Best Part of CHA Winter 2010

 

Shirley Clark and me on the floor of CHA Winter 2010

Everyone always asks what is the best part of attending the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) tradeshows and my response is always the same, “I love meeting new friends and seeing my craft professional buddies! Yes, there is always exciting new products, wonderful make it, take its, plenty of celebrities, and lots of great magazines and books, but the best part of our industry is the people who make it happen, make it work!

There is never enough time to catch up and chat with all my creative friends and associates, but even the brief hellos, smiles, and hugs help make business a pleasure! These are hard working, endlessly inspiring folks who are retailers, designers, publishers, manufacturers, marketers, and more. Many the public will never even know, yet it’s these folks who keep us crafting. I’ll be sharing lots of CHA photos as I follow up and sort out all the information I gathered over the week of the consumer and the trade shows. I wish each of you could have been there walking the aisle with me!

I’ve written my review of the CHA Winter 2010 Trade Show and Craft SuperShow for Mike Hartnett’s CLN. Once the newsletter is published I’ll provide a link!

Lessons Learned in the Crafting Life

One of the most important lessons I am always re-learning is that listening is one of the most important skills we can try to master. For me, I must remind myself that to listen, to hear what another is saying to me… I need to stop talking. I love what I do and it’s very difficult at times to hush and listen. I hope you will help me settle down and stop talking and listen.

The second most important lesson I must brush up on on a regular basis is to remember to always be kind. My favorite motto is that life is too short for unkindness and I try to say it as “I will be kind”. Sometimes without even knowing it we can hurt another with words, facial gestures (I am always rolling my eyes!), or actions. It is important to speak up if you feel that an unkindness has been sent your way. Sometimes we just miscommunicate and if we keep the lines of communication open, we can correct the error.

My last lesson to be refreshed weekly is that we must not only share our creativity, but be open to receive it. I rarely ask for help. I rarely reach out during my down times to my friends. And that’s not a healthy policy to live by. I have never felt burdened when listening to a friend’s problems so I must recognize that my friend will feel the same way. We must give. We must receive.

What are your most important life lessons?

It’s hard to not be a little focused on Haiti right now. What a tragedy the people of Haiti have suffered. I pray that relief will come swiftly and that the pain will heal over time. Many in the creative community has generously contributed supplies and money, Bravo!

Dear Cupid Makes An Appearance on Facebook

I’ve started a Dear Cupid series on Facebook and will be posting Dear Cupid letters every morning until Feb. 14th. Love is in the air and as always a few mis-adventures are bound to come my way. I’ll repost each update here just in case we aren’t friends on Facebook. Part of the fun of any “series” I do is the comments made by my friends, and I think anyone can read my updates as my privacy settings are open to everyone!

It makes me sad to think I’m not everyone’s friend, but hey, with Cupid around… one never knows!

Feb. 1

Dear Cupid, I know you are all about the love thing so I thought I’d ask you to maybe rain some of your arrows down on Washington DC today. Just a random city I thought could use some love. Important decisions are made there every day by people representing countries around the globe. Seems like a great deal of love mu…st be part of that decision making. Think of all the arrows you’ll have when wars end!

Feb. 2

Dear Cupid, I woke up this morning with a bright idea, dressing Eddie up as a groundhog, letting him lose in the front yard, and calling the local news. Well, Eddie isn’t speaking to me and I could use some bail money, so if you aren’t doing anything maybe you could shoot some of those “love your neighbor even when they do stupid things” arrows around for me. I’ll take care of Eddie with some Milk Bones! Love, Maria

Feb. 3

Dear Cupid, Exactly what is the language of love, as a writer I’m quite curious. It could be music as it makes us move. It could be laughter as it makes us smile. Or maybe it’s French… so smooth or Spanish so dreamy. As a writer I’d say any type of true communication has to be the language of love, but would like your opinion. Love, Maria

Feb. 4

Dear Cupid, The morning news is giving me a headache. Got any aspirin in that arrow quiver of yours? Maybe an ice bag? Or maybe I should just turn the TV off or turn it to the reality TV channel and watch reruns of the Flavor of Love? Now there’s some people who might need your help! Love, Maria

