blog - pointing out "amazing jewelry artists". I was googling the shop today to see if the Handmade Holiday Open House turned up on craigslist (not yet...) and there was Bittersweet Design Studio featured by PinkPolish - wow.

Directions to Bittersweet on Berry Bramble Lane

Hi everyone! Here are the directions to the shop.

Paeonian Springs is a lovely little village just west of Leesburg, VA. Our little town sits between Route 7 West and Route 9 West.

As a starting point I am going to use Leesburg - but the directions are the same if you come from the west.

From Route 7 you will exit on to Route 9 West. You will go approximately 1/2 mile. On your right you will pass a Shell Gas Station - take the next immediate left on to Simpson Circle (Rt. 662). My house is the first house on the right - the shop is just up the gravel lane from our house. Please park along Simpson Circle - we have other neighbors off of our little road - Berry Bramble Lane.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Handmade Holiday Open House

This coming weekend - November 21 and 22 Friday from 12 noon to 5 pm and Saturday 10 am to 5 pm.

Please come to our Handmade Holiday Open House.

I have been on 'creative fire' lately and have made all sorts of new goodies for your gifting pleasure, as well as finding all kinds of cool vintage stuff for you to enjoy.

The ladies at the bazaar sold all but 3 of the felted purses - I will have these available. Of course we will also have Amy and Kathy's candles (Herbal Star)- the best ever!, some of the fantastic soaps from Julie and Dick (The Parsonage), Lisa's handmade cards and other creative and unique offerings.

Virginia's shop, Moonshine Essentials is filled with all sorts of cool clothes and accessories, and we've got even more jewelry, cards, scarves, and flip flops (some of that 'creative fire' I was talking about).

As usual, we will have refreshments - not sure what goodies I am going to make yet - but they will be yummy!

Also, always know that we are happy to accommodate special requests regarding our hours!

And Now it's November

I was a vendor at the Fall's Church High School Craft Show that was held last Saturday. My husband, Bob, and daughter, Virginia helped set up - and did a great job! My space looked fantastic - I'd show you a pic - but my batteries died in the camera - argh!

I did well, but I would have done better if there been more foot traffic. The attendance simply wasn't there!

The best thing was I met a number of fellow etsians - two of which were Suzy of georgiapeachez and Beth of Bethsbagz. Just a few days later I was looking around in their etsy stores and had to snag some goodies - one for me and my workroom (see photo), one for a friend and something custom made for Ginna.

Unfortunately, to do this show, I had to give up going up to York on Friday the 7th to help my Mom and the other ladies set up for the church bazaar. I have learned my lesson... From now on it's the church bazaar!

We did go up on Sunday to buy and visit, and help pack up afterwards. They had a very successful two days. YEAH St. Mary's!

And still more...

In October I was fortunate to be featured 0n the front page for two days in the Handmade Showcase blog. I got tons of great comments on my etsy shop and the wide variety of the items I had listed.

Fantastic exposure! Jennifer was the winner of a $25.00 gift certificate to the shop and she put it towards the Lots of Fun bracelet.

I was also busy getting ready for Purcellville's Town Wide Tag Sale. My friend Jennifer (shop at Lucketts) was kind enough to share her front yard with me and another friend, Ann (also at Lucketts).

I made signs from some great images Jennifer had on hand. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

We sold a ton of stuff those two days - I brought 5 and a half truckloads and came home with 1 truckload and a desk - NOT BAD!

Just a note - see that cool cupboard leaning against the tree in the background? I grabbed that beauty from Ann for my workroom. (currently a work in progress - photos coming)!

More of what I've been up to

In August and September I spent some time up at my Mom's, working on purses made from wool sweaters we had felted. I designed and cut the purses, my sister in law Lisa sewed them on the machine and then my Mom and I hand finished them. We had a lot of fun together while we made these for my Mom's church bazaar.

Also in September the entire Bob Pickett Family got together and we had a family portrait taken. The kids did this for his 50th birthday. It was a great weekend!

What I've been up to

The past three months have been busy, busy, busy!

I was fortunate enough to have one of my products spotted by Lark Books and was given a contract to recreate a project I had made.

One day I was opening our bills, (I guess there must have been a lot of them ;}) and I noticed how all of the privacy printing was slightly different. It looked like Men's Suit Cloth - and fabric in general. I saved them - (OH MY GOSH - what a surprise)!!!! I opened them up and started folding and cutting - pleated skirts, shoes, ties, etc... and either making an envelope from the bill envelope - or lining a handmade envelope with the privacy pattens.

A light bulb went off, and I thought "What a great idea - I should list one of these today in my etsy shop - it's Earth Day"! ------ You know that whole recycling/upcycling thing.

I was contacted minutes afterward (I know, I was in disbelief too- pinchme!) about my cards/envelopes. I submitted my project in August and it will appear in The Envelope, Please - due out in Fall of 2009. Thank you Providence!

My Very First Blog

I am a newbie at this, but just like jumping into selling on ebay and then etsy and now working on my website, oh and let's not forget facebook and indiepublic... - it seemed to be inevitable...I feel like I have been back in school again - all of the time spent on the computer - asking my ever patient 14 year old daughter - how to do this, how to do that. WOW, have I learned a lot!