New Holiday Goodies

Slowly but surely things are starting to get finished, photographed, tagged and in the shops! One of the first things is a new design for the holiday season. When wrapping a Christmas present, I usually tie one of my ornaments on for added cheer - I came up with the idea this year of making the ornaments look like actual gift tags, so it's a tag/ornament/present-topper combo. Perfect! They are in the shops here and here.

There is so much to do and finish but the BIG news is something that I have been working on for a couple of weeks and that is hosting my very own art and craft show for Christmas. The idea came to me late one night a couple of weeks ago and it has sorta "snowballed" (get it!?) ever since. So, for anyone out in Blog Land that happens to live in or around this little town in Western PA, you are cordially invited to . . .

HANDMADE HOLIDAY

ART & CRAFT SHOW

Saturday, December 6th

10 am to 5 pm

@ the Greater Latrobe High School's

Center for Student Creativity

So far, I have 20 lovely vendors selling everything from gorgeous jewelry to photographs to felted goodies to handbags to soaps to sauces and jams and even some fudge. I am very excited very nervous and all around wondering what I have gotten myself into! Okay, back to the to do list. Hope to see some of you at the show!!!

Two Months Later . . .

Well, I am fairly certain that I have indeed been nesting under a rock for the past couple of months. Yes, it really has been two months. I am not sure what happened from then until now. Just lots of to-dos to do. It had been so long since I uploaded pictures onto my computer, that for a split second, I almost forgot how!!! Anyway, even though the computer-y, blogging type work has been at a very minimum, the sewing, crafting work has been very much happening - can you tell from this crummy tinted photo what I have been busy with?

Let's see . . . we have green felt, red french knots, tiny candy canes and red pom poms! That's right, lots of Christmas sewing! In fact, I have posted my first couple of Christmas items in the shops. To start with - a little snowman, and these guys.

I hope you all have been having a wonderful fall and I will leave you with a picture from my parent's farm - beautiful!

Everybody Needs A Hug.

Wee-ooo, busy, busy, busy . . . It is a whirlwind of stitching over here, and my studio reflects my mad-scientist vibe I have been feeling lately. One of my projects is still under wraps, but Man, it is great and I am super excited about it! (I hope that you will be too!)

I had done some Halloween stitching back in August and it is getting to be that time that I can show and tell such things. In fact, I have added a new section to my etsy shop that is dedicated to Halloween - there you will find little ghosties, spiders, cats, witches and candy corn haunting about. I will be adding more everyday and over on DaWanda as well. I will leave you with another pic of some of the up coming spooky items that will be available at Pea Soup!

He's Waiting Patiently

Is it too early to post Halloween stuff? I am just saying, I have been sewing spiders, ghosts and jacks all week . . . too early? It's hard to gauge when you are the maker of holiday things, there are snowmen on my table right now and Santas to follow!

My Dog Mose

So many things have been going on that I haven't had a chance to tell you about my new dog. Here is the story: About 2 months ago, I was driving along a winding country road, it was a beautiful morning, I was headed to the farmers market. All of a sudden, as I am cruising up a little hill, I come across a very confused looking and incredible skinny golden retriever. He wouldn't get off of the road, he just kept pacing back and forth and cringing from the sounds of the cars in the other lane zooming past him and laying on their horns. He couldn't understand what was going on. I could not just keep driving, but I had no idea what kind of dog this was - mean dog perhaps? And so I pulled off, cars kept honking and zooming by and this poor dog just kept moving on and off of the road, it was a matter of time before someone hit the dog or an accident occurred. I went from door to door inquiring about this dog, no one knew him, but said he had been wandering around for days. I had no idea how I was going to help this poor thing, he was FILTHY and I was afraid he would bite (though he wouldn't come close to me at all.)

Just then, a wonderful man named Steve pulled off the road behind me. Steve had passed me once and saw that I was trying to call the dog off of the road and stopped to help!!! What an angel! Steve and his equally sweet Mother in law and I managed to get this poor dog into the back of my jeep (thanks to Steve who had blankets in his truck!) So, 15 minutes after finding this dog, here I am headed back home with a very stinky, really skinny, totally confused and absolutely adorable golden retriever in the back of my jeep.

After trying to find his owner, I realized that we had found perhaps the sweetest most lovable little animal that I had ever met. He is nothing but kindness, hasn't barked once and just wants nothing more than to be laying at your feet. Ed has spent hours cleaning him and combing out his knots and Ed's Mom and sister have taken him in and made them a part of the family. I can't believe what a sweetheart I have found! Here he is:

Welcome home Mose! (And yes, he got his name because for the first week, he did nothing but mosey around.)

