Working, working,working

Well it's official I am an employee of Cassidy Turley. I even have a title. Administrator. What I really do is data entry. Right now I am attaching documents to leases in the new computer program they have. Another good thing is I have Fridays off.

I have also have been working on more canes. I made a cane that I particularly like. I don't have a picture of it yet but will soon post one.

Here is a picture of some beads I made and have on consignment at The Bead Place.

Jessica, Randy, and the boys will be here in a few days. I am very excited about it. Can't wait to see them and spend some time with Jessica.

Aren't they cute?

Write later.

New Job Ahead

Today was my last day with Office Team. I have accepted a job offer from Cassidy Turley here in St. Louis. I am excited to start.

Last Saturday was the craft fair on base. It was 8 to 2 with set up starting at 6am. Man was it a HARD and LONG day. Business was slow. Sold a couple of things and barter for another. Bridgette and I decided that craft fairs weren't our thing. That we will just stick to Etsy. Now all I have to do is get all my inventory listed in my Etsy shop.

This is my attempt at a blue/silver animal print bracelet. Not too bad.

I am working on some spinning hooks. The hook that helps you pull the yarn through the orifice so that you can continue to spin. I think it's called an orifice hook, but that doesn't sound very good. I am making the hook out of 16 guage copper wire and then making the handle out of clay.

      Here is a picture of me and my best friend,

     Heidi at our birthday party. Her birthday is

     a few days after mine so we celebrate together.

Heidi is really into shoes and giraffes. This is the perfect Heidi shoe.

It's late and it looks like I will be up all night again.

The Art Museum

On Friday we went to the Art Museum to see the Monet exhibit. It was a nice day for it. We first went to the Dlemar Loop and had lunch at a place called, Cheesology. Great food. If you are in St. Louis you should try it.

Here Catie and I are at the statue of Chuck Berry.

Catie enjoyed her selection. The classic mac and cheese.

Don had the Loop dish and he liked it. I had a dish with sausage in it and it was fantastic. They give you so much you have to take half of it home to eat later.
I couldn't take pictures of Monet's paintings but I did take some of the other art work we saw.

This little guy is a Chinese dragon/dog statue. Scary isn't he. It looks like he has the little big dog syndrome.

This is a beautiful Egyptian collar/necklace. It has ahnks all around it.

Here is our little group on the stair case. Don't we look happy as punch to be there? We are put you must admit it is a goofy picture.

This is the Judgment of Paris. The contest that started the Trojan war.  Jealousy is nothing to mess around with. Also when you are a judge you shouldn't take bribes.

Time for bed.

Barbara



Halloween Pictures

I finally got around to downloading some of the pictures from Halloween. They are on my phone so I had to email them to myself.

We had such a good time. We were at Phil's, who by the way is a talented artist as well as an all around great guy. Heidi's sister Lori was taking the pictures. This is Lisa, myself and Heidi. These are the other two ladies in my book club.

We were laughing so hard and goofing around that Lori was having a hard time getting a good picture of us.

Finally we stood still long enough for a semi-decent picture. Of course Lori was a little blury so the pictures are a tad bit blurry.

This is Lori. When I took this picture we were at a club called Sevens. There was a costume party going on right outside and we were sitting just in the door was on a bench. This was a very good spot because we got to sit in the warmth of the club and see all the costumes as the people went by getting another drink, going to the bathroom, or just trying to get warm again.

 

Late Night and Wide Awake

Once again I am up with only 4 hours sleep. I blame it on my furry alarm clock, Khar-Pern. For those of you who don't know me, Khar-Pern is my cat. Yes, I know, a strange name for a cat. I was reading a Gail Greeno book when we got him and the main character was a large cat named Khar-Pern. The discription of Khar-Pern was so much like the kitten I just adopted I named him that. So that is the story of my cat's name.

Isn't he cute.

Work is going good. I seem to keep running out of data to enter. This afternoon they were scrambling to find stuff for me to do. I have a feeling that this assignment will be ending soon.



