A Good Day! (or Two)

The past few days have been very exciting...on Saturday Shelby made an unexpected trip home (gave me three loads of laundry to do but I was happy to do it if it meant spending a few hours with her), I'm even making progress with the dreaded "end-of-visit" anxiety...no tears when she left this time! In addition to that, we FINALLY took the plunge and upgraded my crappy crappy CRAPPY computer, I now have a fancy one with tons of memory and disk space. The whining and crying over my snail of a computer are things of the past...I can now post my "picture of the day" in literally seconds instead of 45 minutes. And...if that wasn't enough to make me a happy girl, I got this package of fabulous felt from Colonial Crafts in the mail Saturday afternoon...I love all the colors! I'll be making little felt Christmas houses until my fingers fall off... Later that day, we ran to an estate sale and I found this wonderful Mary statue (in addition to a few other religious treasures)...they had another like it that was in pristine condition but something about this worn Mary spoke to me, isn't she lovely?
Today's big news is that this complimentary issue of Somerset Studio was waiting for me when I got home from work. I briefly mentioned in an earlier post that I wasn't sure what was being published but I had a hunch it was my love, hope, faith lotto cards. I say I wasn't sure because I was never notified that I was being published in Somerset Studio but I got an email asking me if I wanted a complimentary issue or a voucher for an issue. I sent 4 pieces of "art" to Stampington in hopes of being published. I was notifed by Sew Somerset that one piece would be in the Winter issue (soon to be arriving on my doorstep) and a second piece would be published in the Summer issue (out in June)...so I naturally assumed that there was some sort of mix-up; however, a rep for Somerset Studio assured me a third piece being published...and here they are, mine are the three lotto cards: If you happen to pick up a copy make sure to check me out!
I'll leave you with a few items I've been working on for my store...I'm hoping to get it good and stocked for holiday shopping so I can relax and enjoy the next few months but so far I'm not having much luck!

Have a good week!

Rachel

House Re-Do

We had our carpets professionally cleaned this weekend by a new company that doesn't use any shampoos or harsh chemicals, they use some special 'charged water' that sanitizes your carpet without leaving behind any residue. I was a little worried with the outcome and swore I still saw some "dirty" areas (where our two dogs lay) but it must have just been the spots the cleaner paid extra attention to because the next day, when everything was dry, they looked brand spanking new! In preparation for the carpet cleaners we moved everything (and I mean everything) out of our two main living areas, the only furniture that remained were the really big, bulky, heavy pieces. So...since I had to pretty much move back in, I took advantage of the opportunity and 'redecorated' both rooms by moving everything around. This drives Tom nuts because I tend to do it often but I'm the product of a woman who moved furniture around and "re-did" our house every few months so it's in my blood. I feel like I have a brand new house now and it makes me all the more excited to decorate for the holidays!

I'm also trying to finish up all the projects I started but never finished for one reason or another. Remeber that fantastic lamp shade I got a few weeks back at the Wisconsin Farmhouse estate sale? Well I finally finished that project, I just wish I was a better photographer because the picture just doesn't do it justice...

Before...
During....
During...
After...

Now I need to figure out where I'm going to hang it!

Where's Autumn?

Unfortunately we've jumped from Summer right into Winter here in Minnesota. This is what we woke up to Saturday morning, the snow didn't stick around very long but the temperatures totally destroyed my pumpkins and tomatoes. Then... ...this is what we woke up to this morning. It was a much heavier snowfall than Saturday and it was perfect for snowballs (Sebastian and I threw a few before he caught the bus to school). This morning the meteorologists were claiming we'd get back up in the 60's by the weekend but this afternoon they were saying we'd remain in the low 40's or high 30's through the week and into the weekend. So much for the corn maze at the apple orchard!
All this snow puts me in the Christmas mood and that means crafting...it's been REALLY slow in my Etsy store for the past month or two but things may be picking up...I listed this little album Sunday morning and it sold (along with two others) by Sunday evening.

I also listed this one earlier this afternoon...I got some more great news Friday, I already knew one of my albums is going to be featured in the November/December issue of Sew Somerset (on sale early November) but I also found out that some more of my "artwork" will be featured in the November issue of Somerset Studio, not sure what item it is and I can't explain why I don't know which item it is without this post ending up being 6 pages long, but I'll definitely post it all when I get my issues in the mail! Can't wait!