A Busy Week Ahead

March 2nd, 2010

I have never felt so overwhelmed. This week feels like the busiest week ever! At least the worst is past me. I hate when the 1st of the month falls on a Monday; it’s like two worlds are colliding! lol Mondays are always busy with shipping out orders and catching up on emails from over the weekend; but when it falls on the 1st, I also have to prepare for my Crafty Ave newsletter by adding all the new patterns, writing up the news, updating the website, and sending out artist payments. Needless to say I was up until 1am last night working. The rest of the week will be just as busy, but at least Monday is done and over with. Not only am I starting to feel the pressures of my deadline for the Earth Day fair, but I’ve been invited to do another show in April at the Beardsley Zoo. I have two wholesale orders to finish up this week… which means gluing, pouring, drilling, and more gluing of about 400 bottle caps, and sewing up an Americana quilt and wrapping some rag balls. Let’s see.. what else…. I have my art league meeting tonight, and I have my girls crafting meeting on Friday. I just might bring my crafting supplies to art league tonight to work on the craft fair goodies.

I’m starting to see a trend here… I come on over to write a blog post, I pour out all my bad news and complaints, then I say “OH, and here’s the good news”. lol Okay, so let’s get to the good news. As I’ve said, I was invited to do another craft show at the Beardsley Zoo! I didn’t mean for that to slip out during my cranky tantrum. It IS good news. I am so excited! I haven’t officially agreed to it yet though. I’m not sure if I’ll even have enough products to do two shows in only about six weeks from now. It’s a two day show, but I can do only one of the days if I wanted; which is great. Before even getting this invite, I was already feeling overwhelmed with the crafting I have to catch up on, that I invited two of my friends to help me out. Marla will be joining me with her fun soda can jewelry, and Jen will be joining me with her beautiful hemp wrapped jars. The three of us have decided to get together every Friday to craft together for the show. I’ll try to remember to take some photos this Friday!

For the show, I have finished up a couple more zipper pouches made from wrappers. Although, I’m still having a perfectionist problem. I made one perfect pouch, and thought I had it down pat. Then I made another one, and it came out a bit skewed. Darn! I’m not sure what the difference was, or what went wrong. I’ll keep trying! Everyone is telling me they look just fine. Perhaps it’s just the perfectionist in me. I also started making some charm bracelets with charms made from plastic bottles. They look so great! I’m keeping the first one for myself! :0)  OH and I found a way to put a bit of color on my jelly fish!! Yay! (Still never finished that cereal box container! lol)

I’ll have some photos for you soon! But, here’s a sneak peek of the plastic charm bracelets I’m working on.

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Sneak Peek!

January 25th, 2010

I’ve been busy trying out new techniques and different projects for the upcoming Earthstock fair in Plainville, CT. I’m getting excited, I had to share a sneak peek with you! Sorry for the horrible photos. (Hey, do you want the sneak peak now, or when its sunny enough to get good photos? lol)

This was my first project… a bead bowl. I had a huge bag of those plastic pony beads that have been sitting in the basement for years; so I made something new with them! I love how it came out. It definately looks better in person. (Man, do I need photo lessons or what?!) I want to try making some smaller ones too for candle holders or something. I’ll be taking some photos when I make my next one so I can show you how they’re made. :)

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My next project was some zipper pouches made from food wrappers. I was really frustrated with sewing these up at first… but a friend on the PrimMart forum suggested I try putting powder on the plastic so it glides better in the machine; and it solved my problems!! Thank you! The strawberry one in the back is an unfinished one that I’m working on now. Isn’t it CUTE! he he

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One project that has been sitting on my table unfinished for a few days is this woven cereal box container. I had no idea it would take so long to make! lol I may not do any more of these… well we’ll see how I feel when its finished! ;0) 

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This last one I’ve been really excited about. I have recently fell in LOVE with jelly fish; and I went crazy when I saw a few photos of some jelly fish made from plastic bottles. I had to give it a try! My first one (in the back) didn’t come out too well, but I tried again, and I think my second one came out pretty good. I just wish I could find light pink and blue bottles! lol  I’ll have to do some searching and experimenting on doing a bit of color on them. The clear looks neat too though.

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Other than working on projects for the fair, I’ve also been thinking about my blog and TwiddleLee website. I would like to have them both up and designed before the show. The way my blog looks now is just from a free template that I’ve found and edited. I still need to update it with my own graphics. So, you may (hopefully) see some changes to the way my blog looks soon. (Yeah, I know I’ve said that before! hush now!) I do have a sketchy idea now of what I want it to look like. (I was totally confused about it before.) I think its going to be very clean and simple; mostly white. I know I want to stick with my cloud/thought bubble  idea I’ve been using on my plush tags. Some swirlies would be nice… okay, I’m just rambling now. (and realizing that I’m using way too many parentheses! lol)

~Twiddle Lee

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My first show as Twiddle-Lee!

November 24th, 2009

I have successfully finished my first show as Twiddle-Lee this past Saturday! It was so much fun; I can’t wait to do more shows!  I’m already scouting out shows for next year. ;0) So anyway, I decided to make my first show a small easy one for practice – I picked out a nice church fair in Berlin.  I was lucky to get the best table spot in the whole show – right near the kitchen and lounge area in the largest room. I did pretty good for such a small show. Everyone was attracted to my cupcakes; they all had to come over and see if they were real! lol My daughter joined me too.. she made some button jewelry, a few paintings, and ornaments. It was great to spend some time with her and do a team effort; we had a blast! Here’s some pics from the show:

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Miss Penelope with her goodies! I love her button bracelets, I made her make one for me too! he he Visit her site at: www.SweetPeaArt.com

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My new “Munchies”! Each  pillow monster has a pocket mouth to hide toys, treasures, or to hold their babies!

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Bottle Cap Necklaces & Magnets… yeah, I know… these are all over the place now; but remember I was one of the first who started them back in 2001! lol   Penelope made the cool Americana pins and the starfish painting. :)

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I’ve been really excited about these new goodies… JuNk PiNs!! Each pin is made from candy wrappers, junk mail, magazines, and other junk! 

See the little snowman head peaking out in the corner? I only had eight of those… and sold out in the first hour of the show! It’s always the things you have the least of that sells the quickest! lol

All my new goodies will be available through my new website www.TwiddleLee.com shortly, so be sure to sign up for the mailing list on my site.   I’ll be working hard within the next few weeks taking pics, writing descriptions, listing them on Etsy, and hopefully working on the final layout of the website. In between Christmas shopping & crafting of course! ;0) he he

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