Friday, September 28, 2012

Garage Sales

Another 10 days have passed since I've posted here and I can never believe that it's been so long between posts...guess that's because I'm getting "older." Hmmm.....haven't I been saying that for years??!! Ha!

Anyway, this is garage sale weekend in my neighborhood. A friend and I join together two do a sale in my garage and driveway. I'm always amazed at how tired I am at the end of the day when all I've done is sit outside (in all kinds of weather), visit with people, make myself part with my"stuff," and talk people into taking my stuff for the price I ask. Mostly I just visit and see some of the same faces each time we host the garage sale. Hmmm....maybe I actually enjoy it???!! :)

This time, in addition to selling some used craft products, I decided to add some of my handmade products - cards, boxes to hold them and some altered wooden alphabet letters. It's nice to get personal feedback on my work, as well as get new friends on my mailing list. Some of the feedback is "no sale," when they walk away without buying my work, but that's okay.

It's time to get ready for bed so I'm all chipper for tomorrow's last garage sale day....hope it's a sunny one!!

Here are some of the things I put on my sale table. The boxes and enclosed cards are made with Close to My Heart™ products.

Enjoy the weekend!
CBS



Friday, September 14, 2012

Silk Banner - a treasure

This beautiful hand-painted silk banner was given to me at the end of Mosaic, the 1992 International Assembly of Lettering Artists in Michigan. I was very fortunate to have directed this exciting event. This wonderful banner has the signature of each instructor at the event and I cherish it.

The only problem is that it is so large, I had not figured out how I would use it. Yes! I even considered making it into something I could wear but didn't want to hide any portion of it.

It is now in use!! My workshop is a nice working space for me and for classes but the ceiling is "open," unfinished. Now one large section of the open space is draped with the banner and I LOVE it! Of course, a few times when I walked in that area, I found myself ducking - haha...I just wasn't used to have anything over my head there!!

In addition to this delightful banner, I also have LOTS of beautiful envelopes from the wonderful calligraphers who attended, including the instructors. I need to photograph them and put them into a memory book for me. If I hide the addresses, I could make them public but that might destroy the designs on some of them. We'll see...............in the meantime...........

have a wonderful weekend!
Candi

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Remembering those we lost on September 11......may our country never see that kind of horror again!
Blessings to all the families and friends of those lost on that day!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Thinking Christmas - REALLY??!!!

Ok....I don't WANT to be like the stores with the Christmas-before-Halloween-much-too-early planning but, really, we DO have to plan out our cards if we want to get them designed, constructed, addressed, sealed, stamped, and mailed on time.

I have designed our Christmas cards for about 33 years, mostly around my calligraphy, but more recently with papers and stamping. The cards that focused on my calligraphy were perhaps easier once I finished the camera-ready hand lettering and sent it off to the printer. One hundred and fifty cards and envelopes came back all scored, return address printed and I just had to fold, sign, stuff, seal, and address. (My husband is in charge of the annual letter.)

Soooo, I don't know WHEN I decided each card should be totally done by hand, but, there you go, that's what happened. Sometimes I do write a verse in calligraphy, scan and print it to attach to the inside of the card.

I can't tell you which is the better way, but I'll probably change it up again one of these days. This year I am a bit early on cards because I taught a Christmas card workshop - that always helps get me on schedule.

Here are a few examples of cards and gift tags with NO stamping or calligraphy yet. This is from the Close to My Heart® My Reflections® Pear & Partridge B&T Duos®Paper. I also used the chipboard from the same collection. The beautiful colors are Cashmere, Cranberry, Desert Sand, New England Ivy, Olive, and Smoothie. Check out this beautiful collection and at least "think" about the holiday card you are going to send to WOW your friends and family.

Happy Back-to-School time!