Leaves For Thanksgiving

I finished my very first custom order last night. A set of oak leaf place cards and a leaf garland to match. It's a hostess gift for a Thanksgiving dinner party. My friend S. asked me to make them after she saw my booth at our Fall Festival a month ago. She came over to my house and we picked out the fabric together but the design was left up to me.

The leaf place cards were cut by hand and sewn together two by two with a simple straight stitch. The little paper name tags will be taped to the leaf after the names have been written on them. Since S. is a big lover of acorns, I decided to add acorns to the tags. After three failed attempts to carve an acorn stamp myself, I broke down and ordered one on Etsy. It's perfect for this project.

She also asked me to make a garland to go with the place cards. Those leaves were cut with a die cutting machine. I hope S. likes the end result. I certainly do. So if she doesn't, no problem. I'll keep them for myself.

I am linking my leaves up with:
Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions
Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia

Gourds On A Hook

I love gourds. They make such colorful fall decorations. But rather than displaying them in a bowl, I wanted to do something different. What do you get when you cross Martha Stewart’s gourd garland with Better Homes and Gardens' jingle bells on a shepherd’s hook?

Gourds on a hook!

Simply drill a hole in the top of various small gourds and string some heavy gauge wire through it. Twist the ends and hang the gourds from black Dollar Tree shepherd's hooks.

They cheerfully line the path from the garage to the house.

I am linking my gourds up at Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions and Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday.

Fall Festival Craft Fair

My first ever craft fair was a cold one but a good one nonetheless. I loved my booth location, just down the road from my house, and I saw people trekking by all day long. Because I was so close to home, I was able to run back every once in a while to eat something and warm up.

The owl pillows were my best seller, followed by the felted acorns and dryer balls. People were not yet ready for Christmas. My ornaments didn’t get a second glance and the booth across the road with the hand painted Christmas plates hardly sold anything at all.

I loved the garland display Ryan and I built. It is made from two thin poplar trees that were recently cut down in my parents-in-law’s yard, mounted in Christmas tree stands. It needed a better back drop though. Lovely as the park and the ponies were, they made my stand somewhat invisible.

I had a wonderful time, despite the cold and the snow (!) that smudged all my tags. Running a booth reminded me of my Bello Modo days, where we would frequently do bead shows. I miss those days. Working fulltime and getting ready for a show is a little stressful but well worth the effort.