New Melting Clock Coffee Table!

I finished my second molded melting clock coffee table this week. It was a custom order and the really cool part was the customer gave me artistic freedom. He gave me an idea of what shape and size he wanted and picked the color. I got to take it from there. It is always so much fun when you get to use your artistic creativity to create something. This table lifted me out of my clock burnout leftover from Christmas and I'm finally looking forward to starting to work on my inventory again. Now if only I can get accepted into a show..............

 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 

My Clocks Are World Travelers

 
My husband bought me a large map of the world for Christmas. I've been wanting one for awhile to keep track of all the countries I've shipped my clocks to. I finally finished putting the stickers on it tonight. 35 foreign countries and 49 states, all but North Dakota.

 Europe likes me:

 Not much action in South America, two so far:

 Australia loves my clocks:

Not much in the east. Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea:

Come on North Dakota, you can't hold out forever! To be fair, I only went through my invoice books for the last three years, that leaves out the first two years of clocks sales.

Stop and Appreciate the Beans

I have been a total blogger slacker. The last half of 2011 was so busy I think I finally burnt out. I have some orders, some big orders, but no shows lined up as of yet, so the motivation to bust out some inventory is very low. I think I needed a break from clocks.

I have gotten three no's so far from shows I have applied to. All in Florida. I guess the sunshine state does not like me. I'll try again next year. I have to admit the rejection is getting to me a bit. What if I don't get into ANY shows this year. That would be a bummer.

I have some past order photos to share. The man I made the Camp Crystal Lake sign for emailed me some pictures of it hanging from a beam he built for it. I think it looks great!

Yesterday I was cooking beans. First I cooked up some delicious chickpeas. I love chickpeas. I have finally figured out how to cook them from dry perfectly.

So after the chickpeas were done I cooked up some black beans. As I was rinsing them off after their overnight soak the sunlight streaming through the kitchen window hit on the beans. Amazing! Who knew that black beans were such beautiful shades of purple? I was instantly inspired and took some photos for the sole purpose of blogging about the amazing beans. When was the last time you stopped and appreciated something so simple as the sunlight shining on the lovely surface of wet soaked black beans? It's worth taking the time to notice the little things sometimes.
Check out the bean towards the bottom right. I couldn't get a crystal clear photo, but notice it's amazing multi-colored texture.
Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you...........................

Karina Cottage Pics

Pictures of my latest non clock project. This cozy animal abode features three floors, large neatly trimmed picturesque windows, stylish crackle finish floors, brightly painted walls, and a lovely pink facade complete with climbing ivy.

Two Days to Go

I am ready for Christmas! The dollhouse is finished and ready for wrapping. All of the other presents are wrapped and under the tree. All of Santa's presents are wrapped and in hiding. All clocks are shipped and all presents to relatives are shipped. Now if only it would stop raining.........
Australia has 270 sunny days a year. I want that without the deadly land and water creatures.

I was going to post pictures of Karina's Cottage tonight but I am out of batteries. I just bought a 100 pack before Winterfair! So I'll post pictures of it tomorrow.

Don't Pet Your Goldfish

The kids and I are going to buy a couple of goldfish for their fishtank today. I was looking up water temperature for goldfish when I found this useful tidbit in the wiki article: "Like all fish, goldfish do not like to be petted." Thank god they cleared that up for me.

I just realized that most of our pets are hands off. The turtle always stays in the tank and I'm sure she is happy about that. The fire belly toads never come out. We do occasionally play with the fish. I guess that will have to stop, darn, they are such fun in the bath tub.

Where oh where have my Christmas sales gone? The holiday sales rush has most definitely peaked. I will be shipping out the last of my custom orders tomorrow and then I will have no clocks to work on. That will feel a little odd. It will give me time to finish up the critter house. Check out the progress:


Nick and I are done with our Christmas shopping. Woo-hoo! I don't think we've ever been this on top of things. And not only are we done shopping, everything is wrapped. This may be the least stressful week before Christmas ever.

Hurry Up Christmas!

I am so very excited for Christmas this year! I have so many fun things I can't wait to give people! Thanks to the internet we are 90% done with our Christmas shopping. I signed up for the free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime (free two day shipping) and got my money's worth (ha ha) and more. I'm cancelling it today, though. It was really nice, but $79 a year is a bit steep.

The bunny cottage is coming along. I didn't realize how tedious it was going to be. I cut 48 Popsicle sticks for the inside window frames last night and glued them all in place. Once it is assembled I'll have to do it again for the outside windows. The inside walls are all painted and so are the floors. I had thought of doing wallpaper, but was worried about how it would all stick together when we glued the wall and floors together. Plus I'm in budget mode and I already had paint on hand. I'm hoping to have it assembled in the next day or two so I can started painting the outside. Here is a picture or the fantastic model my dad put together last week.

It has been clock madness around here. Yesterday I literally stayed in the basement all day painting. It was worth it because I have clocks completed that aren't due to ship until the end of the week.

We got a Christmas tree this weekend. It is huge, but it looks nice. Now if only we can keep the kid's hands off of it and keep the giant dog from hitting it with his tail. He launched two ornaments across the room this morning. We may need to move ornaments higher up the tree.

Isn't the garbage bag under the tree a nice touch. I'll add buy a tree skirt to my to do list today.