My Martha Experience

I had a fun trip into New York City yesterday for a taping of the Martha Stewart Show. I was invited by Etsy Press to be in the audience for an all-Etsy audience, for her Etsy Show to air on Thursday, April 26.

I took the train from New Haven, CT to Grand Central Station, and took a taxi to my first stop, where I purchased some special buttons that I use in many of my fabric flowers.  I was on West 39th Street in the heart of the Fashion District.

From my first stop, I walked to Hyman, Hendler and Sons, the oldest ribbon shop.   This was a treat.  I didn't get a picture, because the outside of the shop was under scaffolding.  From there I walked and walked, browsing through the beautiful ribbon and fabric shops- there are so many!  Walls were covered with ribbon, lined with trims, and stocked with every button, sequin and rhinestone imaginable!

I could have stayed in those shops all day.  In fact, I'm planning a day to go back to spend more time, but I had to get over West 26th Street for the taping.

When I got over to the studio, we waited under Martha's awning.  I met several great crafters that were just as excited as I was to be there. 

Emy, from HandmadebyEmy

Janell, from PrunellaSoap

Mary, from SuperDuperMaryCooper

Amy, from TinyGiraffe

and Jennifer from jstforewe

just to name a few.

Jennifer makes beautiful hand-felted items from wool.  She raises her own sheep and hand shears them, dyes and spins the wool, and then makes gorgeous skeins of yarn, adorable little gnomes and fairies, and animals.  She made these two puppies for Martha, which are made to look like Martha's own two dogs:

How cute are they!?  I was so excited when Martha walked over and Jennifer was able to give them to her.  I wish I could have taken a picture of Jennifer while she was talking to Martha, but we weren't allowed to have our phones/cameras on.

This was the warm-up guy, and he directed us through our applause and "oohs and aahs."  We were fabulous under his direction.

The studio was bright and beautiful.

People were very busy in Martha's test kitchen, which is to the side of her studio.  There were no food segments in the Etsy taping, though.

We all held our handmade items on our lap.  This was awkward for me, as I had to smile and clap when directed to do so.  I was fake-clapping so that I wouldn't wreck my basket!  And thank goodness they didn't catch me on camera to my knowledge.  I had frizzed up from the humid air in NY.

The stage crew was putting finishing touches to the set before the taping.

I was sitting in the front row, right in front of Martha.  At one point they had to stop taping and do a re-do of her introduction to a segment, because her blouse button was popping.  Oops.  Between one of the segments she walked over and said hello to us, and checked out the items in the front row, so I was glad to be sitting where I was.

It was a great day!  From the studio I took a taxi back to the train station and headed home.  Thankfully my son's first baseball game was cancelled due to weather, so I didn't miss it.  :)

The basket that I was holding during the show will be raffled off Thursday afternoon after the show airs.  The information on the raffle is in my previous post.

Oh, I forgot.  Everyone is asking me about the giveaways.   We received a "Martha Stewart Show" bag with a $50 certificate toward any HP item.  There was a 10-pack of her paints and a painting tool set with stencils, which my daughter Julia has claimed.  There were two other types of paint in the bag that I haven't really looked at yet.  One of the guests has a book published on polymer clay jewelry, so we got that book and three packages of clay.  My daughter Sara is all about that.  My son Adam?  He was happy enough to see the picture of the train I was on.  And my husband- well he was thrilled that I got to see Jenna Fischer on the streets of New York- she plays Pam on The Office, one of our favorite shows. 

Ladybug Bouquet Raffle Details

Ladybug Bouquet Raffle Details

This bouquet will be raffled off to a lucky winner on Thursday, April 26 in the afternoon.  All proceeds benefit Project Ladybug, an organization that raises money to assist the families of children with life-threatening illnesses.

If you would like to purchase raffle tickets, here are instructions to do so.

Buy raffle ticket(s) for $1.00 each. One ticket gives you one entry into the raffle. Buy ten tickets for $10.00, and so on. BONUS: For every five tickets purchased (cost $5.00) I will give one bonus entry. So if you purchase 10 tickets ($10.00) you will have 12 entries.



Raffle tickets may be purchased until 10:00 EST on 4/26/12 when the Martha Stewart Show airs.  Raffle ticket purchases will NOT be accepted after 10:00 EST on 4/26/12.
Raffle tickets must be purchased by sending your raffle ticket amount via Paypal to kadrozdowski@hotmail.com. This is my Ladybug Bowtique account. There is no limit on the number of raffle tickets that may be purchased.  For every five tickets purchased ($5.00) you will receive one bonus raffle entry.


When sending your raffle purchase funds to kadrozdowski@hotmail.com via Paypal, please indicate "Project Ladybug Raffle" in the notes/comments section.

Funds should be sent as a gift, as all proceeds will be sent to Project Ladybug.  100% of donations/raffle purchases will go to Project Ladybug. I am donating the cost/materials of the bouquet.

The raffle winner will be posted on Facebook in the afternoon of 4/26 after the show airs.

Questions? Send them to me at kadrozdowski@hotmail.com.

Deluxe Ladybug Bouquet Raffle

I am going to raffle off a Deluxe Bouquet to benefit Project Ladybug, an organization that raises money to assist the families of children with life-threatening illnesses. The organization was founded by Dina Manzo, who was a reality star on Housewives of New Jersey. I admit that I watch a few of the Housewives shows. (Okay, truth be told, all of them. All of you who watch with me will agree that this is a guilty pleasure, watching grown women argue over nonsense each week.) But anyway. I love the cause.

The bouquet will be the exact one that I will be holding during the taping of an all-Etsy-seller audience for the Martha Stewart Show on Monday, April 23. Martha has asked that we all bring an item to hold on our laps during the taping. The show will air Thursday, April 26 at 10:00 a.m. on the Hallmark Channel.