My Trusty Stamp Set

Here's something that I have never done a show and tell of and that is amazing because of how much I use it! This is my print set. It is from my Great Aunt Lyna Hoone. She was a school teacher back in the time when teachers rarely married and you presided over a whole school house full of students. This was the stamp set that she used in her one room school house and it is the one that I use today to do all of my stamping for my tags and cards. I actually had the thought that I should retire this beautiful artifact when I was out antique shopping with my sister and saw a set of just 6 of these stamps going for almost $30.00!!! But it is one of my very favorite items and it means so much to me. It is actually a little box with three tray drawers, the top one has a tray full of picture stamps and this is the second one full of words and letters and numbers. The bottom tray is empty (I suppose for your school papers!) You can see that I still have the old ink bottles and brushes in there!!!

The reason why my trusty little print set is out is this:

It's show time,! And the first for me of the season this weekend. I am gearing up, lots of stamping, inventory checking and pricing. I enjoy all parts of this, but it is amazing the amount of time it takes me to get my pins ready for their big debut!!!

Have a fantastic Labor Day weekend everyone! Enjoy the summer days, eat lots of good food, and spend your moments with the ones that make you smile!!!!

Back To School

Man! I can't believe it!!! Don't get me started on my "Where has the summer gone?" rant. I simply cannot believe that it is time to go back to school. While, I have been out of school for some time, tonight really feels like the night before the first day. I remember that it would be a hot and sticky night and I could not even comprehend going to bed at a decent hour. My new outfit and new back pack (with a new notebook inside) and (the best part) a brand new and shiny pencil box with an assortment of pencils and little erasers in the shapes of fruits or cars or something of the like would be all laid out and ready go. Ah, now looking back on it, what wonderful memories (even though I was probably not happy at all about going back to school.)

Anyway, I made these guys way back in June, when the thought of books and pencils were just too ridiculous to even think about. Well, it goes without saying that unlike many little tykes getting ready for their first day, these little guys are ECSTATIC about it!

So Everyone, here's to a wonderful school year filled with lots of fun things to learn and neat activities to do!

Blooms

My Mom and I are both big fans of zinnia flowers. She has an enormous garden of just zinnias, we save our blooms in big bags and plant them the next year. I personally cannot get enough of them, their colors, so varied and vibrant and their perfectly shaped dome of petals - this is one that I just cut for and inside bouquet

Also, a brilliant rose. Here's the story, we were given a tiny rose bush at the beginning of summer and Ed and I both scratched our heads as to how to tend to a rose bush. Did it need sun? Shade? Special rose bush food? I had no idea, so we just planted it and hoped for the best!! It seemed to be doing okay after the shock of replanting until one day . . . I completely broke the one and only stem off with the garden hose! I was sure that I had killed it, but we tried to save it and lo and behold . . . on this tiny little injured stem an ENORMOUS rose bloomed!!!

A rose bush miracle and perhaps a good life lesson somewhere in there as well. . .

That's Me Too.

It seems like there are lots of long gaps between posts, and while I am not doing so much of the "showing and telling," I am busy making things (in between tending to the rapidly producing garden and keeping three flower beds alive - whew!) It's funny because most of the things that I am working on in late summer are fall and other holiday things and it seems so funny to post about them yet, so perhaps I will just snap some photos and show them all to you later on.

Anyway, along with my Pea Soup sites on Etsy and DaWanda, I have been slowly working on a different kind of site. This one is on Etsy and it is called "Elmer and Eleanor" (which happens to be the names of my Grandparents.) Here is the shop. I decided in the beginning of the year that I must do something about my absolute crazy love and passion for all things jewelry and bead related. I LOVE jewelry. I collect jewelry and cannot be without one necklace, and at least three to four bracelets on. (Though I never got my ears pierced - weird??)

Elmer and Eleanor will be a shop for picking up some pretty beads and I have also started making pendants. Eventually there will be one of a kind jewelry pieces, I am hoping some really big, interesting "statement" kind of things, which I LOVE to wear. The problem is, the few things that I have made, I have wanted to keep for myself. I am really trying to get better about this, really. The above picture are two pendants that I am working on, they are drawings transferred to wooden discs - very fun to make. Anyway, thanks for letting me ramble on about the new adventure!

