simply-crafting

I always feel bad when I sit back and think about my crafting endeavours for the past week. Because lately I haven’t been able to do very much crafting at all. I have so many projects on the go and not enough time to finish them all. But hopefully this is all going to change.

On Tuesday both kids will be headed back to school so that will leave me more time to get things done which includes crafting. I have really slacked off this summer and I can’t wait to get back into a routine again. So after the kids go back to school I’m going to set up a routine and follow it. Hopefully when I’m back on a regular schedule I will get everything done that needs to be done around here which will free up some time for all my crafting jobs.

It’s not even the end of August and I have started receiving some Christmas orders already for my jewelry.  Yesterday I took out my jewelry to show my neighbor and was pleasantly surprised when one of the neighbors asked me to make her three custom orders of a necklace and bracelet set.  I already have an order from a friend of mine for a set so this makes four now.  The neighbor I took the jewelry out to show has already stated that she will be purchasing some pieces from me as well.  She doesn’t require a custom order, she will just pick pieces out of the stuff that I already have made up.

This will be my second year of making jewelry and trying to sell it at Christmas time so things are definitely looking up.  Now all I need to do is get the free supplies that a friend is holding for me and then I can start making these orders and some extras for people to choose from.

Yesterday my father in law came into my home with two huge cabinets.  One of the cabinets we are going to use for the kitchen and my husband said I could have the other one for all my craft supplies.  This is great news because this means that I  will be getting a couple of closets back.  My young son will be happy as he hasn’t never been able to use his closet because I have always had stuff in it.

So this weekend my husband is going to move the cabinet into my sewing room.  I need to clean it out a bit first.  Then I will be able to transfer everything out of the closets into this cabinet.  Once I get everything trasferred over, I will then be able to see what I have and what I need.  I can’t wait!!

One of my favorite places to shop for craft supplies would be at our local dollar store.  I usually go in there once a month and spend about $40 all on craft supplies.  With everything in there being a dollar I usually come out with quite a few supplies.  This is where I buy all my thread for quilting, all my yarn for knitting and a lot of my beading supplies as well.

I haven’t made my monthly trip to the dollar store in a couple of months.  The main reason for this is because with the children home I haven’t been doing a lot of crafting so I haven’t been running out of a lot of supplies.  But with the kids headed back to school next week, I can see my crafting hobby picking up which means that my monthly trip to the dollar store will be back on as well.

So this question is going out to all  you crafters out there.  Where do you purchase your supplies?  And do you make craft supply purchases on a regular basis?

Because I’ve had two little people underfoot all summer, not a whole lot of crafting has gotten done.  But this will soon change in about a week’s time.  In a week’s time my two youngest children will be headed back to school which will mean that I will have a lot more time to devote to my crafts and my crafting business.

I plan on making quite a few cross stitched pieces, some plastic canvas sets, more jewelry and I also plan to finish up a couple of quilts as well.  This way when the Christmas craft fairs start, I will have quite a lot of different types of crafts to sell at them.  Hopefully I am able to stick to my plans and get quite a bit accomplished before the beginning of December.  If not, then anything I make this fall will have to be put away for the Christmas season next year.

Wish me luck!

Many of you may not be aware of this, but the only other thing that I enjoy more than crafting would be camping.  At the first of the summer my husband and I purchased a 2008 camper trailer and have gone camping at every opportunity that we get.  This is one of the reasons why I haven’t been able to get very much crafting done this summer.  Between having the kids underfoot all summer and gone most weekends, I haven’t found my time to work on my crafting projects.

But this weekend that is going to change.  Last weekend when we were camping and taking a stroll around the campsite I seen several ladies sitting outside knitting.   I thought this was an amazing thing.  So I am planning on taking my knitting with me when we go camping this weekend.

Last February I started a knitted afghan for my daughter and I still haven’t completed it yet.  So I figured I could take my knitting with me and while the kids are playing I could get some knitting in.  If this works out this weekend, then I plan to do this every time we go camping.  I don’t think I could ever take my beadwork with me, but you never know.

If you’ve been reading the posts in this blog, then you have come to realize that one of the crafts that I’m heavily involved in right now is creating unique pieces of jewelry.  Now all the jewelry I have been creating is for sale and I have sold a few pieces.  Not as many as I would like, but I do realize that all this comes with time.

Well a few posts back I had a reader ask me if I would post some pictures of some of my creations.  So this post is to show you all some of the jewelry that I have created that I currently do have for sale.

I hope you all enjoy looking at the pictures and I really hope that you will leave me a comment with your thoughts on my pictures.  But I need to give you all a warning.  I’m a really bad photographer.  So the pictures really don’t do the pieces justice.  But at least I have pictures right?!

My husband is getting pretty annoyed with me and honestly I can’t blame him.  I refuse to throw out any clothing.  For some reason I have it in my head that I can save all the kids article of clothing and cut them up and make some recycled quilts out of them.

I got this idea about 8 years ago when a friend of mine talked me into making recycled jean quilts.  At first I was pretty good about cutting up the jeans and making the quilts.  I had made one for each of the children and two for our pop up camper trailer.  But I kind of got bored with that (yeah, I do that a lot ) so I stopped making them, but I didn’t stop collecting them.

Now I have TWO closets full of jeans and old children’s clothing that I haven’t done anything with.  So I’m thinking when the kids go back to school I have to get back at my recycled quilts.  Right now I don’t have any pictures of the quilts that I have made, but when I get serious with it again, I’ll be sure to post the pictures.

So…could you all please tell my husband to be patient with me.  I will get to it.  I promise.

Well the news is not good.  This past weekend a friend of mine took all my jewelry with her when she attending a craft fair that was out of town.  When I called her yesterday to see how we did, she informed me that we didn’t do very good at all.  She never even sold one piece of my jewelry.  To say I was disappointed was a mild understatement.

But, she didn’t do very well with her stuff either.  She said the main reason for this was because their booth was set up at a pretty crappy spot and they didn’t get much traffic even come to the booth.  But she is going to another one in November and has offered to take my stuff.  So I guess we will just have to see what happens with that one.  Hopefully she will have a better spot with more traffic next time.

Honestly folks this is so funny!  This is a true story.

Yesterday my husband and I took the kids to a giant flea market in another town.  My main reason for going was to look for books and jewelry supplies.  Well I didn’t find any beading supplies, but I did pick up six books at a very cheap price so I was happy with the day.  On our way back from the flea market when stopped at a little vegetable stand that also has a barbecue and ordered some dinner.  After we got our dinner and were sitting outside eating it I started looking around.  On one of their signs they had posted carrots, cucumbers and BEANS for sale.

Well you know your addicted to beading when…..you read a sign that says beans and you think it said BEADS.  LOL  I got so excited that I told my husband after we were done eating I was going to go into the store and see what kind of BEADS they had for sale.  Then my husband burst my bubble when he told me to read the sign again.

That would be beans, not beads.  Oh well.  All I can say is I tried.