The Avenues

I participated in my first ever craft fair during the second week in September, and visited my "longest" friend--Alisha--who has been one of my best friends from when I was 12 and who I had not seen in over 4 years!The Avenues is one of the most attended street fairs in Salt Lake City. I've been told there were more than 10000 people waltzing down the streets looking at the various vendors. I was excited to give it this a try as my first.

It was a challenge, but I succeeded in carrying everything, including my clothing, inventory, and table display items, carry on (go ahead--say it--I even impressed myself! :p). I didn't want to check ANYTHING, in case it got lost.

Alisha, myself and one of her friends split the booth three ways so the up-front fees were not as painful as doing a booth alone (the one I am doing alone this weekend is $100! ...gulp...). Alisha sold earrings and baby wraps (the earrings may been seen HERE on her etsy site), her friend sold hand crocheted items, including ice cream pint cozies (me and my Ben and Jerry's couldn't resist so I am not a proud owner of one), and I sold my baby items (may be seen HERE on my etsy site). I felt especially excited because I am "legal" now--I have a business license, a tax ID number and an EIN. Pretty cool!
Alisha, by far, had the highest return rate. I think she made over $200. I made a little over $100 and her friend made over $50. Combined, we made 6x the booth fees, so I think we did fabulously.

The most relaxing part of the weekend was attending a temple session at the Salt Lake Temple.

The most rewarding part of the weekend was seeing Alisha as a mom. She has married and given birth to two little ones since I last saw her, and it was enjoyable to see her and her mothering skills...which were awesome. I am glad to have a friend like her! And her kids are cute!

If you live in Sierra Vista, come check out my booth at the Fort Huachuca Holiday Bazaar on Saturday Nov 6th from 9-5 and Sunday Nov 7th from 11-4. It will be held at Barnes Field House (the gym), is FREE, and open to the public!

Mesa Vacay

Jared and I enjoyed a weekend in Mesa over the July 4th weekend. There had been talk of him deploying, but nothing was confirmed, so we lived it up just in case. Glad we did since he left on 24 July!We stayed at the Mesa Holiday Inn. Jared is often gone for work and stays at Holiday Inns and is thus, a "Preferred Customer". We enjoyed several perk assocuated with this during the trip, in, including a free upgrade to a suite (one was available), free bottles of water upon check-in (instead of $3 dollars a pop for the ones in the wet bar) and complimentary late check-out.The Mesa Holiday Inn boasts "the largest outdoor pool in Mesa!" I really enjoyed the waterfall and the fact that the deck was very open and sunny no matter where you sat. There were many pool chairs and a maid placed fresh towels on the deck every hour or so. We goofed off in the pool playing with "noodles" a little bit each day, and I didn't even get a sunburn! Jared was very vigilant in that department. ;)On Friday evening we enjoyed some subs and found a movie theater to escape to due to the heat. It had to be 110 degrees outside. I am surprised the station wagon didn't die on us. That car is giving us a lot of trouble lately! Anyways, we enjoyed TOY STORY III. I laughed outloud, as did Jared, most of the time. Our most favorite Friday activity was stumbling upon a pottery-making studio called "As You Wish". For about $30 and 2+ hours of entertainment, we were able to decorate/paint pottery. We were able to "rush" the kiln heating time and pick it up in 2 days instead of three days time (we were leaving on Monday morning, so I am glad we found the place on Friday night--we had just enough time to complete our art projects!). Our finished products have allowed for Jared to eat his night time bowl o' cereal in style and me to eat my Ben and Jerry's in coordinating dishware. I even figured out how to label my bowl so everyone knows not it is not theirs and not to eat any of it. I have to admit I am a terrible sharer. Maybe it comes from being one of seven kids?

On Saturday, we went to an arcade at Golf Land that had "Free Play" mode for the morning. What that meant was that we paid $10 per person to play video games without needing quarters for the next 4 hours. I got to level 9 in Pac Man (it finally got too fast for me) and Jared was able to kill lots of bad guys in various shoot-em-up games. Some 16ish looking blond boy challenged me to a game of dance dance revolution and totally smoked me. It was then that I realized I am getting old. That kid was a huge dork, by the way. Wish I snuck a picture of him.By the time Free Play ended, the DQ Blizzard Mobile had FINALLY showed up at Golf Land. Little did Jared know that I planned our entire weekend around the event. Hehehe. Below is a "happy Adri" picture with BOGO free Blizzard coupons.

It was nice to get away from the Vista and enjoy some vacation time together!

summertime sewing

When I visited D.C. this past month, I had the opportunity to visit with my Grandpa Norm Wheeler and my Grandma Louise Wheeler, my mother's parents who live in Bally, PA.

