Happy Fourth of July Weekend!

A nice long weekend coming up! Yay! We don't have any special plans, just a little R&R at home. DH works such long hours during the week that when the weekend rolls around, he doesn't want to do ANYTHING! Poor baby. It makes it hard for me, not working, and being home alone all week. With the price of gas, I try to plan my weekly outing for groceries and other errands for one day, planning out my route in the most efficient number of miles.

Back in the craft room this week, I'm working on some Halloween launch items for our American Folkart and Primitives Mercantile "Broomsticks and Black Hats" Launch! I had a ball designing our auction template!



The launch starts on July 7th, and we're all so excited to introduce ourselves to the eBay scene! Just type "AFAPM" in your eBay search menu to see what we come up with.

I've been busy this week with a couple of new customers, a brother team selling on eBay. They were wanting some custom designed auction templates, and although designing for the type of goods they sell is a little out of my primitives and folk art design comfort zone, I was able to deliver what they wanted. The whole key was the excellent communication I had with them. They were really nice folks to deal with, and they knew exactly what they wanted. Soooo much easier than getting out my crystal ball! LOL! I am really looking forward to doing additional business with them. Their comments about what a great graphic designer I am was almost embarrassing! Being totally self-taught, without any formal design education, I started out on this path mainly as a hobby to make a little extra money, AND because I just LOVE playing with graphics. They want to expand their business as well to launching a web site, and I had to tell them that I just don't have the expertise. I did refer them to a couple of my graphic design heroes though, so hopefully I will have helped them achieve their goals. I wish anyone trying to have a successful business these days an abundance of blessings and good luck. It is so tough.

I picked up a custom order of my Betsy Ross Vintage thread spool flags! A lady wanted 8 of them, so I got busy, made up 12, and have an extra 4 that I'm offering as a set on eBay this week, as well as some punch needle embroidery items.




You can see it all here:

sewdeartome

Just like clockwork, my younger sister is offering a new round of her punch needle embroideries. I especially like the one she mounted to the top of an antique cheese box! Not your average cheese box, this one has metal trim around the top ~ Kewl! Isn't her work gorgeous? (sorry...link broken)

You can see the details here:

Magpie1217

Wishing you all a glorious July 4th weekend!

Til next time,

My Sister's New Punch Needle Pieces

My baby sister is traveling this week so she only had time to make up a few new pieces, but they are fabulous!

The little snowman hanger/pinkeep was so popular last year and a few lucky people got "second chance offers." I think I was supposed to have one of these made up for me, but sissy forgot!

You can see her eBay auctions for these pieces here:

Magpie1217

So there's your punch needle eye candy Kimmie!

Travelin' sissy left her 'Ole Virginey home on Saturday. My Atlanta sister and sister-in-law ("SIL") drove up to meet her, and they were on their way to New York State. While up there also they hooked up with my New York sister. SIL's father is now in a nursing home, and they were all going together to clean out the house prior to sale. The main objective was for SIL was to get her mother's things ~ she lost her Mom to Alzheimer's this past Christmas.

I always tell my mother she is NOT ALLOWED to die on important holidays like Christmas, nor in the Spring because I know how much she loves and looks forward to Spring. She tells me, after 55 years, that she may not remember the exact date, but will always remember her father died in the Fall because of her association with the fact that her father was always cold. And she remembers her deep sadness that they were going to put him in the "cold, cold ground." We were talking about SIL's mother's wake and how the funeral home had "prepared her" for viewing. SIL says when she first saw her mother she had lipstick on ~ a woman who had never worn lipstick ~ and she said she felt like wiping it off. It's strange sometimes how the human mind deals with death of a loved one.

My family has been talking about death a lot this week. My father lost his younger sister last week pretty suddenly, without warning of an illness. There were four sisters, each more fun-loving and vivacious than the next. In later life they would take many "sister" trips together, with and without their husbands. The funeral was not so much of a sad event, but more of a celebration of her life and her final trip to be with our eternal Father in heaven.

In Sweet Memory 1932 - 2008



From the cell phone reports I've been getting, my sisters' and SIL's trip this week has been great fun! No road trip mishaps, except for getting turned around a bit in Washington, DC. They got to meet up with friends and relatives, and visit SIL's Dad in the nursing home (bringing him pizza and Chinese food!) SIL got her Mom's hope chest and fine china, one of my sisters scored a gorgeous Fenton glass cake pedestal, and another an old glass doorknob from stuff SIL didn't want. They also got paintings, vintage cross country skis, thread spools and other booty, but had to leave behind an old wardrobe and bed from the 30's because they didn't have room. I wish I could have tagged along, but with our hot water heater bursting in the laundry room, I've been plenty busy trying to get everything put back together! Baby sis did say she got some old watch parts for me for altered art.

As for me and my boring life ~ I've been working my little fingers to the bone making up new Primitive Vintage Halloween eBay auction templates. You can see them here:

sewdeartome

I'm having a Buy 2 Get 1 Free template sale! Plus Free Shipping on your template CD! You can also see my other templates by clicking on the link to my website at the top left hand corner of this page. And you can always do an "Advanced Search" on eBay by selecting search "By Seller", then clicking on the box "completed listings" for other templates recently designed but not relisted on eBay. Geesh, the listing fees are killin' me!

Till next time,