Craft Fair Season is Here!

Hooray! Craft fair season is here! I love this time of year, even though I spend hours and hours getting ready! It's always so much fun to be a vendor and meeting customers old and new! Be sure to check out my schedule on the right side bar for the dates and places. I hope to see everyone at least once!! =D

 

Here's a sampling of what's hanging out in my craft room, waiting for the big days:

Mini rufflies

 

Small pinwheels

 

These are the staples, but I will also have plenty of specialty bows too - including some very exciting new items!

 

Can't wait to show them to you!

St. Patty's Comin' to Town!

Are you feeling lucky? Got your Irish on? Here's somethings that are sure to help:

(Hannah Bows)

(Small Pinwheels)

(Mini Korkers - above and below) 

(Spikey Bow)

(Tutu Bow)

(Mini Rufflie Bow)

Super-Sized!

New size of Double Pinwheel!

Hail to the Red White and Blue!

I just love the 4th of July! Here's a little taste of some Red, White and Blue splendor! 

Triple-Layered Rufflie Bows

Mini Korkers

Double Pinwheel

Ireland Bow

Tutu Bow

Mini Brittney Bows

One-of-a-Kind Bow

Triple-color marabou puff! Wow!!

Double Large Basic Bow (with ric rac)

Ane Bows

Come One Come All!

It's time! The Maple Syrup Festival is upon us! Hubby and I set up the tent this evening, which turned out to be quite an adventure (and just a little stressfull! Got to practice our marriage skills, though!) =O LOL!! The wind was just a bit breezy, which turns canopies into large kites! Thankfully, we had already planned on weighting it down, so were prepared.

Look for us in front of the post office. Traffic flow through town is a bit hairy- so just be prepared to walk a bit. But, it's so worth it - a friendly town, nice weather, great entertainment, bows, Haitian linens... =)

Each festival time, I have to decide what styles to focus on. It's gotten easier as I know what sells, but it's still easy for me to go overboard. I'm pretty pleased with myself for coming up with a variety of styles while trying to keep it simple. I think. After looking over my list, it seems like so many styles - but I finally decided I just couldn't leave any of these beauties out! So, here's what's on the "menu" for this year:

Cosmos - I'm hoping they'll be my "attention-grabbers"! I think it will work - they're just so darling! =)

Of course, one of my faves and one of my "signature" items - the mini korker! I sell them individually at the festival, so if you'd like to get just one, this is your chance.

Another of my "signature" items - and another favorite - the marabou puff.

One of my most popular bows - the Pinwheels - in small and large.

Gracie Bows - small and large

Medium basic bows

Pretty Petals clippies and Daisies

One item I make that you may not be aware of. It's not in the catalog yet, but I have been making them for a while now - French boards. These are great as bow holders, photo collages, messages, little papers your kids make and expect you to treasure. =) I really expanded my selection of these for the festival - loads of great new patterns!!

And of course, I can't forget my absolute, all-time favorite!! The Rufflie bow in regular and Mini!! =)

Sheer Rosettes

I also have a really cool collection of local school colors in several different styles - double pinwheels, spikey bows, cheer bows, pony-o's, korkers, etc. And headbands of course.

So, ready to come see all the lovely colors and styles? Come check me out (and my mom!!) We'll be in front of the post office tomorrow from 9-9 and Saturday from 9-8. Hope to see you there!!

Save the Date!

Yay! I finally set the date for my open house! I wanted it a little closer to summer, but not before kiddos are out of school (and all things crafty tends to be put on the back burner). So, mark your calenders for May 14 and 15! There will be totally awesome give-aways (we're talking Vera Bradley, ladies!!! And of course some lovely bows and other fun surprises)  - and lots of great deals!! Of course, I'll have a nice little spread of goodies - yummm!

Here's the dates and times broken down:

Friday, May 14 - 10:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening.

Saturday, May 15 - 10:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon.

Place - my home. Send me an e-mail for more information.

 Extra entries into the drawings will be given for those who: RSVP (e-mail at deannms3 (at) gmail (dot) com), bring a friend not on the guest list, and I don't know; I'm sure I'll come up with some other wacky way to enter by then. =)

p.s. to all you out-of-towners - send in an order between now and then, mention the open house, and I'll give you an entry too!  

So dig out your summer stuff, and get ready to have fun! =)

What was I thinking?!?

Whew! Three craft fairs in a row! Thankfuly they get a little easier each time. Good thing - since I signed up to do another one this weekend! Make that four weekends in a row! =O Yes, I must be insane!

I kept hearing how good this one is, and then the lady who runs it stopped by my booth and invited me to come. That's really an honor, because that means she liked what she saw. She's being selective about who she allows to come, which is another good thing. And all the vendors who I've talked to about it just go "Oohh, yeah! It's a good one!" So, how could I resist?

This should be an interesting experience, mostly because I'm taking Kenneth along with me. I think we're going to have a lot of fun together!

So, come on out to Osolo Elementary School in Elkhart this Saturday (November 21) from 8-2! As always, there will be a give-away and craft fair specials!

Tips - what happens if I wash my bows??

I've had some questions about how to clean the bows. Since I wanted to be sure I was giving good advice, I decided to do some experimenting. For this experiment, I wanted to find out what happens if the bows go through the laundry (it happens, after all, we're busy moms). So, I took some styles that are very popular, and I thought would be a good representative of many of my bows. Here they are before the wash:

Here we have a Rufflie, mini korker, medium basic, marabou puff and a pinwheel. These are in their normal, ready-to-sell state. Remember that the korker and medium basic are sprayed to keep their nice shape. So far, so good.

So, I put them in my washer (it's a front-loader, so it's supposed to be more gentle on items, but I don't think it would change the results, really) with a normal, warm load, and then through the dryer on high - just like they accidentally went through with the laundry.

Here they are just after they came through:

Believe it or not, but I think the marabou puff was even softer and fluffier! The rufflie came through like a trooper too. And the pinwheel also (it's a very stable bow, so I really wasn't worried about it). However, the poor little medium basic and korker weren't so lucky.

This is after I "fussed" over them a bit. The medium basic bow pretty much refuses to go back to a decent shape. For the korker, I was able to re-arrange and fluff it back up, so except for not having any stiffness, it's not in too bad a shape.

So, to conclude: I would definitely not recommend machine washing your bows. If it happens, however, don't worry - most will come through fine, except for the basics.

The way I do recommend washing your bows is with a little water and dish detergent or Woolite, and either with your fingers or a rag, just dab it.

May newsletter

The May newsletter went out this morning. I didn't get one sent last month, as all my spare time went toward getting ready for the festival. And, since I have plenty of bows left over, the special this month is to help reduce some of that. Buy three, get one free! Included styles are: small and large pinwheels, small and large Gracies, Elenas and medium basic bows. Great time to get your "basics"!

Pinwheel Bow

Small and Large Gracie Bows (stacked)

Elena Bow

Medium Basic Bows

Loads of Color

It's been a while since I last posted; I had a busy, exhausting week last week. Despite that, I did get some bow stuff done, so hopefully I'll get a bunch posted. One of the things I worked on was getting some color charts photographed, for my etsy listings. Here's the one I did using the pinwheels:

And, if you think that's a lot of colors, you should know that those are just the colors I have in that particular size of ribbon. I have even more in the 3/8 ribbon!:

Crazy, isn't it?!? And I found a few more that didn't make into the picture! I needed to do this because I get ribbon from two different places that carry the same brand, but different colors. So, I can't use just one of the companies' color charts. I also did it because I'm a ribbon freak! =)