Grandma is a true artist, venturing into all forms of craftiness, including knitting, rug hooking, crocheting, painting, sewing, drawing, jewelry making, needlecraft, etc. I received some retro fabric from her collection and I decided to put some of it to use by making a clothespin holder for the clothesline I hung this week out in our backyard. I love the holder! Eco-friendly (by saving energy) and sweet vintage retro.This was my first experience working with bias tape. I think I will try it again!

Magnets

Just a picture of some stamp magnets that were made at a craft activity with the Sierra Vista 5th Ward Beehives; the paper and clear rocks were purchased at the dollar store and the magnets were from Walmart. We stamped a design of our choice onto a piece of colored paper and then selected a clear stone to cover the stamped design. Next, we cut around the edge of the rock, and then we put a thin layer of glue in-between the paper and the stone. Finally, we glued a magnet to the back of the stone. Inexpensive and fun!

Fourth of July Block Party

Ilene and I had a great turnout for our neighborhood block party! Nine families from the 'hood and two other families joined us to celebrate on the 4th. We are so happy there was so much interest from the neighbors! We'll have to do it again soon!

Our invite read:

"We the People (at 2XXX Calle Patina),

In order to form a more perfect party

Hereby invite YOU to an Independence Day celebration!

Oh say can you bring your lawn chairs and a side dish to share?

Please R.S.V.P. by July 3rd to ..."

Our nice, big backyard played host to the par-tay!

Mmm. Dessert. The most important part of a well-rounded meal.

Homemade apple pie with streusel topping--I used apples from the tree in our backyard.

Neighborhood crew

More friends

Grill Masters Darrell and Jared

Hostess(es) with the Mostest: Ilene and Adri

Batty Cupcakes

A very cute idea for Halloween treats. Thank you for sharing Heather S. I suppose since we are unable to get plain chocolate Nabisco waffers over here in Okinawa that using a serated knife to cut Oreos in half would be a good substitute for the wings. Hershey Kisses complete the look giving the bats a face.

Yoga Bag

Today I spent some time using my sewing machine before it will be shipped off with our move. I had been eyeing this Amy Butler yoga bag pattern for a few months since I use a Yoga mat and exercise ball for core-strengthening Pilates. After purchasing the fabric I needed to make it here (House of 66), I ordered some stabilizer online at JOANN.COM , but was disappointed when it never showed up, and in fact, had been out of stock when I ordered! I had almost given up on making it, but gratefully my neighbor Joanne showed me where to find stabilizer at House of 66 this weekend (**hint--it is on the 2nd floor by the zippers and buttons @ 500 yen per yard). By following the pattern to a "T," my end results were great! Unfortunately, I sent my mat in my express shipment earlier this week and can't test it out until next month!

Although it isn't clear in the directions, I used stabilizer on both my exterior fabric and liner, and although I had one needle casualty in the process of stiching the final thick edge, I am glad I waited to use stabilizer--it is completely worth its weight in sturdiness.

My favorite part of the design is the outer pocket area with three partitions.

My helper Roxy likes to get hair all over everything!

Shisa Dogs

The Freeman Family joined us on Saturday morning for shisa dog-making up at Sachi's Antiques in Nago. For 2500 yen, you can make your very own clay shisa if you have a group of 4; if you bring a group of 6, it is only 2000 yen per dog! You may choose to make your shisa sitting or standing, and you may choose yellow, red, or white clay.

There are two basic molds that Sachi's husband makes prior to you showing up. The one on the right is "sitting" and the one on the left is "standing." Everyone in our group made a "sitting" dog.

The first thing you do is cover your model with clay.

Next, you add ears and a tail.

Then eyebrows,

claws,

and decorations...

I think we were all quite proud of our finished products!

Since we had to wait 2 hours before we could return to pick up the dogs (Sachi's husband was not happy with us wanting to take them with us later that same day--he would have preferred we waited until Tuesday to pick them up so as to ensure not damaging wet clay figures on the drive back to Chatan...), we ate at "Pizza & Sky" for lunch. It is really close--about a 5 minute drive.

The trip up to Sachi's Antiques is about 75 minutes long--even if you take the expressway--so if you bring the kiddoes, you are in for a very long day...I don't recommend you bring them!

You will need to call ahead 24 hours in advance to reserve a spot, so when you call her, make sure to let Sachi know what color clay your would like to use! I didn't articulate that very well over the phone--we had asked for red, but when we got there, yellow was already set out. Despite the change, they still turned out super!