Big Event Purcellville VA Town Wide Tag Sale

Look for this sign to find me!

This Weekend - Saturday and Sunday (however - We are starting Friday!)- over 200 yard sales and loads of other vendors selling their wares. Great stuff, including all the normal yard sale items - but also amazing items from artists, designers, etc... This is a shot of my stuff from last year's sale.

I will have vintage furniture, vintage table top items, accesories, fun kids stuff, and more. My daughter will have many of her amazing and unique clothing items from her shop.

We will be set up at The ReallyGreat Finds store in Purcellville at 600 Main Street, under 2 10x10 canopies. Stop by and see us. Mention this blog post and we'll give you an additional 10% off the already bagain prices!

Bittersweet Design Studio Happenings

A view of the Garden Room, with our items for sale, at Really Great Finds, Purcellville, VA

Hello everyone - NO - I did NOT fall in a well or get swept out to sea... I am so sorry for 'blanking out' on you this summer - See my "Sorry Excuses" below.
OPEN HOUSE "It must be Fall" to be held this weekend at our shop in Paeonian Springs, VA We will be open Friday September 18 and Saturday September 19 from 12 n00n to 5 pm. As usual, if you need to come by earlier or later we are happy to accommodate your schedule.
ALSO on the schedule for FALL:
September 1st - I have been graciously invited by Suzanne at Really Great Finds, to take over part of the garden room (AKA sun room) at the store in Purcellvillle. I moved in some pieces of furniture and a boat load of smalls two weeks ago. If you need a Bittersweet fix and are in Purcellville - Really Great Finds is open every weekend - Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Also September 1st - The 25 finalists for the Handmade Moment were chosen - I was not one of the 25 - However I still think "If Etsy were a person" video is an awesome thing. Thank you to everyone who took time to view my video. I greatly appreciate the support.

September 4th - Pushing the Envelope - Crafty Packaging for Cards of all Kinds by Marthe Le Van, published by Lark Books, a division of Sterling Publishing Co. arrives in the mail! My submission "TOP SECRET" is on pages 34 and 35! I will have copies available for sale in the shop. I'll even sign it for you :P

September 18 and 19 - Open House in Paeonian Springs, VA

September 26 - Historic Homes Walking Tour, Paeonian Springs, VA at 1 PM, during the Paeonian Springs Fall Festival. I will be conducting the walking tour and discussing the beginnings of Paeonian Springs, and some of it's architecture. This is will be approximately a 45 minute tour. This is only the beginnings of a comprehensive walking tour brochure/guide thatI will be working on for our town.

October 9, 10 , 11 - Fri and Sun 10 - 6, Sat 8 -5 - Open Air Market at Really Great Finds to coincide with the Purcellville Town Wide Tag sale (October 10 and 11 Sat 8 -3, Sun 10 -3).

October 17 - Paint the Town Green - Purcellville VA 10 am - 2 pm - to coincide with the Fall Farm Tour. I will be bringing my "Top Secret" Recycled Envelopes cards, as well as two new lines of 'green' items designed and made by Bittersweet Design Studio.

SORRY EXCUSES:

4 days after my last post, our dearly beloved dog of 15 years Abby, a Black Lab, passed away in our arms, amid kisses, tears and belly rubs. I can hardly even write this, because I can't see through my tears... frankly I think that's a pretty damn good excuse!

Now some other ones...

We had the good fortune of having 2 young enegetic sisters - Anna and Amy Reynal, helping us over the summer, as well as our nephew, Kenny Kopp. I'd like to see you keep the three of them busy, and try and squeeze a blog post in!

We were busy making the video "If Etsy were a person", and being a peer reviewer for the videos.

We listed and sold a boatload of stuff on eBay (that's a lot of packing and shipping!), and listed stuff on Etsy, where we had brisk sales there also.

So - enough for my sorry excuses - I gotta shake a leg and finish getting the shop ready for this weekend, and get some more small tables up to Really Great Finds to replace ones that I have sold!

Lavender Wand Tutorial and Contest!

Seize the day! Now is the time (at least if you live in the Mid-Atlantic region) to harvest your lavender. You want to harvest your lavender while it is still in bud form - before it has bloomed or flowered. If it has already flowered, it will look lovely in a vase, but will not hold its fragrance for as long it would pre-bloom. Harvest it in the morning after the dew has dried, but before the sun gets too strong and draws the oils out of the buds.

