Busy Week for On Pens and Needles

Wow! This week is a busy one for us. Our Artfire shop is participating in the "Twelve Days of Christmas in July" sale. We are offering 15% off orders over $10.00. Just use the coupon code "OPN Christmas in July". We just listed several new items in the shop too. Stop by and take a look. You might find a gift or two.

http://www.artfire.com/users/onpensandneedles

Passion for Beads is having a "Dots and Circles" contest and we are participating. We have entered our Drink Cozie - Pink and Brown Polka Dots.

Please visit the blog and vote for us! Voting ends at noon July 18th

http://passionforbeads.blogspot.com/

We are also featured on Andrea W Designs Blog as the Artfire Crazy Train Rider for July 13th and 14th. Crazy Train is a group of artisan that promote each other. Very exciting!

http://andreawdesigns.blogspot.com/

Shops With Less Than (10) Sales - Free for All

It's "Free for All" week at the Shops with Less than (10) Sales - Artfire Guild. This guild usually promotes 1 member each week but this week it's "Free for All". The more the merrier. All active members are promoting each other. You can check out the active members that are being featured on our Shops with Less than (10) sales blog. While you are there, post a comment and have a chance to win a prize donated by one of our members. SUPPORT HANDMADE!

http://shopswithlesssalesartfire.blogspot.com/

DesigningRose

This weeks featured shop has something for everyone. Water colors, jewelry, art made of beads. Stop by and take a look at all this shop has to offer. http://www.artfire.com/users/DesigningRose

Crafty Baby Hope

Crafty Baby Hope creates both elegant and fun jewelry. She loves to create beautiful pieces and it shows in her work. Stop by her shop, take a look at her great work and read her bio.

http://www.artfire.com/users/craftybabyhope

Lovin the Schedule!

Don and I have been busy making items to take to our craft shows and festival this week. We set up for the Crafts Unlimited Craft Show in Upland, CA yesterday. It's a great group of crafters that set up 4 times a year. Customers make purchases through a central checkout so you don't have to stay with your products. You work 8 hours over the 4-5 days helping at the show. I always have a lot of fun while I'm there. Upside, exposure for your products. Downside, there is a 20% commission taken from your total sales. There are several promoters that do these types of shows. We participate with several different promoters. Keeps us busy and more important, items sell!

Friday we will set up at the 1st Annual Orange Grove Festival at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, CA. Three days of family fun, food, entertainment and shopping (hope there is a lot of shopping). Long days but it should be fun.

Featured shop.... Jewelry by Sherry.

http://www.artfire.com/users/JewelryBySherry

Sherry is a retired military wife. Her husband retired with 36 years of service in the Canadian Navy. While he was away, she would craft. She like knitting, felted animals, scrapbooking and making jewelry. Her shop has some gorgeous items.

Please take a few minutes to stop by and take a look through her shop.

June is Just Around the Corner

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day. We had a fun time with family but thought about the sacrifice all of the service men and women that serve or have served our Country .

June is going to be a busy month. We have 5 craft shows scheduled and 4 large orders to complete. Our daughter and her family are going to Northern California with their church youth group for a week and we will be dog and turtle sitting. I also want to try some new projects that utilize the new skills I learned in classes I took at Moore's Sewing.

Don is trying some scroll saw boxes and polymer clay. Looking good!

Will keep you posted. Bye, for now.

Lemon Festival

Great weather for the Lemon Festival last weekend. We saw a lot of friends and made some new ones. We had an ok event. Not as good as last year. Handed out a lot of business cards. If some of them call with orders it will be all worth it. Received an order for a blankie and burp cloth after my daughters co-worker saw the custom blankie and burp cloth we did for a shower last week.

Tomorrow I am going to a class at Moore's Sewing in Riverside. Quilter's Wallet. If it turns out, I will post a picture. I have 2 classes next week. One is Betty Cotton Theory placemats and the other is heirloom placemats. Can't wait! I love my Moore's Riverside crew!

This weekend we have the Spring Craft Show at Hillside Farms in Norco, CA. It is one of the last handmade juried events in Southern CA. We always do well there. Hope this year is no exception.

That's all for now, the Lakers are coming back on.

Getting Ready

The Lemon Festival in Upland, CA is only 10 days away. Hundreds of business and vendors and crafters will participate. Past attendance has exceeded 100,00 over the 4 days of the event. So, we are busy adding product and new items to our inventory. Don has completed some great wood pendants, starting some unique wood plant hangers and a wooden hook to pull and push your oven rack (no burned fingers). I am making some pin cushion/thread catchers, new style coin purses and flannel receiving blankets and burp cloths. Our daughter, Susan has added some scrapbooking embellishments and gift tags. Don't have pics of all our new items yet but here are a few. Well, back to work. Hope to see you at the Lemon Festival, downtown Upland.

Any Interest?

I'm contemplating running a few contests to drive some traffic to the blog and to our Artfire store and I'm interested in feedback from some of you who have done this. What are the pros and cons? Successes and not no much successes, etc....

Don has been working on some new wood pendants. He should have some ready by Monday and I can post pictures. Some really nice work. I've also been looking at new patterns to try some different projects.

Speaking of woodworking, the featured shop this week on Shops With Less Than (10) Sales - Artfire Guild is http://www.artfire.com/users/madmoravian . In addition to pens and bottle stoppers he has some stained glass work and interesting uses for chain (I loved the hat). He is also having a sale... 20% off. Just use the coupon GUILDFEATURED at time of checkout.

Well, that's all for now. Gonna hit the sack. Gotta get up early for a Sew Fun Club at Moore's Sewing in Riverside. They always have new things to show us.

We're Back!

It's been quite awhile since I posted on the blog. The end of the year was crazy with a number of craft shows (sometimes more than one a day). Needless to say, we needed a break. Throw in some medical stuff and we (I) decided to slow it down for awhile. Well, we are now rested and ready to hit the craft show circut again. We have 3 big shows scheduled in the next couple of months so time to get to working. Don and I have both tried some new things during our "break". Don has done some crosses on his scroll saw and is working on some new wood jewelry. I made some hooded bath towels, paper dolls, microwave potato bags and raggy quilts. I have a few pictures to post and will try to get more up soon. Will also be working on improving my time management to be able to post more regularly on the site. Even thinking about some contests for our blog and Facebook. Will see how that goes. Have a great week!