Winter Wonderland!!

Hi all!

Jamaica was a great adventure! We got to stay at the YWAM base in Montego Bay. My sisters and I volunteered in an orphanage and aids hospice, got to participate in numerous cultural activities including a gospel reggae concert in Montego Bay's town square! We climbed the world famous Dunn's River Falls, visited the local craft market(PTL craft markets in Canada are not like that!) We even were in the middle of tropical storm Nicole(6 kmph away from being a hurricane!!) It was a trip of a lifetime!!!

And now.... Back to reality!!! When I got home I took stock of..... my stock.... and found it woefully depleted from my Kaleido fest escapades. I hit up my favorite thrift stores and now I am rolling in sweaters... I have high aspirations for filing my inventories, and with help and accountability from a dear friend and fellow crafter I will hopefully stay on track!!!

What am I staying on track for? I just received confirmation that I will have a table in the Winter Wonderland craft sale! Well enough chatting! I have sewing to do!!!

I will keep you posted on my progress!

When it rains.....

Hi all of my two readers out there! Just wanted to give you an update, Today I participate in Kaleido Festival. I will have my table set up for the next three days, and am looking forward to selling! Come and say hi!

It is a well welcomed distraction. My Uncle unexpectedly passed away this week, so its been a very emotional week for me. I feel rather exhausted on all levels, and quite unprepared for the festival. I had a fairly scheduled plan worked out in order to ensure that I reach all my stocking levels: family tragedy meet good intentions. Outcome was less than ideal on the stocking front. But what else can you expect in such situations. Time should be spent grieving, comforting, and remembering with loved ones, and so it was, and is and should be. My thoughts and prayers are with my Aunt and cousins.

I have a busy couple of days ahead of me, as the funeral is scheduled for Monday, and internment for Wednesday. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I haven't gotten any sleep in the past week, and will not over the weekend either as I will have to come home each day after a long day selling, and stay up into the wee hours to replenish stock.

Eastwoodfest 2010

Pictures of Eastwoodfest tent!



p.s. I didnt go into this with very high money making expectations, you know, expect the worst, hope for the best; but I was very surprised how successful I was! I am so excited to do way more of these!!!


Cha-ching.


Kaliedo, here I come!!!

While visions of dollar signs danced in her head.

Twas the night before Eastwoodfest, when all through the house
Naomi was stirring, like a little crazy mouse.
The finishing touches were fussily made with care,
In hopes that tomorrow a lot of cash would come from selling her wares.




Wish me luck!!!

Hand Made Mafia!

Hi all! Just wanted to let you know that I applied for another craft sale! It is a monthly craft sale right behind the Strathcona Farmers Market- All you Edmontonians will know where that is! I am so excited! I checked it out today and it looks like it has a lot of potential to be an income earner! I wanted to apply for the Sept/Oct/Nov shows, but they don't fit in with my traveling schedule(*see paragraph below!) So hopefully I can get into the 3 before Christmas! I will keep you posted as to whether or not I get in!

Onto my "traveling schedule"!!!! In September I will be accompanying my sister, who is a missionary, and my other sister who is a nurse, on a humanitarian mission to Jamaica for 9 days! 100% of proceeds of all Butterfly Garage sales will be going to fund raise for this trip! So I will be sewing hard, and hopefully SELLING HARD! If you ever thought of buying something from me, but were waiting for some reason, now is the time to buy because the money I will be receiving will be going directly to pay for this trip! So... think of it as a feel good purchase, you get a sweet/cute/impeccably made crafted item, PLUS you will be contributing to an orphan child's happiness when I bring her clothes, and school supplies. And hopefully, by the grace of God, I can make a small impact in her life!

A month after I get home from Jamaica, I will be going with my husband to L.A. He is attending a music conference there and I will be along for moral support, PLUS! we get to stay 4 days after for a long overdue honeymoon! My husband will say this is a second honeymoon, where as I sorta disagree. Staying in a friends house(which I am extremely grateful for, don't get me wrong) in Crow's Nest Pass doesn't really qualify. Sure there was a hot tub, but what we did for entertainment, besides the obvious, was: watch all the Harry Potter movies, take one hike, and get some ice cream from the Pixie Shack. Not exactly an all inclusive tropical vacation... Again, don't get me wrong we were in love and dirt poor(not much has changed; still madly in love, just more in debt), so it was DEFINITELY a wonderful experience... But I am extremely grateful for these two trips coming up! Side note: The kids wont be coming with me/us for either, and my heart already hurts thinking about it!

All that to say it will be a busy few months ahead! Stay tuned!

medium size butt in gear.

I'm so excited! A couple months ago an online magazine called Modern Handmade Child asked to feature one of my hot water bottles in an article in their Fall issue! I was so surprised and excited! And then, because of the memory challenged brain I have(thanks for that gem of an inheritance, mom) I promptly forgot! Until yesterday. So as I sat at my computer for the first time today, I quickly uploaded the mag, and voila!

There it was...

There is something so exciting about someone using something that you poured so much time and thought into, and to see it surrounded by font and making a loving example of what "TO DO". Ahhh... future goals and aspirations: to be in magazines more often. Martha Stewart Living. I. mean. you. Well we can dream. (side note: I have 8 brand new hot water bottle covers I have just finished with some brand new appliqué designs. So hopefully with this magazine article I can drum up some exposure, and tomorrow I am not going to eat or sleep until I get those new items listed!)

