Getting Ready For The Holidays

I'm working really hard to make my tatted holiday pins and ornaments for the next couple of months. Christmas will be here before we know it. I am having another craft show at Elmcroft the second week of November. I hope this one is as successful as my last one in August. These are pictures of my pins. I really enjoy making them and I sell them now on Etsy. I have sold three so far in the past week. I hope that's a good sign. Well, I need to get back to making pins again.

I'm tired of it!

I was watching Martha Stewart today and I was really offended when the 30 something two guys on Martha's show made the comment that, "Most McCain supporters are not very computer savy." I didn't catch much else on her show today, but I heard that "lie." We need to hold these "young" people accountable for the stupid comments they make on public television! I normally really enjoy her show and respect her very much for the wonderful business woman she is.

My Craft Show is Over!

Well, I messed up and forgot my camera to take pictures of my craft show. So, I'll just have to tell you about it. It lasted for two days and was held at the assisted living home where I work and a great big living room. I had a U-shaped design made with six large tables so people could walk around inside and see everything. I raised money for the Alzheimer's Organization called "Memory Walk" and was responsible to raise $100. Well, I raised much, much more than $100 and I'm so happy! It was such a success! And in addition, I made some money on my creations, too. Everyone wants me to do another one in November and I'm thinking very seriously about doing it. Many of the items were made by our residents, so that was very special. We made greeting cards out of rubber stamps and scrapbook paper and probably sold around 20 - 25 cards. The crafty residents were so proud of themselves! Someone else took some pictures so I'll see if he can email them to me. I'm tired now because, as many of you know, craft shows are not easy--especially when you have to carry everything in and carry what you did not sell out! Plus, tearing down all the tables, etc., is not an easy feat. But, all in all, it was very well worth it and I know that I burned up some extra calories doing it!

Craft Show This Week

I am managing a craft show, the annual Elmcroft Memory Walk Craft Show, this week. It will be held on Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is being held at the Elmcroft, the assisted living facility where I work. We are raising money for the Alzheimer's Organization and, hopefully, we will have some good sales! It's been a lot of work. I will try to get some pictures of it on here next week. I have made most of the crafts, but have some friends who are also adding their crafts. I have also worked with my more "crafty" and talented residents to make some wreaths and handmade greeting cards. They came out great! I have no idea how many people will show up. We are placing a nice big sign outside by the road which gets some high volume traffic, so maybe some people will stop out of curiosity.

I have added a picture of another twist to my tatting. This time, I added it to a headband covered with pink satin ribbon. My four-year-old grandson was my assistant and did a great job holding the headband for me to photograph! I think I'll use him again in the future--he works cheap and loves helping me with all my crafts.

My Dainty Little Tatted Bracelet

I'm getting ready for a craft show and thought I'd create some little tatted bracelets for both big and little girls. We'll see how they are accepted. I thought I'd make up some tatted headbands, also. I've even trimmed little white socks in the past and I sold some of them. These are just a few ideas you can do with tatting that are practical, also.

My Tatting Altered Book in Progress

I am taking awhile to complete this Altered Book. I just can't come up with ideas--I'm having artist's block, I guess. However, this is what I have so far. I want to add some words to the cover, I'm just not sure what yet. I have another page just about completed, which I will add to my blog in a few days.

My Tatted Bookmark

I have been making lots of these bookmarks lately for a craft show in August. As I said before, I work for an assisted living home as an "activities director" and love it. We are raising money for the Alzheimer's Association, so I decided to have a craft show to raise money. We will hold it in our home in the "parlor" and invite residents from other assisted living homes in the area to come (over a two-day period) and also invite friends and families of our residents.

I also have three of our residents who help me make crafts, and we have made many beautiful wreaths to sell. I will post pictures of our craft show in August for you to see. We are also making the wreaths for other residents who have no door decoration. So, needless to say, I love my job!

My relaxing week

After such a hectic week last week, this week is a breeze. I only have to work two days this week at Elmcroft. For those of you who don't know what "Elmcroft" is (which is probably most of you), it's an assisted living home that I work at, and I love working there. I am a part time Activities Director and plan all sorts of activities for the residents to do. In other words, I keep them busy during the day. I sing with them, play the piano, play games (including Wii), and also have a craft time once a week. On Tuesday (one of the days I worked), I took some pictures of my white kitties and showed them off. I had three kitties, but one of them disappeared (and I'm very sad about it). I think someone stole him, as he was so lovable and friendly. And he had one blue eye and one green eye--we named him "Blue." So, now we have Sophie and Buddy left. So, at least they have each other.

Actually, I'm a transplanted Northerner living in the South. We moved down here about 35 years ago so my husband could attend college, and we never moved back. The life style is much slower down here and much more enjoyable. We have lived in Chicago and Indianapolis in the past, and we like the smaller cities better. We can get just about anywhere in 20 minutes. Well, that's enough about me today. Please enjoy my kitty picture!

