Christmas ornaments....

Hi Everyone!  I hope your week is going well.  I took yesterday afternoon off and worked on getting things ready for the craft fair in a couple of weeks.  I worked on a new bench to take to the fair but I'm not completely done with it.  So I thought I'd show you one of the things I worked on this past weekend....Christmas Ornaments.

I made 50 red mitten ornaments.

Here are all 50 of them drying after their first coat of red spray paint.

Yes, I sprayed these on my bench outside...the bench needed repainted anyway.

I gave them two coats of paint, front and back.  Then I drilled the hole for the hanger.

I hand painted the details in white paint.  I think it looks like an old-fashioned knitted mitten.

Then I used red and white Baker's twine as the hanger.

 Here it is on a decorated tree that I'm getting ready to take to the fair in a  couple of weeks.  

The forest of trees in growing in the studio.  

I know it's just fall, but I've been getting Christmas items ready since July.  

Thanks for stopping by.

And don't forget to sign up for the Gold Canyon Giveaway.

Deck the halls...?...

Hi Everyone!  I know it's the middle of June, but it's beginning to look A LOT like Christmas around the workroom.  I know it's early, but I've already started working on my Christmas line.  I'm trying really hard to get and be a head of schedule for my fall craft fairs.

It's not that I put it off, I work on getting things ready for them all year long in between projects for clients and life, but then I always run out of time.  I vowed last year, that I would make a realistic schedule and stick to it.  My word of the year is DO. So I'm doing!

I always enlist the help of my mother on the Christmas line.  She is the queen of spray paint, among other things!  And she does such a wonderful job.  I don't think I could get it all done without her help.  We divide up the work load.  I get everything ready and deliver all the wooden cut outs and anything else that I want her to work on and she tackles it like a pro.  Her "shop" is called Donna's Do-It Shop.

 I took over several large boxes of things for her to work on less than two weeks ago.  I told her how I wanted things painted and which twine to use as hangers for each and when I needed certain pieces back (July for one box, August for another and early September for the last one).  Two days later she called me and said "This is Donna's Do-It Shop, I have the first part of your order ready for pick-up."  Two days later I picked up that box.  A couple days later she was done with the second.  I haven't picked that up yet.  So now the pressure is on me to finish up all of the pieces that she has started for me.  She's trying to get a large hunk of it done before Dad's surgery and then the rest she can do while he is recuperating or once he's fully recovered.

I started working on my portions of the projects, the detailed painting and I had to put a Christmas movie in the DVD to be inspired to paint snowflakes and snowmen.  It's just hard to be thinking Christmas when it's 90 degrees out.  But at least it gives me something to work on inside when it's too hot or windy to be out in the shop.  I'm hoping for some good shop time this weekend.  And to spend some quality time with Dad on Sunday for Father's Day.  Thanks for stopping by!