The Quirky Handmade Bazaar

Just wanted to let you know that I'll be in Rhinebeck NY for the Quirky Handmade Bazaar. I didn't attend the show last year, but they had over 22 all Etsy vendors that came from CT, Minnesota, Brooklyn as well as right here in the Hudson Valley. If your local, stop in and say "hi!"& do a little holiday shopping!


When ~ Saturday November 29th ( Black Friday weekend)

Where ~ Rhinebeck, NY Church of the Messiahs Parish Hall
Right in the heart of Rhinebeck.

Pumpkin Sunday

Being that we are always last minute with everything, it makes sense that we wait until the very last weekend before Halloween to hit the farm and pumpkin patch. And that's just what we did this Sunday afternoon. After browsing the local library's book sale...fill a bag for $1 (can't beat that! ) ... we headed up to a farm not too far away.


It's a lot less crowded than the popular spot near our home. So we've been coming here the last few years. There's always lots of young animals to see and pet. This year they had a calf born in September, two goats, some young pigs, turkey chickadees (i have no idea what a youth turkey is called!) and the usual alpacas and llama. Here K & E are giving Lil Red a pet and some love.


There's enough things to do ... buy cider and cider doughnuts, hay rides, pony rides, and a giant hay bale pyramid to climb and play on.



And of course ... there's the picking of the pumpkins. E seems to have found a winner.

Hopefully K & E will be able to look back and remember these family traditions ... simple as they are. If not I'll have the photos to remind them! -wink.

An Etsy Front Page Treasury ... yeah!

I don't make treasuries all that often, but when I do, I totally admit I would love it they made it to Etsy's front page. But it never seems to happen, at least not that I know of. And then, Friday night, it happened. My Gray & Raspberry treasury made it to the Front Page. How cool?!

Here she is:


I think I need to make a brooch in these colors ... pretty!

Family Afternoon

Now that I work full time during the week (after so many years of being the stay at home mom) I really cherish and look forward to the weekend. When I first started Pretty in Posies, I worked way too many hours and I missed too much. I can't tell you how many weekends my husband and kids went out on the weekends, leaving me at home in my studio.

It's been a long while since I've worked the weekend away ... and I hope I never go back to it! :)

After felting we headed out to Emma's soccer game. Knowing it was going to rain at any moment we brought along our ice skates and headed for a local ice rink. The kids have been taking ice skating lessons each winter for awhile now, but I can't tell you the last time I put on a pair of ice skates.

The four of us had fun though. I stayed slow and steady and Keegan kept close watch on me. (he's our little worrier!) It was cute that he was worried about Mom.

Most of my photos came out a little blury, probably because I myself was on skates and trying to balance. But here's one photo of Emma ... she didn't take a single break the whole hour and 45 minutes of the public session. (except for when the Zamboni came out to clean the ice). Keegan wanted to take a few breaks and I was happy for the chance to rest my legs and ankles.

Can't wait to go again!

Felting with the Kids

Saturday morning the kids were itchy for some type of art project. So I decided to show them how to felt (wet felt). We decided to keep it easy and just make a thin, small little flat piece of felt ... but made it more fun by combining a few colors.

Here they are with the hot water and soap, starting the felting process of agitating the fibers.


The rubbing takes quite a bit of time and is a bit of hard work for little hands, but I didn't hear one complaint and they seemed to really enjoy the tactile process of felting. What kid doesn't love making things soapy warm water?

After a while of rubbing , they wanted to check to see how the felting was coming along. Here's a peek at their pieces and their colors choices for their piece of felt.
Looks like we have a little more rubbing to do! And here's the fulling process of rolling the felt in the mat. Almost done!

We had so much fun making some felt and are still deciding what to do with our little pieces of art. I'll be sure to post pictures once the kids decide what they wish to do with their felt!

If you are interested in wet felting, just do a search on the subject. You will find lots of online tutorials. There are also some great books on the subject, if you prefer to have something in hand while you work.

*Promo* Goodie Bags for Silver Bella

So I had the chance to send in some promo goodie bags to Sadie Lou, owner of the Lollishops (which should be opening it's web doors very soon... it's a new online marketplace for creative, whimsical and fanciful artists ... more on that as it gets closer!) Sadie Lou will be attending the Silver Bella show and invited a bunch of Lollishop vendors to send in promo items that she would distribute during the show. I use the term *promo* lightly because I am so not a fan of promotional items ... not magnets, buttons, pens or other things that plaster your business name but don't really have anything to do with your business or who you are. So I put together a needle felted mini flower hair pin for "big girls" and a set of clips for "little girls". It was a lot of work and with all the wholesale orders I had, these last few weeks, it was a miracle I was even able to get these goodies bags done.



