"The Craft Extravaganza" and More.....

Carol in front of Zingerman's Deli - our trip to Ann Arbor


The "Craft Extravaganza" - don't worry, you can all join in on the fun when we go up north!


Well, it's been quite some time since I've posted to the blog, but with sister Carol in town, I've been extra busy! We've really enjoyed spending time together - going to Colon to visit Jen and the girls, then to Ann Arbor one day, and of course the big "craft extravaganza" that took place for a full 2-1/2 days at my house over the weekend! We were crafting fools - Carol spent most of her time working on "altered art" objects - things that can be hung on the wall, journals, etc. I made mostly gift tags, journals and jewelry - charm bracelets and necklaces. What fun! Brenda joined us for awhile on Saturday, which of course we enjoyed immensely. She has got the crafting thing down pat, and left the house with some adorable magnets that she made. (Bren - I'll take the journal you made with me up north.) Don't have any pictures to show you at the moment, other than one of the three of us working at the table (above). As Carol would say, "suffice to say" the days flew by, and even Scott helped out by cutting up matboard and helping us drill holes in scrabble tiles. He is quite the artist himself, of course. Hey, Carol - did you know there are two kinds of art?......inside joke....)

Well, I'll bring some supplies and samples of what we made up north - that way, anyone who wants to can work on some simple crafts during our vacation, too. Can't wait - Rachel N., Carol and I will be leaving tomorrow morning - we'll get the cottage all set up and ready for when the rest of you arrive! See you soon - we will have great fun, I'm sure! (Little Kels, please get better soon, doodlebug!)

Great Fun in Colon!

Jen, Mace and Kels were most gracious hostesses as the "Nykerk" clan invaded Colon yesterday! Bren & Jen's friend "Sis" joined us, too - what a lovely young lady she is! We all enjoyed seeing "my cottage" as Macey put it, and then seeing Colon itself and a couple of the houses that Jen and Jason are considering buying. We went past Jason's school (we saw his yellow locker) and drove to an Amish general store - you see all of us sitting in front of it in the picture above. It was so nice to see everyone and we all enjoyed the day so much - the weather was great and the girls were absolutely adorable, "per normal." Too bad we missed Kels starting to crawl by only one day, but we could tell it would be any day - go Kels!

Having breakfast at "Remember When Cafe" - to start out our day with full (and I do mean FULL tummies!)

"Hi From Colon!"

Just a Few Quick Pics.....

Had a nice time at Megan's wedding last night, and wanted to post a few pictures of that, as well as my fun lunch with Bren, Jen and M&K this past week! Sorry not much time for news, but we'll be leaving for Chicago shortly...can't wait to see Carol! Love to all.....


Try as we might, we couldn't get little Kels to look up! Aren't these little ones just darling?

Poor Kelseroo! Aunt Jean just HAD to hold her and make her pose for a picture!

All the rest of the pictures are from Megan's wedding last night.....

Can't Wait Til Brenda Gets Back On-Line!

These journals are kind of like one of the things that we'll be making at the "Craft Extravaganza" - cool, huh? I know, it's pretty exciting (at least for Carol and me, ha ha!)....

I don't know about the rest of you, but I really miss Brenda's blogs! (She has not been able to access the internet since last week - thanks, Comcast!) Hopefully she'll get back online soon, because that girl keeps all of us clued in on what's happening - I think Comcast is supposed to get to K/B's house today to correct the problem.

Well, I can't wait for the weekend - CAROL'S COMING! First, our kids come home (yay!) on Friday night to attend Megan's wedding on Saturday. Then, on Sunday we drive back to Chicago, where Carol will already be waiting. We girls will attend the Renegade Craft Fair Sunday afternoon and evening, and Carol & I will be staying overnight. She and I will then return to Michigan on Monday (after checking out Crate & Barrel, Dick Blik and the Paper Source first of course!). We have a few more supplies to pick up for the "craft extravaganza" that will be taking place on Pine Drive throughout the next month or so. To whet your appetites, here are a few of the things we'll be making (hope you can join us for part of the time)!

1. Halloween tags and other goodies

2. Charm bracelets

3. Necklaces made from scrabble tiles and bamboo tiles

4. Journals

5. Collage and altered art

6. Much more.....

I know, pretty amazing (ha ha). We figure we've spent about 20 hours on the phone over the last two weeks figuring things out and finding sites on etsy.com to order supplies from. What a blast. I'm going to try to sell some of the things we make at our booth when Scott and I have one more art fair to attend in October. Other stuff we'll sell on Etsy and other stuff will be just for fun.

Katie went to a really fun event over the weekend in Chicago. It's held throughout the country and it's called "Flutag." She told me that different teams of people try out for this - they make these wild flying contraptions and then see who can fly the farthest - Katie's boss Chris was on one of the teams - their flying machine looked like a pizza - and they actually flew over 100 feet! See below for a crazy "duck" that took a nosedive into Lake Michigan (like I guess most of the machines did). Too fun!

Keep going - Katie sent me some pictures of her boss' team and their pizza contraption!

Just General News.....

Halloween is just around the corner! How about these darling cards from www.etsy.com? Carol and I are nuts about this site. See more below...

Well, Jen's blog postings have been so great to see; so glad all is going well for Jason at his teaching job. The pictures of the girls have been unbelievably cute lately. That little Kelsey is keeping right up with her big sister. How about the pic of Macey feeding her? Those two are going to be great pals growing up, just like the other sets of girls in our family!

Not too much news to share these days. Everyone is doing fine and keeping busy. Katie is enjoying her new apartment and it's so nice that she lives close to Dave & Rachel. Carol will be spending the night there in a couple of weeks - thanks, Katie Kat! Ally got to go the dog beach again on Labor Day. What a lucky pup she is! I don't think there's another dog alive who gets so much love (except for maybe Dolly!).

We'll all be attending my niece Megan's wedding in a couple of weeks (Sat. 9/13) and then I drive to Chicago to attend the Renegade Craft Fair with the girls and Carol. Our "craft extravaganza" will be starting later that week at our house! Ha Ha - we're having tons of fun ordering supplies and thinking of novel things to make. Etsy.com is our favorite website and we've spent hours on the phone telling each other about our favorite new sites that we find there!

I'm sure we'll be planning for our trip, meals, etc. soon, too. Stay tuned for more on that.

Hope the boys are enjoying college and that eveyone's doing well....love to all!