Feb. 5

Dear Cupid, It’s wear red day to show one’s desire to wipe out heart disease! I know you and I will be wearing red today! We need every heart healthy, happy, and beating strong. Too many people leave us too early because they don’t take tender care of their hearts so let’s let the world know we care! I heart U, Maria

Feb. 6

Dear Cupid, I need roses to grow a garden in Fish Isle. I fear posting my plea as it tends to rile up the non-gaming types who grow tired of boards, nails, bricks, harnesses, and horseshoe requests from us crazy Farmville addicts. I sense one more blatant gift request while Facebook is making many unappreciated changes… might cause serious unfriendly friend interaction. Hopefully you’ll intercede! Love, Maria

Feb. 7

Dear Cupid, I’m feeling the love today! Baked some cookies, read a sonnet, ate some cookies, listened to a country song, ate two more cookies, mailed a mushy card to my beloved, and ate some more cookies. I think I might be starting to feel the pain of love today too. Oh, my stomach! I guess love does hurt. Love, Maria

Feb. 8

Le cher Cupidon, j’étais curieux si vous pensez que français est la langue la plus romantique dans le monde. Peut-être le c’est la musique, donc la langue universelle, diverse et inspirante pour atteindre nos âmes ? Personnellement, je pense que la bienveillance est la langue la plus tendre de tout. L’amour, Maria

Translation from French to English: Dear Cupid, I was curious if you think French is the most romantic language in the world. Maybe it is music, so universal, diverse, and inspiring language to reach our souls? Personally, I think kindness is the most loving language of all. Love, Maria

 

Feb. 9

Dear Cupid, With your busiest day of the year only 5 days away, I hate to ask for any special favors, so I’ll just whisper in your ear to send extra love to all those who are caregivers. They are the special ones and often never ask for special favors. I’m asking for them today. Send the love their way. Devotedly, Maria P.S. Extra glitter too!

It’s Mighty Cold In Florida

Dear Old Man Winter,

I think you got a little confused this week. I live in Florida. The tropics for goodness sake and it’s been cold, cold, cold. Now those wonderful people up in Minnesota, Iwoa, and Montana are much better with the cold. Heck they never complain about anything. Might want to double check your maps for next week.

Love,

Maria

P.S. Okay, I didn’t take that photo in my backyard! It’s from our trip to Colorado last year.

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it! Happy New Year! I’m excited to have a new focus for my blog and my New Year’s resolution was to be a more active blogger. My friend Tiffany Windor was an inspiration to focus my blogging on what I love most and I’m motivated to move a style of writing from my Facebook page to this blog.

It all started this past November when a Facebook friend suggested we all write daily about something we are thankful for until we celebrated Thanksgiving. I enjoy my Facebook page.  (Add me as your friend!) I had some fun, some reflection, and some challenge while posting each day. But once Thanksgiving arrived, I didn’t want to stop so I began to post Dear Santa letters. Then it was time to post brief comments on 2009 and the end of a great decade. The New Year brought resolutions and I’m thinking I’ll start a Dear Cupid series too.

A Facebook Post:  Maria Given Nerius In 2010 I resolve to continue to eat better and get a little more exercise. I’ll take the stairs, park in the last lot, and play with the dogs more. Good health is always a goal, you appreciate that more and more. If you are healthy, the rest of the world is a piece of cake (forgive the pun).

The ideas are endless and it’s a creative challenge to write briefly, concisely, and still make a post that’s fun, inspiring, engaging, and interesting. You’ll have to let me know what you think!

Duel Felted Pumpkins!

I’ve loved pumpkins ever since I was a kid. I showed off these pumpkins during the Inspired At Home LIVE pajama party this week and had a request to post the instructions on my blog. We had a blast seeing what everyone was crafting and creating, you can join us every Wednesday on Facebook. Just allow the Inspired At Home Live application and you can enter our creative room where you can ask questions or show off what you are making with a webcam! Or you can just talk if you have a microphone. Or just chat with us live!

The first step in making this felted pumpkin is to make small orange balls using the wet felting method. Wrap your roving into a small ball (noting there is some shrinkage) then drizzle ball with soap water (I use liquid dish soap adding about a tablespoon to a large ball of water) and roll, toss, and agitate those felt fibers. It only takes a few minutes with felt balls this small. The ball will feel firm in your hands. Rise the ball and allow to dry.

