She's Off...

to Greece. Having fun. Seeing awesome sights. Making new friends. Eating olives. Okay that last one's a bit of a stretch. Pretty sure there's no olive eating going on. Whew! What a relief.

We didn't need to leave too early. Our favorite kind of trip. Jaina needed to print out a few pages of the paper that was due at the airport so the first thing was getting the printer to print...in a color other than green.



We headed off to Chicago. I never get over the traffic and construction. ALWAYS construction. After we were at a place where I didn't have to read the map and shout directions at David, I mentioned that I had been clenching my teeth so long I now had a headache. Jaina says:"You've been clenching your teeth?? I've been clenching my BUTT and I'm not even driving!" I see a new "Buns of Steel" video in this.

So I thought we'd spend some time at the Mall before checking into our hotel. Great plan...if the mall had been open. Blah! It's Easter Sunday. But we did get a nice meal at Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

And as always, the Brandstetters can't plan something big without there being a crisis involved. Sickness. Icky, icky sickness. Poor Jaina was up all night. I REALLY didn't want to put her on the plane with her feeling so badly. But we went to the airport and she got in line for her boarding pass:



and got in line for Euros:



It's hard to believe we got a better deal on Euros when we went to Europe in 2006. Maybe we should head back to Switzerland. At least we'd break even:



And finally she got in line for Security. This part always causes a little tension ever since our "strip search" in Orlando about 9 years ago. David fits "the profile" and he gets stopped ALL the time. It's really funny...until WE get caught in the profile net too. We had to stand arms stretched while we were scanned, unzipped and peeked at. Bad enough until that kid walked by yelling: "But Mommy! Why are they getting arrested??" So we learned to pretend we don't know David and go through a different line. Seems to have worked for her this time too!:



So now she's living 8 hours ahead of me and I bet she hasn't a clue how very much I miss her.

Sleep tight and live loose, my sweet girl!


~Beth

Mama Has Some New Toys...

After a lingering death of about a year, my Dell (model # POS) finally met it's demise. Mama now has a brand new HP computer(it's already outlived and out performed the afore mentioned Dell) and a shiny new red digital camera. Good thing David was with me when I was shopping or it could have turned into a bigger fiasco. I'm so electronically stupid. But so far Mama's very happy.


TIME TO PLAY! This morning we headed north to an annual antique show.What David and I discovered (again)is that our tastes outmatch our budget.


Sooooo let's take a look at the goodies that were found.

I was pretty excited to find these 2 chenille bedspreads.Both are cutters, but just barely. And they were very reasonable. The peach/green was $17 and the white waffle pattern was only $8! They'll look wonderful in the next projects I'm planning.

Next were these sweet little die-cut angels from England. There are 2 sheets of 24 angels. I grabbed them both up for $2.50 a sheet. I'm thinking we should do something with them in this year's Christmas card. Now I just have to sell the idea of "shabby" to the rest of the family.Sorry about the glare...new camera...still evolving...

And then there were these:I must admit my heart skipped when I spotted them. I even love the box they're in. (No pics??I'm really no good at this...)It's a sweet pink with embossed flowers on it.And inside 20 beautiful deckle-edged vintage water-color styled unused note cards.*sigh*

Well after 2 tries writing this post, I think I've figured out the picture thing.Jaina, aren't you proud of me??

New Stuff...

is up in the shop. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself. I've got a few more purses to finish before the big "Showcase" day but I'm not going to be too rushed. In fact, I'm thinking there's an auction this weekend and I'm sooooo there. Just wish we had won the lottery Wednesday. Oh well. Next week.


We did do a little antiquing last weekend. I found some cutesy things and as soon as I figure out how to post pictures, I'll drop some in. David and I headed to a shop in Mt. Vernon and as soon as we were through the door, David was like: " I think this woman and you were separated at birth. This is TOTALLY the stuff you love." He must have been right because he was half-way through the store before I got out of the first room! He kept coming back to tell me about stuff I was going to like if I ever got to the next room. I had to do some "value shopping". Not a lot of budget to play with. I found some great vintage buttons still on beautiful cards, buttons in a cute, vintage 1/2 pint mason jar, and my favorite a 4"x6" painting of pink flowers in a fabulous golden shabby frame! It so funny because I had just thought to myself I needed a little something to hang over the wall pocket that has the vintage doilies in it. And it's perfect! It kinda matches the larger painting David and I found last year. I love it when stuff like that happens. And it's cheap.

What a Nice Weekend...

After being sick for nearly a month and having the energy to do nothing more than work and sleep, I was looking forward to doing a little sewing this weekend. I've been trying to get a few more purses in the ole Etsy Shop to replace the Christmas goodies. So Saturday morning (after sleeping in an extra hour!) I was all set to start the new projects. The day was shaping up to be very Spring-like and I was going to open a window and enjoy the fresh air. But then a Good Idea (in the shape of a Husband)walked up to me and said: "Let's go DO something." Well, Something turned out to be a little antiquing! OK! Windows down, checkbook open! We headed to 4 or 5 of our favorite places and weren't disappointed. Lots of new stuff. I found 2 fab chenille spreads to use for my purses, David found an LP he didn't have and at the last shop, I went crazy for some sweeeeeeet Victorian calling cards and 50's baby announcement cards. The best part was everything was so reasonable, I just can't feel guilty about how great of a time I had!!

