01.31.08

Long time, no Blog…

Posted in Children, Family at 3:19 am by bethsullivan

So, I had every intention of keeping up with this blog on at least a weekly basis.  Umm…  As you can see from the dates, it didn’t happen!  The past year has been very busy.  As my mailing list customers already know, my husband and I welcomed twins in May.  Nina and Mitchell were born 7 weeks early but are perfectly healthy and are 8 months old already.  It’s been crazy around here but a good kind of crazy!  One of my new year’s resolutions is to blog more often.  Of course, now that I have finally found the password again, I will try to check in here more often.  My business is still going strong though the focus has to remain on my kids for now.

11.12.06

Chalkboard Vinyl Possibilities

Posted in Children, Quilting, Uncategorized at 1:53 pm by bethsullivan

At the Craft Bazaar at my alma-mater Saint Bernard High School yesterday, many of the customers were excited about the possibilities in my chalkboard vinyl placemats and name sign message centers and had lots of questions. Chalkboard vinyl is a material that has been out for a few years and quilters have jumped on the possibilities. I have seen several different quilt patterns using chalkboard vinyl to make placemats. After playing around with it for a little while, I came up with a smaller placemat with simple borders and built-in chalk pocket for sale at my fairs. I decided last year to incorporate these vinyl panels into my name signs. An option I offer to customers ordering a name sign is to have their sign turned into a message center. The chalkboard panel hangs under the name and a pocket runs along the bottom to hold chalk and other messages. Though I have hung this sign at different shows this year, yesterday was the first major interest it’s gotten this craft fair season. I have a bunch of samples posted on my website in the name signs section. I was thrilled yesterday to have people so excited about the possibilities! Some lucky children are going to be receiving personalized message centers at the upcoming holidays!

11.01.06

Halloween Fun

Posted in Children, Family, Uncategorized at 12:55 pm by bethsullivan

Lucy had a blast with Halloween this year. She was too cute. She told me she wanted to be a duck so my in-laws pulled out her old duck costume for us. It still fit. My sister-in-law gave me a pumpkin costume and a dog costume. Both of them fit too. Lucy had until the last minute to decide which one she wanted to wear. The decision? The pumpkin! A couple people asked me if I made it. HA! I quilt – not sew. Everything I do stays flat… I was VERY happy not to have to buy a costume this year.

Our little pumpkin went house to house with us and tried to run into most of the houses so we had to hold the back of her costume to prevent her taking off. I think the dog costume would have been a more appropriate choice. :-) We only went to about 10-12 houses total since they are pretty spread apart. We live on a country road at the foot of a big development. We are not part of the development but have a sidewalk that connects us to it. I was so sad for my neighbors that so few trick-or-treaters came around. For many of the houses we stopped at, we were the only ones who came by. I was thrilled that we could bring our little pumpkin around to brighten the Halloween nights of some people. It makes it more special.

The first year we were in our house I was sure we’d get lots of people. After all, we were in a house! I think I bought 6-8 bags of candy. Well, nobody came. I was so disappointed. Brett went out the back door without me noticing, ran around the front and rang the doorbell in 40 degree weather with short sleeves and a plastic bag. The doorbell rang and I was SO excited. Finally I had a trick-or-treater! I was not so amused to find my husband out there shivering. It really was very sweet – in hindsight!

10.25.06

Personalized Quilted Name Signs

Posted in Children, Quilting at 5:21 pm by bethsullivan

Children LOVE to see their names. Personalized items are always a hit. Several years ago my neighbors asked me if I would make a quilted name sign for their younger daughter. Their older daughter had one made many years ago by a woman who no longer does it. I looked at the sample they had and immediately started planning what I could do differently.

I played with letter sizes, fonts, different colors and fabrics until I came up with a workable pattern for how to put together a nice quilted sign. Their daughter loved the sign I made. I enjoyed making it and began the search for nice “child-friendly” fabrics that would be appealing. I started making samples and taking orders. Fabric stores everywhere have contributed to my large name sign fabric stash. Themes such as ladybugs, flowers, trucks, fish and flames have been added bit by bit. The samples can be viewed at Beth Sullivan Designs.

