"The Teepee Lady" {adoption fundraising}

Maybe you are wondering where I have been???
Well- I have been making things like a mad woman!

You see, a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving Ashley from Unglued asked me if I would be interested in making a bunch of teepees to sell in the new holiday pop-up shop they would be opening on Black Friday.  She extended the offer that she gives us on the other crafts I sell at their other shop:  100% of the sales would go directly to our adoption fund- they would not keep a cut.  This is very generous and has since been a HUGE blessing to our family.  Why?  Because everything is selling REALLY WELL!!  And so to keep up, I spend every spare minute making teepees, fort kits, scarves, and scrappy bunting! :)  Here are some pictures of what I've been making:

 

The second week I tried something new- doll sized teepees!  They turned out so cute.  My dear friend Wendy offered to crochet mini afghans for them- look how beautiful they are!

Here are the other VERY popular items... fort kits!
I can barely keep up making them- and I get why... they are the perfect present.  It's a gift of imagination, adventure, and hours of fun.  What kid doesn't love a fort??

I've got some Christmas scrappy garland for sale there too! 

And here are some of the scarves I'm selling- flannel infinity, and I also have some super soft double-looped knit infinity scarves also(aztec print!).

 

We have made MANY, MANY trips to home improvement stores for lumber and bamboo to keep up with the teepee sales.  Each time John says:  this has to be more than we will need!  And then we always end up going back in a few days!  :)

Here are some pictures of the kid-size teepees set up at the pop-up shop:  Unglued's Very Merry Market

Each teepee comes with a vintage afghan and a string of coordinating scrappy bunting.

Oh, and I am now known around Fargo as The Teepee Lady- ha!

Here's the whole store:  (the teepees take up the entire back end!)

Isn't it gorgeous?? If you have not visited this shop yet- do it!  They have the cutest things for sale in there and many fun events every week!  The holiday pop-up shop (Unglued's Very Merry Market) is at 102 Broadway in downtown Fargo(right across from the HoDo) and it's amazing!

Here are the scrappy garlands I sell at the original Unglued.  And next to them is one of the chandelier hoops I sell there too.

And my vintage book page hoops- I think these are my favorite!

A VERY special thank you to John's mom for all of the thrift store trips she has been making to find me all of these hoops for my crafts!  Amazing!  I keep getting boxes of them and thank goodness!  Because I couldn't make this stuff without them.  Paying full price just wasn't an option for us!  

Thank you so much Donna!

Ok, well- now you know why there haven't been any posts in awhile!  Between this, homeschooling the kids, trying to decorate for the holidays, and everything else, I haven't had a spare second!

I will try and post the Halloween pics, ect. soon.

Also, no new adoption news... still just waiting to be matched.  It could take up to 8 months from our LID so all there is to do is just wait!  It is disappointing and frustrating when months go by without being matched with our daughter but staying busy is helping and also we know in our hearts that it will all play out in the way it is meant to.  And she is surely worth the wait!

Thank you for all of your continued prayers and support during these past months- we appreciate it more than we can ever express in words. 

And to all the customers who have bought any of my items- 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!  

Junk Market 2013 {adoption fundraising}

Today I spent the day in the Modern Textiles Booth At Junk Market in the Echo Chic parking lot which happens twice a year.  How did this come about, you ask?  Well, I met the fabulous gals of Modern Textiles on a few occasions and they so kindly and generously offered to let me sell my chandelier hoops and mini scrappy fabric garlands at their booth- keeping 100% of the profits for our adoption fund!  How lucky was I??  So I kicked it into high gear the week before(amongst all the crazy adoption paperwork and planning/throwing Mickey's birthday party) and produced enough product to participate without it looking too silly.

The morning started out great- no rain and a light breeze.  I was making sales right off the bat and everyone commented on how cute they were.  Plus, as an extra bonus, I got to hang out with Roxanne and Connie and get to know them better!  They are 2 of the nicest girls around by the way. :)

Across the way, The White House Boutique was very kindly displaying the rest of the costume jewelry that was donated to us during the yard sale... remember that story?
Look how cute she displayed it all!!!  I'm so happy I met Katie- she is another kind, generous soul and we definitely share a love for junk and painted furniture!  I got to peek in her house btw and it is SO GREAT!!  I felt so blessed to be given this opportunity by these wonderful ladies!

 

Unfortunately, about 1 hour or so in, it began to rain... and it only steadily got worse from there.  Despite the pouring rain, people still showed up and I ended up selling quite a few garlands and hoops. None of the jewelry sold, however, but I am confident that I will find an opportunity to make that happen in the future.  Anyone know of a place that would be interested in buying some and then reselling it??  I'm all ears!

scrappy garland for the teepee and found kids' chairs makeover

These pictures are from back in August... days before the big yard sale.  The kids and I began setting up their teepee in the front every day because there was no wind and sometimes it's fun to play in the front instead of the back!  I also did a spontaneous mini yard sale for 3 half days... trying desperately to sell some big things that were taking up a lot of space in the garage where I was trying to organize for the BIG sale.  It worked!