Sunday I finally got into the sewing room. Had fun there, too! I didn't really get a lot finished. I'm in the "almost done" zone. I just like being in my sewing room. Even though it's not finished yet, it has a creative vibe in there. Not to mention lots of fun fabrics. I'll try to finish up those purses this week. I'd like them in the shop by the 14th.

So it wasn't REALLY over...

So I thought I could take a break after the craft show but not so much. A friend of mine suggested I take my purses out to a new store, Farmer's Daughter, to see if I could get them placed there on consignment. Turns out the owner doesn't do consignment but will purchase items outright for resale. She liked my things and bought 6 purses that day and ordered 10 more PLUS a dozen accessories. And wanted them in a week. The problem with this arrangement is that I'm taking a considerable profit loss to do this. Basically I'm making about $2.50/purse for 4 hrs of work. I decided to complete the new order but I'm not going to be doing any more for her. It's too bad as when I delivered today's order, she seemed to really like the new stuff and even is going to keep one of the little purses I finished.

I am proud of myself for getting all this done in a week! The best I've done before was 15 purses in 2 weeks. The truth be told, I did have more squares pre-cut already so I had more time to "design". It felt good to leave with a nice check for our vacation.
~Beth

AND the remainder of my things are in my Etsy shop! They look really good. David and Jaina took the pictures for me. Just tonight, 4 new people have "hearted" my shop!! And a couple of them sent convos that were very nice and complimentary. I'm very excited. I'm going to add a few Bitty Bags and Itty Bitty Bags, and probably checkbook covers, eyeglass cases and accessory bags. I like the way the checkbook covers turned out. I'll be making one to keep, I think!

Well, I'm off to buy more fabric. Not much left in the sewing room! And hopefully it'll arrive by the time we get back from Disney World and I can start a new round of insomnia!

It's over! It's over! It's over!

FINALLY! I might be able to breathe again! The sale was yesterday and while it wasn't a big blow-out, it wasn't bad either. Traffic was pretty light but I had some sales. LOTS of compliments on my purses, lots of people taking business cards.Many of the other vendors thought I was priced too low, some customers thought I was too high so I'm thinking I'm probably somewhere near "just right".

David was a big help getting everything there, setting up and tearing down. I wouldn't have been able to do it by myself. We had everything planned perfectly. The purses displayed fabulously and set up was quick. Finally, my obsessive over-planning pays off! It was funny, though, trying to figure out the table display. I was basically unhappy with all the arrangements until David suggested a "stair-step" design. Sounded good. Well, you should of seen all the crap we pulled out of the garage trying to find the right height combinations! We wound up with 2 dirty cinder blocks, a spare leaf from our old table and 4 decking boards David had to tape together. But hey! they worked. Once it was all under the black crushed panne fabric, who knew?? We did decide the cinder blocks will be replaced for the next venue. Too hard to lug in.

Jaina worked like a slave to help me finish up Friday night. We both got to bed around 2AM. Exactly what I DIDN'T want to happen. I like my sleep. And then after the sale, she got right to work on the photos so we can get the rest of the stock up on Etsy. We'll have those done shortly, I think.

So outside of a couple of custom orders, I should be less chained in the sewing room. I can't want to get back to the point where this is fun and I'm not waiting for the sweet release of death.

On a fun-er note: DISNEY WORLD IN 27 DAYS!!
I think I can speak for the entire family when I say we can't wait to get out of Dodge! Even with the enormous crowds during Christmas, if you keep your want-to-do list shorter, there's tons o'fun to be had. It'll definately be a small budget trip this time. (Jaina and I will probably need to share kid's meals to make food budget.)But sometimes the trips you sacrifice for and on are the ones you enjoy the most. Ask us sometime about the Girl Scout Washington D.C. trip. That's the trip that convinced Jaina she and I could do the Amazing Race program, no sweat. We probably could, but I ain't the one eating any bugs...

So now on to cleaning the sewing room. Hope I remember where everything goes...unless I can just leave it all piled on the floor like it is now...

Fuses Are Overrated...

Apparently, if you try to run three lights, an iron, a sewing machine and a space heater on one side of the house-- you'll knock the power out. I'd say Dad has had his fill of the basement and the fusebox considering he's had to wander down there several times in the last few days to bring light back into Mom's sewing room.

It would help if she had carpet on the floor, but since she started her "Send the Kid to Greece" project, it hasn't really happened. Perhaps I should invest in some of those carpet squares we sell at work, maybe it'll help retain heat. Or maybe it'll just annoy the hell out of her, I don't know. I just know, from 18 years of experience living on the second floor of our house, that winter is the less desirable of the seasons to live upstairs during. She seems to be progressing fairly well. Only a few setbacks I'm aware of and the usual motherly perfection that might slow her down. But I suppose I'd rather her care what her products look like, then she just slap a few purses together and call it good. I can't expect any less from her even if I wanted to, she doesn't leave any stone unturned when it comes to these projects. She worries and second-guesses and goes above and beyond the necessary for making these. Plus, she's way more patient then me. I would have lost my mind a long time ago with these things, but at least I admit that I have no talent when it comes to crafty things.

I admit it.

Anyway, as I've said, she appears to be making decent progress, though I'm sure she'll disagree with me. If she ever actually blogs again ;0)

I wish I could come with her to this craft show, but alas-- as always, I'll be working. Typical anymore, since this lovely new college leaves me no free week days to work. So weekends are shot.

I will not miss working at the store. I'm sure I'll continue working, just hopefully not there so I can be more involved if she continues this little business of hers.

Well, time to go eat-- finally. We'll be back later, and hopefully Mom will blog herself this time.

~Jaina