I absolutely love cherry tomatoes. In fact, they are the ONLY tomato we grow!  We do not eat a lot of pasta here so tomato sauce is not rarely used, but we do eat ALOT of summer salads and cherry tomatoes go perfect in them! But seriously, we are just two people and we can't eat enough of the cherry tomatoes to keep up!  Even with sharing with neighbors and feeding them to the chickens, there are just so many more!  So I got to thinking - What else can I do with them?  I know I can freeze them, but that's just too boring to me since they can't be eaten in a salad after being frozen so I would rather just sun-dry them and then freeze them like I've already been doing.  No, I really want to try something completely different with my excess cherry tomatoes, so of course I RESEARCHED all the possibilities on Google - after all it is one of the things I am really good at - and here are a few of my favorite ideas:

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Sincerely,

As most of you know I recently turned 50 and my husband threw me a wonderful backyard pool party at  our house.  I already posted about the DIY Bubble Favors we gave out, so check that out if you get a chance.  Anyway, call me old fashioned, but I still believe in sending out thank you cards and of course, if you know anything about me by now, I can't just send out any card.  It has to be extra special!  And that is what todays blog post is about - the magnetic thank you's I recently made and sent out to everyone that celebrated my 50th birthday with me! 

Since nothing goes to waste in our house, I already had all the materials.  In fact, I had been waiting for a good reason to use some of them! The only thing I had to buy was stamps :-)

Supplies:

• Small round magnets (left over from an old 7th grade science lesson)
• 4" x 6" photo paper (You know - all that free stuff you get with printer ink!)
• 8.5" x 11" card stock paper (any color)
• 4 ply cotton yarn (any colors)
• Computer with Microsoft Word
• Color Printer
• Scissors
• Single hand held hole punch
• Size 7 crochet hook
• Yarn needle
• Craft Glue
• Double sided foam mounting tape
• Black sharpie marker
• Invitation envelopes

How:

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Sincerely,

It's that time of summer when the Long Island corn is fresh and ready at the local farm stands! There is nothing better than fresh, locally grown sweet, delicious corn!  Yum! Do you wish you could eat it all year long? You can if you freeze it.  It may not be as good as it is when it was just picked, but it will still be way better than canned or imported corn!  And guess what the best part is: it's so simple!  So stock up right now while the corn is fresh! Eat all you can and freeze the rest so you can have the best, locally grown healthy sweet delicious corn any time you want all year long.  It's that simple!

Here's how:

Do you grow your own tomatoes?  If you do, and if you are like me, then you have a lot of extras.   After sharing my extras with friends and family and even giving some to the chickens every day I still had so many more to go...and more growing every day.  I was trying to think of something different to do with them so I thought why not homemade sun-dried tomatoes?  

I started doing a little research and discovered that most 'sun-dried' tomatoes aren't really sun dried anymore, they are dehydrated or cooked in an oven.  Since my goal is always to do things in simple ways using as few resources as possible I was determined to really, truly, make real sun dried tomatoes. And I did!  It was so simple and so successful that I have made many more batches since then!

After drying them, which generally takes a minimum of 2 full-sun days (depending upon the humidity of course), I freeze them instead of just storing them dry because they last longer in the freezer and I don't need to check them regularly for any mold growth.  Mold growth can occur if any of the tomatoes are not 100% dry.  Any little bit of moisture left over can start growing mold, so since we live in a humid environment and I have a freezer I decided it was just easier and safer to keep them there.

When we are ready to use them for cooking all we do is boil some water, cover them with the hot boiled water and let them sit for 15 - 20 minutes. This rehydrates them so they can simply be added to any dish we choose!

The best part is they cost me practically nothing, they are organic (because they were grown in my own garden), they retain all the wonderful nutrients of fresh tomatoes, and they can be enjoyed all winter long when I have no fresh garden to pick from!

Check out my You Tube video below to see how I made them:

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Sincerely,

I have never sold at a craft fair before.  I have attended many craft fairs over the years, but I have never personally been involved in selling at one.  That is about to change.

For years my daughter has been urging me to sell at the craft fair where she lives. Every summer they have a community fair to raise money and every year she reminds me that I should rent a table and sell all my handmade 'stuff.'  I usually say no.  I am not sure why, but I guess I just really never knew what to make that people would want to buy.  And what if they don't buy it?  It is very intimidating to try something new like this, but I finally just said YES!  After all, the worst that can happen is my stuff doesn't sell but I get quality time with my daughter and I get to spend a weekend on Fire Island in the summer! 

