Craft Show Tour, A Phillies Game, and A New Baking Adventure!

Ok I did warn you all that I was blogging at an average of 1 blog every 2 weeks, right? Well I think it might have been a little longer than that but hey, I am a busy girl! July has gone by with a blur, like usual time flies when you are having fun!

I am happy to report that I survived my brief craft show tour and both shows were incredibly successful! First up was the Haddonfield Fine Arts and Crafts Festival. I was so excited when I found my booth space as it was in a great spot on Haddonfield's Main Street! The show went great! Not only did I sell a lot of accessories it was great chatting with customers who not only remembered my booth from last year but remembered the location! Now that is loyalty! The biggest seller at this show, my fabric flower ponytail holders. In between customer interactions I sat at the booth and made more. As soon as I would put some out, they would sell. I think I sold about 30 of them most of which were made at the show! I have been busy making more since some of the shops selling my stuff are going through them quickly too! Thanks to all of the fabulous people that helped support Purplelicious at the Haddonfield Show, I look forward to seeing you next year. I hope you all remembered my booth location, there will be a quiz next year!

The next stop on my craft show tour was the Handmade Faire. It was held at Freedom Park in Medford NJ. This park is awesome and also the location for many of Medford's events including their Relay for Life and their 4th of July Fireworks! The show was organized by my Etsy Friend Abbie and her mother in law Pola. And I have to say they put together an AMAZING show! There are so many things I liked about the show. For starters, ALL of the sellers sold handmade items, which is great to see. A lot of major craft shows add this as a requirement but I think a lot of non handmade sellers still manage to get in. At the Handmade Faire I just felt this sense of community that I don't usually feel at craft shows. That could also be because I knew some of the sellers from the EtsyNJ group! I think my favorite aspect of the show was the music. The theme of the show was Summer of Love and Abbie put together an incredible mix of songs from the 70s. I was in heaven! And the crowd loved it too, it was cool to see people dancing and singing along to the music! I also had a very successful show! Which is also nice! Congrats to Abbie and Pola on a great show, they estimated about 8000 people came to the event and I believe plans are already in the works for a Fall edition in October! I have already marked my calendar! Here is a pic of me in my booth!


Last week we ventured to another Phillies game! It was a business person's special and also the Kids Run the Bases game. It was during the day on Wednesday. Unfortunately the Phil's put an end to their winning streak that game but Bella had a blast running the bases. How it works is after the game all of the kids leave the park and get in line to come back into run the bases. The line was literally wrapped around the ballpark but moved pretty quick. You get to walk down the ramp by right field and onto the field. The kids run around the bases, the parents meet them at home plate and you are done! Bella got a certificate as well. I was surprised she did it, but as soon as she hit the field she was off running! I took some video and realized that I captured her on phanavision as well. Very cute! Here are some pictures of her from the game. Notice the baseball headband! ;-)
Headed in the park!

Walking down the ramp to the field!

On the field about to run the bases!


The final leg of my 3 weeks of madness was a new adventure in baking! My cousin's baby just turned 1 and she asked me awhile ago if I would make all of the desserts for his birthday party. I was so excited! I love to bake and especially love creating baking and cake decorating! When she told me the party was a puppy theme, I was ready for the challenge! Here is what I came up with:
The Main Birthday Cake:

Sugar Cookie Dog Bones for the Treat Bags:

Personal Mini Dog Cake for the birthday boy to destroy:

Cupcakes with a Mini Dog Bone Sugar cookie:

To say that everything was a hit would be an understatement. I definitely like my fair share of praise but I was getting so much, I started to blush a little. It was so rewarding to see my cousin so pleased with everything and little Owen loved all the doggie themed treats!

After three weeks of fun, like usual, I still have miles to go before I sleep. It keeps my life interesting though, I am not sure I would know what to do if life wasn't always busy! I do have one goal, I hope to get back on a regular blogging schedule, we will see how that works out!

Christmas Cards Made of Gold???

