From Shelburne to Woodstock

This past Saturday we headed over to Shelburne Farms for their annual fall harvest fest where I discovered Sweet Annie, a native plant/flower that smells AMAZING!!! There was a giant heap of it and some grape vine for people to fashion festive head gear. Poor Dusty had to stand there for twenty minutes while I waded through the pile with about 30 children- finding "the best" pieces for my harvest fascinator...lol.

 

This corn blew my mind- if the line hadn't been so long I would've had thirds.

Although he looks somewhat less than thrilled, he wore it around for quite a long time...

sweet annie and grapevine

I think this horse is thinking... fml.

Then on Sunday we headed down to Woodstock, VT for a woodworking and fine furniture show where some of Dusty's classmates and instructors were showing their work. It was really nice but really small- I think it took us about 40 mins. to see everything--it was awesome that Woodstock was such a cool town so we didn't have to leave immediately for the 2 hour drive back home.

halfsies is always better

Highlight of my weekend: I went into a sweet little vintage store and spotted some killer brooches. I've been looking for some vintage bits to add to barely bags and these are in perfect condition but, they were $10 each. (Which I know is probably a good price- but I'm working with a non-existent budget). Dusty was whispering to ask the owner if she could do any better. I was super nervous but I asked her if she could do 3 for $20. She told me if I wanted to spend $20 I should buy two.... what an idiot! Great haggling skills, I didn't even realize I basically asked her to give me one free... So I recovered and said that I wanted them for a handbag I was making and to start with $30 in materials without fabric was a bit pricey. She looked at me and said, "Oh, you'd be re-selling them?" and I said yes. And then she said, "Fine. Three for twenty. I'm all for people selling their handcrafted items." Ummm, wow. I thanked her profusely and promised I'd be back.  I think I unwrapped them and looked at them at least a dozen times on the way home. :) 

Customer Appreciation

Not to get too sappy but I just need to express my gratitude to everyone who has bought, promoted or cheered on my barely products. It's so nice to have support. It hasn't been easy to move to a new state, eleven hours away from friends and family. As I search for full time employment I'm scrounging for freelance work and sewing, and it's so wonderful to have encouragement along the way. Sometimes I feel ridiculous that I have $800 a month in student loan payments and can't even nail down a full time job but I'm not sure I'm ready or even want to try to take barely measured to the next step- which is to spend 100% of my energy on making and selling it. It's safe to keep it as a hobby/side business and I'm not sure how brave I'm feeling lately.

Anyway, what brought all this sharing on is the blog love I've been receiving lately. Jess over at I Rock So What posted about her barely bag- the first of it's kind. Jess emailed me asking if I could make her a bag that would work as a diaper bag AND camera bag. After her post I had more followers, more Etsy views, and two orders for her bag, and the Juliette and Erica were born. One of those orders was from Melissa at Running with Scissors- and she sent me pics of her daughter rocking some barely clips. Tessa from At The Beach is a loyal customer, who should be on my payroll for all her barely marketing. Recently, Aundra from Fit for Life blogged about her new barely apron, here- AND she later posted a pic of her coasters- my scraptastic September giveaway. It freaking makes my day to see pics of barely measured in action and to see that people are actually liking what I'm doing :)

Some of Aundra's pics:

I'm thinking I need to step up my photos for Etsy...

LOVE this!!!

So here's the gist- THANK YOU! Us DYI, blogging, crafting ladies need to stick together. So, while I don't have a ton of followers- if you make something cool or have an awesome blog- I'd love to promote it! Either send me the code for a button or an email and I'll post about it.

It's all in the details...

I love and obsess over details. I have this amazing skirt that I wear about once a week- I remember the second time I wore it I noticed that there was ric rac sewn into the hem of the lining. It was so unexpected and charming! It made me feel pretty even though I was the only one who knew it was there. I think about this often whether I'm designing a bag, hosting a dinner party or designing an invitation. A million people make handbags but hopefully a small surprising detail will catch someone's eye and they'll want a barely bag. I also love when people go the extra mile with packaging. I'm a total sucker for packaging and can't tell you how many times I've ended up with something less than par because it had a super cool label. I also think everyone will agree that receiving mail, let alone a package- can elicit sheer joy- isn't it even better when it's wrapped like a special little treat??!

Lend Me Some Sugar- I Am Your Neighbor

I'm back in Vermont and blogging! Was home in MD for a whole week- it started out as a couple of days but then my ever-faithful (yeah, right) VW was in the shop. But I have to say the time I got to spend with family, friends and my brand new niece and goddaughter makes the many months of paying off the $1,200 in repairs seem not so bad :) I swear, I'm not ready to have kids yet myself but I could've held that baby until she turns five.

In other news- Melissa from Running with Scissors recently sent me some adorable pictures of her daughter, Rory sporting some barely hair clips! Melissa and I worked together to make her a custom barely bag- eager to see if people would like the clips, I threw a pair in with her order. Pretty rad, no?

thanks for the pictures Melissa!

Not Your Mama's Apron!

Barely Aprons are now available on Etsy- check 'em out! Want something a little different? Message me about a custom apron!

    Aprons are fully reversible, prewashed and 100% cotton.

Champlain Valley Expo- A VT Rite of Passage

This is what my good friend Tessa, a native Vermonter- said when we were discussing things Dusty and I must do while we're here. So today we took a sunny drive to Essex, home of the annual celebration of livestock, maple syrup, stone washed jeans and fried dough.

the maple cotton candy was perhaps our favorite part of the day

if you can fry it- they serve it

we want one of these...

and these

these made us miss gristle... weird

a bunch of mountian tees I bought my friend Meghan... ahhahaha

I only took this pic so I could say I hate circuses- for this reason

fried dough with apple topping

he couldn't resist...

the lure of fried oreos 

Pleated Beauty

It's official!!! I will be teaching classes at Nido this fall/winter! If you or someone you know is in the Burlington area, sign up online to learn to make this pleated beauty. This was actually my third attempt at making a sample for Phiona (Nido, owner) to display in the shop- third time was the charm. My first attempt was adorable but  I felt like it might be easier for those learning to work with something a tad larger. My second attempt, while lovely- needed more pleating....plus, Phiona had just put this amazing fabric by Heather Ross on the shelves- so I tried once more. Whaddya think?? 

pretty snazzy, right?

another reason I'm so happy with this is because I 

FINALLY figured out to hide all my exterior seams!!! It was quite a break though :)

Welcome September-Scraptastic Giveaway!

You know how I feel about throwing away fabric! 

Receive a set of four coasters made from rescued bits with every barelymeasured Etsy purchase during the month of September!