The Lavender Loom

2009-12-02T12:43:00.003-07:00

2009 has been a busy year long effort to build up my Holiday Bazaar Inventory. My partner in crime (Pam) & I went out on a limb and signed up for a booth at the Trailing of The Sheep Festival in Hailey. We thought this would be a great testing ground for our wool felted hats & bags. We left Boise on Friday afternoon & spent the night with my BFF Sally in Gooding. Her son was playing in the High School Football game that night so we donned our newly hand knit "Hoodies" and headed out to a fun-filled, bitter cold night at the game. We looked just like three "grandma's" nestled together trying to steal the heat from each other. What a HOOT !
When we got home we settled in for hot chocolate & a half night marathon of "Catch up on the latest gossip"session. I think I ended up with 3 hrs sleep!
By 6:30 A.M. we were on the road headed to Hailey.
Talk about COLD ! ! ! By the time we got our booth set up, I began to wonder if I had any feet left! I could have sworn they had frozen themselves off after the first half hr of tramping in the frosty grass to get set up. But by noon the sun was shining & it turned out to be a fabulous day.
It surely did not take long to test our wool hats in this market place. Our prices were extremely competitive and the choices were endless. At any given time we had at least 10-12 shoppers in our booth. The products we had labored over for the last 9 months were flying out the door.
After giggling ourselves silly over the profits we had made a sudden panic set in! We had 9 more shows to do and we have minimal inventory! The we would giggle again about our success and in the next breath panic strikes again! ! So very funny when you look back on it.
We will definitely be back next year!

Dad's 76th Birthday Party

2009-02-09T16:45:00.003-07:00

For the first time in about 30 years all four of us kids, (Dan, Diane, Debbie & Darr) were all together at the same time & same place & we got to have an entire family photo taken with Mom & Pop. We met on Saturday Feb 7, 2009 in Ontario Oregon at the Fiesta Guadalahara Mexican restaurant for some pretty fabulous mexican food. Debbie came from Payson Utah & in tow were three of her kids, (Angie, from Phoenix, Amy & Nate & their 2 sets of twins, Mike & Ali and their 3 kids). Then there was Dan & Wanda coming in from Lincoln City, Oregon. They had his daughter Jennifer there along with her husband Pat & two kids. Darr showed up with his three kids, Sara, Neal & Alison. Gary & I made a long afternoon trip over from Boise. Pulling up the rear was Mom & Bennie...all of us to wish Dad (escorted by Janice) a fabulous birthday. We gave each of our parents a digital photo frame loaded with a few photo's just to get them started. Dad also got some shoe grips for his boots so he will no longer slip & fall on the ice when he goes out to get the mail. His last little trip out there on the ice resulted in his taking a brief little nap under a 55 gal drum for a few minutes. As he woke up wondering what haad happened, he did make it into the house just in time to keep Janice busy washing all the blood from the back of his head. I think shoe grips is a GREAT idea. All his great-grandkids gathered around to watch him open the wonderful gift they got him...a pair of hand knit grandpa slippers. And of course, he got a new stadium seat to take to the races. His tender little hiney needed somthing just a little softer to rest on. The employees adorned his head with the traditional sombrero and sang to him in their native tongue. Several photo's later & ending with yummy fried icecream, we all departed to our separate destinations. A photo gallery will follow in a couple of days. A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

2008-09-22T11:09:00.002-06:00

Just finished up our little part of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party on Saturday. This is an annual event held at the Idaho Botanical Gardens and I was participated as one of the vendors. The booth typically touts hand knit scarves & shawls, hand warmers and hats. But since the occasion was geared to the children the inventory grew to include crowns & wands, lots of "little people" hand warmers, crazy hats and of course, all the fun-fur "feel good" mini scarves a little girl would want. Those who visited the booth had a great time....although they were few & far between. Just had 1 1/4 inches of rain the day before & the weather was still a little overcast. I think that kept a lot of people home.

There was this Crazy dressed up guy who kept running & screaming through the vendor area that he "was late..I'm SO late" for something or another. And this very pretty lady dressed in a velvet dress must have had a lot of candy in her pockets as she had a line of kids constantly following her. They were doing a "Parade of self-made Hats" and let me tell you...there are a lot of pretty creative kids out there!

Five different little ballet troups entertained the crowd during the afternoon tea. They were absolutely adorable.

What a "FABULOUS" event for the children! They had a great time.
I have never been to this event but if my grand children lived here...I would definitely make this an annual Grandma's day out with the grandkids.

2008-08-14T15:46:00.011-06:00

Bless her sweet little heart...My daughter-in-law....volunteering to work on this blogspot for me. I am so busy with my job that I seldom have time to work on this page and she was so excited to jump right in & do it for me. What a Dear!
The fall craft shows are just around the corner & I have been feverishly clicking those knitting needles to create a lot of interesting things for this year.
New products will include:
Fingerless Gloves, Hoodies, Bikers Pant Straps, Ear Warmers, Cupcake Trinket Boxes,
Hats, Mary Jane Slippers, Leggings, Wraps & Shawls, Collars, Coffee Kozies, Stix (Special complimentary scarf closures, Gift Certificate Pockets, Skongs (skinny/long scarves),
Short Scarves, Long Scarves, and anything else that crosses my mind or yours.

I have scheduled a showing at the Boise Mad Hatters Tea Party in September. I am having a fabulous time creating some "Interesting" hats. My husband has been asking when I'm going to start marketing some of my products. I keep telling him how hard it is to market winter apparel when it's 97 degrees outside. I think he's figured it out.

My Little Cupcake

2008-05-19T09:27:00.004-06:00

Here's a cute little idea my co-worker requested I create as a "Special" little gift for a special friend. It started out as a pin cushion & now I have adaapted it so the top is removable & can also act as a little trinket box or sachet. What a fabulous idea for enclosing that little gift of cash or gift certificate.

What a fun little project!

Following are comments left on my friend Rachel's blogspot.

Post a Comment On: Hope Stamps Eternal
"Zero Calorie Cupcake..."
3 Comments -

I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating, and in fourteen days I lost two weeks. -Joe E. Lewis

I was browsing thru an old Crafts 'n Things a month ago and saw a little cupcake pin cushion...it was cute, but small...and well....I don't knit, so I passed it by. As the days went by, though, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I have a friend...well a few friends, but 1 in particular that just LOVES cupcakes!

So, I asked a friend at work who knits if she had ever seen one. She hadn't so we went searching...and boy was I delighted and surprised to see the number of Knit Food Patterns there are on the web. Cupcakes, Doughnuts, Cake, Fruit...wow!

So Diane got started and made me one that I could send to Jessica...and then the obsession began...I think she has made 10-15 of these darlings in the last month! Good thing she does a lot of Craft Shows! :)

I wish I had taken more pictures...maybe Jessica has taken some...I'll check and add them here if she has more.

ETA: Here are a few more pics Jessica took...gives you an idea of the size...

(If you are interested in purchasing one of these contact me and I will get you pictures of what is available, or Diane can make one to your color specifics. They are $10 each)

posted by Rachel Hope at 11:04 AM on May 18, 2008

Taupe Collar w/Dragonfly

2007-11-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

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Prices vary from $25 up depending on selection of materials