Scenes From Valentine’s Day

Isn’t this bouquet lovely? Naoto sent it to me for Valentine’s Day as a little surprise. I took this picture about ten minutes before Presley ate a chunk off of one of the lily leaves, sending me into a panic. (Lillies are insanely poisonous to cats.) I literally turned my back for one minute and she was on the table eating the WORST possible plant! I did a quick Google and found only dreadful news and called the vet. While I was on hold (I suspect other pet owners were in my same circumstance…) Presley threw up and the chunk of leaf was there, undigested. The vet said it was a good sign but even with those assurances, I spent the next three days monitoring Presley’s eating, drinking, and bathroom habits like a new mother. We had to move the flowers into the guest room when we weren’t home, just to be safe. They were too much of a temptation for the little devil. Curiosity killed the cat and all…Other than that excitement, I started getting a cold on Valentine’s Day that has put me behind on everything I had planned for the end of the month. Next week is supposed to be a quiet one so I’m looking forward to catching up and getting back on track. Hopefully…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day! I just mailed out round 1 of my Valentines today. I spent a few days last week at my parents’ house and forgot to work on them! I took the easy way out with a Paper Source kit, so hopefully I can finish the rest this week.

Do you have any Valentine plans? Naoto and I usually don’t celebrate, but I am cooking dinner tonight and trying my hand at chocolate mousse (from this Smitten Kitchen recipe) so I guess that’s kind of celebrating?

 

P.S. Up above is another vintage Valentine from my collection. I wish I looked that cute while I’m typing out my cards, but I’m usually standing at my desk and fighting off the cat while she tries to climb up my leg.

HoneyCraft Recap

My third craft show is in the books and I still feel like a rookie. Everything went really smoothly and all. My table is simple so my trusty assistant and I have set-up down pat, but the week before the craft show was a bit crazy. Since I’m a huge procrastinator, I stressed over getting everything done and also making time for card and quote ideas that popped into my head at the very last minute. I had plenty of cards, and even enough quotes. And the Valentine puns were a hit. Someone called them “dad jokes” which I take as the highest compliment. I used a new card display so customers don’t have to rifle through a box to see all of the designs. It takes up quite a big section of the table, but cards are my thing, so…I think it’s real estate well spent. Before my next show, I need to play around with the display and my pricing signs. When Naoto wasn’t helping in the booth, he was shopping. He bought this sweet laser cut origami cat necklace for me from Simply Anderson. Isn’t it cute? And we got a set of these alpaca dryer balls to give to my parents. They are made of hand-felted alpaca fur (I don’t think fur is the right term?) and you toss them in the dryer with your clothes and they take away the static and reduce drying time by 25%. We got some at the December show and they really do work. The alpacas are raised in Harvard, Illinois on Argyll Farm.

The best part for Naoto (besides the ramen dinner reward at the end of the day) was meeting the official groundhog of Woodstock’s Groundhog Days. He came to visit and check out the booths.

Thanks for having us again, HoneyCraft!

HoneyCraft Market

In December I did my second craft show, the HoneyCraft Market in Woodstock, Illinois. It was a last-minute decision but I’m so glad I took the risk. I still had all of my stuff boxed up from the Petite Boutique and I just had to fill out some things that sold well there. It ended up being a really good show for me. The HoneyCraft veterans thought the crowd was thinner than usual but it all worked out in the end and the long drive out west was worth it for us.

Woodstock is a sweet little community with an adorable downtown and lots of small town charm. It’s actually where Groundhog Day was filmed! So every February they have a town wide celebration based around the movie. HoneyCraft Market is open during Groundhog Days and Naoto and I are heading west again tomorrow to sell Valentines and more. I have a new fixture to display my cards and it’s all stocked and (almost!) ready to go. (As always, there is a lot of last minute stuff to do…thanks Dad for the procrastinator genes!)

I’ll report back next week and hopefully be ready to post about some non craft show stuff again too! Thanks for your patience!

 

Letter Month 2017

Well, hello there! It’s been a little quiet around here, but I wanted to pop back in because it’s that time of year again–Letter Month! I’ve been a dreadful pen pal since I got home from Japan last spring (yes, that long ago) so I’m hoping this will get me back in the mail spirit again.

I’m planning to use this month to reconnect with my pen pals and my representatives. I’ll be posting my daily missives on Instagram. (Maybe I’ll share a few here, too!)

P.S. If you need cards for letter month, the shop is open.