Monday, May 23, 2011

Date Night in a Box

A few weeks ago a bunch of women got together for a Relief Society meeting and focused on relationships--those with the Lord, our family, and our spouse. We did speed friending, which was lots of fun, and we also made Date Night in a Box.

What is Date Night in a Box? 

Well, it started out as Date Night in a Can, but the boxes turned out far cheaper, especially when you need 40 or 50 of them, which we did. So the person in charge of the boxes found these cute colorful Chinese take-out style boxes. Tied to the handle, my box has a little poem:

Sweetheart Notes
This little book has a purpose for you, 
It's use should be shared between two.
Simply write a love letter, a poem, or note
To the one you adore, love, and often dote
Then, hide this page for your sweetheart to find
And wait for a reply that will tickle your mind.
Remember, be creative and have fun
You have only tour loved one's heart to be won.

Tied with it are a bunch of black sheets of paper that we can write our notes on.

Inside it gets really fun! A few of us came up with a bunch of ideas for free or inexpensive date night ideas, the most expensive being $24. Some of them require a bit of travel, some encourage you to stay home and take advantage of what you have at your fingertips. All of them will be fun.

So here's what you do:

* Create a list of date ideas. They can be any price range you're comfortable with. 
Make sure that each date has all information needed for that date: location, website, hours, season, etc.

* Print that list, cut it out, and this is where creativity comes to play. 
You can simply fold the pieces of paper, 
do some other creative thing with them (like making fortune cookies out of them using felt and wired ribbon),
or do what I did.
I rolled them up. Then, using my daughter's unused teeny tiny rubber bands that are smaller then my pinkie (probably why they're never used!), I secure them so that they don't unroll. This way they stay nice and tight. You can stop here if you what, but I took it a step further:
I took strips of narrow ribbon about 8 inches long, and tied those around the rubber bands.

* Then I finally decorated my box, and called it done!
All I need now is a date!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Craft fairs

With Spring usually comes Craft Fairs, 
and we crafters always hope for good craft fairs, 
especially to start off the year. 

Saturday's Craft Fair:

It was terribly fun to sit with two friends of mine, and fellow crafters, and share the experience, and the better part of the day. This craft fair was at a school that was on the very extreme edge of town (there was NOTHING south of it). We supported the arts, as this fair was a fund raiser for the marching band. Too bad the marching band didn't show up, at least not that we saw. Live music would have been nice, but what can you do? On the drive to the school we saw no signs advertising the fair, and as a result of the lack of word spreadage (spreadage? is that a word?) There weren't that many people that came in, so most of our business was from other vendors. A few people who had students in the family came in, but not many. I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures yet. I have to get them from my friend, who took pictures for me. I'll add  them in when I get them though.

All in all, a slow craft fair (to the point where some crafters packed up 2 hours early!) but a profitable one. I think I've found a happy combination of items to sell. And through a little bit of variety and a lot of hard (but fun) work, I can make a few dollars to buy more yarn and ribbon, and support my addiction. Oops. Did I write that?

The three of us now have plans for more craft fairs, 
maybe even a major fair later this year, or next. 
It all depends on how things go. 
Here's Hoping!