Missed the deadline!

For the last several years I have entered my crafts in the Home Arts exhibits at the Sonoma County Fair. I have enjoyed seeing my entries on display and have even won a few ribbons! I am still hoping to win Best of Show some year, like my friend Lisa did a few years ago.
My son Henry also enters the Junior Exhibits with a Lego creation. He has won a blue ribbon every year!

But this year, we MISSED the deadline! I felt so bad for my son, that he did not get to show his Lego creation! He always makes a Lego creation based on the fair theme and this years theme is the 75th anniversary of the Sonoma County Fair. Here is Henry's entry, a ribbon winner for sure!

I was planning on entering scrapbook layouts, cards, jewelry and a paper mache figure, but since I missed the deadline, I will show a few here.


This was to be my travel layout entry. Babe the Big Blue Ox. Photos of me and Babe, 49 years apart. I think we have both aged well!

My second entry was a layout about a funny story between my sister and I. How like each other we often are, even with 17 years between us. While out shopping together one day, we both secretly bought this greeting card, which says "How do people make it through life with out a sister" and gave them to each other that night.

 My third layout is about our new little chicks we bought to get our own fresh eggs. While making this layout I was going to use some pre-made chip board letters to spell "peeps". But I had no "s" left. And I had no other pre-made letters I liked. I could have used my Cricut and cut them out of card stock, but I wanted something with more dimension. I decided to try some yellow felt, as it would be "soft and fuzzy" like the little chicks.

I cut some with my Cuttlebug die cutter but they seemed thin and see-through. I tried backing them with yellow card stock letters cut from the same die, but it was hard to line them up. So I decided to add the cardstock to the back of the felt before I cut them. It worked great!

I first chose the die font I wanted to use and got all my materials together. I used a quick dry paper glue you apply with a dauber. It goes on quickly and evenly. Then I pressed the felt into the paper and let it dry for a few minutes. Next I assembled my die cutting sandwich. A Cuttlebug die, Quickutz or Sizzix die will work, you just need to use the correct "sandwich" of paper, plates and material, felt, fabric or paper.

I tried several different dies and found that some cut better with a paper "shim". It depended on the die I chose. A thicker "font" works best as felt can be fragile if cut too thin. The paper backing helped support the thin edges of my "sun shape".

Below you can see how the felt looks with a cardstock backing (top) and one with out (bottom). It is a subtle difference, but on a layout looks so much better and is easier and to apply to the page with a paper backing.

The lower letters are almost see through.

I hope to post a few of my cards I was going to enter in a few days. When I go to the fair I will still check out all the entries as there are some talented crafters out there and it is nice to get inspiration from fellow crafters who live near you!

Missing in Action...

It seems like forever since I posted anything here! Summer is always so busy and add in overtime at work, it seems like I can never get into my craft room and play!

I was busy getting ready for a yard sale we held Saturday the 16th. My friend Heather was having a yard sale and she and another friend of ours all went in together for the sale. She lives in town, so foot traffic for a yard sale is much better than our country home!

I did not have too much to sell, but any chance to get rid of some clutter is a good thing, so I gathered around the house, what I could, to sell. I decided to sell some old purses I never use. I was going through the pockets of the purses and found a wad of bills. Turns out my "find" was more than I made at the sale, selling my junk! So it was a successful sale after all!

My sister Sally and her hubby are avid Giants fans and have season tickets and go to almost every home game. Sometimes they can't make a game due to other commitments so on Sunday Aug 10th my son Henry and I got to go! It was Buster Posey Bobble head day and the game was sold out, so it was crowded and the lines started forming early. We go to the game 3 hours early and there were already long lines! But we got in and got our Bobble heads, some food and sat down to enjoy the game and the Giants won! This was Henry's first major league game and he had a great time.

I did get to meet up with my friend Narda and wander through the Rohnert Park Farmers Market one Friday evening. She shared with me some fresh black berries and a cobbler recipe.

I made the Berry Cobbler from a recipe from cooks.com that Narda delivered with the berries. I doubled the recipe for my house as my boys all love cobbler. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream it was yummy! And it was so nice to spend time with a friend!

I have lived on our ranch here in Sonoma Cty for over 30 years and have always wanted to raise chickens for fresh eggs. But time and everything else always seemed to get in the way.

My son Daniel decided he wanted fresh eggs so he built a chicken coop, and he used all recycled materials where he could, or milled the lumber he needed and built a coop for these little girls below.

We went to Western Farm Center and picked out 10 little chicks. We bought 5 Red Sex Link (yellow chicks) and 5 Ameraucana (mottled brown chicks). We will have both brown eggs and blue green eggs.

We have had them now about 6 weeks and they have moved into their new home. But still remain inside the coop, they have to be a bit bigger to be safe outside. I can't wait to have our own farm fresh eggs!

Yesterday was our local Volunteer fireman's annual BBQ and we went to enjoy the food, the music and fun.

It was a perfect day for the BBQ, not too hot and no fog in the afternoon. If it had been warmer though, the beer sales might have been better!

I have another family reunion coming up this weekend for my hubby's side of the family. And I hope to finish the scrapbook page I have been working on and post it this week.

But the Sonoma County Fair is coming and I need to get all my entries in this week! And school is only a few weeks away! My baby enters High School this year!

Where does the time go?

Berta

7 1/2 minutes of Fame ;-)

Today I was featured in an online article in our local paper, the PressDemocrat. article.

Since the article only ran in the online edition, I did not see it in "print". So instead of 15 minutes of fame, I will settle for 7 1/2!

ETA: I made the "real" paper in the Saturday Home section! So I guess my 7 1/2 minutes of fame can really be 15 minutes! ;-)

The paper ran a request for 4th of July celebrations and traditions and I submitted my 4th of July tree and was interviewed and photographed for the story.

I blogged about my tree here

It was fun to share about my tree and how the tradition got started. Since I love to decorate for every holiday when I started my holiday trees I already had lots of decorations for each season/holiday.

And each year it is fun to craft new decorations for the trees.

For the 4th of July tree I have made decorations to honor the service men in my family. One for my father-in-law Ray, who served in WWII. Another for my brother-in-law John who served in the Navy in the 50's and one for my hubby who served in Vietnam. They add a meaningful touch to my fun holiday tree!