Just a couple of more days to work on goodies before my Christmas show season starts…and then 3 shows for 3 weekends in a row. It will be here and done before long for another year…or just done. More about that at another time.

I sure have been putting in some long hours each day just crafting away. It’s a lot of work getting ready for 3 shows that are back-to-back and I find that the older I get…that I just can’t work as fast as I used to…and I certainly can’t pull those all nighter’s anymore. Well, enough about me getting older (LOL)…let me show you what I’ve been creating.

I’ve spent part of today working on a new project that is part machine embroidery and part painted…and I loved how it turned out. I made six of them, but still have the finishing touches to put on a few.

~Gingerbread & Snowman Shovel~

  The gingerbread is painted and the snowman is machine embroidery. It is hard to see in the photo, but the little hang-tag is of a gingerbread inside a stocking holding two tiny snowmen. These were a lot of fun to make…and I might just have to keep one for myself.

Also finished working on these…

~Word Pillow Tucks~

I put some in a basket that my MIL made for me years ago…so that you could see them displayed. I have these in our guest room…this is the room that Josie sleeps in when she stays over-night with me. She had ask if I could make this space for her all pretty and girly. Well, this is also the room that family from out-of-state stays in when they come to visit, so I’m going with a more country cottage feel in there. It is still a work in progress as some of my DD things are still in there that she left when she moved out. I did find a quilt for the bed and some fabric to make a dust ruffle and curtains. This will be one of my winter projects and I’ll be sure to share some pictures.

I also finished up more of these guys…

~Large Fuzzy Snowmen~

I plan to spend the next couple of days making up some ornaments and some Christmas/Winter pins. They are good sellers for me…as they make great stocking stuffers and are perfect when you just need a small gift. I’ve saved them to the end to work on, because they are quick to make and I can make a bunch of them in a day ot two.

I’m not sure if I will have time to post again before the show on Friday…but I will be back with show photos either Saturday evening or Sunday. Until then…..        prim blessings, Cindy

My how time has gone by quickly…my first Holiday/Christmas show is in 5 days!! I’ve been busy working on getting some sewing items finished up, so that starting tomorrow…I can do some painted pieces. I finished up all my Winter/Christmas pillow tucks and realized that I had packed them all away without showing you any pictures of them. Remember theses  two pictures from a few post back…

Luckily, I had kept one Christmas pillow tuck for myself. I took a picture of it to show you, but I will have more to share after my show this weekend as I always take lots of photos of the items in my booth after in it all set up.

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Also on my last post, I showed you this picture of some fuzzy fabric and ask if anyone had any idea what I making with it.

And I’m thinking that by reading the title to my post…you all now know that it was Snowmen! Fuzzy Snowmen!! And I mean really Fuzzy Snowmen!!! This fabric was a pain to work with…my clothing got covered in fuzz when I cut the snowmen out and it got covered again when I sewed them together. But in the end, it was worth it as they turned out really cute. I made 8 of them…6 really large ones and 2 small ones. These next two pictures are of the small ones…the big ones are waiting for me to put their eyes and noses on. So, I’ll show you the big fuzzy snowmen in my next post in a few days. They all have little black buttons for their eyes, a polymer clay nose, 3 rusty jingle bells down the front of their body, a small rusty star on the body, and a large rusty star on the scarf…with a rusty snowflake hanging down from it.

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I took a break yesterday from all my crafting and went to a Christmas Open House at a prim shop that was in the next town over, which is about 20 to 25 minutes away. My friend and I sure had a fun time…and so did the other 50 to 100 ladies that were in there shopping. (This prim shop is the largest one we have around here and it is located in a large mall.) We stood in the checkout line for 45 minutes!! My friend asked if it was worth standing in that long line. We looked at each other, then laughed and said…Oh, Yea!!…at the same time!

I purchased some ornies for my Christmas trees…

…and a large red tin heart that I hung in my dining room with this big ladle.

We also got a free Gooseberry Patch Holiday cookbook…

Which after looking through it, made me want to make some Christmas cookies. And of course, it is too early to be making any of them just yet…so I did the next best thing and made some embroidered Christmas cookies. Only giving you a peek of the candy cane cookie for now and will share a plate full of these embroidered cookies with you soon.

Well, it is back to crafting in the work studio for me. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We are having the nicest temperatures here…65 degrees yesterday and 70 degrees today. Seems strange to be making snowmen when it is so warm outside, but I hear them calling for me to put their eyes and noses on. Until next time…. prim blessings, Cindy

I’m happy to report that my hiding in my work studio has worked…I did not catch the flu and I got a lot of crafting done.  Plus, Mr. D is feeling much better and has gone back to work. You know that when one doesn’t feel well, sometimes a cup of  hot tea can make them feel better. Well…..while in hiding, I made myself a cup or two, three…actually four cups of snowmen!! And I sure felt better when I got them all done. 

