Celebrating Life Thru Art Fine Art and Craft Fair

I had a really super great time at the show yesterday. There was so many vendors, and so much talent at this show it was awesome! I cant thank Kim Ries enough for semi-twisting my arm to get me to go!

Many thanks to Donna Williams for being so awesome. She knew who I was as soon as I pulled up to the lot (imagine that!) She had a huge smile and a big hug waiting for me, that made my morning. So thanks a bunch for that Donna!

This was my table at the show before customers hit it LOL. I had a decent day. I cant complain. I made a little money and had a load of fun meeting so
many new people on the team and meeting future team members too!

I met Dawn who is an amazing photographer. She was so kind to bring me a gift of the most beautiful picture I ever seen of some redbud trees...My dad loved redbuds, and I always had a soft spot for them too. I cant thank you enough Dawn! This is going with my fine art collection!

And of course my old buddy (wink wink) Kim Ries was there with her awesome Jewelry. I had to trade her out of some earrings cause I been looking at them in her shop and couldnt resist no more! The ones the link points to is yellow but the ones I got are gorgeous blue..same style just blue. It was hard to pick one pair. It really was! Thanks for the trade Kim! Hubs liked them too he was impressed, and he dont impress easy LOL

And my booth partner was the ever sweet Jessica. Her shop is called ThePinkNeedle and her hair bows and things are on the coolest cards ever! They are so pretty! She uses this hole punch thingy to make the edges look like lace. It was awesome and I was super impressed cause everything looked so classy and so totally shabby chic! Totally my style. Jessica makes some really adorable purses and the sweetest cutest thumbtacks you ever seen! Jessica if you read this it was awesome to be your booth partner and we need to do it again sometime!!!

And on down from our two spots was the amazing IrisInBloom with her gorgeous embroidered shirts and things. I embroider too and the quality of her embroidery is amazing. No hoop burn, no wrinkling either to the fabric around the embroidery. Her stuff is really incredible in person and I highly recommend her if your in the market for something gorgeous and embroidered. She was a pleasure to talk to as well.

And just a step away from IrisInBloom was the ever lovely and lively Carolyn. I love Carolyn, she has such a sweet country way about her. Carolyn owns CowgirlRosie and makes the prettiest stuff you ever seen. This lady can sew like nobodies business for real! This tote is incredible in person as is her amazing fabric bowls.

Carolyn was in on the very beginning of the Bluegrass Etsy Street Team which I am proud leader of right now. I also got to meet Robin who was the very first leader of the team. I was so proud to finally meet her! I feel like I got to see a little piece of the history of the team and meet the people who had a vision in the beginning.I just get all warm and fuzzy inside over this kind of stuff..... I hope to make them proud by taking this team even farther than they could have dreamed possible. Thanks guys for having a vision, I hope I can do you proud too!

So that was my big day at the Celebrating Life thru Art show.

Donna, I would LOVE to do it again next year and I will make Kim come with me I promise hehehehe

DIY Modified Jeans

I love doing jeans. I really do. I just cut loose and have fun with it. I got these jeans from Andrea who sent them for Sara. Now when I got them they was just plain ol every day tapered leg jeans. No big deal..well...NOW they are a pretty big deal. I worked for two days off and on as I had a few minutes in between projects and Maylee to get these done. Truly one of those "spare time" projects. They turned out pretty cool:



You can see the bleach, the ruffles, the cool stuff! Please excuse my hideous couch...I hate it too.
















Here you can see the cool grommets and the black ribbon. she HAS to have black its the signature color of goths!












I placed a piece of the ruffle fabric under a star cutout and stitched it down. I just have to wash the jeans to get it to fray real good. Thats gonna look awesome



I used some pure bleach and a medicine dropper to make the cool spots all over these jeans. You can kinda "draw" with that stuff too. I guess a bleach pen would have worked better, but hey I am cheap and I had a medicine dropper handy so I went to work with it LOL


I love that unicorn fabric. Its something Sara fell in love with so I picked up half a yard for this project...she dont know I got it yet LOL She dont know about the jeans either...I am sneaky!


