Craft fair pictures...

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are having a good week.  Dad is recovering nicely and has his follow up appointment today.  Hopefully that goes well and in four weeks or so he'll be able to have the AAA repair.  I worked out in the shop a bit yesterday.  I have orders to fill which is wonderful.  I have to get caught up after the craft fair and Dad's appointments and surgery.  I thought I'd show you a few of the pictures from the fair and then follow up over the next few days with some of the things I made for it that I haven't shared with you before.

 I left for a while on Saturday to take my dogs out and my dad sold my trio of paintings.  He made a deal and grouped them all together.  I hope they found a happy home.  I'm actually kind of sad that they sold.  I guess I'll have to make another set for myself.

 This big bench sold on Saturday.  I was really sad to see this one go.  I loved this bench and if I had a place to put it, I don't think I could have sold it.

 Surprisingly, I only sold one sign over the two day fair which is really unusual.  I normally sell out of signs rather quickly.  The only bright spot to that is I don't have to remake a bunch of signs.

 This little fence and birdhouse also didn't sell.  One lady was really interested in it but I came home with it.

 I'll post about the little cupboard in a day or two.

 I have some new signs to share with you too.

 I brought home the wooden flag.  I'm not sad about that either.

 This was a very popular bench and I got a lot of great comments about it.  It sold first thing Sunday morning.  I loved the fabric on it.

 My storage box/coffee table didn't sell either but I love this fabric too.  I have an order for another one with a different cushion on it so I will be swapping out the top for the new one so I don't have to build another base yet.

 I sold a couple of those cheese cloches with birds nest and eggs.

 One of my best selling items were the soap/lotion dispensers.  This is what I did with a lot of those jars I was given by my mom's friend.

 I also sold several of these jar lamps.  And the love bird coasters.

 I was actually kind of surprised that I only sold one of the numbers and none of the wooden boxes or trays.

I sold some other items that didn't get set out until later in the day on Saturday or on Sunday and I didn't get pictures of them in the booth.  It was a good fair.  I had quite a few sales and I got some really great leads on things for the future.  I also got a few orders and hopefully a few more will come out of it too.  I met some really wonderful people and can't wait to do it all again here in September at the Apple Jack's Fair.  The couple that run this craft fair also own the craft shop in the mall and after we had brought in a few of my items, they stopped me and told me they wanted my things in their shop.  So that was great to hear.  We'll see if I can afford the booth space.  Now I really have to get working on those orders and start replenishing my inventory.  I will also try to get caught up on all of my favorite blogs that I've missed the last few weeks.  Thanks for stopping by.

American Flag

Hi Everyone!  I hope this finds you enjoying your weekend.  A few weeks ago (has it really been that long ago?) I had the opportunity to guest post for Hani @ Craftionary back in April (prior to the craft fair and my dad's ordeal).  I was honored to be asked.  So with Memorial Day and Independence Day coming up I decided to show you how to make a wooden American Flag.  I've had this on my to make list for a couple of years now.  I was happy to have a reason to make it.

I started out by picking out pieces of 1x2" boards which are called furring strips from my stock pile of boards.  I used these because they are pretty inexpensive and that way I didn't need to cut boards down to the right width.  I cut 7 of them down to 26" and 6 of them down to 39".

This is cut from a scrap of plywood.  I cut it 13x10 1/2".

Here's what it looks like when I laid it out for a dry fit.

I also cut four of theses rails.  This is what will hold all of these smaller boards in place.  Once everything was cut, I sanded each piece smooth.  The sanding is what took the longest.  Furring strips are a bit furry because they haven't really been planed and pre-sanded.  Since they are made to not be seen.

I painted everything before I put them together.  I painted 7 red boards and 6 white ones.

And I hand painted the stars on.  I decided to make the Revolutionary War flag because I was going to age it and thought that would look better.  Plus I really didn't want to paint on 50 stars.  If you don't want to hand paint them, you could always use a stencil or vinyl to make the stars.  I decided I wanted the hand painted look.  White over this color of blue took about four coats of white to get  really good coverage.

Here it is before I turned it over and added the rails.  I dry fit it together before flipping so I could move boards around for a better fit.

 I flipped it over and added the rails.  I glued and nailed them together and then added screws to key boards like the ends and the blue piece.

 Then I flipped it over and sanded it.  I hit the edges and any high points.  I then added an antique medium to it to give it an aged look.

 You can see the sanded and antiqued areas.  I really like the way that turned out.  It gives it the right amount of age.

Once I was happy with it, I added a clear coat to it so it can be used outside.  The only thing I have left to do is add the hooks to it so it can hang.  So there you have it.  Now you can make your own wooden flag.  Thanks for stopping by.

