Chenille and Spun Cotton Halloween Ornaments

I am busily assembling a cast of characters for Halloween this week… the last spooky spun cotton ornaments and chenille Halloween ornaments are below.  The spun cotton witch kitty will have a sister tomorrow.

I have a few new dolls in progress too.   I am excited to use my new antique shop finds – grungy old buttons and antique lace – in some primitive creations.

Time Flies When You’re Going Bonkers

I have been all over the place since my last post… oh gosh, where to start. I’ll start with the embarrassing part first – my husband and I attempted to move for the second time within three years, and our plan flopped once again. We have been trying to move from the suburbs to an older farmhouse in the country… something that I always thought was my dream… to live in a 1700s or 1800s farmhouse decorated like one of the homes I have so often drooled over in Early American Life magazine. But our attempts to move have taught me that this may not be my ultimate dream after all. The country escapes that we found ourselves pursuing were still just a little too bit “more of the same,” albeit in less developed areas. We don’t have the big bucks required to completely “get away from it all,” and we just couldn’t find anything that was quite enough away.

So now we have a new plan in mind… bear with me here, as this may sound crazy… to save up enough money to REALLY move into the country… or rather, a step closer to the wilderness. We are going to save up, purchase a motor home, sell our current home, and pursue the freedom of living full time on the road, camping at remote, wild and beautiful spots along the way. This is an idea I have been toying with for 6 years now, but I never thought I would be able to make it happen. I felt too entrenched in my current way of life despite how much I wanted to give this a try. But now, if we can save enough to make this plan feasible… there is a new goal in the horizon.

So. I’ve wasted a ton of time this summer house-hunting, packing… and then un-packing (ugh!), but I’ve still managed to get some new dolls and ornaments created, and to do a bunch of gardening and pickling too.

Do you think my tomato plants are happy??

And now I invite you to meet an extreme primitive doll named Nadine, and a primitive witch make-do named Hexe:

Plus my newest ornaments in spun cotton, spun glass, and chenille:

All of the new creations above can be found in my Old World Primitives Etsy shop.

Welcoming Summer

The unofficial start of summer is here, so I have decided that I must get out of my gardens and back to the creating table.  There are many dolls and ornaments in progress that are calling for my attention!  Here is a look at the spun cotton ornaments that I have added to Old World Primitives Etsy shop since my last blog post… yes, I am already preparing for Halloween!

And this is Laura, my latest primitive cloth doll with a sculpted Paperclay face – she is traveling at the moment, preparing for her feature in the second issue of Prims magazine. 

I have been working ever so slowly on my Izannah Walker doll class, which thankfully has stayed open long enough for slow pokes like me.   This is where I am at with my doll now – her sculpting is done, and I am ready to apply her stockinette next.  I think that perhaps I have been hesitating with moving onto that step for so long now because I’m a bit nervous about messing her up!

What Fun at The Witches Ball!

I am back from my first craft show, which was also my first Halloween party for the year, and feeling energized.  Halloween is my favorite time of year, and this festival was a great way to get into the holiday spirit!  The decorations and Halloween colored lights throughout the streets were amazing, there were plenty of yummy treats to be had (my favorites being the warm and fresh kettle corn and the hot apple cider), and many people went all-out with their costumes.  It was so fun to see all of the creative costumes throughout the night from my booth viewpoint.  It was also great fun to see and hear people’s reactions to my products and help them with their purchases.  Many comments during the night really made me smile. Here are some of the photos that I managed to snap during one of my brief forrays outside of my booth (note to self: bring my tripod next time).

This was the giant witch that greeted visitors to the Ball.

That’s my booth on the right, and to the left was talented painter/sculptor Linda Mehnert. I bought one of her cat sculptures and just adore it!

This was the view of the booths to my right from inside my booth.

And just to give you an idea of how amazing the costumes were, here is a photo that I borrowed from The Witches Ball Costume Contest Winners page of their website – this was my favorite costume of the night, which I was lucky enough to get to see up close (the wings were jointed and moved – and the detail in her dress and choker were amazing).

Witch and Angel Ornaments

This week finds me once again busily preparing items for both The Witches Ball on October 10th in Mount Holly, NJ (can’t wait – it looks like it will be such a fun evening!) and the next Early Work Mercantile update on October 1st.  The fun weekend excursions of fall have also begun – if the weather cooperates this weekend, I will be taking a trip out to beautiful Lancaster County, PA to do some shopping, get lost in a corn maze, and soak in the beautiful sights in the countryside.  I am also looking forward to going to The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze again this year.