Here is a pic of the back of the jeans:



I did all kinds of cool stuff here. Sara is Wiccan so I did her a nice pentacle.


I even took a cutout of a star that I had cut out of the front, and I sewed it to the bottom of the pants here...It kinda blends in with the bleach spot but its on the leg with the pentagram. Its also gonna look cool once it frays out.



I am sure Sara is gonna love these. I just wanted to show off my newest burst of creativity. I had a massive amount of fun making these, and I have a denim skirt I found hanging out in my closet I am thinking of "fixing" next. I am looking on etsy for some Alexander Henry Skull fabric...thats what Sara likes...I am thinking I am gonna shorten the denim skirt and add a long ruffle of some skull fabric to the bottom of that one. Maybe add in some studs too. I bought some destash studs on etsy too for that skirt...I will post pics when its done!

Sara and her Gothic Clothes/Shopping Spree

Well Sara finally got her some gothic clothes last night. We went to Hot Topic...can you say SUCK real loud?? OK I will confess for the sake of this blog I used to be goth back in the day before it got popular here of course. I was the first goth in Louisville! Anyhoo, there was a Hot Topic back then as it had JUST opened up in the mall. You could indeed get anything and everything gothic. 90% of the contents of the store was black and the other 10% was red. It was GOTHIC. Yesterday I go in there and it is NOT gothic...it just sucks. The clothes are all one variation of small. The prints on the clothes are more this cute "Kawaii" style which I love but still I thought Hot Topic was Goth??

I used to refer to Hot Topic as "Hell" You go in there, it smells like incense, loud music playing, lights are low...the cashier looks as weird as you do...yeah. Not yesterday. Full lighting, Linkin Park playing kinda loud, interesting cashier..not pierced or interesting at all really. I demand an interesting cashier! I want somebody cool looking to hand my money to! I dont Know what to call Hot Topic now other than that place that sucks.Sara feels the same.

So we leave Hot Topic with me telling her about "back in the day when I was young and goth" stories relating to how much Hot Topic has slid down the crapper. We go in Lane Bryant and that lasted about 5 minutes. High prices (GOD they take advantage of fat women!!!!) Bad fabrics, shitty prints, I could go on and on and on...we go to my second favrorite store in the universe when I was Goth. Its called DEB.

Deb is s super nice place if your chunky and wanna look good but are short on cash. Sara got some Gothic "style" clothes for cheap!

As you can see in this picture where Sara is showing how excited she is to finaly have new clothes that fit, she got that top for 15 bucks I think. It was the most expensive item. That skirt...3 bucks. I do not lie Deb is fabulous. If you have one in your town go there!

We got her a plaid skirt similar to this one shown for 5 bucks. a denim skirt that looked like somebody reconstructed blue jeans into a skirt for 8 bucks. a t shirt type top in black of course for 8 bucks.

Her total was 44 bucks for all that stuff. She did pretty darn good. We also have spotted a gothic dress on Etsy she wants more than anything so with the rest of her money we are getting this

Awesome huh? I like it too.It comes in her size as well.

I bought/traded for her as a gift This awesome necklace from my friend Ruby who makes my banners and stuff. Sara about fell out of her chair when she seen it...of course! Ruby is the awesomest when it comes to this stuff. Ya'all give her shop some love!

Thanks again Andrea and Christina for helping me make this happen for Sara. We Aint done yet...gotta get that gothic dress made so I will keep you posted on that!

Update on Miss Sara...

Gosh I been busy all weekend so far...I got a minute now so I am trying to catch up LOL.Maylee's teeth...geez, please see blog post below for more info!

Anyhoo, Thanks to some super generous kynd hearted people, I was able to raise 100 bucks for Sara to go get her some clothes. I have also recieved a care package in the mail for her that had some really cool clothes that I think will fit her fine that we are gonna "goth" up a lil bit. Especially the jeans...I love playing with jeans!