O'Fallon Band Booster Craft Show

Well it's all done and no one is worse for the wear. I will say it was a long two days. The show traffic was slow and not a lot of people were buying. I only saw a few people walking around with full shopping bags. Everyone in our booth made back our investment so that was good. But there was very little profit. But all in all we had a good time just sitting and talking. Doing some knitting.

Bridgette manning the booth

Here is our booth. As you can see it was very cramped. All 5 of us couldn't fit in the booth. So two of us were behind the table, one was beside the table and two were greeting people who stopped by to look. I learned a lot from Trish about sales. She is very good at greeting and interacting with people.

This is Trish, super sales woman

Joan hiding in the corner.



Carolyn modeling one of Brigette's Wowers.

This is the display case Don made me for my Pandora Style beads. I sold a few of them but a couple of other vendors were selling them for $1 a bead. I found out that they got their beads from a distributor and didn't make them. I thought it was a craft show where you made your merchandise.

Bridgette and I are going to be in the craft show on base and that one specificly says no vendors or merchandise that was not made by the exhibitor. It is on Saturday the 19th of November. Wish me luck.

Trish showing off her fingerless beaded gloves.

The booth is all set up and ready to have items displayed on them. I met the crafters to each side of us and they are very nice. Next year I will have some type of back drop display thingys. I wish I could sleep. It's 2:30 AM here and I still am not sleepy. Tomorrow will be a long day. I wil be taking pictures and I will post them here.

Barbarta

What a night. Setting up for the craft show was very strange. The people on each side of me are very nice. And I found out that 8 x 8 ft isn't really very much room. If I do this next year I will definitely get two areas instead of one. So many people had very nice display thingies and back drop doohickeys. Next year I definitely have to get some of those neat  things. Joan and Carolyn helped me set up, but funny thing, I left all my necklaces at home. So.....I will be setting the rest up tomorrow morning.

See how happy I am  that everything is ready for the craft show tomorrow.

Don and Catie are in MO this weekend. So I am alone for the weekend. It will be a tad bit lonely but  I think I can survive the weekend.

Getting Ready

Well, tomorrow is the first day of the craft show and man am I nervous. Set up is from 8 to 10 tonight. Joan and  Carolyn will be here about 8 and they will be helping me set up. Since this is my first multiple day show, I don't know if we set up our merchandise and leave it up or take it down each evening. So much to learn. Bridgette is teaching a knit a long class tonight so she won't be able to help with the set up.

This is one of the older bracelets I made that I will be selling.

I heard from an very good, old friend yesterday. I knew him and his wife in Tacoma, WA when I lived there about 10 years ago. It was very good to hear from him.

Barbara

Working, Working, Working

I have been busy working on pieces for the upcoming craft show. There is no data for me to enter at work so they gave me a few days off to generate some. (Darn my fast fingers) So I have found myself suddenly with more time on my hands.


These are tiger beads just before I put them in the oven to cure. I haven't yet taken a picture of them finished, but I will.


Some candy cane ornaments.


Here are some faux bone beads with tribal markings on them. I'm not sure what I think of them.



This is the most recent cane I have made. It's suppose to be a reindeer.

Well back to work.

Barbara

Friday Night

Hey,

Tonight was Fiber Friday at the local Bead/Yarn store. I try to make it every Fiber Friday.The ladies there are wonderful. I always have a good time when I am there. There is a knit-a-long that some of us are participating in. It is pretty fun. This month it's a small shawl or a shawlete.

After I got home I made some clay covered pens. One of which is going to one of my good friends, Joan.




I gave a panther paw print pen in the oven now, but I am not really pleased with it.

Tomorrow I am going to a workshop and learn how to make a wire mummy. It should be fun. I will take a picture to show you.

Barbara

Sunburn

I sat in the sun all day on Saturday and I woke up on Sunday looking like this.





Pretty bad, huh. Well the blisters just go bigger and I thought my nose was going to explode. Bridgette gave me a burn cream she made out of bee pollen and other good things. I started putting it on Sunday night and put a loose bandage over the burn. By Monday night the blisters were smaller. Now all I have is a very red nose.