I've Been Busy!

Wow! This last week went by so fast! I have not had a chance to post on my blog, so I'll try to catch up. I don't know if I mentioned this, but I am a musician and teach piano and voice. This past week, I had the privilege to sing in a group at our local music festival called "Riverbend." It is a week-long event and is attended by thousands of people. Our group didn't sing until 9:30 p.m. on Saturday night and we got through about 11:15 p.m. Lots of songs! I have also been busy adding pictures to my Flickr site, so between my blog, lessons, Flickr, and extra activities, it's been hectic. You can see more of my pictures at www.lllangel.flickr.com. I also added another chapter to my "Angel Story" and will be adding more in the future. It's a long story--I hope I can keep you interested in it. My picture is of my first altered book that I made about four years ago. I cut out around the book and probably won't do that again. It was very difficult to do. I glued the pages together and painted most of the pages with acrylic paint. Please read the page with the poem I hand lettered. It says everything about me as an artist and I hope you enjoy it!

Another Tatting Project

Thank you for all your kind comments about my tatting creations. Here is one more that I have made. I also love making Altered Books and here is an "altered board book" with tatting added. This is my Angel Altered Book, which I am not through with yet, but I do have the cover finished. I am also working on an Altered Tatting Book and I will put some pictures on when I finish it. Thanks for looking!

Another one of my creations

As you can see, I like to add tatting to what I create and not in the traditional way. This was a plain white metal mailbox and I altered it by gluing my hand dyed paper to it and then added my tatting. In the future, you'll probably see other items to which I have added my tatting. I also like making greeting cards with tatting on the card front. One of my favorite items to tatt are tatted bookmarks. I make them because they are practical and look beautiful when used in a Bible and vintage books. Even though tatting is almost a "lost art" there are many tatting lovers out there and we are bound and determined that tatting will continue on for people to enjoy. Many of my items that I am showing can be purchased on my Etsy site which is www.lllangel.etsy.com.

My Newest ACEO

I like to add my tatting to my ACEO's for a different and unique look. It is also very dimensional which adds to the look. I have been tatting for about 12 years now and still love the process. When I feel stressed, it relaxes me. Between tatting and playing the piano, both of these soothe my troubles away. My degree is in music and I teach both voice and piano. I have found more musicians are not just talented musically, but also talented in the arts and crafts. I'm not sure why, but it must be the part of our brains that we use more. I'd love to read a study on it sometime. It would be interesting.

Another ACEO Little Display Book

I made this ACEO display book out of one sheet of paper that has been hand dyed with walnut ink. I love walnut ink. You can get an old vintage feel instantly by using walnut ink.

Another little ACEO display book

I already posted one of my little ACEO Display Books and here is another one that I have created. I dyed the paper with walnut ink and added one of my ACEO's to the cover. Creating ACEO's are so enjoyable--they are like creating altered books. There are really no rules. You can do anything you want with a 3.5 x 2.5 piece of paper. When I look at all the ACEO's that are created, every one is unique. And I can catch a little glimpse of the creator's personality in each ACEO.

My Painting - The Goodby

I love all forms of art, including painting in oils. I probably should narrow down my "loves" because I seem to be dabbling in many things but not concentrating on any one thing. My mother drew many beautiful ladies for me in my young life and I have always remembered asking her to draw me one more. So, I decided to draw some myself and here is one that I painted. My mother only drew with pencil and never really explored art like she should have, because she would have been very good at it. But her love was knitting and she knitted all her life. I guess she felt that was more practical, and she was right. But I'm not really the practical one--I just love to create. This lady looks so sad because she is saying goodby to someone she loves.

My Daughter's Art

I am very thankful that both my daughter and son have become artists with their own unique style. This is a sample of my daughter's art. She has a three-year-old son, so much of her art is created with him in her mind. I love her bright colors and how she combines them. I will share my son's art (which is totally different) in future posts.

The History of My Business: Little Lace Lady

I think I will fill this space by telling you how I started making my angels and how Little Lace Lady began. I have made and sold over 35,000 of these angels during the past 13 years (with help from friends and family from time to time). I started with selling on consignment, and grew into selling wholesale. Then, my very supportive husband and I ventured out to open up a 1,200 square foot shop at the world-famous Chattanooga Choo Choo, where we stayed for 1o years! I then sold my business when my life went in a different direction.

I have always loved creating. Actually, my sister introduced me to these little angels. She lives in Utah where scrapbooking started. Every woman in that state must be creative! I know my sister is. She also introduced me to tatting, which I love to do. It really relaxes me and I can make such unique things. Well, I'm getting off the subject--my angels. In my next paragraph, I will start the story of my angels that began 12 years ago.

CHAPTER 1

One day, approximately 12 years ago, my sister sent me a gift for my birthday. I opened up the package and there were two little baby dolls made out of crochet string. They were about 10" tall and had bonnets made out of lace trim around their faces with pink ribbon added for the bonnet ties. they were holding baby's breath in their string hands and had little skirts trimmed at the bottom with gathered lace. I had never seen anything like them! They were precious.