I called Sara yesterday and told her the good news...I knew I could catch her at her Godfathers house on the weekends. I had no idea where she may have been thru the week...probably there where its more calm LOL but anyhoo, I told her what I did (I confessed) and told her I had 100 bucks for her to go get clothes and she almost cried...she was so happy. I mentioned Hot Topic and I thought she was gonna jump thru the phone LOL

I had planned on taking her shopping yesterday but she seemed to be busy with her Godfather so I am gonna call her back today and see if her godfather would please share Sara for a few hours so I can play with her???? He shouldnt be so stingy, he can share the Sara. There is enough Sara to go around...he can share.

Hopefully we can get her a bunch of cool clothes today, I hope! I wanted to thank Christina for thoughtful and kynd donation, and I have to thank also Andrea
Whom bought the pants I had made for the Fund for Sara and also pitched in a lil extra. I hope both of you guys get mountains of good stuff in your lives for your big hearts and generosity. Sara is very touched that strangers to her would care so much to give her stuff...this teaches this young lady a huge lesson in giving and in love. Thanks again guys for everything!

Once I take her shopping I am gonna make her pose for pictures LOL You got to see how cute she is all gothed up LOL I love these goth kids...so creative!

Story Behind my newest listing on Etsy

I have this friend...I mentioned her before here. Her name is Sara. She is 16.

I befriended Sara and I instantly loved her with all my heart and soul. I found her about a year after Aurora died, and I thanked God for Sara. She eased my pain a bit and made me wish she could be my daughter...the feeling is also mutual. She calls me,"mama". Just like Tyler does. We have often been asked if I have "any other" children when me and her is out together LOL I guess she looks like she could be my kid too.

Sara is terribly poor. Her mother lives off of a meager disability check and with a boyfriend who smokes weed and drinks like a fish and cant hold a job, its hard to do things like put clothes on your daughters back...some things are more important after all. I have made Sara a few things but she isnt much into the "Hippie" thing...she thinks she is Gothic...I am cool with that. Whatever makes her happy makes me happy, and she does look cute with black lipstick on....

My newest listing is for these cool three tiered capri pants:



Sara has a social worker (surprise surprise!) and this lady was so sweet, she took her to a couple of thrift stores to get her some clothes. Sara is down to like three or four articles of clothing now since she has put on so much weight from being on the Depo shot her mom put her on...I can kinda understand cause Sara is having "relations" with a young man, and the last thing she needs is a baby but still..its really packing the weight on her quick and she has nothing to wear!But anyhoo, the social worker gets her some clothes and your not allowed to try them on in the stores you just have to buy and pray basically, so Sara gets home and nothing fits. Its ALL too small for her. She happened to pick up a piece of fabric..the fabric the pants are made from, and she was able to get the social worker to buy it along with the clothes. She told her I make clothes and would make it into something for her so the worker went for it...Sara HATED the fabric but thought it may be something that I would like or that may sell...she brings it over to me and I LOVED it of course LOL The only problem I had with it is its a synthetic fabric. I like cotton myself but I see some things on Etsy made from synthetics so last night I cut out these pants and I got them finished up early this afternoon.

Sara dont know I made them. She dont know she is getting all the money if these sell...she dont know nothing yet. I want to surprise her. I am gonna take her to Hot Topic (KMart for goths) and let her get as much stuff as she can get for the money...if nothing else we can hit this lil shop I know of that sells plus size clothing fit for teens. Maybe she can find something there. I hate to see her have to dress like she is my age or older just cause she has got chunky. She is still only 16 and wants to look cool. She reminds me of the one big reason I started sewing in the first place.I hate looking like my mom when I go out...mom looks fine dont get me wrong but mom is like 68 LOL

So if you guys got a minute, go check out Sara's pants on Etsy. They are fun to look at if nothing else. That fabric sure is pretty!

To whomever purchases these pants, we thank you in advance for helping a young girl have clothes in her closet..nice clothes that fit her and that she LIKES. This is so important when your a teen...you guys remember, It aint been that long ago for any of us!

Sara brought me other fabric I am looking at right now...there is a piece in there with Buddha on it...I can make it into a short skirt for someone thin.I got a couple of other project to get done before I can get to that one but its definitly coming up!

Thanks for reading guys...