One of the first items I pinned on Pinterest was delicious looking Hershey’s Chocolate Covered Pretzels’ with M&Ms!
I couldn’t get to the store fast enough to buy the ingredients!! Not only are the quick and easy to make, kids can help! I made them on Tuesday with the triplets (as sort of pictured above) and tonight with Madison & Emmalee. Granted mine are nearly as pretty as the ones in the above photo, the kids (& I) had a lot of fun making them and a GREAT time eating them!
Highly recommend!!
Who doesn’t love all the many shades of Fall?? If you missed my entries for the previous two weeks of the challenge check out:
Post is part of Shades of Autumn: A Photo Challenge hosted by Kristi {Live and Love Outloud}, Alicia {Project Alicia} and their newest co-host, Rebecca {Bumbles of Light}.
It’s now been a week since Julia & I finished the Mukilteo Waterfront Art Festival and it still seem like we’re in de-compressing mode! After sleeping (and I slept for days it felt like!) we got busy again! We have listed or are in the process of listing MANY new items to our ETSY store that we made for the festival but didn’t sell! So make sure you swing by our store daily to see the new fun accessories we are adding!!
So how did we do?
We did fair I would say. It rained poured during set-up on Saturday and then all day Sunday – seriously who wants to go to an arts & crafts festival in the rain?? Surprisingly quite a few people!
With this being our first "real" event we didn’t know what to expect and we were hoping for a "normal" sale, so we could figure out how much product to bring, etc. We don’t think this was a fair sale to base it on, but either way we’re proud of how our first sale went! I believe we sold about $600 worth of hair bows and accessories!
What were our best sellers?
Our best sellers were our “board” (2” size) and the korker hair bows. Not far behind came our 3rd place Hand Weaved Headbands w/ Coordinating Bows!
We had high hopes of our flip flops flying off the shelves, they didn’t. You have to take into consideration it was pouring rain outside our tent! The flip flops, however, brought in almost all of our visitors! People were drawn into look at how adorable the flip-flops were! Our pillowcase dresses also brought people into our booth!
Who were our biggest buyers?
Grandma’s. Hands down! Grandma’s were coming in left and right and buying bows and other accessories to spoil their granddaughters!
What did we learn/recommend?
- We used (and LOVED) SQUARE to easily be able to take credit cards with an I-Phone!
- The more people you have for set-up/tear-down the better! No matter how organized or amount of time we allowed ourselves, you will always need more hands and/or time!
- Consider where you live … is it “safe” in Seattle to commit to outdoor craft fairs?
Photos of our booth:
Now What?
We came home and are already researching our next venues we want to sell at! No one can stop us now!!
Have you noticed I’ve been absent the last week or so? That’s because I’m prepping for my first craft show/fair where I’ll be selling my Blue Eyed Blessings hairbows!
I don’t normally make the bows, correction I NEVER have made bows for our store before! My part of the business is PR; I run the blog, Etsy Store and do our promoting while Julia makes the bows. However, I spent the weekend with Julia in the sweatshop as the two of us cranked out bow after bow! I can now make a mean korker hair bow. I’m sitting surrounded by ribbon, elastic, scissors, glue and hair clips EVERYWHERE.
It’s insanely addicting to sit and make these bows. I don’t think I’ve been to bed before 1 am all week, because once I start I can’t stop! Last night alone I made 18 hair bows … I’m an addict, what can I say?
A few of the korker hair bows that I made last night!
Live in the Seattle area and are interested in attending the craft fair?
Mukilteo Arts Festival
July 17-18
11am-6pm
Want to see my Etsy Store? Pop over to Blue Eyed Blessings to see what we currently have listed for sale!!
I spent this past weekend helping Julia paint and decorate the girls’ rooms! Amazingly we got it all done in about 24-hours! It was a lot of work, but we had a lot of fun, lots of laughs and whenever I’m around … BIG MESSES and BIG [LOUD] TALKING!!
Annika’s Room
Mackenzie’s Room
Girl Time!
This post is part of Wordless Wednesday on the following blogs:
Parenting For Dummies & Seven Clown Circus
The Life of Riley….and Bryce Too!
Angelica’s Awesome Adventures
Live and Love…Out Loud
Wordless Wednesday’s
A Beautiful Mess
Florida Hogans
Shibley Smiles
You can thank me later for getting that stuck in your head!
In honor of my trip to Disneyland in 22 days! I was on a mission to combine my Disney excitement and my new found love of crocheting and make Madison & Emmalee Mickey Ears! I found a pattern, followed it closely, but when it was done (no lie), it perfectly would fit a micro-preemie, not the 2-year-old the pattern said it would. Oh well, I was so excited by the final product, I finished it and wanted to post it anyway! Emmalee and Madison’s hat will have to wait!