So the moral of my story. Always wear sunscreen even if the day is overcast and windy.

Barbara

Mascoutah Chili Cook Off

What can I say. I had a great time. The weater was beautiful and the company great. We didn't sell much but we did get our entrance fee back. So we didn't loose anything.



We arrived about 8:00 am and it took us about 2 hours to set up and price everything. I know we should of priced before hand but you know how it goes sometimes. Anyway we got everything done just before the Chili Cook Off started.


I had some chili, but only a taste. The corndogs however were great. Chili and I really don't get along too well.






I am going to get some more earring displays and perhaps some necklace displays that the necklaces hang in stead of using the necks.





As you can see I was sitting in the sun and got burnt as a lobster. It was a big mistake wearing such large sunglasses. I now look like a red raccoon.

Barbara

Late Night

I have been working all day making polymer clay canes. The spider cane is one of the first canes I tried to map out myself. This is my second try and I think it turned out pretty good.













I am doing some last minute work for the Mascoutah Homecoming show I have a table at.

This is my scary santa cane.
















And here is my snowman cane. He's missing a tooth or two.



I have reduced the santa and snowman down very small and have put some slices on a bead. They look pretty cute, but they are not done yet. I have tumbling the in a rock tumbler to start the polishing process. When they are done I will post pictures.

Barbara

Some things I have made

I have been getting ready for a couple of craft shows a friend and me have signed up for. Boy when your busy time does fly. I have been making pandora style beads. Here are pictures of some of them.

These are skull beads I made for Halloween. I have them for sale on Etsy but so far all anyone has done is looked. I will be bringing them to the first show and maybe they will move there.




.

These beads I thought would be good for the fall season. Halloween or Thanksgiving. I didn't put glaze on them leaving them with a matte finish






I have been making small purse charms. This one is a hobo with peonies on it. It also has a silver star clasp.




So let me know what you think.

Barbara

Nothing Happing except HEAT!

Boy has it been hot here! Heat index up to 115 degrees. My flowers are not doing so well.

Don and I planted about 64 plants in our patio garden and about 2/3 of them took. That is the last time I order plants on the internet. They came bare root and very hard to start. Anyway the Hybiscus are not doing well. They are growing but also they are falling apart. They seem to have heavy stems and are splitting at the juncture of the stems. Splitting right in half. Let me tell you Don is not a happy camper. So that is what has been happening.

Still waiting to hear from the O'Fallon Band Booster Club craft fair. Next week I will fill out and mail the Strange Folk Festival application.

I am currently looking for a job. I signed up for the ticket to work program that Social Security has. I was with one placement organization and they didn't help me at all. These companies are job placement companies. They help with job seeking skills, resumes, job placement and vocational counseling. This new place, Employment Options, Inc. specialize in work from home jobs. So we will see how it goes.





Here is a hat I made for my hair dresser. It was such a hit that the receptionist at the salon wanted one. So I made her one in purple colors and charged her $30. I was told that it wasn't enough, but since I enjoyed making it and it didn't take very long and the yarn wasn't expensive, I was happy with the price.

We are having a garage sale tomorrow and Saturday. I have priced all the clothes and items we are selling. The money we make will go in the pot for Don's and my trip to San Fransico (sorry about the spelling, I just can't think today) this August for our anniversary. I have never been there so I am looking forward to it. I was thinking of selling my jewelry at the garage sale, but after thinking about it a little longer, I decided not to because I don't want to sell the pieces at garage sale prices.

I mailed the application to the O'Fallon Band Booster craft fair. Now it's just waiting to hear from them. There is four of us that will share the booth. The four of us want to participate in the Strange Folk Fair that is held in O'Fallon also. The application for that opens in June. Both of these fairs are juried, which means they want to see pictures of what you will sell in your booth. It took a few tries to get the pictures and the quality of pictures we wanted to send in. But in the end the pictures weren't so bad.



Here is a sampling of what we will be selling in our booth.