This was the start of Christmas season for me.  Yummies in a Jar (Baysville, Ontario) holds an awesome "Fab Fall Christmas Show" every year in their studio.  There are only a handful of vendors but the show is packed.  Invites are mailed out, customers come and enjoy a glass of wine, some snacks and are able to purchase Christmas items for 3 hours on a Monday night.  This was my 2nd year selling at Yummies and its always a good show for me.  Every year it gets bigger.  People line up outside the doors for the 5:30pm opening.  

The Riverside School Christmas Sale (Huntsville, Ontario) is also a great place to sell your items.  Running for 20 years the vendors not only fill the gym but also in the hallways as well.  Money made from this show goes towards school activities.  I think there are a lot of people that start their Christmas shopping here.  This is my booth the night before. 

Mittens...just can't make enough for my sales.  I have 75 pairs laid out on my kitchen table for the upcoming shows.  No two are alike and all are made from sweaters, wool, fleece and the odd cotton.  Most sweaters are pretty tacky when I buy them at thrift stores (great for tacky sweater days).  I wash and, dry and make sure to shrink the wool ones.  Then I cut out mittens around the design on the sweater.  The tacky sweater becomes "awesome mittens".  My mittens are very warm with either a fleece or wool lining.  No cold fingers this winter!

This season I started making my elves again.  I had one for sale at the craft show and it was purchased by an extremely excited customer. The new owner asked me to make two more...a girl and a boy.  Both elves are made from recycled sweaters and fur.  All of my elves are different and each personality comes out as they are sewn.  I never know what they will look line in the end.

Keeping true to my upcycling ideals I made this manikin out of items you would find in your own home.

A new store is opening up in my town (Bracebridge, Ontario) within the next week.  It will be a cafe plus an arts and crafts store.    The Bohemian Cafe and Gallery is owned by Tammy and her daughter Kristen and they have been working long hours preparing for their grand opening.  I as one of the artists will have a display at the store and one of the items I will be selling is a vest which has been airbrushed  by my very talented airbrush artist boyfriend.  For those that love horses this one features a horse galloping on the back of the vest (see picture below).   What we needed was a manikin to display it for sale.  This is how I was able to make a very inexpensive manikin out of items which can be found in your house.

I Googled "making a manikin" and found various You-Tube videos on making a manikin out of duct tape.  Who would have thought of the idea in the first place "Red Green"? 

Supplies I used:
1 Old tight T-Shirt
5 Rolls of Duct Tape (Dollar Store kind)
1 Wood Dowel
1 Small plastic disposable water bottle
1 Lamp base (heavy)
2 pieces of tubing which I scored from 2 solar garden lights

Keeping in an upcycling mindset you can search around your home for various similar items.  I have also seen a manikin made with paper packaging tape as well but duct tape was my choice for this project.

You will also need a friend to tape you up.  It was a fun project.  I giggled right through it.

I used scrumpled-up newspaper for the filler and I partially filled my manikin body in the shoulder area.

Next cut the bottom off of the water bottle but keep the lid on it.  I put the dowel up inside the water bottle and stuffed the bottle with paper.  Then I put the water bottle/dowel up inside the manikin.  This I did to help stop the dowel from poking up through the neck.  After that more newspaper was stuffed inside the manikin to give it substance and to make it like a real body.

An oval was cut from a piece of cardboard the size of the bottom of the manikin.  Cut a hole in the centre of the cardboard and slip the oval shape up the dowel and duct tape it to the manikin.  I also taped it to the dowel to keep the dowel from slipping out.

Next I found a broken lamp that had a heavy base.  This lamp base had a hole big enough to insert my dowel.  Before I mounted the dowling onto the base I decided to cover the dowling and used metal tubing which I took from old solar lights that I had around the house.  You can also paint the dowel if you wish.  I decided to try to match the base of the lamp and these tubes were perfect. 

This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.

We are now in the middle of our winter - the craziness of the holidays are gone...its quiet, some people find it boring and depressing.  Not me.  This is the time of year I love to snowshoe the trails.  I'm lucky where I live in my town.  A network of trails is just around the corner from my street.  Many people use these trails to get away from the noise, get back to nature, walk along the Muskoka River and take in the cool fresh air of the season.  Mike and I went for a snowshoe last Sunday.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  During our walk we noticed that a beaver had been busy working last fall, getting his place in order for the winter.  Quite a few trees had been fallen and quite a few had only been half chewed.  We joked that maybe beavers were like people with the pun..."tried to bite off more than he could chew".  I've seen this beaver on my travels in the trail while running in the summer.  I would surprise him then I would hear a slap from his tail on the water and off he would go. 

The Peliated Woodpecker was also still in his area.  We hear him every time we walk this portion of the trail.  Hammering away at trees, looking for food high up in a tree he worked non-stop.  I saw deer tracks and sometimes if your lucky you can see just where they stayed overnight under a pine tree.  An indentation in the snow gives it all away. 

There are people out there that just can't wait for winter to be over.  I think its unfortunate because they haven't learned how to "use" the season to their advantage.  How to get outside, enjoy the fresh air, a great workout while skiing or snowshoeing.  How to get back to nature and the simpler times.   Walking out in the woods gives you inner peace, it de-stresses you.  How can you not take in the beauty and enjoy the simple things like looking up and seeing the most amazing blue.  Last weekend I commented that the sky was the colour of a tropical ocean.  It was beautiful.

This weekend we will go for another snowshoe along another part of the trail.  Maybe you will join us?