I also wanted to share with you that I DID get into the Kaelido Art Fest, September 10-12th! I was thinking to myself: "Self, you have done good for..(pause).. yourself.... You have stock lined up for this Art Fest, and you have over a month to make as much as you can to pad your shelves! You are pretty nifty, oh so talented, and yes, beautiful, did I mention creative and talented as well... (the last sentence was an merely an exercise in positive image behavioural therapy). Lets just say I thought I was in a good spot.

And then BANG! My friend Mat messaged me and asked me to please be part of this one day community festival called Eastwoodfest 2010, and would I like to have a table- oh-
also its in two weeks? "OF COURSE!" I proclaimed, not necessarily paying attention to the last two words of that sentence. What budding business woman turns down a free(did I mention its free- to me and to you! You should come! August 14th, 10-6) business opportunity?!?!? Seconds after I fired off my reply, a strange feeling hit me... "Ummmm What if you sell all your stock?"(budding business women are required to be optimistic by nature) So.... I need to have double what I thought I would have going into 2 festivals within 3 weeks of each other! Time to get my medium size butt(I have lost all but 3 lb of my baby weight- losing weight is hard, so let me brag!) IN GEAR!

So.....I guess what I'm saying is.....

Mom:
I need your help!










Seriously... can you call me and tell me when you can come over and help me sew?

inspiration!

Well, life has been busy, but when is it not? I have been extremely blessed to be able to stay at home with my babies for the last 9 months! I always had these feelings of being a lazy little lout, but looking over the past little while, I have to say that my negative opinion is slowly changing. I am a hard worker. Even when I am not "working" I am often doing something practical with my hands even while trying to "relax". The esteemed woman of Proverbs 31 is an ideal for me, and I try to uphold those values. My favourite line is "She looks for wool and flax, and works with her hands in delight." That part I have down pretty good! And hopefully the rest will come along.

I may not be the best cook(trying to think up original meals, and figure out new recipes makes me nervous), or the best housekeeper(in an effort to become more diligent in my house keeping responsibilities I have created an excel spread sheet. I am a spread sheet geek) but I really DO want to be better.

Butterfly Garage brings me SO much satisfaction! My favourite part is when I am not working under pressure, and creating. I REALLY love coming up with new ideas, and then generating them!

Looking at my Tupperware's heaped with wool sweaters, I decided that I had to figure out what to do; what to make them into. Through trial and error, I have started discovering which types(colors and patterns) of wool sweaters seem to work best for owls and teddy bears. And not all the wool I had was really fitting into those categories. I thought of doing throw pillow covers(still might if I figure out an original enough way to do it) but felt a little uninspired, but it got me thinking... I honestly don't know where I came up with the idea, but I thought "wouldn't it be neat if you could cover you hot water bottles with this warm cozy wool, instead of having to wrap and rewrap it in an old scratchy towel!" So I decided to use up most of my sweaters, making them into hot H2O bottle cozies! I was so inspired! This was a great chance to use up my stash AND get artistically creative! I whipped out my wool roving(thanks Larissa for the amazing birthday present!) and my felting needles and started stabbing away! Click on the etsy links on the right hand side to see the ones I have for sale!

My sisters are always on the look out for wool sweaters when they are walking their thrift store beat, and have brought me some gems. One little brown zip up hooded number in particular was SO cute I just couldn't cut it up! I felted it anyways, and thought it would be SO charming on my 2 year old daughter. To anyone who felts though, you know that doing so can throw the proportion off- so my sweater ended up a good length for the torso, but had some major monkey arm issues. After removing the zipper and adding a cute little wood button, I decided to cut the arms off into a little caped sleeve, and use the arms as leggings. Oh. My. Word. socute. I took her to the market in the outfit, and a lady grabbed my sleeve and asked where I bought her outfit! I told her I made it and she then told me I should be selling my stuff at the market! So future IDEA: keep my eye out for similar sweaters, and make them into matching sweater/leg warmer sets, and needle felt a cute little appliqués onto them!

Recently I started making flowers out of my wool sweater scraps(I have bags and bags of it that I have refused to throw out saving them for an occasion such as this). One perusal through etsy and I know its not an original idea, but my pattern is original, and I have SO much fun matching colors and buttons and they are quick and easy to make. I doubt I will sell them on etsy as it is over saturated with like product but I'm thinking of selling them at some upcoming craft sales, so as to have my product accessible at all different price points.


Speaking of which! I have applied just recently for the opportunity to sell some of my wares at an art festival! Its called Kaleido Art Festival and its put on by the Ave's Artist Association. I submitted the quite detailed application last week, and I will hear back by the end of June. Lets just say I will be a tad disappointed if I don't get chosen.

Here is what my table might look like if I get in!(Might meaning, this was thrown together last minute, but will be a 100x better if I were to get a spot!)


I'm really hoping for this opportunity as I think it will be a great learning experience. My goal is to have a booth at the Make It craft fair, in November 2011. That is the BIG leagues, so hopefully by then I will have more smaller craft shows under my belt.

My goal is to be able to make this side business my career(after the kids are in school full time) so now is the time to slowly build up my presence in my local craft community/online and learn everything I can in order to be successful! I don't ever want to go back to work doing something that doesn't creatively satisfy me. Been there, done that, got the prescription anti depressants.

SO. In order to do these craft shows/fares, I am required to extensively build my stock, Which I can say is coming along! Sometimes just looking at the sewing machine hurts my neck, but when I am able to sit down uninterrupted I can crank out quite a few items. Its nice to be able to see progress... Unfortunately my limited storage space is feeling the brunt of my industry, so I am going to have to figure out where to keep all the goods(I can only stack so many Tupperware's and boxes before the avalanche sirens go off)!

Now to make sure all items are posted on both butterflygarage.com AND etsy so stay tuned!