Craft Shows...

It's been months since my last post!!! 

I was preparing for 2 crafts shows, one in November, one in December...

My husband was a HUGE support system!

I kind of waited until the last minute to prepare for this show, and so 6 weeks leading up to the Craft Fair...we were both busy, busy, BUSY!  Every free moment we had, went to building, sanding, painting, creating,...all while trying to put family first!   

Family will always be number 1 priority. 

Even though we were doing this "together", it was physically and mentally exhausting!!!

We both work, we have 4 small children, and so adding all of this to the mix was just too much!  I vowed I would never allow myself to become this busy again!

Here's the result of all of our hard work though!

The great thing that came out of all this was, my husband was able to take a step back, and just watch everything that I LOVE doing, (everything that he questioned) actually be something.  About 80% of what you see in this picture SOLD in those 2 days!  

We went to dinner with my family after those long 2 days, and it brought tears to my eyes, hearing my husband brag about his wife to her Dad.

That he was so proud of me.

Have you had that feeling before?  

To have your husband tell you how proud he is of you?

That is something I will never forget. 

That is what made all of this worth it.

In the end, it actually brought us closer.  

This is actually something that he wants to be apart of now.

 

This was the Craft Fair in December...

Most of what I brought to the Craft Show in December was what I didn't sell in November.

 

I would say that 2013 was a learning experience.

You know, 2 years ago I wasn't even thinking about ever having a business!

This was just something that I did for myself.

God has blessed us more than we could have ever imagined!

I struggle with verbally witnessing to others, because I am kind of a shy person.  I don't know the right words to say, and when I do think of the right words to say, the moment has already passed.

 I'm able to put scripture on pallet art, words of encouragement, words to make people laugh, and sometimes cry.

I'm able to listen to others share their stories, all because of a pallet art I created touched them.

Here are some of what I sold at the Craft Shows...

 

  

  

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

~ Jenny xoxo

Link Party:  Not just a Housewife

 

Preparing for the upcoming Craft Fair...

It's been almost a MONTH since my last blog post, but I have a very good excuse for my absence. =)

This year I'm participating in my FIRST Craft Fair!!!

It was never my intention to ever have a small business, but it kind of just happened on its own.  I give God all the glory, as this has been such a blessing for me.

It all started with making myself pallet art, then I moved up to painting furniture, and from there I started to up cycle, and now I'm even building actual furniture pieces!  
Along the way, people started taking notice, and wanting me to do different projects for them.  

So I actually have a small business now, and will be selling my stuff at a Craft Fair in November!!!

That being said, I kind of had to put the blog, and even house projects on hold for the time being.

I spend all of my FREE time now preparing for the CRAFT FAIR!!!  I promise I will be back to blogging regularly come November, and back to working on projects around the house.  
I already have a list of things I would like to do before Christmas...Part 2 on the garage door, building my own shutters for the exterior windows, and possibly painting my kitchen cabinets!

Here's just a few things that have been going on since my last post...
(If you follow me on Facebook, then you may have already seen these pictures)

First off...this is the sign I made for my booth!!!  

 

 I didn't go all out with Fall decorations this year...there's just NO time!  Did I mention that I also work 4 day's out of the week + I have 4 children and a husband that are my top priority?! Hee Hee

 

I made this for my front porch!!!

...and then decided to paint my front door a fun turquoise!!!

 

This was a quick project...up cycling a sliding closet mirror door into a standing mirror...

 

AFTER:

 

 

Here are some of the pallet art I've been working on for the upcoming Craft Fair...

 

 

...and my FIRST build!!!

 

  

This was the BIGGEST pallet art I've ever built!!!

 

...and there's a bunch of other little projects I've been working on, but I'm saving those for the Craft Fair! ;)

If y'all don't hear back from me till November...

I hope you have an AWESOME October!!!

God bless!!!

~ Jenny xoxo

 

 

Chalkboard Tags:

School is coming to an end!!!  Yea!!!

I wanted to show y'all how you can make some CUTE little name tags for end-of-the-year Teacher gifts!

I just cut up some scrap pieces of wood...

I used a Compound Miter Saw...

...sanded them down around the edges...

Sprayed them down with some black spray paint!  It doesn't have to be perfect, because you're going to distress them anyways.

I used a drill bit to make my holes...

Sand them down again to get the distressed look...

I then painted each one with 3 coats of Chalkboard paint...

...and TADA!!!

Have a blessed day!!!

~ Jenny xoxo



What we've been up to...

It's been a little while since I've blogged...well, except for my most recent post about the Hallway...but before that, it's been over 2 weeks!

Sometimes it's hard to find time to blog, so I thought I would put everything I've been up to in the past 2 weeks in 1 post!  How does that sound?

As I was driving my kid's to school one morning, I drove past a garage sale!  On my way back home, I stopped to look at this bar stool I saw.

I've been needing some chairs to go around my counter top.  Everything was just either out of budget, or it wasn't what I was looking for.  I'm not even sure if "I" knew what I was looking for.

She had "1" bar stool, and it didn't have chair backs...which was one of my criteria...it needed to have a back, so that my kid's wouldn't easily fall off of them.

So I just happened to ask the lady if she had anymore bar stools.  

And she DID!!!

She said she wasn't sure if she wanted to sell them, but if she did, she wouldn't take anything less than $40.00 each.

Now, there is NO WAY I'd spend $40 on ONE bar stool that I found at a Garage Sale...BUT...since it technically wasn't "in" the garage sale, I looked at it as if I bought them off Craigslist!  

I would have paid $40 for a bar stool off CL...

At least that's what I told myself when driving to the bank to collect the $80 for 2 bar stools.  ha ha

They are just perfect though!

They are black with a bit of distressing...

I needed some black to offset the white china cabinet and table, and they look so good up against my counter-tops.

The week before Easter I worked on a few crafts...

This one is made out of Wood Shims...

The cross was made out of some leftover pieces of wood I had...

I went to Hobby Lobby one day, and fell in LOVE with this Peacock platter!

Seriously!...it needs to get in my kitchen...like NOW!

It's sooo expensive though...I think they wanted $80 bucks minus the 40% coupon = still kind of expensive, in my opinion.

I stopped into a Goodwill that day with my Sister...check out my lucky finds!

((The fabric came from Hobby Lobby, the basket and wreath came from Goodwill.))

This is what the wreath looked like...

I took off all the floral, and ended up with this...

The weather has been so beautiful lately, and the lilies started to bloom just in time for Easter...

And just recently I woke up to pack the kid's their lunches, and noticed that the refrigerator was no longer cooling.

I never liked our refrigerator anyways.  It was white, and all of our other appliances are stainless steel.  So it clashed a little bit.

Being that this was an unexpected expense, we were on a tight budget when looking for a new one.

So though this isn't my dream refrigerator (I want the one that comes with a built-in chef!...they make those, right?), it's nice, and a whole lot better than my old one.

Stay tuned...

I'll soon be posting Part 2 to the Spiral Staircase...

You can read all about Part 1 here.

Thanks for looking!

~ Jenny xoxo