getting ready

Hi Everyone,

It has been very quiet here on the blog front as my very stained fingertips have been elsewhere, creating.

Several months ago, my BFF Linda the muze and I were fortunate enough to spend a couple of days together and attend a little resource show called CHA in Chicago at the Rosemont Convention Center.

Basically, it's like feeding drugs to an addict. The product offering and ideas are so overwhelming, your senses are on an overload of no comparison and the entire time you are on the setting, rush.

But, you come away with new goodies and a million ideas at least. Both of us took pictures and journaled while we went through with the grand expectations of remembering a fraction of some of the things we saw.

One of our successes has been these great altered boxes we designed. The only catch has been that they do not last past one show, so if I forget to photograph them, these babies are history. That and they are not the quickest thing to make. It would help if I was the patient type.

So for the last few days, I have been finishing up several and gotten them ready for their Wisconsin debut this weekend.

Here is a neutral one, it is the large size, about 4"W by 12"L done in just paint and gauze.

and they do not photograph well either. Or could it be the photographer, probably the better guess. Guaranteed the better guess.

This box has an amber glass handle and handmade gauze rose tag to finish it off. It is really beautiful in person, I promise to work on the photography thing.

The next one is very dark, all shades of deep chocolate chip, with a partial stained gauze covering. This gauze washed out to almost a deep rose/purple color in certain sections, just luscious.

It is the small size, about 2.5 W X 9.5 L with cute feet, I do have a thing for cute feet that's for sure.

the fun tag

and the cute feet and all the beautiful
color on the stained gauze

The last one I am sharing is a combination of soft greens and blues with a really cool antique backplate and glass door knob for a handle.

It is the medium size box, about 3.5 W X 10.5 L and the papers are really soft and worn  in appearrance.

Hopefully, these will do well in Waukesha this weekend.

Better go pack and get ready, Til next week . . .

Suz
the muze
All My Musings
630.917.8777

off the road

Hi Everyone,

Seems a little odd to be posting on a Saturday as normally we are at a show, somewhere other than home.

But for the first time in nineteen weeks, we are home and getting ready for future shows. Today I am working on the 'Brown Paper Packages Tied Up WithString' class at the Careful Peach in beautiful downtown Oak Park. Karen and her staff are graciously hosing this class, hoping to get everyone on board to start planning for the Holiday season.

So after sketching out some pretty cool tags and a couple of ideas about using doilies, I have a plan, or at least I think I have a plan, LOL! We'll see how this goes.

So stay tuned as I hope to post a couple of the new pieces before I pack up for the class on Wednesday. If you are in the Chicagoland area and would like to attend the class, contact Karen at the Careful Peach for details.

Back to creating,

Suz
the muze
630.917.8777

the NA DA Farm Barn Event

Hi Everyone

Thank you for being so patient about the farm event post. Busy week with catch up and filling custom orders on top of life !

As I hinted before, the setting for this event is just spectacular to view. The prairie setting is so calm and tranquil . . .

the gardens spectacular

so we had to get ready for what we all hoped for, a huge crowd of shoppers that would enjoy this wonderful setting.

It was so helpful having lots of help setting this event up. Ana Koval from Lock 16 in LaSalle and her son Peter handled the huge load of vintage furniture and rustic primitives. Here's Peter. George and I setting up the tents. Candy was so kind to be snapping all these wonderful pictures as we had our hands full.

After 2 hours, we were ready and boy, did we need to be ready for this . . .

We had a steady stream of folks from start to finish. We jokingly told everyone that our 2 tents were part of the pre-show as they had to pass by us to get to the barn part of the barn event. Here's where the line continued past our place, we are all the way to the left of this picture but you can see the line trying to get into the barn.

We had several new things we showed here.

Some of our new boxes

our new word sticks

part of our brown paper package line with new holiday tags

and our new paper trees

The tree on the left is handcrafted from antique hymnal pages. They both stand about 12" tall.

A big thank you to everyone who drove out, stopped and chatted, took home goodies and made us felt welcome. We had such a great time and can't wait until next year.

Thanks for stopping by today but I must get back to creating. Til next time . . .

Suz

the muse

630.917.8777

the farm

Hi Everyone,

We are slowly recuperating from the most wonderful trip out to NA DA farm today and I will be posting pictures soon. Just need a days rest from visiting with all the new friends and customers we met the last two days.

