57th Annual Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival

The 57th annual Fairhope Arts and Crafts festival will be held March 20th through the 22nd in downtown Fairhope. Listed as one of the top ten events in the Alabama Tourism guide, this event attracts over 200,000 visitors to the area.

Over 230 artists participate. You can find anything you can imagine, from some of the most skilled artists in the United States. They also offer a hands on children's art tent for free to keep the little ones entertained, and live entertainment on the stage every hour. This three day event is something you really don't want to miss!

While you are there, don't forget to take a peek at the humane society's adoption tent. Twice now, we've attended and came back with a new family member, lol.

If you would like to find out more about it, or how you can register to participate, you can visit the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce's website.

Stay Tuned!!

I know this blog has been at a stand still for a while now, but stay tuned, because I have some AWESOME stuff coming soon.

I sort of slacked off big time the last half of last year. But I am kicking myself in the rear, and getting in gear, and how many other words rhyme with year???? Anyway.....

Bear with me please, because there really is about to be some really cool crafty stuff coming here soon!!

New stuff

I've been offline for about a week. I have been busy though!! I've got some great new beads that I made, I can't wait to string them up.
My 6 year old had to be a puppy in a school play, so we made a costume for him. It looked great. We took some good pictures, and I plan on posting them soon. I haven't gotten them off the camara yet.

Check back later this week, and I will have the pics of the beads and the costume posted!

Here's another piece of her work. The picture really doesn't do it justice. In addition to the large dragonfly pendent, there are also little tiny dragonflies on the strands of seed beads. It is really quite pretty. I love the colors she chose as well.

These are some earrings that were created by my Aunt Darlene. She has lots of other beautiful work that she has created. I will be posting some pictures of some of her other work soon.

She and I have been talking back and forth for a while now about starting our own business. We would love to have our own little shop selling some of our work. While she can make just about anything, she specialized in children's clothes. I can't wait to get some pictures of her sewing on here to share with you. That's one thing I am definantly envious of, because I can barely sew a straight line!!

The two of us have been creating quite a bit of jewelry, and right now I am thinking of listing some of it on Etsy.com. I really love that "place". I thought maybe we could get a feel for how well some of our stuff would sell, and what types of things sold better than others.

Relaxation

I am amazed at how relaxing rolling beads can be. Beginning the process is just as soothing as the actual work. I have been pouring over magazine pages, not looking at the picture as a whole, but examining the colors, how they blend together, and imagining how they will look rolled up. Would they look better as cigar beads or barrel beads? I love the cigar shaped beads (beads that are thicker in the middle) because of the way the colors on the paper blend together to make something entirely new. A really nice pattern might look better as a barrel bead, because rolling it the other way would not show the pattern, just the colors.

I minored in art way back when I was in college, and had forgotten how much I enjoyed looking at the brush strokes or individual components, or what actually makes up the pictures or paintings. It's absolutely fascinating to me how something so small and insignificant can make up a thing of such beauty. The next time you are looking at a picture of something, unfocus your eyes and just look at the colors and the way they all come together. It amazes me every time.