THE SHOP AT CEDAR AND SECOND

The shop has been decked out for the holidays since the first week in November. Mary and I will be working on putting Christmas items away and concentrating on Valentines day and then looking forward to our spring displays. When you're in retail, you have to be weeks ahead of the next holiday or event. It's a lot of work to change one's shop around, but it is also nice to create a whole new atmosphere. This antique rocking horse of Mary's generated a lot of interest. It's very unusual and probably one of a kind. Nature always plays a major role in the shop as does re purposed handmades.

I will be bringing a few of these sweater wreaths to the Dupage Expo show in St. Charles, Il. Jan 1 & 2. I've held a few aside just for this show as they have been selling as soon as I put them out. Ever year I do some wreaths in white tones using strips of cloth, lace, old wool blankets, and pieces of felted sweaters. This year, fabric and wool flowers were fun for me to do and a terrific way to use up those smaller bits of sweater wool. Every month, when I do a show, I bring things that I have made that have not been shown before. It keeps things interesting! However, this will be the third show that will have these wreaths.

Mary painted this wonderful chalk board/coat rack out of a foot board and door knobs. Love, love, love it!

HAPPINESS IS....

...spending time with my two darling grandaughters, Alice, shown here sporting shades and a very chocloate smile which will be more evident in the next picture.

and baby Abigale, who is now 6 months old. I snapped these pictures yesterday evening as they were getting ready to return home after several fun and noisy hours spent at Nana"s house!

I'M ALWAYS CUTTIN UP...

...on old sweaters! After the scarves, pillows, hand warmers and/or hats are created from felted sweaters, there are still lots of bits left of some really fine knit fabric. The base of this wreath is straw, which makes it really easy to pin the flowers into if you don't want to use glue.

I'VE BEEN HAVING FUN.........

........Making things for my shop. I love how these garlands turned out! At a thrift store I found a huge box of manilla folders. After cutting them down to size, i was able to run them through my printer, printing on both sides, and cut out my figures. The great thing about manilla file folders is that they seem to be a tad stronger than card stock and already have a cream color. So far I have only designed an angel and a dove, but have other designs in mind.

Also, adorning plain, down pillows with crochet and fabric flowers and leaves. I love how childlike and naive they look. They seem to be appealing to ladies of all ages.