Crafted - 2 days to go....

 So you'll remember at the end of the last post I was unhappy with the raw finish of the walls and so I bought a whole lot of paint and with a full crew dismantled all the shelves and decor and painted the whole thing. May not be interior design standard but it gives the space a finished feel. I'm glad I went with my gut and did it. We still need to put the colored flags up and product in but there's a much cleaner backdrop and the back wall is still wood. I'm excited to get everything in and there will be more tweaking no doubt.

There's our booth at the end.

The Silver Blue Glass Side.

4 days to go....before CRAFTED

So in the blur of preparations I was slightly terrible about documenting the transformation of the booth. It was kind of hot and exhausting. The shelves were painted beforehand but with the walls being less than 6ft tall I went for less is more and reduced the number of shelves I'd planned. The sign had to be rethought after I realised the yarn letters were just a fraction too big but I had a plan B and I think it worked out. The flag idea ties the two sides Silver Blue Glass and me together.

Mr B. hard at work

Pennants for a festive feel

Bright Green Paint

The Vision

The sign that goes on those two long planks on the back wall.

Yarn letters, sadly too big for the sign so this was plan b.

I put these shelves up myself.

A few props

I am really starting to think I need to paint the walls white, that would mean taking all the shelves down, recutting a bunch of flags but I know it would look a lot cleaner. Can't paint the back wall but at least its a nice dark color. How long does paint take to dry anyway ? It's going to be a loooonng week.

Just in, look who's sitting pretty in the July issue of Sunset Magazine. Praise is due to Lindsey Kliewer the wonderful creator of the image they used. Interestingly they took out the sky and reversed it, even handmade plushes can't escape a little bit of photoshopping !

Crafted - Booth makeover Part 1 the Plan

So the finishing post is in sight and there's still soooo much to be done. My lists are getting out of control and I'm a bit grumpy due to stress. I have foregone the surfing for sewing and I don't know how much longer I can abstain. Here's the booth that I will be sharing with Silver Blue Glass or Tomoko as she's known.

Testing whether cloud will stay up.

We have a fabulous original wall which quite rightly we are not allowed to paint but can still attach things to like decals so here I randomly cut a cloud and I quite liked the effect.

$5 bench

I picked up a matching pair of benches for $5 each ! they were splintered and pretty unloved so they were sanded, cleaned and waxed back to loveliness and did I mention they fold flat. It was the folding flat that sold me on it but look how beautifully it matches the wall (and electrics) like it was meant to be.

View from the Booth lovely lovely light

We can see right down to the demo area and you can see us so we're going to make sure we catch your interest.

Here's my very bright painted green shelves

So here's my plan for my half, I had a very loose plan but then I came to the conclusion that I needed an actual plan so here it is. Those green lines are shelves and those white shapes are all going to be painted or decals. The drawing is exactly that I'll just do a freehand with a paint pen/ brush. Due to the markings on the plywood there's going to have to be some strategic placement to cover them up. So give or take a shelf here and there, the walls seem low so maybe less shelving is more. Lots of chartreuse and white and wood. The beauty of the decals is that they will just peel off when I get bored.

Countdown to Crafted 17 days to go

It's been frantic and of course the weather has been divine making it doubly difficult to be tethered to my sewing machine. I have escaped and found a few new treasures.

Not so miniature rocking chair

Some wooly finds

Fabulous print

Plain wood birdhouse - Before

Fabric covered birdhouse- After

Cardboard letter - Before

Same letter with Yarn - After

And the making continues.. more bears, purses, owls etc are slowly being formed for their new home @crafted only 17 days away !!! Must get back so much to do still.

Crafted - Not long now

Gearing up for CRAFTED in a month and a half (holy cow) and a couple of new stores is exciting but quite tiring. As with any business, time management is essential. I love making my softies but from time to time I REALLY get the urge to work on a new project. These are my current top 6 that I want to make/do:

• Wooly bow ties
• Wooly whale
• Panda
• Yarn/Fabric letters(update halfway there!)
• Yarn wrapped power cords
• Re-do vintage suitcase

Some of you may remember that I bought a to do book a while back and I still use it. I like checking things off and it also clearly shows things I'm not so keen on doing. Last week I put the sewing on hold and worked on some new cards which I'd had the idea for and hadn't gotten round to doing. It's quite satisfying to do something that has a relatively quick turnaround.

As if there weren't enough things to get me off track I signed up for a crochet class in the Summer, my gran used to be a whiz with the crochet needle, as with the sewing I never really took the time to learn from her so I'm hoping that I have the crochet gene and will be able to at least make some coasters or something.

 Here are some recent additions, note my current obsession with the color green.

Classic owl with napping eyes.

New stockist of Desiree B. in Seal Beach

 Hapa Collective

Here's a card stand that got the green treatment.

Cardboard Letters

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It only took a couple of episodes of Downton Abbey to get all the letters done, it'll take a few more for the yarn wrapping.

 I saw these cute bird houses and thought I want to do something with them in my Crafted display.