Tuesday, September 25, 2007

NEW Halloween Items Listed On ETSY






I finally got around to listing some new HALLOWEEN items on my etsy shop this morning! I have gotten several requests for the Halloween wands, and I listed six this morning! Also, I listed a couple vintage-look Halloween ornaments. To chek out my shop, click HERE. Also you can save this address: www.sleepyhollowcrafts.etsy.com
Thank You!

Monday, September 24, 2007

Halloween all througout the house...





Craft Room makeover






Goal: A place to craft that is inspiring, lovely and has some manageable clutter,because I kind of like a little clutter.
My Craft Rooom Wish List:
  • More Shelves
  • A place to package my etsy orders
  • A place to wrap gifts
  • A place for a computer(this is a pipe dream...but that is what wish lists are for, right?)
  • Get things that aren't related to crafting, like the vacuum cleaner, out of that room!
  • A pretty curtain
  • new paint
  • good lighting
  • pretty things on the walls
  • and...lots and lots of time to spend in there!
If you have any miraculous before and after pics of your own craft room transformation please let me know. I am looking for inspiration! Please leave comments if you have any suggestions...

It's Officially Autumn!





I had such a great weekend! My best girlfriend, Kelly, and I spent some long overdue time together this weekend on a hunt for a set of antique kitchen chairs to match a table she recently purchased. We had so much fun! We went to Orrville, a small town with a couple antique shops and a really neat store called Audrey's Attic. We shopped ourselves into a frenzy and finally landed at the new Smuckers gift shoppe. We are fortunate to live where there are lots of neat things to do for a day, going to Smuckers is one of them, also we live near the Longerberger basket factory as well. But you see, these are things that as locals we take for granted and never get around to doing because they'll always be there so their really not that big of deal to us. Let me just tell you, I am going toSmuckers...like every chance I get from now on! It is so cute as you can see from the pictures, and they now have a cafe...which features a peanut butter and jelly pizza! Which is awesome! I am going to post a pic of Kelly with the pizza(she'll love that :) After munching down the pizza we did finally get around to checking out the rest of the place, the Smuckers people are so clever, there is a "stained glass window" of jelly jars and an actually chandelier made from strawberry jam jars! Also they have great samples to taste of products and a walk through Smuckers museum. If you are ever in northeast Ohio I highly recommend stopping by the Smuckers Factory Store anddon't forget the PB&J pizza!
Upon returning from my day trip with Kelly, I found that my sweetheart of a husband had brought up some of our Halloween tubs, he said "it's time." LOL So we spent a couple of hours starting to decorate for our favorite holiday! I put up our Halloween village, a favorite at our house and of course some of my collectibles. I tried something different this year, putting them on a wall shelf that hangs above our couch, I don't think I am going to leave them there for long. I have big plans for the large yellow shelf in the corner, I am going to paint it cream and antique it as soon as I get time, hopefully after the country living fair. But if you are like me I am always tweaking displays around our home. I get so much joy out of decorating, it's probably a sickness.
Also, speaking of big plans, I plan on updating my craft room. I took some sad, sad pictures of it's current state. if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.
One last but not least thing, Thank you to those of you who patron my etsy shop and ordered Halloween wands! I will be putting more wands and some other Halloween and Holiday items up this week..so be sure to check it out!

Monday, September 17, 2007

New Items on My Etsy Shop




I finally got around to placing some NEW items on my etsy shop. I have a hard time parting with some of my creations and want to find good homes for them...check it out!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Halloween Swap


On Friday I had the day off and stayed home and completed my swap project for Jenny from Everyday is a Holiday. I am so pleased with the way it came out! I will be posting pictures as soon as I receive her swap piece for me. I am so excited! I have been a fan of her artwork and blog for awhile now. Her posts are funny and inspirational, check out her site, it is linked in the list of my favorite places.
Yesterday I spent the day with my mom, we had a great time! We went over to our local craftie store and it was packed! I couldn't believe all of the people! You can tell Fall is in the air, the aisles were jammed with women with tons of fall decorations bursting from their carts. Needless to say, we got in and got out. It was craziness!
Today I spent the day cooking, one of my favorite things to do. I made a big pot of my mom's homemade chicken noodle soup and some rustic marinara sauce for a supper later this week. For dessert I made the most AMAZING banana sour cream cake(with a name like that how can it be bad????) from a recipe I found in Kraft Food and Family magazine. It turned out so good, I just had to take a picture of it! Also, I was so proud to serve it on my great grandmother's cake plate, so beautiful. My husband is having a hard time keeping his fingers out of the cream cheese frosting...I can't blame him, it is so good!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