And then after saying yes, I thought, uh oh....what have I gotten myself into?  I am not the type of person to just wing something like having a craft sales table.  I have to have a plan for exactly how and what I am going to do and that is what this post is all about. 

There were some criteria about selling at the fair: I rented one (1) 8' x 30" banquet table and two chairs.  Anything and everything I sell would have to be on top of that one table. No other stands are allowed.  I also needed to get everything onto a ferry - it is not a craft fair where you can pull your car up and unload.  Everything has to be lightweight, portable, and literally carried by hand.

Here are the steps I took to get ready for our first craft fair ever:

1. I Researched...

• I 'Googled' and looked and literally hundreds of pictures of the way sellers set up their tables and booths at craft fairs
• I 'Googled' and read nearly as many blog posts about anything and everything having to do with advice for selling at craft fairs

2. Made A List Of What I Wanted For My Table...

• Bottom fitted banquet tablecloth (most tables at fairs are banquet size)
• Second decorative tablecloth for on top of the fitted one - in a complimentary color
• A spinning table-top display for my pendants 
• Signs with prices and descriptions
• Signs with our company name etc.
• Business card holders (with business cards of course)
• Sign showing that we take credit cards (I read that being able to take credit cards is a must!)
• A container to do a FREE giveaway raffle to collect e-mail addresses
• A mirror so potential customers could try on the pendants
• Baskets to put display products in

3. The Tablecloths
I didn't just want tablecloths...I wanted them to be special and stand out!

• ​Purchased a fitted tablecloth from Amazon (affiliate link).
• Purchased a square tablecloth from Amazon (affiliate link).
• Personalized the tablecloth with a crochet border - Read about it here!

4. Signs
​I didn't want to simply order signs from someone else...I wanted mine to be handmade like all the products I sell!

• Chalk board signs with chalk paint for individual signs (affiliate links).
• Sign for credit cards - simply displayed in a photo frame
• Crochet Sign for table - made and sewn onto tablecloth front (video below on how these were made!)

5. Spinning Table-top Display for Pendants
​It was at least $90 to buy one and I didn't like any of them anyway, so of course my husband and I decided we could make our own and put our own handmade crafty 'spin' on it - pun intended :-)

• This is my favorite! It is a combination of *peg board with *hooks, cotton scrap yarn to hold it together, a lazy Susan (affiliate link) bottom, a foam board top with a simple cotton crocheted 'hat', and chalk-board signs written with chalkboard paint (affiliate links) on the top! Check out the video below to see how we made it :-)
  
• *peg board 2' x 4' common at $10.47 and hooks at $10

6. Bonus Hair Scrunchy Display

• There was left-over pegboard from the spinning display so we used it to make a quick and simple display for my crochet hair scrunchies! We simply cut the left-over piece in half, painted it up to match everything else and used the crochet yarn to hold it together at the top and bottom.  Add a few hooks and a chalk-board sign to the top and it's the perfect little A-frame display!  

7. Miscellaneous

• Business card holders $2 (affiliate link)
• Mirror 6.5" for $15 (affiliate link)
• Baskets (already had them!) - note: my wonderful husband cut up and drilled holes in some of the chalkboard signs so I could attach them with colored yarn to the front of the baskets!
• We made a special display for the Little Lamb Lovey Blankets using a plastic soup container, a half of a paper towel cardboard center, and hot glue!

8.  And of course, before we packed it all up, we had to do a    practice table set-up in our living room!

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If you are anywhere near Ocean Beach Fire Island, NY the weekend of August 13th - 14th 2016, stop by our table and say hi!

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​Sincerely,

I just had my 50th birthday and yes, I ended up helping my husband with the party.  Since my birthday is in August and we have a pool, we of course planned on a backyard pool party.  Naturally we had to have something fun for a 'party favor' so why not bubbles? Who doesn't like blowing bubbles?  

It was easy enough to buy the bubbles through Amazon and/or Oriental Trading in exactly the color bottles needed to match our party 'colors.'  We could have purchased labels pre-printed with my picture, name, etc. on them, but after reading the comments about them on Oriental Trading I figured it was easier to just make my own, and of course I was right!  They were a little more expensive but I am really happy with the way they came out and that is all that matters since it was my birthday :-)