Next you’ll shape the pumpkin using orange thread or floss and a long sewing needle. Knot off, insert needle to center of ball while your hand softly squeeze the ball shaping it, pull needle through to center bottom of the ball. Bring thread up and around ball and insert needle at top center. Repeat this step until you have as many rinds as you wish. I have six. Knot off.

Using a small amount of green felt roll it into a snake and begin to needle felt it, keep shaping into a stem. When solid, snip off what you need for the stem (some may be longer or shorter for variety if you make several). Place the raw end of the snake to pumpkin top, center. Needle felt stem to pumpkin.  You are done!  You can make all sizes, I just enjoy miniatures.

Great New Sizzix Dies For Scoreboard!

Sizzix is releasing some very cool dies for scoreboard designed Eileen Hull! I got a sneek peek and you can too: ScoreBoards Dies.

I love the frame and enjoyed creating some frames for fun!

Here’s what I created!

All you need is buttons! Layer a somewhat solid layer of buttons onto the frame front. Then add some additional buttons to give the frame dimension.

Acrylic sticks plus a title sticker give this frame a fall feel. Title sticker down first, then add the leaves. Stickers by K&Company

I stamped the frame with clear stamps purchased Michaels using India Black Ink. Then added the Martha Stewart bat paper punch bats, finishing with Ranger’s glitter pen.

I feel in love with these snowflake stickers from K&Company. I finished with white Brilliance ink sponged onto the frame front.

I’m so sorry you can’t see the reflection of the gold mirror paper (CreateForLess.com), but this simple frame just glows. I stamped with a postage stamp, then matted some old postage stamps. Then added the punched squares.

 

I hope you’ll check out these cool dies!

Fall Crafting!

Fall is one of my favorite times to craft. It’s a great time to enjoy nature crafts from painting gourds to waxing color leaves to drying citrus for potpourri. A colorful season of reds, oranges, and yellows, all the warm colors that will get us through the chilly winter. Do you have a favorite fall craft?

I press colorful leaves sent to me by friends up north, we don’t really get the change of color down here in Florida. All you need is some wax paper or plain newsprint. Layer a few leaves between the paper and place inside a book or into a press. Within a few weeks the leaves have dried completely and will lay nice a flat for you.

I also enjoy making pumpkins. I grew pumpkins as a child and still love this wonderful symbol of fall. This year I hand-felted tiny pumpkins and also made some small pumpkins using orange terry cloth I found at a local fabric store. I was inspired by all the wonderful craft blogs on the web. Seems everyone is celebrating the fall and the approach of Halloween.

Fall is a time to think about the year, all you’ve accomplished, and all you hope to get done before ringing in the New Year! A time to rest after the harvest. A time to enjoy the chill in the air and appreciate the bold colors in life. Crafting and creativity seem a perfect way to celebrate the season. I hope you get some time to enjoy this fabulous time of year.

Blog Blues…

Lazy in paradise!

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged about anything. To be honest blogging is still a bit of a mystery to me. I’ve done some reading and with the help of Tiffany Windsor and Starr Hall, I’ve learned quite a bit.

Now it’s finding time to re-organized and do a proper job of blogging. A blog should have one focus (not 4-5 like mine). You should be an expert on whatever you are blogging about! And you need regular, helpful content! I’m learning!

Thanks to Tiffany and Starr

Creative Crafty Wednesday on Twitter!

 

 

Let’s show the world that we are creative and crafty! Every Wednesday tweet about the wonderful creative and crafty friends you have on Twitter. Just like Follow Friday (#FF), let all your followers know who is creative and crafty, so we can all follow!

Sample Tweets:

It’s Creative Crafty Wednesday. I enjoy creativity from @TiffanyWindsor @PattieWacks @MariaNerius!

#CCW Let’s all follow these crafty people: @TiffanyWindsor @InspiredAtHome @MariaCreates

I hope ya’ll join me for #CCW, Creative Crafty Wednesday on Twitter. Let’s make our creative energy flow around the world!