A NEW ENDEAVOR !!

What an exciting day- in so many ways !! 

 I was really nervous for my first day at the farmer's market. I had no idea how long it would take me to set up everything (canopy, 3 tables, and all my wares and decorations) by myself and make sure no detail was overlooked to be ready for customers. I wanted to get there early so I had plenty of time to get organized then let myself relax knowing I was ready, so I could greet customers confidently rather than all flustered.

However, my day took an unexpected turn when I woke up at 5:30am to find Chuck moaning and groaning next to me in bed.  He had gotten up to take a shower and get ready to catch a 7am flight when he had an intense onset of chest pain, with sweating and nausea. Yikes !! Over his protests (typical guy) I drug him to the emergency room to get checked out. So we were there for several hours while they did and EKG, x-rays and blood work.  Apparently Chuck was right all along because they found nothing wrong (thank goodness!!) and said it must of been indigestion???? Good grief.  Well, at least now I had someone to help me set up, because he had definitely missed his flight to California and decided to take a sick day.

The side note to all this: I had mentioned to our home teacher on Sunday when he came to visit that I would be setting up all by myself on Tuesday because everyone else would be at work. He surprised me by showing up at the market early to help me set up only to find me not there.  What a sweet man! Not only that- but he waited around for quite awhile waiting for me to show up.  I felt so bad for inconveniencing him, after all he has a job to go to as well.

So after a frazzling start my day got under way.  I got to the market and set up in plenty of time and got to enjoy meeting all the other vendors and chatting with people all day.  The weather cooperated by not raining.  It was the opening day of the market for the season so there weren't a lot of visitors, which actually was nice for me so I didn't feel overwhelmed.  I had lots of positive feedback for my garden art.  People thought it was unique and creative. I only sold 2 items, but at least that covered the cost of my market rental space for the day. I have been told as the season progresses it will get much busier, so I am hoping I will sell more in the future. It was a positive experience and I am looking forward to next week.

 Just without all the early morning drama.

MOTHER'S DAY REVISITED

Mother's Day was a lot of fun this year.  This is me enjoying a sunny day while Becca was whipping up dinner on the BBQ. Jared gave me this giganto card and a cool potted plant that is now enjoying an extended life on the front deck in one of my chair planters. Becca gave me a gift card to Starbucks so that I can have my favorite hot chocolate every Monday morning after our 6am spin class.

 Rachel, Nate and the kiddos sent me a gorgeous bouquet of tulips (my favorite flower).

Thanks to all my darling children for remembering me, and thanks to my darling husband for all those darling children.

HUMP DAY

Sam has officially passed his one year mark in the mission field. He is enjoying his mission and excited to continue the work. He is still in the northern part of Indiana in South Bend working with students from Nortre Dame and St. Mary's College. He has realized over the past year that he enjoys using his outgoing personality and people skills. He is wondering if maybe he should consider a career in sales, rather than mechanical engineering. He knows that school is a long way off and he has plenty of time to consider those kinds of decisions.  Right now he is fully committed to the Lord's work.  He gets to Skype us on Mother's Day!  We are all so excited to talk to him.

MARKET MADNESS

I have been accepted as a vendor at my first Farmer's Market ! I have been thinking about doing this since last fall. It started after I had a garage sale and sold a ton of my garden art.  There are about 10 different Farmer's Markets in King County.  There are multiple ones on Saturday, but also you can find them every day of the week but Monday. 

I am starting with the market at Crossroads Mall here in Bellevue on Tuesday afternoons. It runs the end of May through September.  This was a good pick for my first venture because I already had a Bellevue business license, so there was no additional expense.  Plus it is close to home, has only been in existence a few years, thus not horribly crowded so I won't be overwhelmed as I try to figure out what I am doing.

The markets are all "juried", meaning you have to submit pictures of your product, and in some cases bring in samples to be evaluated by a jury to determine if it meets their standards.