I had some friends with a little gift shop and immediately took them and showed them off. My friends fell in love with them and asked if they could order some to sell. So, I called my sister and asked if she could make more for me. Well, she is a pastor's wife and doesn't really have a lot of free time and decided that she couldn't "go into business" to make them for me. So, I decided to ask her if she could "instruct" me over the telephone on how to make them. She said she would and we set up a time when I would have all my supplies gathered together to follow her verbal instructions. Now, this was way before "You Tube" and video and anything like that, so it was much more difficult to picture the steps. And I must admit, my first "doll" was definitely not cute! It was pretty ugly, compared to her's. I still have one of my original dolls just to remind me how I started out. It's really pretty frightening!

CHAPTER 2

Over the next few weeks, I made several little dolls and each time, they looked a little better. They still did not have the "look" of my sister's dolls, but they were improving. After making several more, I finally was satisfied they were presentable for sale. So I took them to my friend's shop and asked if she would be interested in selling them on consignment. She said she would try them and see how they would do.

"Consignment" is an easy way to start marketing your crafts. This way, you can see if the customers like your product enough to purchase it, and the shop owner is not out any money if they don't sell. If, after a month or so, your product doesn't move, it's time to go back to trying something else.

Well, the dolls did sell and this gave me the encouragement to continue on this journey. I then started to visit other local shops and show them my creations. Most of the time, I put the dolls in their shops on consignment. Not many shops turned me down cold. A few did, though, and when that happened, I would have to regroup and tell myself that my dolls would not appeal to everyone. Over the years, I have read lots of "how to" books and one thing that helps keep me going is a positive attitude. It is easy to get discouraged when venturing out like this and your product doesn't sell, especially if you are not a born sales person, which I am not. I am timid and not a very self-assured person by nature. I have to pray a lot for courage and the incentive to keep going when things get tough.

CHAPTER 3

Another attribute you need is patience. If you are going to do the same task over and over, you have to enjoy doing it and you cannot quit. Have set goals. When making the dolls, I would break the tasks up into repetitive little steps andwould make one dozen of one step and then go on to the next step. Don't look at the big picture--it will be mind-boggling and very discouraging.

As I made the dolls over the next few months, I kept branching out looking for new shops. I have always enjoyed browsing in gift shops, so, in our travels, I would look for new and unique shops. On one of our little trips, we went to Stone Mountain, Georgia and I found a shop there that I enjoyed. It was owned by a very talented and smart woman who had many wonderful items in her shop. I would always pray before I showed my dolls. That way, I felt the Lord would give me that extra strength I need to deliver my "sales pitch." I had bought a nice large Wedgewood blue basket to display my dolls, and I would carry this around in our car trunk just in cae we came upon a shop.

I walked into her shop, looked around and felt really comfortable there. When the owner asked me if she could help me, I told her that I had some unique little dolls with me that I had made and asked her if she would like to see them. She said, "yes", so I went back to the car to get my basket. I never would take my basket in at first, because I wanted to use the "soft" approach. That way, if the owner or manager was not in, I would not be embarrassed with all the dolls--I would just give them my business card and leave. But this day, I took my basket in and she immediately liked them. She ordered some for consignment and I left a few with her that day. I mailed her the rest that next week. Over the next six weeks, I continued to contact her and my dolls were selling. I sold to her for the remaining time I was in the wholesale business and made a good friend as well.

Chapter 4

During another meeting with this store owner, she made a great suggestion that would further the success of my business. Her suggestion was, "Why don't you make these dolls into angels? Everyone loves angels!" I am never one to ignore good advice, and I felt this was a a great tip. So my dolls began to change--the bonnets were changed to curly hair and I used more lace to form the wings. But the doll, which was originally 12" tall, looked too big for a dainty angel so I decreased the size to 7" and made the head smaller. This seemed to have a more petite look to me and immediately looked more appealing. But there was something still missing. I would always be drawn to other dolls and, one day, I noticed a little angel with a poem attached to it. I thought to myself, "Why don't I write a poem so that my angel has a purpose and a message, and not just like any other doll?" I wanted my poem to be a testimony also to the watchful eye of the Lord on each and every one of us. So I wrote my first of many poems, "My Guardian Angel." I had the poem printed up with an angel on the front of the card and the poem inside the card. This was the beginning of a journey the Lord has taken us on for the last 13 years. He has opened up opportunity after opportunity for my family and me, for that I am very thankful.

My New ACEO's

Lately, I have been making some new ACEO's and adding my tatting into them. I love to tatt and I try to find anything and everything to add it to as trim. I'm currently working on my "Altered Book of Tatting." I also like to make little display albums for the ACEO's. They are fun accordian books that hold about 10 ACEO's at a time and are easy to display.