Tuesday, October 7, 2014

NEW ADVENTURE

It's been so long between posts that I hardly know where to begin. I can scarcely believe it's been nearly a year and a half since my mother passed. I've been keeping busy though, nurturing cats, working on home projects, and sewing. Yes, I'm finally sewing again. It used to be one of my passions but it fell by the wayside when I stopped participating in art and craft shows. For a few years, I only opened my sewing machine for a bit of mending, but I decided it was time to change that.
 
My spouse retired recently and it's been a huge adjustment for both of us. I'm not used to having him here all the time and he's not used to being home during the day. We're learning to work around each other but I find it difficult to go about the daily chores with someone here. Why is that? I've talked to other women who feel the same way. Spouse will help with a few things if I ask, but in general, he has retired and I haven't. Many of you know how that goes. Anyway, after moping around here for the last year and a half, I realized my life was lacking direction. I had the wild idea to take the plunge and host a Harvest Gathering Home Craft Show this Fall. It can't be too difficult, right? I have a lot of experience with craft shows and I still have all my tables and display pieces, plus a few more I recently added, so setting up is the easy part.

I hesitated for the longest time, then took a deep breath and chose a date for my gathering - October 18th. I made some lists of what I wanted to make, took inventory of the fabric and supplies I had on hand, AND . . . I've been making country pumpkins, patchwork fall wreaths, wool cats, bowl fillers, and other things I hope to sell. At my daughter's urging, and with her and my spouse's support, I am transforming my former "parlor" into a temporary shop where I can display and sell my handmade items. Of course, I don't know if this will fly, but I'm not getting any younger and I will never know if I don't try. My attitude is this . . . if it doesn't go well, at least I will have tried. If it's even a small success, I will be thrilled and ready to host a Christmas show!

Here are a few things I've finished and how they are arranged so far. I keep moving things around as I complete my items and hope to have the room totally filed and ready by the middle of next week. That will leave a few extra days for cleaning up my crafting messes and making a final check on everything.  I have a list of things yet to make but if I don't get them done, I'll work on them for the next time. This will be a small show, and I have no idea how many might attend. I've composed and printed posters and fliers to distribute to local shops and my daughter has volunteered to bake some fall goodies to sell.  Here's what I printed on the fliers:

Harvest Gathering Home Show
At Liberty Homestead
October 18, 10am to 5pm
8593 Hemple Rd.
Germantown, Ohio 45327

There will be handmade fabric pumpkins, wool cats, fall wreaths, bowl fillers, vintage accessories, crocheted rugs, catnip toys, homemade dog treats, and a Baked Goods corner with Fall goodies to take home and enjoy.

(Then I listed my phone number in case someone had questions.) 

So . . . I'm embarking on a new adventure - or am I actually re-visiting an old one? Either way, I'm happier and more content when I'm making craft messes and creating something. I'll let you know how it goes!

P.S. It seems there are still BlogSpot issues when it comes to posting photos. That's part of the reason I wasn't posting anything at all. I could not get my photos to upload so I could post them and there are new cat photos to share! I had recently been assured the issues had been addressed. The posting process stalls every time I make an attempt so I'll just try posting them on my sideline. Ah, that still works. 

5 comments:

Anne-Lise at Rag, Tag, Bobtail said...

Wishing you the best of luck!

Kady said...

Thank you, Anne-Lise. I'm just now taking a break from arranging my gathering room. I suppose I'm more picky than anyone else will be. LOL

Earlene said...

Welcome back! We missed you.

Have a great show!

Happy Fall
Earlene

Merilyn said...

So nice to hear from you again Kady!! I wish you well with your Harvest Home Show...nice to see you have returned to your sewing projects, hope you get a good turnout on the 18th. I also had problems with uploading photos to my blog quite a while ago, have since upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7, but just haven't got back into the swing of blogging again....not sure when I will again, but I still keep up reading several blogs I used to follow......all the very best for the 18th, if I were in your neighbourhood I would drop by for sure.....instead I try and enjoy what is on offer locally....just yesterday did a road trip up to Brisbane (Queensland) with a couple of quilty friends for their annual Quilt Show - we had a great day and enjoyed so many inspiring pieces of work....take care!!

Unknown said...

Yea Kady! I'm so happy you are getting back into crafting and a new direction. If I was anywhere near I'd be there with bells on! I'm retiring the end of March and can't wait to get back into crafting. I just don't ever seem to have any spare minutes right now and I miss it!