Linking to:
http://thecheckeredapple.blogspot.com/2012/05/patriotic-link-party.html 
http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com/2012/06/patriotic-project-parade-linky-party.html 

Another good day....

Hi Everyone!  I hope you have been enjoying your weekend.  Just wanted to let know that my dad came home from the hospital today.  I came home last night, took care of the dogs, tried to sleep (couldn't) and then went to work this morning.  Mom called and said Dad had a good night and they were releasing him around Noon today.  I normally work until Noon and I had their vehicle so they wouldn't be going anywhere until I got back up there.  So I left work a little early, drove the hour to the hospital and picked them up.  Drove them home and then ran errands for them while they rested.  Dad looks so much better than he did.  He has some restrictions but is doing so much better.  He has four weeks to recover and get ready for the next surgery.  But at least we don't have to worry as much.  The Dr. told him to chill out about the aneurism rupturing.  He's confident that it won't.

I want to thank you all again for your support, concern, emails and comments.  I am truly blessed.  Thanks again for stopping by.

A good day....

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are all getting ready for a wonderful weekend.  I thought I would update you on what happened today.  It started for me at 2:50 am.  I had to get ready, get the dogs out to the barn and leave my house by 4:00 am so I could get to my parents so we could leave by 4:30 am.  So I'm running on 5 hours of sleep.

We got to the hospital and they took my dad back right away.  He was the first procedure of the morning and by 9:15 we were being taken to the conference room to meet with the cardiologist for the results.  My dad ended up with two of the three arteries around the heart having 90% blockage which resulted in two stents being put in.  The third artery is closed.  My dad has had a heart attack and didn't know it.  And that artery has been closed for some time.  Maybe for a long time.  So it's actually pretty amazing that he hasn't had any problems until recently.

It was a relief to know that he shouldn't have any cardiac issues for the next surgery.  And the next surgery can not happen for 4 weeks.  He has to be on Plavix for 4 weeks and then they can do the surgery.  His cardiologist and his vascular surgeon both told us that his aneurism is not going to rupture.  The cardiologist was able to look at the inside of the aneurism and although it's serious and absolutely needs repaired, they are both confident that it isn't going to rupture.  We ALL needed to hear that.

Dad should be coming home tomorrow late in the day and will have a follow up on Wednesday with the cardiologist.  They will do the ECHO at that time.  Then he'll just need to wait the four weeks for the next surgery.  I want to thank you for your comments and emails of concern, well wishes and prayers.  We ALL really appreciate it.  I'm so happy I'm apart of such a wonderful, caring community of ladies.  But now I really need some sleep.  I hope to have projects from last weekends craft fair ready to share with you next week.  Thanks for stopping by.

Results of tests....

Hi Everyone!  I hope your week has been going well.  I have missed reading what you are all up to and I can't wait until I have time to sit down and read what you've been up to.  So....I only have a few minutes, I need to head into work tonight and do payroll because I will not be at work tomorrow.  The results of my dad's test were not great but not terrible either.

His stress test came back as abnormal.  They told us that the cardiologist would not clear him for surgery on Tuesday.  They told me this while my dad was getting his MRI.  They said he needed to have an ECHO cardiogram and the earliest they could fit him in was next Wednesday.  Once he came out of the procedure, we (my mom and I told my dad).  It was sort of devastating because my dad just wants to get this fixed.

We went back to see the surgeon's nurse and then called to see if we could find out exactly what was abnormal about the stress test from the cardiologist.  They told him to come back and they would fit him in (partly because we were a bit pushy and partly because we were still in town-it's an hour or so drive to Omaha).  And then they called my mom and I back and had decided to go a different route.  Tomorrow morning we have to be back in Omaha by 6:00 AM and they are going to go through the groin with a catheter and see what they find.  If it's blockage, they will take care of it then, but if it's something else then they will exit and regroup.  We are hoping this will take care of it so he can be cleared to have the surgery and stop the time bomb in his abdomen from rupturing.  So that's what's going on here.  Please say a prayer for my dad and I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.  Thank you so much for your emails, comments, prayers and concern.  You have no idea how much it means to me.  Thanks for stopping by.

More tests....

Hi Everyone!  I just wanted to let you know that my dad is going in today for more tests.  He has to have a stress test, not the physical kind, but the medically induced stress test.  He also has to have an MRI.  I am going with them today.  I didn't go with them on Monday but I've always felt bad that I didn't go.  I think it's harder to sit in the waiting room...waiting while the tests are going on...and I don't want my mom to go through that again today.  Well, I've got to get going.  We have to leave in less than an hour.  Thanks for stopping by.

A blog hop...

Hi Everyone!  Carri over at Simply Done Wright is hosting her first Linky party.  And it's a blog hop.  So head on over and say hi!