Getting Down to Business

That's what I have got to do or I won't get very much accomplished this summer. It seems like I've talked about home renovations forever and we still aren't finished. It's not that our house is that big, but we are doing a little at a time, when we can work it in between my husband's regular jobs and my handcraft business.

But it's time for me to cut back on handcraft work and get as much done during the day that I can, so Roger can do what he needs to do when he has time in the evenings or on his days off (which are not very often).

we have gone from this

to this - we replaced the light fixture but i don't have a photo of that yet...

to this

and this in the bathroom.

Since we are renovating with the idea of selling in the future (more on that later), we are also clearing out more than 20 years worth of stuff as we go from room to room. It's not that we never throw anything away, but I've discovered that one can be just a bit too thrifty or sentimental at times. Just how many boxes of "I may use this some day even though I have no idea what it is" or "didn't he / she look cute in this?" can a person stuff store under the beds??? 

A big antique / junk / yard sale will most likely happen here at the Manis home late summer or early fall, but besides household items, I need to clear out my handcraft inventory, which leads me to the reason I'm writing this evening.

I have decided to have a SUMMER SALE ~ all summer long, and hopefully it will be a sale that is worth your time to browse my websites and Etsy shops. All of my ready made items (and antique and vintage items) that are on these websites are included in the sale:

Honeysuckle Lane ~ southern appalachian folk art

Honeysuckle Lane on Etsy

HL Shop (a little sale blog)

Simple Joys Paperie ~ handmade paper whimsies for your heart & home 

Simple Joys Paperie on Etsy

What kind of sale is it, you ask?  It's a buy 1 at the regular price and get 1 of equal or lesser value at 1/2 off sale! For instance, if you buy 4 items, the 2 highest priced items are regular price and the 2 lower priced items are 1/2 off. I've already had customers placing orders this afternoon and saving $25 or more!

If you'd like to see the entire newsletter, just click this link: SUMMER SALE.

Feel free to share this sale with your friends, or tweet it or share it on facebook. Who knows, you may find lots of birthday, anniversary, wedding or Christmas gifts and I really do need to clear out as much as possible! :)

Even though I will be too busy to create for a while, I will still be blogging to keep you up-to-date with what's going on around here.

Thanks so much for hanging around to

the end ~

Take care and God bless!
Lana

~*~

French Milliner's Head

A while back in one of my blog posts I mentioned a French Milliner's Head that I had been working on as a custom order. I didn't want to show any photos because the customer wanted to be surprised. She lives in Australia and it took a few weeks for the package to get to her. Now that she has received it, I can show you what it looks like.

Although I'd sculpted dolls heads before (several are shown in this post), and had previously made milliner's heads, I hadn't made any as big as 20" tall as requested.

It took a while to get a base going, building it up with various chunks of styrofoam, carving away parts of it, adding layers of paper mache and letting it dry very well in between layers before adding a layer of paper clay.

After the paperclay was dry, then came sanding, painting, sanding, staining and a hand rubbed beeswax finish. The stain really brought out all the little crackles and crevices when you view her up close. I intentionally kept her looking a bit rough and handmade, since she was inspired by those of the 1800s that sat in shop windows.

You may see some examples of the antiques at Adrian Morris Antiques, Hanes and Ruskin Antiques and Cowan's Auctions. If you are like me, you could spend hours browsing their antiques!

That's all to share for now. I have a few custom orders to finish this week and then I have to schedule more time for even more renovations.

Have a blessed day!
Lana
~*~

P.S. ~ I have just a few of these mini French lavender cones left from the Lavender Festival. They are paper mache cones wrapped with French book pages, stuffed with crinkled lavender paper shreds, embellished with tarnished silver tinsel. Each one has a little black wire loop for hanging on the back and comes with sprigs of dried lavender. The cones are 4 1/2" tall. I'm selling them in sets of 3 for $15 plus shipping. Just email me if you want a set and I'll send you a paypal invoice: honeysucklelane (at) hotmail.com.

Just one more post about jewelry...

I've been sharing sneak peeks of my jewelry and I finally updated my website with photos, descriptions and prices.

I'll leave them on my website and maybe put some in my Etsy shop until I make a display for a shop to carry the soldered glass charms and soldered pottery shard charms.

Once I finally got started using my aged, distressed and water-colored papers to make little collages to go inside the glass charms, I didn't want to stop. There were so many more color combinations and designs I could have done, but those will have to wait another month or two while we get going on the renovations again.

I will have to continue making and selling some items, since the sales from my handcrafts will go towards purchasing things for the new kitchen such as paint, bead board, a counter top replacement, etc. :)

I have so much I need to blog about: the renovations with actual before and after photos, some how-tos so you can see just how simple it is to make displays for your products, and of course some photos of vegetables from our garden... when we start getting some! ;)

Happy Summer everyone! :)

Take care and God bless,
Lana
~*~

We Have a Winner!

Ok, everyone ~
we have a winner for the wonderful Shabby Apple dress giveaway!