BIrthday Parties and Captured Fairy Jars





This weekend I had some time on my hands so I started looking through some of my old Somerset Studio magazines. I love having these on hand for inspiration. I turned to a layout that featured jars-captured fairy jars, altered photographs in jars...I dabbled in this before and they were fun to make so I decided to make some more. I kind of went a little crazy with it, I recently was given one of my favorite gifts of all time- a ton of old jars and coffee cans from a friend of mine. Her husband has dreams of a Bob Villa- type garage with tons of jars filled with screws and nails..and other manly things. I was happy to receive their over-flow and have been itching to use them ever since. I made a total of seven jars...I think it was all the diamond dusting the day before that put me in a fairy mood, because they all are fairies.
On Sunday, I spent the afternoon at my brother and sister-in-law's house with their four kids celebrating the middle two kids' birthdays. I took a couple picks of the tags I attached to their gifts, they turned out kinda cute I thought. Craft On!

Diamond Dust Glitter...my new obsession



I was so bummed out on Friday for no reason...I had spent the morning at the Black Squirrel Festival on the beautiful campus of Kent State University, my Alma mater. The sun was shining, it was really windy and despite that I was having a great hair day...so why was I in such a funk? I didn't really know, so after zipping through the Burger King drive thru for a cherry berry icee(a must try-so slushy and sweet) I headed over to my local craft store. There I discovered my new favorite thing...diamond dust glitter. I have read about this product online but hadn't seen it in a store, so when I found it I bought the giant jar and some stuff to glitter and headed home, already feeling better about things. I started with modge podge and then coated all of my snowmen ornaments with the glitter..I was in heaven! Sticking my spoon in the jar heaping mounds of the beautiful glittery shimmery flakes over the cute little snowmen faces! I just love it! If you are ever in a funk...I highly recommend this therapy...glitter therapy. It's cheap and fun!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Country Living Fair 2007


I am really looking forward to attending the Country Living Fair this year in Morrow, Ohio. The ads in the magazine make it look so fabulous! I can't wait to purchase all of the fun arts and crafts that are featured in the magazine each month! So far I am planning on driving down on Friday and then staying the night on Saturday. What a fun thing to look forward to! Check it out at http://www.countryliving.com/

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Soldered Charms and Snowmen...





Labor Day Weekend Craft Bonanza!






Okay, so I am very happy with myself. I made this long, long to-do list well over two weekends ago and I finally crossed my last thing off today! Yes! I am such a crafting geek, I make myself lists of things that I want to try and also keep track of my projects-in- progress, since I have the attention span of a toddler when it comes to crafting. I am always trying new things and when I see things in Somerset or Country Living I go out and collect everything to make it and then the stuff just sits in my ever-growing clutter pile in my craft room.So this weekend I started an inventory and started finishing things. It felt so good! And it does help that my husband is awesome and doesn't mind me sitting in there, listening to Christmas music with my solder gun in hand. Yes, I admit, I sometimes listen to Christmas music in the summer and fall and spring-and at Christmas. I am a geek, I told you! Anyhow I wanted to share some of my finished projects with you, so I am going to post some pictures.I worked on some soldered necklaces and pins, tags, painted paper-mache snowmen and some randome other little cute things.
As well, I am very excited about the pumpkin/black cat swap being hosted by hophopjingleboo. I am a huge fan of that site and want everything on it! I am thrilled to be a part of this swap!
Also, yesterday before my craft bonanza got kicked off we majorly cleaned the kitchen and dining room, cabinets and all! I, of course, found time to tweek my favorite green cabinet display in between chores. I am really looking forward to filling it up with all of my Halloween treasures! I mean, adding to the ones I keep up all year! I think I am going to make it an all-year Halloween display after this Halloween is over. I just love looking at all that stuff too much to put it away. Check out some amazing Halloween collection displays at hophopjingleboo!