New Pictures and Old Favorites

One of my tasks that I am working on is revamping my Etsy and DaWanda sites a bit, it's been slow, verrry slow, but I do have a tiny bit of work to show for it.


Some of pictures were in desperate need of a redo and so, the light being just right one evening, I got some new pictures of some old favorites:

The Crazy Bug Pin:

The Honey Bee Pin (I just a made a nice big batch of these too!)

And this little lady, I love the picture!! I used to make a lot of these pins and haven't lately. They are so much fun to make with different hair colors and bows, they need to get back into the shops!

By the way, the little bugs are in both Etsy and DaWanda shops, if you are interested!

Good Things

Wow! Seriously, where had July gone? Wasn't it just the 4th of July? I don't even believe it.

I have been an absent pupil from the blog, and am kind of feeling that way about a lot of things, lots and lots to do and I don't seem to get anything accomplished! But that's okay because I had one of the best weekends ever - beautiful weather, art fairs, live music outside (three times!) music in my own back yard with a camp fire and fireworks! A beautiful day trip to my very favorite place . . . Good stuff.

And you know what else is really good stuff? These two. I could sit and stare and drool at their FABULOUS little creations all day!

Good Energy

This is one of the very first pin designs that I created. I fell in love with these buttons and it was around the same time that I learned Reiki, and met a lot of ladies that also practiced Reiki and these came in handy as gifts. I have had a lot of people buy them as gifts for massage therapists, physical therapists etc. Pretty neat. I haven't had many in stock in a long time, so it was extra fun to whip a batch up. There is something very comforting about working a favorite pattern that hasn't been made in a while, this was definitely the case with these. I put one here and there are more color variations to come.

I am in the process of revamping and updating things, taking inventory and all that good stuff, hopefully the fruits of all this labor will be visible in the shops soon!

Wiener Dogs

As many of you that may read this little blog know, I am the proud owner of a miniature wiener dog named Bean. I am very fond of Bean and all of her ridiculous-ness so you can imagine how excited I was when this custom order came in . . .

Close-up:

And now I want one for my very own of my wiener dog (who is black and tan.)

So, what was Bean doing as I was sewing up this pin? Well, she was on my lap of course, but this shows you where we have found her napping more than a few times. . .

Yep, that's her asleep in one of Ed's guitar cases. I wouldn't think that would be comfortable, but she looks pretty okay to me!

R is for Ruella

Happy Sunday Everyone! I hope that you all had a lovely weekend. Our,s was filled with great friends, delicious food and wine and fancy dresses and a couple of "I do's." Yep, some good friends got married yesterday and it was so beautiful and so fun. I love weddings!

My show-and- tell for today is another entry in the Flowers A to Z project. Again, I had never heard of this flower before researching for this project.

This is my felty take on the ruella flower . . .

And I got to use some pretty little seed beads for the center . . .

Animals

This isn't a very crafty post, but a show-n-tell all the same. Until very recently, I hadn't been to any type of zoo in many years, maybe I was 9 last time? Well, that all changed when we took our sweet little goddaughter to the zoo for her very special 2nd birthday. Oh my goodness - I had no idea all the stuff going on at the zoo! Like these guys (they really do look like they are in costume!)

And these guys who were my favorite, this one was so close that we were pretty sure we were going to get wet. Such amazing creatures!!!



Okay, so this is not an animal, but I made Ed take this shot of me and this really cool sculpture. I would like one for my own yard!

This is my favorite pic of the day - Ed and Sammy - so cute!

Happy Birthday Sammy!!!

Happy Birthday to You . . .

I think it is about time that I made a proper Pea Soup birthday card and here it is!

It is a take on my cake card, but I added a little candle and have switched up the colors. I love these cards and can't wait for the next birthday to give one out (That's you Ed!)

I made them in several different color combos, shown here.

I have posted one here and am going to post them all, but until then, if you see a color combo that you are wanting to have - just send me a convo and I can post it especially for you!

Q is for Quince

Hello All. I have sooo much to catch up on, first though, a very happy and belated 4th of July to everyone. I hope you had a great weekend with lots of picnics and fireworks and sparklers and all that good stuff!

I have been trying to sneak a little sewing in where ever I can. I have this little pin to show you, it is my flower pin for the letter Q in my flowers A to Z project.