The children who approach my booth are always so excited to see their name or the names of their friends. I take orders at craft fairs or through my website. When a child wants a new color combination, their sign gets immortalized on the website for all to see – at least for a time. They really are lots of fun.

Lucy learned to spell her name by looking at her sign on the door to her room. “L,U,C,Y” were the first letters she started to recognize. We’d stop there at least once a day and point it out – “L-u-c-y spells Lucy!”

10.10.06

Lucy’s Birthday Party – Preschool Party Ideas

Posted in Children, Family, Uncategorized at 1:45 pm by bethsullivan

Woohoo! The birthday party is over! We had a wonderful time and Lucy had a blast running from spot to spot playing with her friends and doing the different activities. It was a LOT of work to put everything together. Most of the work to be honest came with trying to get my house “company ready” and though I tried, it wasn’t completely ready. Oh well – a few closed doors and we were all set.

Some of the activities we did were:

  • Pumpkin Painting – I stationed my mother with the pumpkins. All the paints were in bowls. The kids put on a painting shirt (over-sized cheap T-shirt) and selected a pumpkin. All the painted pumpkins were placed in a paper bowl with the child’s name on it. After everyone had finished painting my mother blow-dried the pumpkins and then hot-glued large googly eyes on them.
  • Coloring – Simple. Roll of big paper partially unrolled on the driveway. I just put our crayons and let them color to their hearts content. It was a nice “low key” activity for those who needed a break from the commotion.
  • Party Hats – I bought the plain party hats in a few different colors and put them on a table with foam stickers in a box lid. I also left some construction paper there and some stick-on name tags which already had the kid’s names on them. Children could choose to wear a name tag or put it on their hat, decorate a hat or paper or both. It was really cute.
  • Noisemakers – I bought some noisemakers like clackers, horns and maracas at Rhode Island Novelty and had those out in baskets for kids who wanted to use them. At one point (just before the cake) we went grabbed instruments and went on a “parade” to “We are the Dinosaurs” by Laurie Berkner.
  • Other items – Other than that, we pretty much let them run amok. The swingset was open and there were a few balls out. The balloons were individually clipped so kids could grab them and hold them for a while. Pizza delivery, cake and ice cream. Very casual.

    • My friends were joking that they could tell I used to be a First Grade Teacher! The kids all had a blast and Lucy enjoyed it more than anyone.

    10.05.06

    Novelty Party Items

    Posted in Children, Family, Uncategorized at 2:44 pm by bethsullivan

    I know lots of people order items from Oriental Trading and similar catalogs when they need little “stuff” for parties and things. I used to order from them all the time when I was a teacher. In the last few years I have found a company that I like sooooo much better – Rhode Island Novelty. I just ordered a whole bunch of “trinkets” for Lucy’s party. Plastic maracas, harmonicas, sunglasses, little stuffed teddy bears, etc. The prices were very reasonable and the products were much nicer than those I’ve found other places. Certainly they were much cheaper than buying things at the party store. Last year I placed a huge order and sent all the little things to Iraq for the soldiers to distribute to the children. My husband’s cousin Ryan was stationed there and he said the soldiers always needed items they could keep in their vehicles for the kids. They loved them. And the plastic blow-up arm leopard-print arm chair I sent the soldiers for them was a huge hit. :-)

    09.29.06

    Potty Training

    Posted in Children, Uncategorized at 12:36 pm by bethsullivan

    There is something going on in our house that takes far higher importance than my quilting business – far higher than almost anything! Lucy is finally opening up to the idea of potty training. She’ll be 3 years old in a week and a half and up to this point has been very sporatic in what she’ll actually try. FINALLY, after being spurred on by a visit to my in-laws in Connecticut last weekend, Lucy has decided that it might be OK. Well, she’s picking and choosing her timing and I’m spending LOTS more time on this task. :-) What my life has become… Hopefully she’ll catch on pretty quickly and we’ll be able to move on to other tasks. In the meantime, I have stationed adult chairs in each of the bathrooms and am spending waaaaay too much time thinking, talking about and trying to prompt bodily functions. :-)