When I made up my mind last fall to jump into this new venture I was hoping to hit some of the fall craft shows, so I went out a bought a really nice 10'X10' canopy that has the canvas walls that Velcro on in case of inclement weather.  However, the fairs were too soon and I didn't have enough material to sell to warrant the entry fees.  So my canopy never made it out of the box last year.

I have been making things all winter to build up my supply looking towards a summer start date, however, Becca and I went to Costco last Saturday and noticed that the farmer's market at the Pickering Barn across the street was already up and running, Yikes! Time to get serious!!

I have spent this week putting my booth together.  Getting the canopy out of the box and learning how to put it up and take it down all by myself (it is HEAVY), getting some display tables, table cloths, making pots to display my totems that go on stakes, filling sand bags to weight each corner of the canopy (required by the markets) so that a gust of wind can't blow your booth around and cause damage to other vendors.

A lot of my garden totems go on stakes in the ground so I needed to figure out a way to display them.  I had some large plastic pots I wanted to fill with sand and put the stakes in- but the pots were chipping and ugly.  First I tried to paint the pots, which I did last fall, but unfortunately the paint just chipped off as well.  So I came up with the idea to cover them in fabric.  The pots needed to be heavy enough to support the totems without tipping over, but not so heavy I couldn't lift it in and out of the van.  My compromise was 6 inches of sand in the bottom, then I filled the rest up with that expanding window insulation foam.  After it dried I covered the top with moss.

I also needed to figure out some table decorations to go with my garden theme, so I made this topiary, it's a little crooked, but doesn't look too bad from a distance.

I wanted to set out all my product to see if I had enough to fill up my tables and decide how to arrange everything.  Chuck thought I was nuts to drag box after box of glassware out of storage, up the stairs and outside, knowing I would just have to pack up everything and put it away in an hour or so. But I am a visual person, and I had to see my booth all put together to feel ready. It will save me time in set up at the market to already know which table to place things and how to arrange it.  I don't want to get there and have decisions to make. Once I set up everything my tables were full and attractive.  Just knowing that gives me confidence I am good to go.

Once I was all set up Jared and his girlfriend Ujong came home and perused my wares.

I am looking forward to this new adventure!

TEE SHIRT RUG TUTORIAL

I posted a picture of the rug I made for my granddaughter Evelyn a few days ago.  If this is something anyone else might want to do I will explain how.

Let me preface this by saying I am not an expert at crochet. The rug itself could be crocheted, knit or even braided. Mainly I was excited by learning how to turn discarded Tee shirts into "yarn" that can used to make something attractive and useful.

It all starts with a tee shirt-

 actually 20 of them.  That is how many it took me to make a rug about 3 feet across. But I wanted a substantial rug with some heft to it, so I used double strands. So, potentially the rug could have been made with only 10 shirts.

The first step is to cut the shirt from arm hole to arm hole.

The lower portion of the shirt is what we are going to use.  The top portion of the shirt with the sleeves can be discarded, unless you can come up with another use for it (if you do- let me know.  I hate to just throw things away!).

 Also cut off the hem band on the bottom of the shirt and discard.

 

 Next, fold the material in half with the sides of the shirt together, leaving the raw open edges on the top and bottom.

Turn the fabric so the fold is at the top and start cutting strips from bottom, stopping an inch from the top.  The width of the strips is up to your discretion. The wider the strip, or the heavier the fabric (not all tee shirts use the same weight jersey) the thicker your yarn will be, but the less yarn you will end up with.

 Now unfold the fabric and it should look like this...

Sorry this is out of focus, but you get the idea.

Now we are going to cut the strips apart, one thickness at a time, because we will be doing different things with each layer.

The top layer we will cut the strips straight across.

The bottom layer the strip will be cut on a diagonal to create one continuous strip.

 

Sorry, I think that is my stomach protruding into the picture!!

 

 

 

 

 

Once you cut the last strip, you are left with a pile that looks a little like intestines.

 

 

Now the strip needs to be stretched to lengthen it and make it curl into the useable yarn.

 

 

 

Now use the yarn any way you want, like a rug perhaps?