Since taking the photos…I added a little hang-tag to each one the says either “Snow Wishes” or “Snow Folk”. I think that they are much cuter than the photos are showing them…and I tried several times to get better pictures, but had no luck. Thinking it is the camera…I have a new camera on my Christmas Wish List. (Hint, Hint Mr. D) 

While in the kitchen trying to get good photos of the snowmen…I realized that I forgot to show you my newest rooster that I got right before we went to Tennessee. I only have a  couple of roosters…a large one on top of the fridge and my weathervane one…but I just had to add this one to the collection…it is a shelf sitter.

Think I will leave you with a peek at my next  project that I’m starting to work on. Any ideas on what you think it might be? Well…you’ll have to check back in a few days to see…cuz I’m only letting you have this peek for now.

Until next time….      prim blessings, Cindy

Just a quick post as it is late here, but I wanted to share some goodies that I finished up yesterday and today. All those embroidery designs and the fabric snowman borders that were on my last post were for these dish towels. I got them all done, priced and packed into the show crates and realized that I had not taken pictures of them…so, I unpacked them, took photos of them, and then repacked them. What can I say…I must of been having a silver moment!!  LOL… (And if you have seen my photo…you know that I have alot of that silver stuff.)

Mr. D is still feeling under the weather with that nasty flu. I’ve been trying to stay busy hidden in my work studio and told Mr. D that he was band from there, so that hopefully the flu wouldn’t find me. So far…So good!! While hiding, I really have been crafting…I made some really cute prim snowman pillows that were from a pattern in an old issue of Create & Decorate magazine from a few years ago.

I’m thinking that one of these pillows might just have to stay in that bowl this coming winter. I made 6 of them…so maybe only 5 will make it to the first show. Well, I’m off to get some rest as I have lots more goodies to work on tomorrow. Until next time….     prim blessings, Cindy

It has been a crazy busy place here at Cynthia lee Designs since we’ve been home from Tennessee. My first Christmas show of the season is in two weeks and I’ve been hard at work making goodies to take to the upcoming shows. I finished up all 10 of the snowman pictures, got them priced and packed into the show crates. I did 5 with the words “Let It Snow” and 5 with the word “Snow”…and each one has lots of little snowflakes on them. Only 9 of them are going to the show though…cuz I’m keeping one for myself.

Thought you might like a peek at what I’ve been working on now…and yes, a peek is all you get until I get them all finished. Any ideas on what you think I embroidered these designs for?

Or what these fabric snowmen designs are for?

Well, I hope to finish all these items up tomorrow and will share what they are in my next post…that is if I don’t come down with the flu. Now is not a good time to get the flu with 3 shows coming up, but Mr. D came home from work not feeling well today and we have a feeling that he has the flu. I feel bad for him as it has been a rough week for him. He is the I.T. administrator for a health department and has been putting in a lot of overtime as they are getting things set up for their H1N1 flu clinic to give out the vaccine shots starting next week. So he has already been tired and going with less sleep (which most likely made it easier for him to catch something) and then to top it all off…his car broke down 2 miles from home yesterday. I had to go get him and we had to have the car towed home. ($60.00 to have it towed…oh, was that painful!! If it could of only gone 2 more miles!!) We are hoping this is something the Mr. D and my dad can fix without having to take the car to a shop to have it fixed. The only problem is that my folks are on vacation until November 12th. He is using my van right now…which is ok, since I’ve been home crafting and sewing in my work studio anyways.  Until next time…..        prim blessings, Cindy

I’m back!! From where you ask? We took off this past Friday morning and headed for the hills of Tennessee to visit with family. Mr. D and I had never been to the Smokey Mountain in the Fall before…we had always gone in the Spring or late Summer right before Fall. I must say that October is the prettiest time to see the mountains…the colors were beautiful. We didn’t get any photos on our way down as it rained all day…rain in Ohio…rain in Kentucky…rain in Tennessee. Nothing like hours and hours of rain!!

Since it was a lousy day for picture taking…I worked on all the little Christmas/Winter pillow tuck and got almost all of them stuffed on the trip down. (Pics of them coming soon.) I also worked on getting the prim snowman faces done for the framed pieces that I’m making to take to my Christmas shows. I’m making 10 of them and each one is a little different. I still need to finish up some the frames. (More pics of them coming soon too.)

