New Works for Liberty Town

Being the first of the month with an upcoming First Friday Event at Liberty Town Galleries ahead, last week was spent creating new items for the Emporium at Liberty Town. The monthly deadline seems to emerge from the mist every four weeks, to catch me unprepared!!! Even with calendar prompts, I seem to always be rushed!!! This month I did create extra stock to hold back in preparation for next months deadline- hopefully this will help!!!

New for this month's Opening Event are some new Cashmere and Pearls Blossom Pins, some fabric/Paper Collage Pins and three new Vintage Jello Tin Pincushions.
I also plan to reopen my Etsy Shop this week with introductions of some of these items!!
Better Hop to It!!!

And the Mice Rescued My Day!!!

Saturday was the deadline. This was the status of ONE of my work tables after a very late night on Friday. Here I was at the worst part of the job- the labeling, tagging and pricing. How is it that I always forget how very long this part of the process drags on..and on...and ON!!!! I hate this part, I need elves!!!

By 2:30, I was on my way to Liberty Town in fredericksburg for the drop off. I still had to enter all of my wares into the log in book and assign matching numbers to each piece. The bottom line- I was not yet done!

Here are some shots of some of the items that I took for sale.

I recently came up with the idea to use scraps of my fabric paper to create some simple bird pins. They are very light weight and are sealed with many coats of laquer. I hope that people like them. I think that they would make a perfect little gift or even a stocking stuffer.

I modified my basic purse design to include a hand stitched fabric gusset. This makes the purse more usable and versatile. We will see what shoppers think!

I also made three more Pincushions which I am now calling Jewelry Tuffets. They make great pin cushions of course, but they are also wonderful for holding pierced earrings and pins, on ones bureau. I have a large one that holds many of my earrings.

By 4:30 pm I was finally doen and on my way home, heading north on Caroline Street through Old Towne Fredericksburg. When what to my wondering eyes should appear... but the return of the Whittingham MICE!!!!!! Now what, you might ask are the Whittingham Mice and WHY were you so excited??? I will tell you, of course.

Whittingham's is a wonderful Kitchen shoppe/Decor store in Old Towne. Last Christams they had a wonderful window display that was filled with hand felted mice involved in all sorts of kitchen antics. I did not hear about the windows till close to the New Year, so by the time I went down to check them out, the windows had been changed. I have been hoping that the mice would make a command performance and there they were!!

As I drove by, I looked quickly at the window and caught a glimpse of a Christmas scene surrounded by lots of people standing and looking. The MICE HAD RETURNED!!!!!And yes! There ahead of me on the correct side of the road (one way street) there was a parking place with MY name on it!! I dove into the space, grabbed my camera , purse and car keys and I was off to see the Whittingham Mice for my self , for the first time. Needless to say, I took many pictures. I even got down on my knees on the cold brick sidewalk to take shots and then wondered how silly I would look trying to get up off of my knees in the cold!

Well, I did manage to get up without causing too much of a scene and I did get some great pictures. If you live anywhere near Fredericksburg you really must come down to Caroline strret to Whittinghmas to see these marvelous windows. A local artist (I will investigate their name and update here soon) hand felted each wonderful little mouse.

Hence the title for this post! The mice really did top off a long and somewhat tiresome day with a wonderful jolt of Christmas cheer and joy!! One can find wonderful surprises everywhere if you are just willing to slow down and look!!!

Enough chatter! Enjoy the wonderful Whittingham Mice!

Aren't these mice wonderful!!??!

Sorry about the glare on some of these shots!! Plate glass windows and flash attachments often don't play well together!!

I hope that you all have a wonderful and fulfilling week!!