July 4th BBQ

I usually have a great 4th of July tradition. I invite myself to my sister's house, which just happens to be on Main Street in Hyrum, and watch the small town parade go by while sitting on her front lawn. The kids get giant bags of candy, and I get to hang out in the shade and chat with the grown-ups. We usually stay long enough to grill some burgers and then head home in time to walk up the street and gate-crash the country club for some fireworks. Basically, I spend the day going to parties where I invited myself. I am a little sad (and my husband is a lot sad) that I will be breaking with tradition this year and will be making the 4th a working holiday. It means I won't be able to see my three little girls dressed in their cute matching dresses at the parade.

Here's the deal with the craft show circuit. People gather on holidays. Most people have the day off of work. They all go out with their families to festivals and shows together. That means that if I am going to have any luck selling my stuff, I need to work the holidays. This means I have spent the last two Thanksgivings setting up a booth to be ready for Black Friday. Now July 4th is going to the cause, too. I'm just glad that my husband's birthday isn't really the national holiday that he thinks it is or I would really be in the dog house.

I figured if I can't be there to celebrate with my family, I can at least post pictures of what I am missing.


OK- we don't actually make our own french fries, but you get the point.

This is how I like my burger. Nothing fancy for me. I also made a super-cute hot dog, but you will have to wait until Labor Day for that one. I am too lazy to pull it out, take a picture and fight with my computer to get it to upload into the right place. Besides, my camera battery is dead. Maybe I will be a more organized/motivated person when I don't have three kids in diapers. No cookout is complete without an ice cream cone at the end! I make these in a variety of flavors and they have rattles in them. It is the best kind of ice cream for a baby because it doesn't melt and make a giant mess.

I guess I should plug my show now. I will be at the Freedom Festival on July 1, 2 and 4th. It is in Provo so, of course, it doesn't run on Sunday. How great is it that, in America, we are so patriotic that we celebrate our independence day with a full week of car shows, carnivals, beauty pageants, parades, fireworks, concerts, hot air balloon shows, golf tournaments, essay contests.... the list goes on and on. This is one of the biggest July 4th celebrations in the state and it should be lots of fun for the whole family. If you live in the Utah County direction, make sure you stop by my booth to say "hi"!

South Ogden Days

I am off to South Ogden for a show today. This should be a fun festival. There is a car show, a carnival, a parade, a mud volleyball tournament and fireworks. I love fireworks. And the mud volleyball should be pretty funny to watch, too. I am looking forward to spending a couple of days sitting in the nice weather, now that summer has finally decided to make an appearance, and eating fair food. If you are looking for something fun to do with the family this weekend, stop by and check it out! The info about times and location is on my sidebar. You can also see a schedule of events here.

Mmmm...mmmm...good!

One of my favorite lunches is a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. The soup is really more of a dipping sauce for the sandwich. There is something about the crispy, buttery bread with the gooey cheese dipped into the creamy, savory soup. All of the kids love it, too. Even the babies like it if I cut the sandwich into tiny pieces and dip it in soup for them. I was recently at a craft show and I saw a lady who was selling cans of soup. Her workmanship left a lot to be desired and she used a styrofoam cylinder to hold the shape. I could tell, because you could see it through the spaces in the stitching. It inspired me to do better. This is what I came up with.

I could never let my babies play with a toy with a styrofoam core because they would bite pieces off with their four little teeth. I use tight stitches and a structured yarn so that mine will hold it's shape in it's own. I have even thrown my toys in the washing machine to see if they would lose their shape. They came out clean and looking perfect.

I was thinking the soup would be fun in other flavors, too. How cute would it be to give a can of chicken soup to a sick friend in the hospital on diet restrictions? Or a can of mushroom soup to my mother who made a different casserole with a mushroom soup base for dinner five nights a week when I was growing up? It would even be a cute and unexpected rattle for a baby shower! Now it's your turn to tell me about your favorite soup!

Bonjour!

This is Pierre. He started out as kind of a joke. Katie told me that I should make french toast and I asked her how I could make french toast look different from regular toast. This is what we came up with: When he was done, I decided to photograph him and put him in my Etsy shop. Since photography isn't my special skill, I decided that it would be fun to find pictures of French landmarks on-line and take pictures of him standing in front of them.

I had no idea at the time that he would become one of my biggest sellers in my Etsy shop. I have sold dozens of him and shipped him all over the country and to a couple of countries in Europe. Last week a cute lady ordered him from my Etsy shop and asked if I could have him arrive quickly because she was leaving on a vacation to France and wanted to take pictures of him in front of real French landmarks. I squealed with delight when I read this and asked her if she would mind sending a couple of her photos my way. She said she would be happy to. I really hope she does. I can't wait to see them!

