On Friday all day long were tutorial classes, you had your pick on what you wanted to learn or just get more information about. Also Friday was the day that you entered your projects for judging. I took two projects. One was Sharing for the Cause and the other was Predators, both of these can be seen under my projects. So after all this, taking classes and entering projects I wondered around the floor and checked out all the venders. I say all, but in reality the show wasn’t even half the size it was a number of years ago. So needless to say it didn’t take long to see all that was on the floor. However, the venders that were there did a great job on promoting their products.

On Saturday was the day that projects were judged. Also during both Friday and Saturday were door prize drawings. When you registered you got an envelope that had raffle tickets inside. You filled them out each day and from them door prizes were drawn. Also the grand prize which was a new Delta 788 scrollsaw was chosen from these tickets. So back to Saturday it took all day for the judges to look at each project…. okay it seemed like all day, it was 2:00 p.m. they started announcing the results. The Sharing for the Cause project took first place, I was really excited. The Predators didn’t even place. Now I couldn’t find a judge to ask them what the results were, but a former judge told me that the trees on the side raised up when I cut them and they thought that was a mistake in my cutting. Well, I thought the fact that the trees were higher than the rest of the picture made it unique . What do I know! I still think that it is still a cool cutting.

I thought the staff at the picnic did a great job at keeping everything running smoothly. Hope they continue to hold the picnics.

Well, we get there and my stuff is pushed well to the back, not where it originally had been set-up. I figured thats what I get for not dropping in more frequently. So I pull out my inventory sheet and start to work. I’m moving things around right, got to looking at some of the pictures that I had hanging and the back of the first picture I take down is water stained from top to bottom. I’m looking at it looking at the wall and set it aside. I take down another picture and the backing on the picture is completely ruined and almost falling off. Who knows at this point if the water has gotten to the actual scrollsawn part of the picture. There is also water stain down the front of the picture on the glass. So now i’m really upset.

I go get the contact person, manager, and she tells me that she doesn’t know a thing about the problem but, doesn’t want to see it. Needless to say I took all my projects out of the place.

Why is it so hard to find a place that treats your projects with the same care that you would? After all isn’t a sell in their favor as well as yours?

With that said I do have to tell you about the other place I have my projects placed with. It is a store that is in a small community, Cottonwood Falls, KS called Prairie PastTimes. It is where I met another lumberjocks memeber Mark DeCou. All the projects in this store are hand made and the members opperate the store. I have to tell you they treat your projects as if they were their own. When a customer comes in and is looking at someones projects we try to tell the customer something about the person that made it. They are the best people I have had the pleasure of meeting. It’s too bad othere stores don’t take a que from Prairie PastTimes.

Well, my husband has gotten alot better at getting gifts earlier then the day before Christmas. Unforturnately he has to make sure that the gifts are completely wrapped up when delivered or deliverd by Fed-Ex, for shame. So one day one the of the other drivers called me and said I think I have something for your house, but the address is incorrect. He tells me what the name and address on the package is and he told me that he was way past my place. I told him no big deal just bring it back into the center that night and I will get it from him and take it home with me. Well, it just happen to be a present for me and it wasn’t wrapped up. I was just like a little kid when I saw it. The other driver started laughing and said that maybe he shouldn’t have given it to me.

So I took it home, took it out of my vehicle left it in the garage, and told my husband about it. He was discusted with the company for putting the incorrect address on it went outside brought it inside. Wrapped it up and put it under the tree and told me I would just have to wait.

He was too mad at me he knows that he can’t always keep them from me!!!! But he is getting better at it. Anyway the hearts on my last project was my first attempt at using the new sander.

About October I start thinking about what I’m going to make and who I’m going to make it for. Then the anticipated weekend that I get started. Everything goes great and by the end of that weekend I’m thinking that if I can keep up this pace I’ll be in good shape and have all that I wanted to make done in good time.

I don’t know if I mentioned that I not only work a full-time job, but during this season my job is unpredictable. I am a UPS driver. So I never know when I will be off work therefore hardly get to work in the shop during the week. So with that in mind, it happens. I wont get to go to the shop on Saturday at all and Sunday is only for a couple of hours, because all that I should have done on Saturday in the house I need to do on Sunday. So I know what William was saying, and with that in mind I have to remind myself LIFE happens, enjoy it and those people that do get a handmade item from me for Christmas are thrilled. The ones that don’t, will hopfully be the ones that get a gift next year.

In a way it makes it exciting for people who are getting a gift and anticipation for those that don’t know who those people will be every-year. So yeah, I constantly remind myself just relax and enjoy what life throws at me, you only get to live it once.

A little bit about the craftfair; it is probably one of the biggest in Kansas, don’t know that for sure. I haven’t read what the number of people were this year, but usually around 10,000 or more shoppers on one day.

So we were checking out what was there and wasn’t. There is always one thing that everyone is walkiing around with that is the hot item for that years sale. This year it was landscape timbers made into welcome signs that had different appliques. Like college, western, Halloween, Christmas so on and then there was angels attached to metal poles with solar lights as well. Solar anything seemed to be the big thing.

Anyway we stood in line, behinds lots of people most of the day. We did find that there was a ton of people selling jewerly, it was everywhere. I did see a couple of scrollers at the fair, but they were mainly doing ornaments and small things.

We went into a store that was hosting some consignment people and I did meet a scroller inside and he was doing some of the same stuff that I was. We talked shop for awhile and exchanged business cards. He said the most common thing for him to hear was WOW is that laser? I told him I knew exactly what he as saying because I hear that all the time. Then he told me that his wife does all the prices on his projects because she says the he gives his stuff away. It was just amazing to hear because my husband does the same thing to me. It was like listening to myself talk when he was telling the story. We talked for a little longer and he went back to try and sell his projects, which by the way at that time he hadn’t sold anything so far, but the day was young.

We did enjoy our time and did find some new things to ponder, but next year it will be something different as the new hot item.

I wasn’t sure I did the right thing on applying the Danish oil, because it took 4 days to dry and it was fairly cool and dry here during that time. But it did seal the wood pretty good and it took the varnish well. I post the picture in my projects if you are interested in seeing the end results.