You know you are at the farm when you see . . .

this headed towards your booth. She was just curious and looked around and then left without purchasing anything!

Seriously, this event is a small piece of heaven on earth. This was the entrance to the path to the barn. The cool hurricanes were protected by those window pane awnings and were stunning at night.

Truly beautiful.

I will post  soon with new goodies.

Suz
the muse
All My Musings
630.917.8777

Good Nite and God Bless Steve Jobs

Hi Everyone,

The world of technology got a little smaller tonite with the incredibly sad news that a true visionary and brilliant mind had left us, Steve Jobs has passed. This blog wouldn't be here tonite if it weren't for the path that Steve Jobs blazed for us all.

Our society of instant gratification stems from all the development in Silicone valley, the computer age as some referred to it. But I often wondered what it would have been like to have a mind so far reaching into the unknown and so driven to make something better as he dedicated his entire life to. He was driven but brilliant, most creative people are to some extent. Yet every time Mr. Jobs came up with an idea, the whole world gasped with awe. 

I remember when I saw the first iPhone and thinking at the time how he must have seen the tip of the iceberg so to say. If you could use a touch screen for a phone, why not a computer and hence, the iPad was so to follow as well as computer software making touchscreen a reality, not just something you saw on a TV drama.

True creative minds are very hard to come by and this evening we are all a little bit better for having Steve and his brilliant mind in our lives.

Thank you Steve for making us all feel like kids with new toys and improving our communication needs on a daily basis. You will be sorely missed. Our deepest sympathies go out to your family and loved ones, for their loss is immeasurable for sure.

Good night and God bless you Mr. Jobs, we will miss you. You did change the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oAB83Z1ydE

a wonderful Sunday in Wisconsin

Hi Everyone,

After a very long week in the rain, we finally finished up all of our items, repacked the vehicles and headed back to WI, Cedarburg to be specific.

As mentioned before, we have fallen in love with the Cedarburg area and the people we encounter. It promised to be a sun filled day for the Maxwell Street Days event and we started our journey on Saturday afternoon to take advantage of the Saturday early set up. It is so much easier on our weary and tired bodies to set up a day early and then get a good nights rest.

I thought you might want to know what goes on to get the store up and going. Here's how it happens . . . first you find your spot.

This is space 128 .

The steel marker in the ground has been there for decades and the rules state that we get 12' from that marker to our right.

Well, here's what we start with, a blank empty piece of ground. The van in the background belongs to Karen and John Hanna, real sweethearts and our great space neighbors at 129. They arrived before we did.

We back up the overloaded vehicles,

who packed all that stuff anyway ? Man, that's a alot of things . . .

Let's get going, we need a couple of tents . . . big tents, did you see all that stuff in the previous picture ?

Oh boy, we are about to get a store front (after 3+ hours and a whole lot of work). We worked until about 6 PM and then called it quits for the night.

By 5 AM the next morning, it looks like this. Complete with a very heavy coating of frost on everything, inside and out.

It is still pitch black outside and VERY cold, only 34 degrees. We woke up at our hotel in total darkness as there was an electrical outage, causing us to scurry in the dark. Can't say we looked our best this day, but on the other hand, the store looked good. We love how folks react to our note boards at the right front of the tents and of course, the huge truck full of coffee bags on the left.

The sun came out, they opened the gates at 7 AM and the crowds rushed in. We saw new customers, received great visitors and met new friends, like these ladies. Remember, it is only 8 AM in the morning,

You gotta love the Wisconsin spirit, a glass of Miller in one hand and a pitcher in the other, I think that makes any event more enjoyable! We laughed so hard with them, they love the open drinking policy at public events and we love the sights we see.

So by 5 PM, we were back to this look . . . amazing what goes on in just 24 short hours. Time to get on the road and travel South. 

The good news was we were not the last ones to pack up and leave, a little victory for us each time, we hate being the last ones to leave a venue. We will see you next Spring Cedarburg around May 28th or so.

Today back at the homefront, we started on preparing for the NA DA Farm Event this coming Friday. It promises to be spectacular and we couldn't be more honored to be included. So much work to finish in so little time.

Back to creating . . .

Suz

the muse

All My Musings

630.917.8777