We had a wonderful time this weekend. Family came up from Georgia on Saturday and we had a big get together to celebrate some birthdays. Mr. D’s parents, his sister, and BIL also traveled down from Ohio. They stayed with my MIL’s sister and we stayed at Mr. D’s aunt Linda’s home. She is an aunt by marriage but is also one of my closest friends. We stayed up late the first night that we got there sharing embroidery and sewing ideas. She had made some of the prettiest Fall decorations for her home and I forgot to take pictures of them to share with all of you . We so wished that we lived closer together and often think about all the sewing, crafting, and embroidering trouble that we could get in together if all those miles didn’t separate us. Thank goodness for email and phone calls…it makes the distance a little less. 

Look at what she made for me. (Linda, I just love it!!)

As you all know…I love my little Chloe!! Yeap…she went to Tennessee too!!

As you can see from the picture above that the sun was shining on the way home, but this is what it looked like when we first headed out for home at 7am Sunday morning.

Some fog as the sun started to rise. We would drive through fog and then there was sunshine…then more fog, then sunshine. The mountains were staying true to their name…there don’t called them the Smokey Mountains for nothing!! LOL…

It was hard to get a really good picture of the Fall colors with the fog, but the view was really pretty as we were driving through the mountains.

One of my favorite views of the mountains is when you come across Jellico Mountain right at the edge of Tennessee where it meets Kentucky. I was so hoping that the fog might have cleared by the time we got there…No such luck, but I have to tell you that this was an awesome sight to see. (The fog looked like a lake from a distance.)

The fog cleared up as we got farther into Kentucky and it was a very pretty drive home. I took a few pictures in Kentucky of some quilt square designs that were on the sides of some barns and I even saw one on the side of a shop in a little town near Lexington.

I love going to Tennesse…it has always been my favorite place to visit. There is just something about those mountains that have a special place in my heart and I think that they always will. But after being on the road, I’m always ready to see this site…

…telling me that I’m almost home.

Until next time…      prim blessings, Cindy

Hi everyone! Time sure is going by fast here at Cynthia lee Designs…my first Christmas show is 3 weeks from this coming Friday, so I’ve been hard at work creating lots of goodies. Thought that you might like a peek at what I’ve been working on for my Christmas shows. Some items are completely done…while others are in different crafting stages at the moment. I been working on candle mat/doilies, dish-towels, game boards, pillow tucks, dolls, and some framed pieces.

 Remember the Fall pillow tucks…I made 21 of them for my Fall shows and sold almost all of them, so I decided to do some Christmas/Winter ones. I have all 37 of them sewn and ready to be stuffed. I went to our local craft supply store today to pick up some tiny items to embellish them with. Be sure to check back as I will share more pictures of them when they are all finished.

Well, while at the craft store…I just had to go check out the home decor department and look at what I treated myself to. I just love it!! This crock is pretty large in size and I have it sitting on the floor in our living room. 

Ok, back to crafting…I did some machine embroidering today on some round tea-dyed candle mat/doilies. I think my favorite is the candy cane design. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the snowflake one was done with silver metallic thread.

Here are a couple of the dish towel designs that I got embroidered, but they still need to be appliqued onto the towels. Don’t you just love the little prim snowmen!! Hope to get some more dish towels done tomorrow as I have about a dozen of them to finish up.

 Well, it’s getting late here…so, I’m off to get some rest. See you all in a few days with some more peeks of some prim goodies that are in the works. I can’t wait to show you the tiny framed pieces that I started earlier today….if you love snowmen as much as I do, I think you will love them!! Until next time…..     prim blessings, Cindy

 It was such a pretty Fall day here on Sunday…the air was cool and the leaves were falling. We went to see Josie cheer at the last pee-wee football game of the season. It was in a park…perfect setting for a pretty Fall day.

I’ve been busy getting prim goodies made for my upcoming shows, but I did take a little time to do some tweaking of my Fall decorating. Filled my glass candle holders with Fall colored berries, tiny pumpkins, and acorns. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the candles are three shades of orange. They look great sitting in the rusty tin holders in the glass jars. 

Remember on a few posts back…I showed a photo of my little pumpkin tins that were in my kitchen and I mentioned that I might paint them to make them stand out more. Well, I did  and here is what they look like now.

I also put out a cute prim dish towel and pillow tucks of Halloween cupcakes designs. Not sure why, but I seem to have a thing about cupcakes at the moment. It all started when I purchased the book “Hello Cupcake”…thinking that cupcakes would be a great thing for Josie and I to make together. When she stayed with me the other night…we picked out the pumpkins cupcakes to make to take to Thanksgiving dinner at my parent’s home.