But here they are. Instead of traditional bag toppers, I made and sewed felt toppers to match my new logo designed by the lovely and talented Lisa Bacon. Check out her services here! I love the way the felt toppers came out, and of course I had to add a little felt posie to finish it off! Cute, no?

Holiday Pretties

This weekend, I found some pretty holiday ribbons and fun whimsical Christmas flair to put together some new holiday hair pretties. I am all caught up on my wholesale orders finally, yet that could change at any moment, but hope to get some time to design some new holiday accessories this week. I'll keep you posted ...

Sheep & Wool Festival

Sunday ... I spent the day with my mom, aunt and daughter at the Sheep & Wool Festival. Fun, Fun, FUN! This is only my second year attending this show. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day, but it was a bit chilly so browsing all the handmade scarves, mittens, sweaters and such was a pleasure.








I don't knit (yet....it is SO on my list of things to learn to do) and I'm sort of thankful I don't because I could not imagine how much I could have spent on all the gorgeous yarns available at this show. Everyone at the show is so amazingly talented, it was a treat to walk amongst all their wares.






My daughter enjoyed the animals ... every kind of sheep in the world seemed to make an appearance here. My favorite had to be the Icelandic sheep. And they all were within petting reach. One even stepped up onto his coral to pose, yes pose, for several cameras.










She even got to see the border collies and other sweet doggies do their tricks in the show arena ... catching frisbees and such. One of the pooches was the dog that does the appliance commercials with Kelly Ripka.




And we waited in the serious long line for the homemade chicken pot pie. This is so yummy and definitely beats the greasy carny foods. They sold pot pies to maybe 2 0 or so people after us and then, they called out "Sold Out, see you next year". I can't tell you how many sad faces I saw ... all those people that had waited on that long line, some just steps away from holding that warm stick- to-your-ribs kinda meal in their thankful little hands ... and for nothing. Seriously it could of been an episode out of Seinfeld with the Soup Natzi. She just announced it so matter of factly, with no warning....I mean didn't you know you were down to the last 'oh I don't know 10 pies' at some point? Couldn't you have given a little pre-warning? She sold that last stinkin' pot pie and then just yelled "Sold Out, see you next year". Just like that!? I may never forget those words....this was a seriously long line folks!



I scored some fabulous wool, some with gorgeous plant dies in the most lusciously soft colors. I wish I could give a shout out to the owners of the booth I purchased from, but my receipt has no name, there is no biz card nor business info on the wool labels. Next year I will make sure I pay more attention! Lesson learned though ... make sure you get your name on your wares!

Quick update on wholesale orders

I received a record number of wholesale orders during the month of September. As such I am a little behind in getting the orders out the door. I'm working as fast as I can and will be caught up by the end of the week! Whew!

So if you haven't rec'd your shipping notice yet, please know I am working on your order this week and will have it out to you by Friday!

Thanks so much!

morning books

We don't turn on the TV much here...never have. Don't get me wrong, K & E love their bits and pieces of TV viewing. But this fall, Mark & I vowed not to be faithful followers of any prime time television programs. Mark says "watching TV leaves him empty." And I know what he means ... so we prefer to spend the latest hour or two of our evenings with a good book. I think it's starting to rub off on K & E. Here's how I found them, when I came down for my morning coffee....


While growing up, Mom always, always had her head in a book and I always admired that. So that's what we are up to ... even if it's just a few pages at a time.

I just finished Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Mark picked it up while on a trip to India and since then it has been passed around to many in our family and loved by all. And now I'm on the hunt for something new ...

The kids had a day off from school yesterday. It was a gorgeous early autumn day here in New York State...the leaves already starting to turn. The temperature couldn't have been better, the sun shining, the sky blue and bright. Keegan and Emma had fun with a huge bucket of sidewalk chalk...painting a huge message on the driveway.






I've never loved chalk so much...

So Very ... Subtly Soft

Wanted to share a pretty treasury I created on Etsy yesterday. Loving these Etsy artists and their gorgeous creations. I could so buy one of everything! Enjoy!