When it rains...

Do you remember me complaining, eeh...I mean telling you that my first craft show did not go as well as I had hoped.  Well, I didn't get the sales I had hoped for that weekend but I'm so glad I did the show because it has resulted in some great things.  Man, when it rains it pours!

One of my customers from the show contacted me about a week later and placed my first wholesale order. I was so excited!  I met her with trunk load of items and she bought them all.  I was a happy girl.

One of the other crafters from the show has asked me to make her a super cute wedding cake topper for her wedding. {I'm sharing pictures of the idea below}

To top it off another sweet customer from the show contacted me through my Etsy shop and I'm working on a few custom orders for her.  I'll share those later...I don't want to risk ruining the surprise for those whom she is ordering for!

Lately I have had several custom orders...mainly for weddings.  Maybe I've found my niche.  We'll see.

Here are some of the wedding items Ive been working on lately.

Mason jar centerpiece vases or candle holders from here

romantic table number holders from here

Chalkboard tags for goody bags and place settings:  located here

burlap cake banner

Burlap and lace table runner



Ever since the Royal wedding, I have romance and weddings on my mind!
I hope you all have a great week.

And the winner is...

Thank you all again for following along with me and leaving me such wonderful words of encouragement.

Here is a reminder of what I am giving away:

A peat pot bird's nest basket like this one

A Paris Apartment photo display kit

The winner of the 200 follower giveaway was chosen by Random Generetor.

Random Integer Generator



Here are your random numbers:



7

Timestamp: 2011-04-22 21:54:37 UTC

Comment # 7 belongs to Katie of Thrifty Finds and Redesigns.  Congratulations Katie!  I will be emailing you soon.  :)

Thank you to all of you who took time to enter...I love you all. 

I also wanted to let you all know that right now, through Mother's Day you can get 15% off your purchase of anything in my Etsy Shop.  Just enter the code MOTHERSDAY15 at checkout.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

I'm a copy cat...and giveaway.

Hi all!

Today I'm sharing a copy cat project I made a about 2 weeks ago and forgot to share.

Have you ever came across something and thought..."BRILLIANT, why didn't I think of that"?  Well, that's what happened to me when I saw Flamingo Toe's Dinning Room Sunburst Mirror.

You see I have been collecting wonderfully vintage and beautifully tarnished old silverware for a while now.  I just can't resist them.  I see a spoon sitting all sad and lonely an a thrift store shelf and snatch it up.  My mind races with all the things I could do with it, all the altered art projects that I....Umm, never end up doing.  Yikes!  

So when I saw Flamingo Toes' awesome mirror I about fainted.  I had enough vintage silverware sitting in a drawer to make one.  So I headed to the craft store {40% off coupon in hand, of course} and bought a small round mirror {the kind you put candles on}.

I also had another project that I wanted to try...one I saw on Songbird's blog.  Beautiful right!  I have a VERY large mirror that I wanted to altered but thought it would be a good idea to try it out on a small mirror first. 

On a side note, I still haven't gotten around to altering my large mirror.  :(


So I combined my two copy cat projects into this:

I followed the steps that Songbird mentioned for altering the mirror.

First, I scraped off the paint on the back of the mirror in select spots with a butter knife.  Then I sprayed oven cleaner over those same spots and let it sit for ten minutes.

I have to say, it didn't help all that much so I just scraped the silver backing away with the butter knife.  I think silver remover would be the way to go on a big piece.

Then I used Mod Podge to attach vintage book pages over the areas that I scrapped.

Next I attached my silverware to the back of the mirror using E-6000 glue.  I hot glued on a piece of jute twine for a handle.  I cut down a piece of cardboard to fit over the back and attached it to the silverware with hot glue.

I let it cure for 48 hours and here she is.  Yes, it's a she.

By the way, if you left a comment this week or are a new follower and I didn't write you back {and you aren't a No-Reply Blogger} then I am very sorry!  My computer was hit by a virus earlier this week and I just got it back.  My email was so full I couldn't respond to my blog comments.

But, I'm back and running now and I'm so glad your here!  If you haven't already entered my little 200 follower giveaway, then head here.  I will be drawing the name at 4pm Central Time.

It's Giveaway time

Well, I have reached the 200 follower mark so it's time for the giveaway that I promised!

Again, I want to say thank you for following along with me and my craziness. 

Edited:  THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.  Thank you!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the winner of the giveaway will get 2 items from the The Mudpies and Marigolds Shop:

One of my hand altered peat pot bird's nest {I will pick one out of my stash}.  Here are some examples of some I have made:

The winner will also get one of Paris Apartment style photo display kits.  Each kit includes approx. 5 ft. of jute twine and 5 clothes pins altered with romantic script along with a distressed French tag.  Great for displaying photos, cards and children's artwork on mantels, mirrors, walls, staircases, windows...etc.

Giveaway Rules:

1.  To get one entry simply follow Mudpies and Marigolds and leave me a comment telling me that you are a follower.  You can follow by google reader or network blogs.

2.  For a second entry spread the word by blogging, tweeting or facebooking {is that a word?} or whatever else it is that you techno-savvy people do and leave me a comment telling me that you are spreading the word.

That's it!  I will announce the winner of the giveaway on Friday.

Thanks again to each of you for your support and sweet comments week after week...I love my followers.  You have given me the confidence to step out of my comfort zone and try new things {I will be sharing more on that later}.

Have a great day!

