I haven't put my tree up yet and judging by the amount of new ornaments I've aquired this year I may need a 2nd tree! I just went on etsy & this seller was featured, I love the bold style of her work. This snowflake ornament is the newest to be added to my collection. Check her out with this link shoshona snow ceramics
Today I went to the Martha Stewart Holiday Craft Fair in Manhattan. It was a very nice event as one would expect from Martha. About a 1/2 hour wait to get in but once you were in you could take your time & it wasn't overcrowded. I bought a "lil purse" $10.00, a scroll work ornament $15.00 and a hot chili pepper Santa for $7.00, a great deal for handmade unique items! The stars in the 2nd photo seemed to be a big hit @ $30.00. A lot of people were leaving with them, I would have also but I had several other stops to make & given the rotten weather I passed on it, there's always next year!
Here's another personalized I gift I made for co-workers & friends one year. These were fun & easy to make, ( good thing because I made 25 of them! ) The overall size is 5 1/4" square, the mirrors are 3" square & the easel backs are 5" both bought @ Michaels craft store. When I did the art I left a white box in the center to help in placing the mirror. Click on the images to make larger.
Here's an easy personalized gift to make. I did mine in illustrator but these can be done in a variety of ways, rubber stamps, hand drawn, even using photos. Using an oval shape that fit nicely on the hanger I did the art lining several up on one sheet & printed on Epson premium presentation paper. I then put twin tac (double sided adhesive sheet) on the back & I put a laminate sheet on top to protect it. Next I trimmed the ovals, adhered them to the hanger & used a bone folder to burnish them. I made 21 hangers for co-workers one year so we would each have our own hanger, they were a bit hit!
After 6 months of procrastinating and living with 2 boxes or rocks on the kitchen table, Callan & I finally painted our rocks. I think you'll agree these guys definately ROCK! My favorite is the alligator Callan painted, he'll be living in my office while the others will hibernate till spring when they will have a summer home in the garden.
One day my dog "Virginia" was barking at the door so I went to check what was going on. When I opened the door there were 4 turkeys on my doorstep! I don't know who was more surprised me or Virginia! Now this may not be unusual in some places but it's not what one would expect in a borough of New York City!
We had heard that Ireland had the highest accident rate in western Europe but for some reason that didn't bother us, until we got in our tiny rental car & hit the road! Life altering to say the least, I aged 10 years from the airport to the hotel. We alternated between cursing & laughing so hard we could hardly breathe. Don't underestimate the learning curve of everything being opposite, even the gas guage works in reverse. We did have GPS, a few flaws with that were we had no idea what distance a kilometer or meter is so when instructed to turn in 250 meters we were at a real disadvantage. Also the streets are not clearly marked with standard signs, in standard places, like on a corner, like we're used to. The GPS spent more time "re-calculating" than anything else. We had also read that while the roadsides are beautiful they tend to be narrow & curvy, that was the biggest understatement of all! We had to back down a windy road until we came to a driveway to go in so a truck could pass us, another day a car had to back off a little bridge so we could pass. The highways are roomier but they have these things called "roundabouts", the name says it all! Now when all is said & done and we swore never to drive in another foreign country we were quite proud of overselves for not adding to the high accident stats!
Just got back from Dublin with a few new rules for traveling. Most important new rule is to only fly non stop from now on! Last night on our incredibly long journey home we flew over New York (Home) and 1 hour 40 minutes later landed in Atlanta Ga., 4 hours later got back on a plane to New York & 1 hour 40 minutes later landed in NY! INSANE!!!!
These are the treasures I picked up at the fair.
I had to include this photo, this is a bus I remember riding as a kid (my age is showing again!) The transit Museum had a bunch of old buses that you could check out and board.
Did you ever want to do something but then didn't because you didn't want to go by yourself? Well I found out this morning that this fair was today but for a variety of reasons my choice was to skip it or go alone. It was a beautiful day out so I went alone, and I'm glad I did! Granted it would have been way more fun with company but it was very liberating. It was in an area I wasn't familiar with so when I got off the subway I had no idea where I was, but I found my way & when all was done I found my way back! This fair was HUGE, there were a ton musicians playing all kinds of music, there was a stage with a belly dancer and another with go go dancers! There was a great variety of food, my treat today was a potato on a stick, tempting as it was I didn't have any fried oreo's! There are a lot of antique shops on Atlantic Ave so there were many fun things for sale like the robots in the photo, there were even big inflatable things for the kids to bounce around in. Something for everyone. For me it's all about the local artists and craftspeople, GREAT stuff.