In other news, I updated my sidebar with my 2011 show line-up. I will be really busy, but I am excited to try some new shows and see what happens!

Tea Party!

I am never going to win any awards for keeping my blog updated, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been very busy creating new things. I had a few "product development days" last week and came up with some really cute new things for my shop and have a really full show line-up for the summer and fall with some new shows that I am really excited about.

But the thing that has really been the focus of my time and energy over the past couple weeks is getting ready for Nadia's birthday party. It started out like this:

Katie: Let's have a tea party for Nadia's birthday!
Me: OK. We can invite her three little cousins and one friend over for a little party.
Katie: Great! I'll start planning the menu!

What followed was a month of planning, baking, decorating, sewing and organizing for a party for 20 people. I really need to learn to control myself. And I have passed my disease down to Katie, who also has a tendency to go way overboard in the planning process as well.

This is the birthday girl. I made the pettiskirt. And the shirt. And the hat, too. See what I mean about needing to learn to control myself? But she looks so cute that I just can't help it!

This is the view from behind so you can see the fabulous hat. I may be out of control with my ideas, but I really know how to stick to a budget. I made a hat for each of the little girls at the party from hats I found at the dollar store and flowers that were just sitting around my house. Total cost for 11 hats: $15.

These are all of the little girls at the party in their hats. It was so cute and the girls loved being all fancy. I didn't plan any games or anything, but you know your party is a success when the guests tell their mom that they want to have their birthday party at your house!

These are my babies. I made their pettiskirts, too, but they aren't quite finished. Their birthday is coming up and they will be fabulous for their pictures. Their party is going to be amazing, too. They are going to have a birthday cake with a "Teddy Bear Picnic" scene. See... told you I have a disease. I really can't help myself.

I really wish photography was one of my skills, but sadly, it is not. This is the table with all of the food. I am not a fan of baking, but Katie is, so she got to do a lot of the baking for the party. We had finger sandwiches (cucumber, egg salad, and PB&J), fruit skewers with mini raspberry muffins and dip. mini quiches, crumpets with clotted cream and jelly (there is a great story behind that which is worthy of it's own blog post), assorted tea cookies, strawberry lemonade, and sherbet punch. All of it was served on my fancy display pieces that I have sitting around because they are all a part of my booth display. Nadia got in on the baking action the day before the party. Don't you love the chef hat and apron? She insists on wearing them every time she helps out in the kitchen. Amy made them and you can buy them from her Etsy shop. (The link is on my sidebar.)

Of course, there were cupcakes baked in teacups, big tissue paper poofs hanging from the tree branches, tables with cute eyelet tablecloths and teacup centerpieces with fresh flowers cut from my yard, and a canopy draped with flower garlands and a chandelier hanging from the center. Of course, almost all of this was stuff from my booth. Total cost of decorations: $3.

Now that that party is over and I'm done homeschooling Katie for the summer, I will post some pictures of all of my new stuff for my shop and put up info about my upcoming shows on the sidebar.

Thanksgiving Pies

I just helped my 13 year old daughter, Katie, make her very first pumpkin pie. They are still in the oven, so I don't know how they turned out, but the house smells heavenly! In honor of the occasion, I thought I would post pictures of some pies that I made last week. They don't smell nearly as good and I sure hope Katie's pies taste better, but I think they are cute.

Pumpkin pie is my favorite to eat, but I love looking at a cute cherry pie with a trellis top!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Lil' Brown Sugars

I am so excited about an opportunity that has come my way. At a recent show that I did, a really cute girl saw my booth and emailed me. She is opening a bakery in Santaquin and will have a small gift shop area. She wanted to know if I was interested in selling my hats in her shop. I have never offered my stuff in a store before, but I thought I would give it a try.

The bakery is Lil' Brown Sugars Bakery. Amy and I stopped by today to drop off our stuff and it is adorable. In addition to having baked goods, she will have a little gift shop area, an espresso bar, and a lunch menu. It isn't open quite yet- she is waiting for the last of her construction to be finished- but it will be open by the end of this week. Amy and I can't wait to go back down after it is open to have lunch.
The address is:
340 East Main #1 Santaquin, UT, 84655
It is really easy to find. It is just off of the Santaquin exit on I-15.
So, if anyone is in the Santaquin area, or driving through on your way to somewhere else, be sure to stop by for a salad or cupcake and check it out!