I'm Freaking!

I am for sure going to be in the show. AAAHHHHHH!!!! I'm excited and terrified all at the same time. I'm excited because this is the show of shows and never thought I'd be there other than to shop and be inspired. Terrified because its so huge, 4 days and I will never have the inventory I'd prefer to have. I average 2 to 4 hours per bag and the last 3 days I have gotten 8 finished. If I average 10 per week,if I'm lucky, that is only 80 on top of the 100+ I have. I do have some art quilts, aprons and tissue packs, but still.

I am freaking.

Then my next show after that is 3 weeks later. Oh what have I gotten myself into.

Just keep breathing.

The kids have less than 3 weeks of school, lots of field trips I volunteered for, we have 2 summer trips planned before the show, I have a big garden waiting to grow, weed, harvest, process. Not to mention the 25 meat chickens I have growing in the coop. Then three more big shows in the fall. WHAT WAS I THINKING????

Another thing stressing me out, I got on the scale this morning, which I don't recommend, and I'm only 5 pounds shy of being my heaviest WHEN I WAS PREGNANT!!!

Oh yea, our tenants moved out of one of our rental properties, left it a mess, including 2 large aquariums with DEAD FISH IN THEM!!!

Guess who usually cleans and paints them?? It's me.

We so need to get it rented soon because I don't have the cash to pay for another home.

Ok, I'm going to think of the positives.

We are all healthy. That's really good.

The weather is supposed to get warmer. Yay!

I'm loving making these bags from my leftover scraps. Fun and frugal.

Oh I figured out why my pictures were less than clear. You have to periodically wipe kid fingerprints off the lens.

Ok, so my good list is pretty good.

How do full time working moms do it?

Art Auction

I had so much fun at the Art Auction.

I talked to so many artists and saw many artist friends.

I also won the bid on a piece I was wanting to get.

The artist is Catherine Thursby, I love her style and she has the most adorable shop in AnnArbor. http://www.redshoeshomegoods.com/ I cant say enough good things about her. I am just thrilled to have one of her original pieces!

The lady who won the bid on the bag I donated, showed up with another bag I made and had bought it from the gallery I used to sell from. She said she is starting a collection! She is officially my new best friend.

Ok, the best thing about the day was this woman I slightly knew from our daughters being in Brownies together years ago, asked if I would like to be in the Ann Arbor Art Fair! This art fair is a 4 day show, one of the biggest in the country, has been going for 49 years and I never even thought I had a chance of being there. I haven't worked out any details yet and don't want to jinx myself, but the thought is making me giddy. {{{{AND NERVOUS}}}}

If I do get in I have less than 2 months to get ready and if I make the inventory I feel I need, I will have to sew a minimum of 5 bags per day, 6 days a week. So if you don't hear from me much, don't worry, I'll be in my basement/sweatshop, neglecting my home, garden and blog, but hopefully not my family.

So this morning I finished two bags I had started and made this patchwork.

Is it bad of me to say that I love it so much? Sometimes I have a hard time selling certain bags and this will be one of them.

Get back to work!

Well.....

What do you think? Up there^. I don't know why this is such a dilemma for me,

I can change it whenever I like.

I don't have much new to chat about so I thought I'd put on another fish video for your viewing pleasure.

Soccer weekend and I'm hoping to finish planting the garden weather permitting.

Have a great weekend.

So far....

...the chick bag photo is in the lead (last post).

I'll give it a day or so to get more votes, also because I'm trying to get tons of stuff done since I am childless until tomorrow morn.

Yep, the boy left for Washington D.C. on Tuesday, 5:30 am and I dropped off the girl today for Toronto at 4:30 am.

So I'm taking this time to crank, after I got my early morning nap.

Speaking of chick bags, I was working on 3 last night, finished one this morning which I'm hoping load on etsy soon. I'm setting the other 2 aside for my next art show. I realize it isn't till August, but if I don't start now, how busy I get with the garden and kids in the summer, I wont have enough inventory. Plus I have 4 shows between August and December and won't have enough time to work on new things for that many shows. (If my sales are good, knock wood.)

I'm hoping to plan it better than I did last year. I had 2 surprise shows that I was invited to be in with only a months notice, the $$ was good and I loved doing them but I didn't harvest enough food from the garden to make me happy. Making money is nice, but if you have to spend it away due to lack of time, what is the point.

My camera is on it way to Toronto so I swiped hubbies, tons of bells and whistles that i have no clue how to use, but look at how crisp the picture looks. Me likey.

I have a couple of ideas that I am working on, so a good camera is nice. Now I just need a new color ink cartridge. It will have to wait till tomorrow when I run into town. My Mom and I are carpooling our errands, she has a little gas friendly PT Cruiser so the Monster Truck can stay home.