Well… today it’s back to working on Christmas goodies for my shows. It is a little over 3 1/2 weeks to my first holiday show with lots of prim goodies still needing to be made. I’ll be back in a few days to post some pictures of what I’ve been working on. Until then….     prim blessings, Cindy

This week sure went by fast…and I didn’t get nearly as much done as I would have liked to. Monday was spend getting all the Fall supplies put away, so that I could move on to making goodies for my 3 Christmas shows. On Tuesday, I made a list of things that I want to get made for the shows and went through the Christmas supplies to see what I had on hand and what items that I might need to purchase. Wednesday, I got my hair trimmed in the morning and worked in my craft/sewing studio in the afternoon. Then on Thursday, they finally started putting in our new furnace and our mobile doggie groomer came to give Chloe her haircut.

And through out this whole week…I’ve not been feeling the greatest. I’ve had some leg, knee, and feet problems for several years now…and most of the time, I don’t feel too bad. However, there are times when they really bother me and this week has been one of those times. I started feeling the pain on Monday afternoon and it just doesn’t want to go away…and no meds seem to be helping it either. So…I’ve been trying to be good and rest for the past couple of days. Which is sometimes easier said then done!!

 I did manage to get these done this week though…

The game-boards are really more prim looking than what the pictures are showing. They all have been sanded somewhat and have gel stain on them. I really liked how they turned out…been trying to decided if I want to keep one of them for myself. There are 3 of the basket ones, but only one each of the other two. I found these unfinished wood shape boards at a local thrift shop and thought that they would make great game-boards. I am planning to trace a pattern from them so that I can make more of them in the future.

Well…it is late here, so I had best be going for now. I’m watching my granddaughter Josie tomorrow (make that today) as she has no school. Until next time….     prim blessings, Cindy

Wow, what a weekend we had…it rained on us sitting up on Friday evening, but it was very nice on Saturday and Sunday even though it was chilly outside. I heard some people say that the crowd was down from previous years, but how can one tell with a crowd that size(usually 200,000 to 300,000). We even took our little Yorkie, Chloe, with us on Saturday…she was a big hit with the kids and the big kids too!! We met lots of wonderful dog lovers that day.

Here’s a few peeks at parts of my booth…really looks a lot like last weekend’s set-up.

On Sunday afternoon, I stepped out of the booth to walk up the street to the fabric store(got to go there every year cuz a girl can’t have too much fabric, can she?)…and look at what I saw above the booth across the street. I have a feeling that it would be amazing to see the Sauerkraut Festival from way up there!! 

While at the show, we saw some old friends that we used to do shows with many years ago when we lived in Waynesville…and also saw some other old friends that we went to church with there. I’m not sure if I ever mention it before, but we used to live in Waynesville. Lived there for 9 years…and I even had a shop for some of those years, but about 16 years ago we moved back home to the area we grew up in …to be closer to our families. Waynesville is a charming little town, actually a village. Sometimes I miss it and it will always be a special place to me as we built our first home there, but I would never trade it for being back home near family. I love that our girls lived so close to their grandparents for most of their childhood and got to spend lots of time with them. Now that I’m a ”Grammy” of one grandchild with another one due in February…I think I know how my parents and in-laws most of felt having their children and grandchildren living close to them and being a big part of their everyday lives. I know that I wouldn’t want it any other way!

Ok, back to the show. Thank you all for the wonderful comments that you left me…wishing me a great show. And I want to say “Hi” to a follower named Cindy that reads my blog and many of your prim blogs as well. She is just now getting into prim/primitive decorating. I was so thrilled that she stopped by my booth to visit me. (Cindy, it was so nice to meet you. Thanks for stopping by my booth to meet me and for getting some of my prim goodies.) 

So…I guess you all are wondering how I did. Well…..I’m going to let these before and after pictures answer that question for you.

Yeap…I had a very good show!! My booth was starting to look pretty empty by the end of the weekend. I sold over half of the 36 fabric pumpkins that I made and sold all the prim embroidered pillow tucks but 4 of them(had 32 to start with). Sold all but 6 of the Fall dish-towels(had 20 to start with). Had 12 pieces of clothing left from last year and sold all but 2 vests. Also sold some Fall/Halloween items that were left from last year.  And I’m not even sure how much of the seasonal jewelry sold, but as you can see from the bottom photo…it was a lot!! I had marked it down to try and move it out of the booth and it worked. I’ve been doing shows for 26 years and for most of those years…I specialized in seasonal jewelry and embroidered/appliqued clothing, plus some home decor items and stuffed seasonal items for the different holidays. Why am I trying to move the jewelry and clothing out of the booth?…Because there are some changes in the works here at Cynthia lee Designs, but I will share more about that in another post. I just know that after a lot of thinking…it is time for a change in what I am offering to my customers at my shows and on-line.

So be sure to check back and see what I’m making for my Christmas Shows that start in 5 weeks. Until next time….    prim blessings, Cindy