Project Wonderful

Many of you are familiar with advertising through Project Wonderful. I just redid my ad boxes in the right sidebar. Please click on my mug over there to get your low cost ad. It may even be free if no one else has bid yet. I rarely filled 3 ad boxes, so I downsized it to 2. I hope they are full all the time now. If you have an arts and crafts related business, you might want to grab one of the ad boxes on my blog.

Crocheted Hat and My Zazzle Line

Thanksgiving was wonderful but it's time to get back to work. I'm designing more address labels on Zazzle.


make custom gifts at Zazzle
Here is some of what I have for sale there.

On Thanksgiving I showed my boyfriend's mom the hats I was crocheting hoping she'd pick one for her Christmas present. Well, she got pretty excited about the pink one. She wore that a bit and then I continued working on one with a lavender hat band. As I added more colors she kept saying, "I really like those color combinations.' So finally I asked her if she'd rather have that one. So I worked on it while dinner was cooking and then more after dinner, and managed to finish it for her just in time before we had to leave to drive back home.  I hope it will keep her head nice and warm when she goes to watch her grandson's games.

Striped hat.

Joyce enjoying her new hat.

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving. I am out of town for the day. Since I don't have a way to be on the Internet when I'm out of town, I scheduled this to post on Thurs. I hope you are having a grand time today, wherever this American holiday finds you.

I plan to be with my boyfriend's mom enjoying the apple pie and mincemeat cookies I baked on Wed.

Zazzle Address Labels

I just got off the phone with Zazzle because the balance they emailed me does not equal the balance my account page shows. I've had a discrepancy with them for most of the year. At least I'm making some sales there. The nice man on the phone tried to explain to me that the discrepancy is caused by royalties on foreign sales.

Earlier today I did design some new address labels and put them up for sale. http://www.zazzle.com/rose_labels-106061030023476026 If it weren't the day before Thanksgiving I'd try to design more. For one thing, I need to bake an apple pie and make some mincemeat cookies to take to the Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow down in Southern CA. Cooking happens!

And I have to make a library run. In short, today is going to be full. We'll see if I can squeeze some more designing into Zazzle if possible. What got me motivated was looking for return address labels on Vista Print. After scrolling through hundreds of designs, I thought I'd be more satisfied designing some myself. I'm supposed to be an artist after all.

Acrylic Floral Painting by Fayme Harper ©2011

Crocheted Baby Cocoon

Sometimes I get behind on projects. Case in point a baby cocoon I'm supposed to be knitting for my daughter, who is a professional photographer. So today I set to work on finishing it and decided I didn't like the size hook I was using. So I ripped it all out and started over. It's going much better now. I stopped in mid-project though to consult with her on the sizing. I'll set it aside until she tells me if it's going to work. I love the yarn she picked but I've already lost the wrapper so I can't tell you what it is.
I'd like to buy some for myself to make a hat. I love the texture and colors in it.

Almost done.

Can I borrow a baby to see if it fits?

Order a custom baby cocoon for photography.

Crocheting a baby cocoon while wearing a hat I made on a knitting loom.

Knitted Spiral

Hello crafters,
Today I worked on an afghan I started last winter. It got shelved when I got the flu and I'm just now getting back to it. But then I set that aside so I could figure out how to knit a six colored spiral. I was obsessed with trying to figure it out. On my 7th or 8th try I think I finally got the hang of it. At least I'm going to keep going to see how it turns out.

Six color knitted spiral.

Two New Crocheted Hats

Here in the Mojave Desert it is Autumn and in the yards with deciduous trees, you can see golds and other fall leaf colors. Most of the fruit has been harvested except for late season apples. The gourds are drying, and even though the days are warm, the nights are near freezing sometimes.

So I've been working on warm hats. I crocheted 2 hats and I still have ends to sew in but I'm about done.

Long tailed hat with brown brim

Fun using so many colors.

Pink Crochet Ribbing

Making sure it fits.

One tail is left long to make the added braid more secure.

The brim of the next hat.

Two hats with different colorways.

Monday Night at Shoebox Ranch

The art show is over and things are tucked away. I didn't sell anything but I'm not surprised when I saw what the venue was like. But I'm not sorry I did it. It got me out of the house for two days and at least I put myself out there and met some of the locals.

After things were put away last night we drove to Apple Valley for some dinner at Carl's and then picked up some groceries for tonight. I made pizza for lunch and there is a chicken in the rotisserie for dinner.

Guy is working on some arrows and when he's done we are going to watch some Firefly episodes.

It was a good day. I did some writing for Nanowrimo, watered the mulberry and eucalyptus trees, dug out an old dead plant so I can put a rose bush there, fed the chipmunks, and puttered around the yard.

I crocheted almost an entire hat while at the art show yesterday. So I have three crocheted hats to finish.  And I found some knitted afghan squares from an old project that I'd like to work on. So I may do that tonight after Firefly.

Esmeralda the Emerald Lady by Fayme Harper

Setting Up For the Lucerne Valley Art Show

Still Life With Fruit and Gourd Vase by Fayme Harper

Gourd Owl

Horse Vase

Ezmeralda the Emerald Lady

Wandering Man

Gourd Art Doll by Fayme Harper

For the past three days I've been absolutely consumed with getting ready for the Lucerne Valley Art Show. Last night I took in sixteen pieces to display. I had 2 brand new assemblages, five gourd art pieces, and nine acrylic paintings. I'm glad I took extra paintings because they didn't care if they were framed or not. Everything I took with me got a spot. This afternoon when I went back there were a lot more paintings on display. There were four people there, but 3 of them were artists and one was the lady running the show. I hope to spend some time tomorrow there to see how my work is received. I heard the local paper came by today, so at least there will be some coverage in the press. I was hoping it would be in the Sunday paper; then I found out the paper only comes out once a week, which is Wednesday. I hope they mention my name at least. If you happen to be in Lucerne Valley, CA tomorrow, drop by the Community Center and see the art. Show closes at 4 PM.

Elephant Boy and Wandering Man Assemblages by Fayme Harper

Preparing For An Art Show

Getting ready for the art show this weekend. I wanted to take more paintings but framing is expensive. I only had enough money to get wood to make about 3 frames. I'm assuming the art has to be framed, but I'll take a few unframed pieces just in case. I had to buy a miter box and saw to cut the wood. I can't believe we didn't already own one since we do woodworking all the time. By the time we got home it was already dark so I'll have to make the frames in the morning.

I'm also going to take some gourd art. I have to figure out exactly what to take. Set up in Friday so that gives me tomorrow to make final decisions and price everything.

Acrylic painting of miniature horse.

Scrappy Crochet and Another Apple Pie

Egads, I just found out the art show I signed up for is only a week away. I thought it was 2 weeks. I've been so caught up in Halloween, I wasn't watching the calendar.

Last night I started crocheting a multicolored hat in random stripes. I love random scrappy things. I think I finally have the crocheted ribbing down.

I got a letter from my pen pal Carol. We've been swapping letters for years. So much had just happened with Halloween and all that I sat down for an hour to write back. The Dutch Apple Pie was baking in the oven so it helped the time to pass quicker. I liked this pie better but my boyfriend liked the first pie better. We cut the apples thinner so they cooked much faster.

Delicious Dutch Apple Pie

Halloween in Lucerne Valley

In spite of not feeling well the last four days, I finished my costume in time and got all the stuff loaded for the Lucerne Market Halloween event in their parking lot. It was loads of fun and great people watching.