I thought they must have been when I did the math and realized that including postage, I had spent close to $75 on my Christmas Cards this year. I am blessed to be part of a rather large family. Every year it never ceases to amaze me when I look at the latest excel spreadsheet address list and see 77 lines. There was a point in time when I would be especially crafy and make all of my christmas cards myself. Now that I have Bella, trying to manage card making plus taking the right photo and getting all of the prints made became WAY overwhelming. So now I am of the camp that sends the photo card, it is so much easier to create and order them. I am unsure why it took this Christmas for me to realize the expense of it all but perhaps it is a couple of reasons: 1. I am currently unemployed and am cautious of every dollar I spend. 2. Lately, I equate every sum of money I spend to how many headbands it took me to make that money. 3. I noticed that I have not received many Christmas cards yet. Maybe the lack of Christmas cards is a matter of people just not getting around to it, which I can relate to since mine have not been sent yet. Or maybe it has something to do with the economy. I can tell you I would have rather spent that $75 on more gifts for Bella on Christmas. But that is being selfish, I know that every year my family and friends looks forward to the Christmas Card picture of Bella and I guess I can't really put a price tag on that. So if by any chance you are not of the 77 lucky people to receive a Christmas card from me, below is the prize winning Bella 2008 Christmas Card shot. If only everyone on the address list read my blog...it could have saves me a few bucks!!!

And by the way...you had to know it would be Phillies related! :-)

World Series 2008 Game 3

When I woke up on Saturday morning I felt like a kid on Christmas Day! I was so exciited that I was actually attending another World Series Game! We had all been monitoring the weather all day because it was supposed to rain. Before we left for the game, it looked the rain was supposed to stop around 6 or 7 which would have been perfect! We arrived at Citizens Bank Park as soon as the gates opened at 5:30pm. We immediately started checking out some of the World Series merchadise. When we got out of the tent after buying our official World Series Gear, the skies opened up and the wind was crazy. So at that point there was nothing left for us to do but stand around, drink beer, and eat! For some that may seem like an ideal situation but I am here to tell you...it got old after 3 hours of it! At one point all of us pretty much ran out of things to talk about! My dad kept checking the radar on his phone and all we could see was rain. We were beginning to think that they may cancel the game, but I had hoped that they wouldn't. Then out of the blue, the rain stopped and the sky was clear. Everyone was hurrying to their seats because the game was starting. The feeling in the stadium was over-powering. When Taylor Swift was singing the national anthem I was full of emotions and covered in goosebumps. For starters I was grateful to have such amazing parents that gave me the chance to be there, happy to have spent the evening with my family, including aunts and uncles and most importantly, happy that my Phillies were in the World Series!!! I will say this, the way Taylor Swift sang that national anthem was just awesome. Check it out here.



The game itself was full of ups and downs. Back to Back homers from Chase Utley and Ryan Howard were amazing! When it came down to the final innings I was starting to feel pretty tired since I had been at the park for about 7 hours. I know I was not alone, and when that stupid error tied the game, I was praying that the Phils would come back for the win. One, because I wanted them to win the game and two, I just did not think I had it in me for extra innings! The last couple of plays on the inning were amazing and when the 3rd baseman overthrew home and we won, I was freaking out! Hugging my family, slapping high fives to random fans, and just screaming! This morning I woke up exhausted from going to bed at 4am and without a voice, but it was all totally worth it! What an experience! Go Phillies!!!

Bring on the World Series!!!!

I remember that night in 1993 so vividly even though it was so long ago! But I was fortunate enough to be at the game when the Phillies won the game that brought them to the World Series! It was so amazing to be a part of. The crowd was going wild, the fans were all hugging. It was the first time I saw Philadelphia sports fans actually be nice to each other! I was also fortunate enough to attend a World Series game. I still get goosebumps remembering the feeling of walking into the stadium, hearing music from the Natural, and feeling a sense of excitement and anticipation in the crowd. Unfortunately 1993 was not the year for the Phillies...BUT I couldn't be happier that they are going for it again in 2008!!! Again I am fortunate enough to be attending Game 3, the first game of the Series in Philly and I can only imagine what the energy is going to be like. It has been 28 years since this ball club has tasted this sweet victory and I know that will fight to achieve that title this year! Given this love for baseball, you had to know that I would get my hands on Philadelphia Phillies fabric. At first I was searching on the web for it and came up empty with the exception of one listing on ebay. They wanted $12.50 for a fat quarter...WHAT!!!! I found out that they haven't made cotton Phillies fabric since the year 2000. Once I had that knowledge there was only one other source I could go to. My mother...and low and behold in her fabric stash she had about 7 yards of this fabric from the year 2000. If I ever make fun of her massive fabric collection again, please stop me! She was kind enough to spare a 1/2 yard so I made a few headbands with it! I know I will be sporting mine at the game on Saturday! Check out my website if you want to get your hands on one! GO PHILLIES!!!!