Not My Style...

My mom recently bought a solid color teal outfit that she says calls for a big colorful necklace. So I took her to Michaels to pick out some beads. She continued to tell me about this necklace that she wanted me to make. Honestly, that's the hardest kind of necklace to make - the one that exists in someone else's head with lots of expectations that I can't really picture myself. Anyway, here is what I came up with:


Though this is so not my style and nothing that I would personally wear, Mom says that she loves it and that this is exactly what she was hoping for. Whew...mission accomplished.

A sample of Allison's Creations

I laughed this weekend as Allison and I were preparing for the craft show and said to her, "If you had told me in November that I would be doing this craft fair with you, I would have laughed and told you that you were crazy." Around Thanksgiving, Allison began introducing me to the art of making jewelry. I am so incredibly grateful for that because it has turned out to be a great hobby and such a stress reliever for me.

So, in this post, I thought I would give you all a chance to see some of Allison's work. If you like any of it and want to purchase any for gifts or just to treat yourself, let me know and I can work out the details with Allison.

Hand-painted Scarves (hand wash only):



Jewelry Stands:




Unique necklaces:




















Other fun stuff she has made:
Hand Painted Watering Can




Print on a pillow - the body of the zebra is Anna's handprint



Hand-painted mug - the lady bugs are Anna's fingerprints


There are so many other things I could show you, but this is all for now - just a small sampling. I am blessed to have someone so creative and inspiring in my life.

Test run...our first craft fair

So yesterday Allison (my sister-in-law) and I participated in our first craft fair. It was fun for us to figure out how to display our sutff and how to work together to make it all work at one booth. Thankfully our style of jewelry is different, so it made for quite the variety at our table. Allison also has other items (jewelry stands, hand-painted scarves, etc) - so that added to our collection as well. Here are a few pictures of our table...





In general, I think the craft fair could have been better publicized and perhaps scheduled for a better time of year when everyone in Goldsboro isn't at the beach, but I do think that it was fun for Allison and I to do a bit of a test run to see what this might be like. Though the crowd was small, they did love our stuff, which was encouraging and affirming. Allison and I may try to do something like this again in the fall maybe at another craft fair.

In my next post...I am going to show you some pictures of some of Allison's creations...she is incredibly talented and has some beautiful stuff. Be sure to check back for that...

Bracelets