I wanted to add some cuteness over by the teepee and so I made a garland- consisting of bright colored scraps I had in my fabric stash.  We loved it!  I have since made many more of these and they are currently being sold at Unglued in downtown Fargo.  The ones there are about 3yds long.

My next project this particular day was recovering these adorable kids' chairs I found during junk week a couple years ago.  They were both covered with that red fabric when I found them.  (dirty)  I ripped the first one off that same night and found a fantastic 70s oilcloth underneath!  I was so excited until I ripped the 2nd one off and found a huge gash that someone then tried to fix with a lot of glue or something weird.  It was gross- it's had to describe...  You can kind of make it out in the picture below.

Well, I remembered that I had some cute pink oilcloth that I had bought last year and tried to make a booster cushion for MB with(didn't work so good) so I unscrewed the cushions, pried out the gross glue stuff, filled in the hole with some batting, and stapled on the new oilcloth.

We LOVED how they turned out!

This table(below) was also a junk week find on the side of the road.  It's a children's folding table.  The top is uncovered so I just throw on one of my vintage tablecloths for them.  They love to color and do projects on it.  And so do their friends!  Oh and don't worry, that silver can is not a beer- it's a Arnold Palmer(half lemonade/ half ice tea) and it was mine. :)

If you are wondering about the other cute little chairs... the pink one was yet another free find that I painted pink and kept the original contact paper on.  The other 2 fantastic chairs were only $2 at a yard sale a couple years ago!  They are my favorite.

I thought I'd close with this- 3 of the 5 gorgeous, vintage blankets my friends from Minot brought me on this particular weekend.  I will show you the other two soon!  The yellow doll one is now residing on Mary Beth's bed by the way.  She LOVES it.

Fargo Fiber Arts Festival {Rheault Farm)

Today we went to the Fiber Arts Festival in Fargo and it was so great!!  Why had we never gone to this before??  5 years- gone.  Same story as the Viking Festival... I hate it when I find out we've been missing something awesome.  Oh well, the bright side is at least we know about it now, right?

Mickey isn't big on crafts unless he's in the mood.  And today he was not.  So he mostly just hung out with John while MB, Jeffrey and I crafted away!  They discovered needle felting which has become their new fav.  And, guess what?  I already had everything at home to needle felt with but just never knew how to do it!  So they can needle felt till their heart's content in the coming months.

 

 

 

There was a huge area set up with all these tables- each one featuring a different craft:  weaving, cross-stitching, felting, knitting, sewing, ect.  Kids and adults alike were able to participate.

 

Loved it.  We will definitely be back next year!!

recovering a vintage footstool

I found this vintage footstool at The Studio a while back(cheap).  I forgot to take the before picture but it was uncovered on the top(just the old batting was showing) and around the sides was retro orange vinyl.  It would have been so cool if the whole thing was still covered in orange vinyl but alas, it wasn't.

So I bought some really cute fabric from Modern Textiles and finally sat down today to recover it.

I've never done that before but I figured it couldn't be too hard, right?
I mean, I had a staple gun and everything.
I started with a couple of layers of batting I had laying around and then started stapling the fabric on.
I did all four sides first, pulling tight.

Then came the corners... ugh.  I couldn't figure out which way I wanted to do it- or how to make it look good.  I decided on the one below.  I didn't want a gift wrap corner so I tucked it under so the triangle was hiding... does that make sense?  Like the picture above but in reverse.
This decision was made after staring at it for about an hour.
John and the kids were ice skating with their friends at the school
so I had all the time I wanted to do it right.

 

 

It turned out great!  I know this picture is really dark- I used my phone.  I will take a better picture and add it soon.  I think it's adorable- I love it!!!

New Year's Day {daytime pj party}

On New Year's Day the kids had their friends over for a pajama party(in the morning).
They played "sandwich" with the couch cushions in the basement forever.  It was hilarious- they had me take movies and watched it over and over.

They also tried out Mickey's new thumbprint book.  They have a big book of thumbprint ideas at the library too- it's so fun!  They make little animals out of their thumbprints.

 

They they made stuff with Jeffrey's birthday sparkle-y floam- that stuff is addicting!
We highly recommend both of these projects. :)

Mary Beth can knit!

Mary Beth has been begging me to teach her to knit forever. I kept putting it off because I figured it would take forever and that she might be too young to learn. Boy was I wrong!

She watched me do two rows and then said "ok Mommy I got it" and took it from me and started knitting. What?!?!?! It took me A LOT longer and she doesn't even make any mistakes! She loves to knit and I can't wait to start taking classes together- although she'll probably be better than me in no time!

So apparently the prime time to learn knitting is age 6. Who knew??

Great job baby girl!

Jeffrey's penguin diorama

Today Jeffrey's big project was due. So when did we do it? Yup, yesterday. I helped him a little but Jeffrey did most of it.

We used Mickey's Antartica animal collection. Thanks Micks!

See the Northern Lights at the top?? So clever. I think it turned out super great.

Great job Feffers!