Materials needed:
1 yard of 1/4 - 1/2 inch wide satin or grosgrain ribbon
38 freshly cut lavender stems
scissors
vase of water
small gauge knitting needle, crochet hook, or tapestry needle

The particular variety of lavender I grow is the Grosso variety - meaning big or tall - this particular plant has nice long, tall stems to make a very pretty, large lavender wand. After cutting your lavender, you will want to grade the stems. I create four or five piles of lavender stems that are the same length from shortest to tallest.

After grading the stems, I normally put the lavender in the graded bunches in a vase with water. This is because lavender stems are very woody and usually by this time of the year are rather dry. We need the stems to be supple so that they can be bent without breaking.

After soaking the stems for 1-2 days at the most, count out 38 stems of lavender. Align all the heads and pinch the stems together just below the heads. This is where you will tie your ribbon.

When I tie my knot, I always leave one tail of the ribbon least the length of the lavender stems, or about 12 inches long. The other tail stays attached to the spool of ribbon until the very end.

Next, I grip the knotted area with my thumb and forefinger, turn the buds toward the floor with the stems pointing upward. With my other thumb and forefinger, I gently squeeze the lavender stems just above the ribbon knot. Because lavender stems are so woody, this pinching breaks down the fibers in the stem and allows it to be bent more easily. You will pinch and bend all of the stems so that they fold down over the lavender buds.

Once all of the stems have been bent over the knot, pull out the longer length of ribbon (still attached to the spool) and begin weaving it through the stems. With 38 stems, I weave over and under two stems at a time, making 19 the odd number of times I weave in and out. This ensures that I will always have an over/under pattern every time I go around the wand.

Watch the video for tips on getting the stems and ribbon tighter.

As you weave, it is helpful to go back to the beginning with a small guage knitting needle, crochet hook, or weaving needle to tighten the ribbon around the wand and also to push the ribbon up the wand in order to close the gaps in your weaving.

Once you have woven the ribbon past the buds inside the wand (so you can't see them) and have tightened the ribbon around and up the wand, you will need to let the wand dry for a few days to a week. You will know when it's dry when you roll the wand in your hand and the buds feel loose inside the wand and the ribbon feels loose in its weaving.

After it's dry, you will start back at the top of the wand and tighten the ribbon with your pointed tool as before. Depending on the size of the wand and the width of the ribbon, you may end up with 3-5 inches of excess ribbon. This is why I don't cut this end from the spool until the end.

Pull the shorter length of the ribbon through the stems and tie it in a knot to the long end of the ribbon so that your weaving will not come undone. A square knot (right-over-left, left-over-right) or a bow look nice.

Trim the stems with scissors so that they are all even. Any length you prefer will do; I normally leave them 6-8 inches long, for a total wand length of 12-14 inches, but it can also depend on the natural length of the stems. At this point, you can also cut the ribbon from the spool.

This is the finished wand.

However, if you don't like the loose stems, you can also use additional ribbon to wrap the uncovered stems. Simply take the ribbon and criss-cross wrap it up the stems to cover them.

The final product is shown below.

Visit my Etsy shop at http://www.bittersweetdesign.etsy.com/ or my Artfire shop at http://www.bittersweetdesign.artfire.com/ and pick your favorite things. If you leave me a comment on this blog about which item is your favorite, along with your name and email address, you will be entered in a contest to win this lavender wand! The contest will end July 27th. Winner will be chosen at random based on the criteria above.

If Etsy were a person...

Please click on the stars to rate the video - 5 stars would give it a perfect 10! Thanks for voting!

If Etsy were a person...

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The video is up...please vote for us!

After several days of hard work, the video is now up on Etsy's site and ready for your votes!

To view it, just follow this link: http://www.etsy.tv/video/If-Etsy-were-a-person

Just a note...it has audio, so you may want to turn the volume down if you're watching in a public/work place.

Tomorrow A Handmade Moment Etsy tv

I am sososo excited! The video came out really well today - we (Anna - really...) will help me synch the music with it tomorrow. Thanks goodness for agile younger minds...

I love the way it works, looks - everything about it!

Stay tuned - tomorrow I will post the link here - then please, please, please go VOTE for ME !!!!

My latest endeavor - A Handmade Moment

Here is a preview of my latest project - I will be competing in a contest to make a 'commercial' for Etsy. I have NO idea how it will go - we have the item done that we are working on in the photo - now we have to make the video. That will happen on Tuesday, next week. Don't want to tell you too much! It's a surprise!

Check back to see how it's going!

Photo on the right shows my gal Fridays - Amy and Anna.