I have also managed to squeeze in two new additions to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop.  First is a set of 2 vintage style Halloween ornaments made of chenille, crepe paper, and vintage witch faces printed on card stock.  The set includes 2 of the wee witch pictured below.

Second is a set of 3 Victorian angel Christmas ornaments made of chenille and Victorian angel faces printed on card stock.  They can be used as feather tree ornaments for Christmas or everyday, and would also make nice handmade wedding favors.

Vintage Style Chenille Halloween Ornaments – and Photos of my Gardens!

I just added a new set of 3 vintage style chenille  Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop. Each Halloween ornament is handmade of chenille and hand cut vintage Halloween images printed on card stock.

I also added this new set of Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop last week.

And now I have some garden photos to share – what a difference our new raised beds with great quality soil have made this year! We are using organic and/or heirloom seeds and seedlings, and absolutely no pesticides or chemicals. No fertilizer has been used yet, but we’ll add some of the organic compost that we are creating in our backyard Earth Machine composter soon.

My orange bell pepper plants are so happy and healthy this year! I can’t wait for them to get ripe.

Does anyone need any jalapeños?? I didn’t realize these plants were going to be so prolific – in a couple more weeks, we’ll be swimming in them!

This row of red and white onions were planted from seedlings, and they are extremely happy. I made the mistake of planting snow peas right next to them and THEN reading that snow peas don’t like to be next to onions, but they are still steadily producing nonetheless.

These are my onions planted from seed, after thinning, with my herbs behind them – dill, basil, parsley, and cilantro. I went a little too crazy with the cilantro.

Grape tomatoes – I picked and ate a few after I took this shot.

The biggest cluster of tomatoes I have ever grown – 9 and counting!

Help, help – the pickle cucumbers are coming! My husband is a pickle fanatic, so we planted 23 pickle cucumber plants this year. The canning might begin this weekend or early next week.

Halloween Goodies & Kutztown Folk Festival

Can you believe it’s just about July already? This year has just been flying by. I have been busy working on new creations lately, and just finished updating my Early Work Mercantile Shop for our July 1st update. My offering this month is a primitive witch make-do, which I created using a Kentucky Primitives pattern.

SOLD, thank you!

I also added a new set of 3 vintage style chenille Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy Shop, and will be adding a bunch more Halloween ornaments (both chenille and cloth) soon too.

On Sunday I also had the pleasure of attending the Kutztown Folk Festival in Kutztown, PA for the first time and I enjoyed it so much, I can’t wait to go back again next year! The festival included over 200 crafters both selling and demonstrating their crafts, and the quality was just amazing. There were SO many things that I wanted to buy! It was hard to stick to my budget and leave with just a few small goodies, but it was really fun and inspiring to see so many high quality crafts. There was also a quilt barn filled with over 2,500 handmade quilts, many of which I wished I could bring home with me too. We also sampled lots of yummy food and drink including the homemade fudge that I am snacking on right now, looked at the many exhibits, listened to some live folk music, and watched a thatched roofing demonstration. A few of the pictures that I took at the festival are below.

And finally, a big thank you to everyone who voted for my extreme primitive black cat doll in the Etsy Americana Decor Voter Poll! She was featured in a Storque post announcing the voter favorites and is now included in the Americana Folk Gift Guide.

Vintage Style Chenille Halloween Folk Art Ornaments Set #3

I just finished creating a new set of 6 vintage style chenille Halloween ornaments. The set includes two of each style pictured below, and they are available now on Old World Primitives and in the Old World Primitives Etsy shop.

Each Halloween ornament is made of chenille and vintage Halloween images printed on card stock.

Vintage Style Halloween Folk Art Ornaments

Due to the popularity of my first set of chenille Halloween ornaments, I decided to create some more spooky new ornies. This set is also an Old World Primitives design and includes two of each design pictured, for a total of 6 ornaments in the set.

Each ornament is made of chenille and vintage Halloween images printed on card stock. These primitive folk art ornaments are available now on Old World Primitives and in the Old World Primitives Etsy shop.

Chenille Halloween Folk Art Ornaments

Here are my newest creations – a set of Halloween ornaments that I designed. I created them with chenille and some of my favorite vintage Halloween images printed on card stock. I think they will be right at home on one of my feather trees or perhaps hanging from a pegboard.

These folk art ornies are available for sale via Old World Primitives and the Old World Primitives etsy shop as a set of six – two of each of the three designs in the set.