I used random.org to generate a number and the lucky number is THREE ~
How funny, because I just recently did a blog post about good things coming in THREES.
Back to the winner, number 3 would make the winner the lovely Alex!!!
Congratulations Alex! :D

Alex has some fantastic Etsy shops that you need to visit when you have time:
Her jewelry shop has some wonderful pieces.... and ooooh, I see something I really want!
And this is her vintage shop where you will find a little of everything for your vintage home.

Thanks for participating!

Lana
~*~

Just a Few More Teasers ...

I thought I'd share a few more photos of the soldered glass charms and pottery shard charms that I will be listing soon.

I'd hoped to have the photos and descriptions ready tonight, but it will be tomorrow before I can finish.

In the meantime, would you mind commenting and let me know which style you like best?

 

Thanks! :)
Lana
~*~

A Sneak Peek ...

I thought I'd give you a sneak peek of what I'll be listing in a day or so. Just click on the photos for a larger view.

After making LOTS of these {see the charms below}...

and then getting LOTS of rain...

... I am going to have a Stormy Weather Sale.

Sales were down, I think due to the weather {rain, thunder, lightening, etc.}, so I will be offering most of the items that I brought home online. Please be sure to stop by and get in on the new items sale!

Take care and God Bless,
Lana
~*~

p.s. I will try to have things photographed and ready Sunday night (the 19th), if not, it will be some time Monday. I'll be sure to let you know here on my blog. :)

Good things come in 3s ...

… at least that’s what they say. :)

1. I’m making something with

3 spindles

3 wooden base things

3 robe hooks

Check back next week to see what I did with them!

just ignore the tube of spackle stuff, hammer, iced coffee and sudoku puzzle book ~ i'm a busy gal!

2. We are in the midst of renovating. We have the new flooring in the living room, dining room, hall, and bath. Fresh paint is on the walls and all most of the trim is up. I had to go back and patch nail holes in the trim, sand, and touch up with paint. That was not fun. I don't mind doing it, but I am not as good at it as my carpenter husband. I work slower and I keep seeing little imperfections that need fixing, so I go back over it again... and again... and again...

this is after the old floor was torn up and before the new flooring was installed. i'll do more posts soon with lots more photos and share more of what we did.

3. And since I didn’t have enough to fill my 30-hour days (there are 30 hours in a day, right?), after getting a phone call from the shop owner in Oak Ridge who puts together the Lavender Festival, I reconsidered and decided that I will be doing it. After all, I will have at least a week to get ready for it! Am I losing it, or what???

3a. No, I didn’t mess up. We’re talking good things in 3s so I didn’t want to jinx it by listing number 4. ;) I have a big 75-quart plastic tote box filled with old linens that I have collected over the years. Some are near perfect and some are more suited for recycling into some sweet doll’s dress or a pincushion or pillows or whatever else you can think of. So in a few weeks, I'll be offering all of those for sale. It's about time someone put these lovely oldies to good use!

{***just pretend this is a photo of the tote box overflowing with antique and vintage linens. the box is in the basement and I and my camera are not.***}

So... in the evenings I’ve been working on custom orders, but this week I had to finally stop and get something made for the festival, which (by the time I'm finally posting this draft) is day after tomorrow!

I will be taking mostly paper pretties. I've had trouble finding the silk ribbon I normally use to embroider my pillows and just don't have time to hand dye white silk ribbon... maybe next year.

I have botanical cones filled with sprigs of dried lavender. I also have paperweights, book spine cuffs, vintage book wreaths, puzzle purse valentines (it doesn't have to be Valentine's day to give a token of love to someone), matted photographs, sets of my watercolor cards, and I'm currently working on soldered glass charms featuring hearts and hearts in hands and antique lace, soldered pottery shard charms, and blogging this post of course!

paper art has been done and these pieces are ready to wrap with copper foil tape. yes, i use those big utility scissors to cut the little 1" and 2" designs. i never could get the hang of using teeny tiny scissors.

i save all my paper scraps for smaller projects that i work on later such as the charms.

 I've had some trouble with my soldering iron. The first one I had died a year or so ago, along with some tips. Then I purchased a new one, same make and model, opened it for the first time last night, used it to solder about 10 charms and the tips went out. What is it with me and soldering iron tips? I thought I was keeping it tinned while working, but maybe I wasn't doing it enough.

Thankfully, I had a spare that I purchased with my first iron. I'm using it today, and so far, so good! However, I am considering buying a different soldering iron soon, so if anyone has a favorite, please let me know. I currently have a Studio 100 which cost about $50 - $60 and I'm considering a Weller iron, but then again, if I can get this one to do the job and if I can find a smaller tip for it, I may stick with what I'm familiar with.

these look a little rough at first, but after i use the Dremel on them, along with the patina mixture, then buff and wax, they will look MUCH better!

some of my handy tools

and my messy work station.

Wish me luck, I am running a bit behind, but hopefully I can get caught up by late tonight --- I'll be sure to have lots of this to keep me working as late as possbile:

 Oh, I nearly forgot! Visit this link to read more about the Lavender Festival. If you come, please be sure to drop by and say hello ~ I'll be set up at my usual spot in front of The Ferrell Shop. :)

Take Care and God Bless,

Lana

~*~