Not overly thrilled with the flower, kinda looks like a psychotic octopus, but by the time I was finished, I just wanted to be done and didn’t care! Especially because it wasn’t going to actually be for anybody!
So there you go, my latest creation!
When I was little my Aunt Sue taught me how to crochet. I was never good, never completed anything. I’d start on blankets but they’d always end up triangular because I’d drop stitches! When Julia told me it was easy to crochet a baby hat, I wasn’t very convinced. Well, guess what…I did it, and it looks like a hat even!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from perfect. Julia went as far as saying, I couldn’t post it in our Etsy store! I need to practice more, but I’m proud of myself for accomplishing it! Right now I’m starting on beanie #2! This one is going much faster, my stitches are more even and I’m feeling a lot more confident!
Thanks Julia for getting me addicted! You better watch out Julia…soon it’ll be me taking over Blue Eyed Blessings!
Linking up today with my Fairy Blog Mother, the one and only Kristen of Ladybug Blessings and her fantastic Handmade Tuesday!!
A few days ago I was doing my daily blog reading and came across Mothering Mayhem’s post on Frugal and Fun Ornaments for Kids! I immediately bookmarked the post and knew I wanted to make them with some of the kids I nanny for this week! Well today was the perfect opportunity to try out the recipe and activity! I was babysitting a family with four boys ranging in ages from 11-2, and we all (me included) had a lot of fun mixing, cutting, baking and decorating them! It was chaos while we were doing them, so I didn’t get any photos, but wanted to share the recipe with you all and the three ornaments I made!
Yep, I’m that talented ;D
Here is Mothering Mayhem’s recipe for making these ornaments!
Frugal Christmas Ornaments
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
3/4 cup water (more or less)
food coloring, optional*
1. Combine flour and salt. Add water slowly, stirring until mixture forms a ball. Knead dough at least 5 minutes, until firm and smooth. Add more water or flour to get desired consistency.
2. Roll out dough. Use cookie cutters to make shapes. Use a skewer to make a hole for ribbon. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. Cool.
3. Leave plain or paint. Acrylic paint works best. Shellac if desired.
* Add food coloring to water for even coloring. Add to dough for marbled effect.
** This recipes makes approximately 24 ornaments.
We didn’t add the food coloring, but I think I’ll give it a try next time! We did add spray glitter and shellac to make them shinier! However, I’m now covered in glitter and shellac that I cannot get off! Oh well, the ornaments are worth it!
Happy Holidays!
I just successfully made hard boiled eggs for the first time in my life!! Yep, I feel like a big girl now! Now that I am a big girl, I must thank the little people (or person) who made it possible. Thank you Brandi for holding my hand and walking me through the process!!
Now tomorrow my daddy can have deviled eggs….hopefully Brandi comes through and makes them 
I accomplished the 3rd phase of this massive endeavor. On Monday I completed phase 1 and Wednesday I completed phase 2. Today I painted my accent wall, the pink color I picked out a few days ago.
Prior to painting the pink wall, I was really excited by my paint choice, however after I had painted around the baseboards, ceiling line and corners, I was really seconding guessing my choice of pinks! I love the brown I painted my room, but the pink looked almost Pepto Bismol like. Wasn’t really feeling it. Oh well. I had the paint. I was ready to paint. I was GOING to paint.
After the first coat I really wasn’t liking it, but decided to let it dry. Luckily as it dried the color became more of what I was hoping for. After the second, I was liking it more and more. I can’t honestly say I love it 100%, but it’s growing on me – and trust me – I don’t want to re-paint it. So I’ll stick with it!!
Monday, I think I am going to tackle the dreaded ceiling. Totally not looking forward to that one, but it needs to be done! I did however, get my room rearranged today! But you’ll have to wait until the grand reveal in a few days I’ll leave you guys waiting in anticipation ….. (ha-ha)
Thanks to Amy, I making even more progress in my room redo quest! Since phase 1 was accomplished on Monday, I would say I am halfway done with my project!!
Amy & I were able to get all the brown walls painted (3 of the 4 walls) including the dreaded bay window! Of course we had to document it!
The brown wall
Ignore the odd white dot in the corner! It’s something with the camera!
Feeling really excited with the way my room is turning out! I’d guess I have two more days of painting to go. I still have to paint the accent wall pink, then have to tackle the ceiling! NEVER EVER paint your ceiling! So not looking forward to that! Oh well, at least I’m making progress!