So of course anytime I'm in the yard doing anything, the girls have to come and check out the sitch. Bratty was pecking at the beads on this art quilt. Bad Chicken.

So it will be just me and my man in a quiet house tonight, let the nudieness begin!

Once again....

...I failed miserably at sticking to one topic. I guess my brain doesn't work that way.

ADD perhaps?

I finished sock pups tail.

Here he is waiting for the birthday girl to come home.

We surprised her at the bus stop.

She loves him and his new name is Paco.

And he loves tacos.

Also the bag I made for the auction finally made it on the site. The Auction on line ends Friday and the auction ends at the shop this Saturday. My bag is around page 16 if you label it price descending, unless it gets a bid then that may change.

http://www.salinepictureframe.com/showroom/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=368

There are lots of small beautiful works of art as well, and last year there were some great bargains on all original art.

Ok. New topic. I finally figured out how to put a photo at the top of my blog.

I got one thumbs down and one thumbs up on my photo selection.

So in my quest at making the masses of people reading my blog happy(all 3 of you), I would like some input.

Stay with the one already there.

My Sugar Creek

Go with a chicken theme

Like Brownie in the porch pot....

....or eggs?

Or something garden related?

Or chicken & garden related?

Or something I made?

Like an art quilt?

Or a chick bag?

Or my hard working pup?

It doesn't even have to be one of those photos, just point me in a direction and i can take a new photo.

I thank you in advance for your help.

Happy Birthday!

Twelve years ago you came into this world and made our family complete.

This fortune cookie you got years ago pretty much sums it up.

I love you sweet girl.

I don't know what to call this

I thought about calling this "Are you sick of hearing about my great weekends yet? In case you aren't, here's one more."

Not that I want a crappy weekend, it's just I am on a great weekend streak and i don't want them to end, but I don't want to sound like Pollyanna either. I get my share of shit too.

Friday, I met with my sons 8th grade class at the park and helped supervise while they tested one of our local rivers for pollution and such.Not much effort on my part but fun anyway. I got to hang with my boy and his classmates and eat hot dogs. Not bad. The last time I helped out at that park, all the kids were shorter than me.

Friday eve I sold another bag on etsy! Yay, etsy love.

Saturday, kids had soccer games. I usually don't care much about watching sports on T.V. but something about my kids playing soccer is the greatest. We also had wonderful weather too which helps.

We had an hour and a half to kill between games so I shipped off the etsy package and we went to our local farmers market. More crafters this year, and lots of plants for sale. I was bummed though because the only veggies for sale were all ones I currently have in my garden. There was a booth selling home made cheeses and although it wasn't in my budget for this week, I plan on returning and trying some soon.

I pack a lunch on these Saturdays so we don't have to travel all the way home or resort to fast food. We picnicked in the car and then watched my sporty girl play.

Then the kids and I went shopping, they are both taking class trips this week (the boy, Washington DC. the girl, Toronto). We got travel food, granola bars and such and bottled beverages, since they are required to take disposable packaging so they don't have to worry about lunch boxes on the bus.

My girl's birthday is tomorrow so she also picked out a few early gifts. She loved it! She got to pick out what she wanted and it saved me gas on an extra trip back to the store later.

Shopping with my kids is so much fun. They are two funny souls.

We also hit a local fruit and veggie market and got a combination flat of flowers and veggies. I get some Veggie plants already started thatI don't like starting from seed, like eggplant and hot peppers. I would never use up a whole pack of those kind of seeds anyway. The Coleman family owns the market, they had purchased my grandfathers farm and took such great care of it, so I like to spend my money there. Very nice family.

I got the flowers for my pot sculpture.

I saw this pot idea from another blogger http://empressofdirt.blogspot.com/ , if you go to her blog, scroll to the bottom and click on projects. I added my own twist with the baby foot sticking out. My MIL likes all thing cherub, so when one of her angels was damaged by mowing, I stole the body parts. I know, I'm twisted but i like what i like.

Rained all day Sunday, but had a great indoor Mothers Day. I sure am blessed with great kids and Hubbie.

Today I'm finishing gifts for the girl.

I made a travel bag for her trip. I wanted a zipper to keep her things safe. The zipper didn't turn out as well as the first time I installed one, this one is slightly crooked but I think she'll forgive me.

She loves all things puppy so I thought this fabric would be fun.

I put a pocket on the back.

I also am making her a bulldog from mens socks. Martha Stewart kids magazine had this idea a few years back. One of many sock dogs I've made for her. She usually claims them in the making stages and how can I refuse?

It still needs a tail. I'll stitch it on during her soccer practice tonight.

I like using different buttons for each eye. It gives them a one of a kind face.

I hope you all had a great Pollyanna weekend too.