The raffle winner will be posted on the day that the show airs. So you may purchase a raffle ticket now and until the morning of the show day. I'll keep you posted on that date. As it is Martha's last go at taping her shows, I don't think it will be too long before this show airs.

Here's how it will all work. Easy.
1. Buy raffle ticket(s) for $1.00 each. One ticket gives you one entry into the raffle. Buy ten tickets for $10.00, and you will have ten entries.
2. Raffle tickets may be purchased until 10:00 EST on 4/26/12 when the show airs.
3. Raffle ticket purchases will NOT be accepted after 10:00 EST on the day of air.
4. I will provide a picture of the raffle item on Sunday, 4/22 on Facebook.
5. Raffle tickets will be purchased via Paypal to kadrozdowski@hotmail.com. This is my Ladybug Bowtique account. There is no limit on the number of raffle tickets that may be purchased.
6. When sending your raffle purchase funds to kadrozdowski@hotmail.com via Paypal, please indicate "Project Ladybug Raffle" in the notes/comments section.
7. 100% of donations/raffle purchases will go to Project Ladybug. I am donating the cost/materials of the bouquet.
8.  The raffle winner will be posted on Facebook in the afternoon of 4/26 after the show airs.

Questions? Send them to me at kadrozdowski@hotmail.com.

Thank you for participating- this is my first charitable raffle, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm not really looking forward to wind and rain during my trip to NY, however!

Musical

I love this bouquet- it makes me want to put on a fur coat and go to the opera with a red flower in my hair. The thing is, I'd have to first go get a haircut, buy new heals and remember how to walk in them, get my nails done, find something to wear that doesn't involve yoga pants and a sweatshirt...it's nice to dream.



I made this today and both of my girls want it. Sara is playing the flute and Julia is playing the clarinet, so they both have a new love for things with musical notes on them. They both play in the school handbell club, too.

I'm a bit of a music geek myself. I played the piano and mallet percussion during my school years, and continued on to play in community theatres in the pit orchestra. I also played in my church handbell choir, and went on to direct that choir for several years. When I moved out on my own, I found a local church where I was living, and joined their handbell choir. Before Mark and I got married, he came along and joined the handbell choir, too- that's commitment! One of the last times we played with that handbell choir was the Sunday morning of Julia's Christening, back in 2000.

I was thrilled to find out that our elementary school here has a small handbell club. The girls both joined, and I've been going in to help out and play when I'm needed. I was thrilled this week when the music teacher asked me to help out his church handbell choir a few towns over as a substitute/alternate player. It's an advanced group, and I'm looking forward to playing again!

Maybe I'll have to make myself a musical flower for my hair! :)

A whole new year of crafting!

I love a new, fresh year. I especially love that 2012 will have an extra day because it's a leap year! I've decided that the best crafting goal I can have this year is to destash my abundant stash of fabric, buttons, embellishments, flowers, appliques, etc. that took up half of our moving space last year. (Sssh...don't tell my husband.) It's still taking up half of our basement. I've decided to destash slowly but surely, by making one-of-a-kind or limited items for my Etsy shop. You'll see them throughout the year. Here are a few below- but fair warning, if you love them, get them quickly. These won't be regular items, and they will be offered at great, low prices.

Peppermint Bark Snowflakes

I fell in love with this pretty way to make peppermint bark with a snowflake mold. I saw the idea on Pinterest, of course.



So I set out to make mine this year using the Wilton Bite Size Snowflakes silicone mold.


I like how they came out. The Wilton mold I found was a little less detailed than the pretty ones I saw on Pinterest, but I'm happy with them. For the larger ones in the center of the bags, I used a regular snowflake cookie cutter, placed on parchment paper. Here they are, all wrapped and ready to go to my husband's office, the neighbor's house, the mailman, and anyone on our list that deserves a special-something at Christmas.

HoliDaze

Our family has always loved halloween. The kids were really looking forward to it this year, because we are in a big, family-friendly neighborhood now. Rumor was that we would get over 200 trick-or-treaters, a neighbor up the street would offer hayrides to the kids, and there was a special house that gave out humongous candy bars.

Unfortunately we were the victims of storm Alfred here in the northeast. On Saturday night before Halloween (which was Monday) we got a very heavy, wet snow that wreaked havoc on the trees that were still covered in leaves. So many trees fell and caused damage to power lines- over 800,000 people lost power here in Connecticut alone. And to think, we were some of the lucky ones that got power back after six days. My friend just a mile away suffered on for eight days.

This is my pumpkin on my front step at the beginning of the storm. I love it- I bought it a few years ago in our old town. It is made out of a recycled propane tank. It's heavy and it can't be smashed!

Here is the morning after, and what was left of a pretty dogwood tree in our front yard. The whole tree is lost now. So sad. I'm not going to cry over this one, though- dogwood trees make an awful mess in the Spring.

The kids ended up losing 4 days of school, and halloween was cancelled. So many power lines were down in our neighborhood that it wasn't safe for trick-or-treating. We slept by the fireplace in the living room all week, kept our food in coolers covered with snow, and cooked as much as we could on the grill before the food spoiled in the thaw. We all became characters from "Little House on the Prairie" and told funny stories by candlelight at night.

Over a week later, we've put that sad holiday behind us and we're looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I've put all of my halloween decorations away in hopes that next year they will be enjoyed a little more!

I've been busy getting some new holiday items listed in my Etsy shop. I missed having power for six days- I couldn't make much of anything, and I was having withdrawals!

I hope everyone else had a nice Halloween. I'm enjoying a quiet week before I start thinking about holiday baking and Christmas shopping next week.