200 follower giveaway

I can't believe that I'm almost at the 200 follower mark. I know by most standards that's not a lot but I can't believe that almost 200 people are interested in my crafting and decorating addiction.

So to say thank you I am going to have a giveaway when I reach 200 {I'm at 196 197 right now}. I will be giving away one of my large Altered Peat Pot Bird's Nest of my choice {similar to this one}

You can see more here

 and one set of my French Market picture display sets.

more pictures here

*** If you want one of these items and can't wait for the giveaway, click here to enter the Mudpies & Marigolds Etsy shop.


Thank you all so much for following along with me!

knock off bulletin boards

I love drooling looking at design cataloges.   You know:  Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Ballards Designs.  You get the picture.  So, I've notice a trend...large framed bulletin boards and chalkboards in a cool Industrial Chic style.

Restoration Hardware

  Pottery Barn


Well, my syndrome struck again.  The "I can do that" syndrome. 

Enter Hobby Lobby's 90% off section.  I found these frames {because they were missing glass} for $2.99 each. 

I had 2 cheap, ugly cork boards that I got for $1.00 each at the thrift store.

I wrapped one cork board with some reclaimed burlap from an old cranberry sack and used my CitraSolv technique to add the Fleur de Lis.  I altered some large flat marbles and attached thumb tacks.  I also decided to add in some cool broken earings as thumbtacks {they look like number 8's}

On this one I decided to use the thick cardboard backing that came with the frame as a chalkboard.

 I applied 2 coats of chalkboard paint and then wrapped the smaller cork board I had in burlap and attached it to the center of the chalkboard.  I then used the CitraSolv technique again to add the Nest saying to the middle.

this picture is being a brat and will NOT rotate

Forget the HUGE price tags from high end design cataloges and  try to make one yourself.  It was easy and fun.

designer garden VIP party

My first craft show...not quite success

So this past weekend I had a booth in a craft show for the first time.  I was scared, very scared...and well, I'm still scared.  I wouldn't exactly call it a roaring success.  I'm trying to take it in stride.  There was very little foot traffic going through the 2 day show and I didn't hear from any crafters that did really well.  I heard more than a couple say that they hadn't yet made enough to cover what they paid for their booth.  I made money, it just wasn't what I had hoped for. 

So, I'll take it as a learning experience.  I learned that I made way, WAY too much stuff.  I learned that Spring shows aren't as good as Fall shows and I learned that there are some very nice and supportive fellow crafters out there.  Now that it's over, I'm happy that I did it.  I went ahead and committed myself to doing the Fall show so that I'll have a base for comparison.  I'm cautiously hopeful that the Fall show will be better.  Although, craft shows just might not be the right venue for my stuff.  So, we'll see.

In the mean time I'll be busy at working listing all of my items on Etsy.

Here are the pictures of my booth. 

Thank you Dad for letting me use your wooden crates, they worked great!

Have you noticed that I dig burlap

So, you may have noticed that I am a little bit smitten with burlap.  I think it's the same reason that I love peat pots like this and this.  There is a warm earthy texture that I just adore.  And you add in a juxtaposition with something soft and feminine and it makes me swoon.

Enter my burlap tables runner with vintage tea stained lace and rosettes.  I'm in love.

I made several to sell but they are very easy to make.  If I could sew a lick I would do one with a big, elegant ruffle on each edge.

If you want to make one just go buy yourself some burlap in the length that you would like for your table then cut the fabric to suit your desired width {somewhere between 11"-17" tends to be best}.  Next grab your Fabri-tac glue {have I mentioned that I L.O.V.E. that stuff!} and attach lace, rosettes, buttons or any other embellishments that you like.  It's that easy!   Just make sure not to iron on top of your embellishments and to spot clean only.

for the love of pedestals

I love almost anything on a pedestal...cake stands, cloches, cupcakes...and bowls.

So I finally put to use all those old wooden bowls I had been collecting from the thrift store!  I primed, then painted, painted and painted some more.  Then I simply added them to candle sticks, distressed them and sealed them with wax finishing paste. 

I tried out Gorilla Glue and E600 glue and I think the E600 won.  It takes longer to bond but I felt the hold on it was better for these.  Of course, I couldn't help myself from putting make-shift nests into each one for Spring.

This cute little vintage bunny was...wait for it...10 CENTS!  Can you believe that! 

 Also linking to:  Wow Us Wed. at Savy Southern Style

just for me

Warning:  this blog post has absolutely nothing to do with decor, crafts or style.

Today I am sick.  I despise being sick {not that there is anyone who enjoys it}. The timing in horrible.  I'm trying to get all this last minute stuff done for the craft show this weekend and now this cold on steroids has stopped me dead in my tracks slowed me down.  I have a feeling it's the craft show's fault I'm sick...too many nights of staying up too late working on things, lack of sleep and stress = compromised immune system.  I just hope it passes quickly.

By the way, if you live in the St. Louis area, come out and visit me this Sat. 9-4  or Sun. 10-4 at Lindbergh High School in South County!  

So to chear myself up I've been editing pictures of my little Punky Brewester.  Just in the last few months I've been marveling at how grown-up she's gotten.  She's 2 1/2 but definetly not a baby anymore.  She's fully potty trained {day and night without diapers}, she can carry on a full conversation with you and make total sense, she drinks out of a regular cup now and she thinks there is nothing she can't do.  How can this be?!

Here she is in all her glory:

"helping" me bake

making a birdhouse for her Memaw and PopPop

walking "her" dog

giving me her model pose

Hope your day is great and cold free!