Christmas Craft Show Open House

  

My Mom and I hosted a craft show at my house over the weekend. My Mom used to do craft shows with my older sister back in the 90's but this was new territory for me. Although I have recently developed an interest in all things crafty I have little craft experience to speak of. We came up with the idea at the end of September sitting in the garage during our garage sale but we didn't really REALLY decide to go for it until around Halloween. So, basically 6 weeks to throw the whole thing together - and that included actually MAKING all of the crafts!!! Talk about a crash course for this girl who, two months ago, didn't know one end of a glue gun from the other! Anyway, my Dad (who will be 80 years old in March) put up a bunch of signs for us (in the snowing 20 degrees weather - thank you Dad!) and my husband made homemade cookies and hot apple cider and kept the fireplace going as we nervously opened the doors! I think the snow kept some people away but we did have some visitors throughout the weekend and most of them actually bought something! Really? Something I made. You actually want. to. pay. money. for. something. I. made? Really? Get out!

We even had a drawing to give away some fresh cut trees that we grew on our property! We had them on the porch as people came in the front door. :)

Here are a few snippets of our "craft shop".....

Thanks for stopping by!

I am linking up at the following parties. Won't you join me?

Update And An Interesting Observation

Thank you all once again for your thoughts and prayers for my Mom and Dad. You ladies are just wonderful! I am happy to report that my Mom's surgery went exactly as we hoped and prayed for. They removed the entire tumor and all seems to be going well. She is in quite a bit of pain and has not had anything to eat since Wednesday but she is sitting up in a chair and seems to be coping as well as can be expected. We are, of course, praying that she makes a full recovery! My Mom and I having been planning for several months on having a garage sale in May. She fully expects to be "up and running" for the big event. I have no doubt that she will be! She is a strong woman and there isn't much that stands in her way! I love you Mom!

On a different note, Ali asked me today "Do I have black squares?" I was a bit confused at first, until it dawned on me what she was asking. "No, honey, you don't have black squares."

I guess Mommy's dark circles have her wondering if she takes after me. Thanks for noticing, sweetie. It's nice to be reminded how tired I look, just in case the mirror forgot to tell me.

She's awfully thoughtful, don't you think?

Family

My Mom is in surgery right now. Thank you for all of your continued prayers.

PS - Happy birthday to my wonderful husband! Love you, honey!

$aving Dollar$

After dropping Beb off at school this morning, Al asked if we could see if there were any garage sales today. I told her yes, letting her believe she came up with this grand idea. Little did she know, I was already planning on hunting for garage sales before we even left the house. This way, she thinks Mommy agreed to do something super fun today, when all along I couldn't wait to find that perfect treasure.

Score one for Pajama Mama.

So later today, when I ask her to do the laundry, wash the dishes and scrub the toilets, I will have some ammunition to work with.

"But hon, Mommy took you to garages sales today and bought you a Beanie Baby, a Halloween coloring book, a plastic Hello Kitty watch and 2 Mardi Gras bead necklaces.....remember?"

Guilt. It's a beautiful thing.

Not that I would make my sweet 5 year old daughter do laundry or wash dishes because I bought her exactly seventy cents worth of fun at a garage sale.

But she loves to scrub toilets. And what else is she going to do when I'm watching "The View?"

"100 THINGS ABOUT ME" (61-80):

61. I love garage sales.

62. That bares repeating.

63. I. Love. Garage. Sales.

64. It's in my blood. When I was growing up, my Mom was the Queen of Garage Sales (a title that I'm pretty sure trumps the Miss America title.)

65. My Mom's garage sale smackdowns are legendary in the south suburbs.

66. She tells tales of stuffing a paper grocery sack until it was overflowing with summer clothes for my younger sister and paying just $1 for the ENTIRE bag of contents. Can you even imagine?

67. And don't get me started on all of the Barbie furniture and accessories that she managed to scope out for just pennies.

68. When it came to saving money, she was a woman with a mission.

69. She also was the Coupon Queen. Much like Queen of Garage Sales, she earned this title because of her knack of clipping coupons and buying $500 worth of groceries for like seventeen dollars and twenty-four cents. I kid you not.

70. She even taught classes at a local college about all the ways to save money from clipping coupons and published a smart monthly newsletter called "$aving Dollar$."

71. To this day, I sometimes still dream about the piles of Banquet dinner cartons and Campbell's soup labels, which were all saved for the valuable UPC codes to send in for rebates.

72. My Mom became an honest-to-goodness celebrity when she was invited to appear on the television show "AM Chicago," to share her adventures in money saving.

73. And as we all know, AM Chicago is now know as a little show called "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

74. I know.

75. So now I have no choice but to seek out those garage sale "gotta have it" deals.

76. I mean who can pass up a twenty-five cents coffee mug with "Foxy Mama" painted on it?

77. Not me. And I don't even drink coffee.

78. Even the clearance racks at K-Mart never know what hit 'em. I show no mercy on Halloween candy. Even if it is January.

79. What? Chocolate has a long shelf life.

80. And thanks to my Mom, I now know that a family of 6 can survive on $1.94 a week, if need be.