I had a handful of letters that I just had no idea what flower to make for and Q was one of them. Luckily, I put Jay (my boyfriend's Mom) on the task and straight to work she went. Her idea for Q was quince. I had no idea how beautiful this flower is and was very excited to turn it into a felt flower. Thanks Jay!

Googly Eyes

I don't know what it is about them, but googly eyes are always funny. Take an unfunny thing and add googly eyes and it's instantly funny. If you are familiar with my little felt cards that I make, I use ALOT of googly eyes. The past couple days, I have been working on a batch of about 100 cards - that's alot of googly eyes. And even though I have been making these cards for a couple of years now, I never cease to giggle when the googly eyes get attatched to the felt bacon, pear, banana - what ever it is - hilarious.

So, you can imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this skit from Saturday Night Live - it contains both Christopher Walkin AND googly eyes. Enjoy.

Bundles and Bunches

Today I was doing a little crafting outside after all of my weeding and watering chores were taken care of. I have been working on getting a little sampling of goods together for a press packet of sorts for DaWanda. I am super excited for the opportunity (Thank you Elizabeth!!!)

So here is the outside work table:

Here are my new business cards I have been working on. I felt like they should have a little felt on them, I added a little felt heart from my scrap bag:



And here is the little basket of cards and pins that will be on their way to Dawanda tomorrow!



Other than all of this good stuff, I have been restocking some fall designs and have just started a huge restocking of cards. I will be a busy bee with this for a while, hopefully I will have more to show soon (including flower pins Q, R, S!)

Two old favorites and three new designs

Years ago, Ed and I were out book hunting in a nifty little part of the nearest big city (nifty because it contains two used book stores, a vintage clothing store aaaaand a bead store!) Almost too much for one little gal to handle and luckily there is also a music store or two in between for my poor boyfriend.


Anyway, among my finds on this particular excursion were two very vintage and very mod embroidery books. (Gotta love those "Golden Hands.")

There are so many great things in these that I don't even know where to begin, but there is a footstool done in crewel embroidery that I particularly love and my three new flowery pin designs are the result of my love for this said footstool.





(Of course, when I bought these two books, I was planning on making each and everyone of the projects . . . that has not even begun to happen yet!) But, here are three new flower designs that will be available in my Etsy and DaWanda shops. I really love these little lovelies and it will be hard not to keep one of each for my self!

Design #1: 5 little flowers

Design #2: 3 Little Flowers

Design #3: 2 Little Flowers

That is all for now, here's hoping you had as beautiful a sunset as we did tonight!

P is for Poppy

Just a quick show-n-tell today, here is the latest installment of my flowers A to Z project. It is one of my favorite flowers, the poppy. My parents have a red poppy plant in their front yard. It gets more beautiful every year! I have wanted to make a one of these for a long time, really anything with a pretty poppy design on it is okay by me!

Here is a little detail of the stitches:

Little Birds

This year, it seems like I have been trying out lots of different projects and ideas. One of these things started out as printmaking and has taken a turn towards stamp making. So far, I have attempted a few flowers but this is the first one up for grabs in my shop, a little bird!

I love the very handmade quality of it all and they were very hand made! Each one stamped individually, cut and finished.

There are tags:

And there are flat note cards:

Both the tags and the cards are in both of the shops. Here and Here!

I have lots of other stuff to show you too! For another time I suppose. After a long day of digging flower beds and mulching, I am relaxing with a glass of wine and awaiting on our first thunderstorm of the season.

Here's to a lovely weekend everyone!!!

Ladybugs, Campfires & Squirt Guns

I hope that everyone had a fantastic kick-off-to-Summer weekend. Mine was pretty wonderful.

Why was it so wonderful you may ask?

Well, here's a short list:

First farmers market of the season

sunshine

planting

picnic

a campfire accompanied by campfire stories

corn on the cob

squirt gun/hose battle with my Dad, sister, brother and two squealing nephews

I don't think it gets much better people!

To celebrate, I have posted this little lady here and here.

Sketching and Sewing

After a couple of days without a computer, we are finally back in action! And I am back at the studio table, playing catch up and restocking some items. I realized that I haven't shown all of my crafts cards, so here are the last two:

This one is a little drawing card, don't they look happy!?

And this one, it's a little skein of thread and some embroidery! Inside it says this:

All of the little items are hand made, it reminds me of being little and the many happy hours making miniature items for my dolls and their doll house, grocery store, fabric store, department store . . . not much has changed! Sometimes that is a good thing.

Oh, and these are available in my shop!