Look for Supplies at Yard Sales

Hello fellow crafters,
This morning I woke up early and hit a few yard sales. I haven't been to a yard sale in months and I didn't really expect to find anything, but today I hit the Motherload!!! I got what must have been over $100 worth of MOHAIR and WOOL for $4. I also got a bag of crochet thread for 50 cents!!!

Then I went to another yard sale and asked a woman if she had any knitting or crochet stuff and she said, here I have this whole giant garbage bag full of yarn. You can have it for $2. I was thrilled beyond belief!!!! I was trying NOT to show my enthusiasm because I didn't want her to raise the price.

My advice to all you crafters out there, hit the yard sales, tag sales, Estate sales in your neck of the woods. You NEVER know what you are going to find. There were lots of baskets, Christmas stuff, fabric yo-yos, ribbon, fabric. But I was only interested in the YARN this time around.

All in all I spent less that $25.00 and got enough yarn to keep me out of MICHAELS and JOANNS for a while, a sterling silver necklace, a really nice piece of agate or marble encased in sterling silver, a lucite bracelet with pink rhinestones, a cake decorating book, a garnish making book and 2 Halloween Costumes complete in the bag and never been opened!!! I do realize I will have to put the Halloween Costumes someplace I can remember when October rolls around, but for $2 each they were a bargain!!!

re: Creativity is Everywhere

Yesterday I went to visit my friend who is a singer. He is really good and asked me to assist him in selecting his song list for an upcoming performance. It was a pleasure listening to him sing for 2 hours. What girl wouldn't want to be serenaded???!!! I like the fact that he is open to suggestions, because I can be quite honest and blunt and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. That's just who I am.

Anyway, we worked on staging, a bit of choreography and gestures. We also determined the pace and really listened to each song to see how well the first song flowed into the next one. What we decided was to open with a powerful attention grabbing song, then do a couple of slow songs and just when you can feel the audience losing interest, WOW them with another powerful song. He also saved 2 songs for an encore. We were really pleased with the song order and I was happy to help him select songs.

I also suggested he smile more and move the mike away from his face so you can see his gorgeous face and winning smile. Also since his voice is soooooo powerful there are times when holding the mike too close to the mouth might be too hard on the audience's ears, which is something he didn't think of. He told me he appreciated my suggestions.

I'm posting this to let people know that "crafting" just doesn't mean tangible, material things. Creativity is everywhere!!! Whether it be making items, singing, acting, cooking a meal, arranging flowers, we are creative everyday and may not realize it. So to all you lovely readers out there in blogland, go out and make it a creative day!!!
Janice :)

Cake Decorating

I had lunch with my friend Tanya the other day and after lunch we stumbled across a really cool store that offers cake decorating classes and chocolate making classes. If I can swing together enough $$$ I'm going to take beginning cake decorating classes! $80 for 4 classes. Not too bad! This place was sooooo full of things I had never seen before! Old fashioned cookie cutters, lots of different sprinkles, food coloring, food flavoring, cake pans, candy that resembled rocks, edible gold, edible silver, Tanya and I even squealed with glee as we found HELLO KITTY cupcake toppers and candles.

This store had a vast array of different colored chocolate disks that can be melted to make candy. They also sell long stick pretzels that you can dip in chocolate and decorate. Everyone think good thoughts and pray that I can sell enough scarves so I can take the beginning cake decorating classes. Classes begin in April!
Love and Happy Crafting to all!
Janice :)

Trying to learn ETSY

Hello Everyone,
Sorry the blog is not updated every day. I'm still trying to learn how to blog. Currently I'm really frustrated!!! I have so many items to put up on ETSY, but I cannot figure out how to make the photos the size ETSY wants them to be. So I think to make myself feel better I'm going to post some more photos on the blog. I just want everyone to know that these items can be purchased and I can take custom orders!!!!
Happy Crafting!
Janice :)

What I learned at Pink Parlour

So on Sunday, March 14th, I met up with my friends Julia, Jill & Lizzy at the Pink Parlour event held at beautiful Santa Anita Race Track. Julia and I were doing some research to see what kind of things people were selling and if we noticed any item selling better than others. We were also there to shop! I bought a cute pair of earrings made out of Barbie shoes and Swarovski crytals. Here are a few photos from the event.