Easy tent weights!

This week, I made my first tent weights! I thought I would share them with you...

You will need: 4 buckets, a small (read: 50 pound bag!) bag of Quikrete, Eye hooks, washers, and nuts.

What you will need!

Start by attaching the washer and nut tightly to the eye hook. This gives the eye hook something to hold on to, and your tent will not pull the hook right out of the concrete!

Next, fill your buckets about 3/4 of the way full of Quikrete. Make sure to wear eye protection and a face mask! Once the dust fades, bury your eye hooks in the Quikrete and just add water! No need to stir! (So easy, a toddler can do it!)

The Quikrete will dry in about an hour! Just add some strong nylon rope and voila! You have home made, fairly inexpensive tent weights for your craft shows!

I have about $16 in these weights, which is WAY cheaper than buying them for $40 at a big box store! I bought my buckets at the Dollar Tree for $1 each, the Quikrete was $5 at Lowes, and I bought 6 eye hooks for $6 at Lowes. I already had the nuts and washers on hand.
All in all, it was a fun, easy, fairly quick project! And best part: I will not have to borrow Jeri's tent weights any more! Ha!

Mountain View Bulk Foods Craft Show

One of my favorite local places to shop is our local Amish market, Mountain View bulk foods in Chuckey, TN. They make fantastic breads and bakery goods, and my husband adores their jerky.

I am excited to announce that I will e attending their craft fair this weekend, Oct 27 from 9am-7pm.

If you are in the area, come by and see us! There will be great artisans and crafters and delicious food!!

Felted Soap

I've been seeing a lot of felted soap lately. I've seen it on Etsy, and I saw TreatMeBathandBody felting soap on Instagram. What finally pushed me over the edge to try it was having more than two people asking about felted soap at Heritage Days last weekend. So, I grabbed a few skeins of wool yarn and some stray bars of soap, and went to town!

I started first by cutting the yarn and pulling the strands of fibers loose. I laid them flat and pressed them into "sheets", similar to the fibers that I've seen others using on YouTube. I then felted my soaps by using hot water and my hands... and voila!

Felted soaps! They look like mossy rocks!

I'm in love with the felted soaps! I am hoping to start listing them on Etsy before November, and I am going to have them for sale at the Greeneville Woman's Christmas Expo and Craft Bazaar the first weekend in November.

Happy Creating!

Heritage Days 2012

 Heritage Days was last weekend in Rogersville, TN. I've been going to Heritage Days since I was very little and it was always my favorite part of the fall. I've always dreamed of having a booth, and after 28 years, I finally did it! And it was a blast! I cannot wait to go back next year!

My booth set-up! Too bad I didnt get my banner in there...

It isnt Halloween without Candy Corn soap!

Bath Bombs: Rose, Vanilla, Lilac, Green Apple, Blue Coconut

Regular soap, goat's milk soap, and lip balms

Cupcake soap! Loads of people thought they were edible!

More soaps!

Soap displays (aka, why my Dad rocks!)

With two days until Heritage Days in Rogersville, TN, I thought I would take a moment to brag on my sweet and creative Dad. I have been scouring East TN for months trying to find the perfect display, to no avail. I knew what I wanted... I just couldn't find it! That's when Dad stepped in...

My dad made me some fantastic displays put of some salvage wood in his workshop! The displays are 16 inches long by 4 inches deep and over a foot high! They are exactly what I needed!

I cannot wait to display these beauties this weekend!

2012 Greeneville Woman's Club Holiday Expo and Craft Bazaar

I am super excited to announce that I will be showing at this year's Greeneville Woman's Club Holiday Expo and Craft Bazaar! This will be my third of four shows this season... for someone who was a total newbie to craft shows just two months ago, I have really jumped in head first!

If you are interested in learning more about the Expo and Bazaar, here's a link to the event page on Facebook! I am so excited that my bath and body products will be there. My friends Jeri and Lisa will also be there, so if you happen to stop by, go check them out, too!

I'm off to wrap a bajillion soaps! Happy crafting!

Less than 2 weeks away...

Heritage Days, my biggest show of the year, is less than two weeks away! (12 days, in fact!) I have been making more soap than I can store, and ended up buying a second crock pot to cook my hot process soap in. Whew! I am looking forward to January!

I thought I would give you guys a sneak peek at my latest little creations: soap cupcakes. My hot process soap is the perfect consistency for piping soap to look like icing, so I just HAD to take advantage!

You will be able to grab up these yummy soapy treats in my Etsy shop in mid October, but for now...

Top: left- pumpkin cheesecake, right- lemon berry
Bottom: left- pomegranate/vanilla, right- country Christmas