I Acted Boldly This Past Week...

I put myself completely out of my comfort zone this past week. I went to two different stores... ...to find out what they'd think about selling my handmade goods .One store was the coffee roaster where I've been getting my burlap sacks for the past few months...

The other store is owned by a gal that I met a few weeks ago at the fair, she stopped by my booth and loved what I was selling...

After dropping in at each place early in the week and being met with interest, I spent some time for the rest of the week making several more aprons and a few pillows...
I also spent time stamping the fabric bird labels and bird price tags you see in several of these photos...

I have some professional labels being made by an artist I found on etsy, but those are still in the works, so the fabric bird stamps are my current substitute......I actually like them well enough that even once I have my "real" labels, I'm thinking I'll still put a fabric bird stamped label on everything because it adds a nice handmade touch...

...As far as my price tags, those I made with a paper punch...it took a little practice to get the desired effect, but I like how they turned out...
...to attach the tags to items I am going the thrifty route and using strands of jute that come from the coffee sacks...the stuff literally litters my sewing room floor whenever I'm working with coffee sack bags...

...With a cute little safety pin, everything is ready to be priced. I can't tell you why I didn't do this sooner, it'll be much easier to have everything tagged ahead of time rather than using the sign/clothes pin method I have been - although the clothes pins are kind of cute...

...The tags just look a little more professional and finished...
Bungalow Bay Boutique, pictured above, is owner by Michelle, who blogs here. She is an incredibly friendly and energetic person...the type that gives off an amazing energy. I can tell that she and I are going to get along! I plan to go back down to the store in a day or so to check out the window...she said she was going to display my items there! There will definately be pictures!The other place is Camano Island Coffee Roasters...I love it that they focus on socially responsible business practices, all of their coffee is fair trade. The folks there are also friendly and helpful. I've received many compliments from the ladies that work there for my aprons and pillows. Even if I never sold a thing there, I still have benefitted from the ego boost!

So all of this has been a huge area of growth for me recently...putting my creativity out there and taking a risk.

As I type this (Saturday night) I have spent a big chunk of my day in the kitchen. My task today has been to turn 25 pounds of fresh tomatoes into marinara sauce...so far so good, I've already had one batch turn out nicely. The trouble is that my largest pot is only big enough for about half of the sauce, so it's taken twice as long as I figured. We had some of the sauce over spaghetti for dinner, so at least I didn't have to double up and make dinner on top of all of the canning work...and it was a delicious dinner! I'll post some canning pictures later this week.

This weekend hasn't been all work (thankfully!), the husband and I had a date night of sorts last night. We went out to Snow Goose Produce for an ice cream cone - their ice cream really is the best around here! We ate our cones outside and enjoyed the scenery. While we were there a convoy of harvesting combines drove past (it's very much farm land out there)...it's definately harvest season. The weather was a little cooler this past week which was a reminder that fall is around the corner...something I'm dreading and anticipating all at the same time. We took home a 1/2 flat of raspberries (still haven't done anything with them...jam tomorrow perhaps?) and the box of tomatoes that has been my companion today.

Then we went to my favorite kitchen gadgets store, Gretchen's, for a cherry pitter. I tried it out today and love it! It makes me want to get my hands on some more end-of-the-season cherries to freeze or can!

After Gretchen's we went to see Julie and Julia. The husband didn't realize it was such a "chick flick"...I think he's going to try to get me back with a Rambo marathon or something equally as gruelling...he did like the part (don't read if you haven't seen it) where the husband is treated horribly by his blog obsessed wife and she has to apologize and make it all right...I think it reminded him of us (hmmmm?), I think he was just being dramatic :-)

Anyways, Happy Sunday!