Messina Hof

Thanks everyone who stopped by my booth today at Messina Hof. I hope you all had a good time at the festival. For those of you I missed at the Farmers Market, I will be back May 8th with some new wax melt fragrances. Today I debuted black raspberry vanilla as well as a few new fragrances of body sprays.

NeoGem Magnets

My magnets have continued to be popular at the Farmers Market. Today, I introduced some new styles. First, for Teacher Appreciation Day on May 4th, I had several sets of teacher themed magnets like this one.


I also had a couple sets of beautiful spring/garden themed magnets.


All my magnets are made with a strong neodymium magnet that will stick any paper or photo firmly to a metal surface.

New line of Room Fragrance Products!

I'm excited to announce my new line of room fragrance products. I have had them at the Farmers Market for a couple of weeks, but haven't managed to get pictures up yet. I am now making my own line of wax melts. I use my own unique blend of wax that is mostly soy. Soy wax has a low melting point and therefore is super easy to clean up. It melts in hot tap water. I have had a lot of fun trying out the different fragrances, pouring the melts and designing labels.

I also have room fragrances and reed diffusers.

March Blog Train

Grab my contribution to the Shine On... Blog Train here! Be sure to continue on to the next designer at http://scrapsillysara.blogspot.com/. Most posts will be up on March 1st, so check back if they are not there yet. The main blog is here.

Glass and Bottlecap Pendants!

My marble magnets have been so popular at the Farmers Market that I decided to expand my line of paper decor to include glass tile and bottlecap pendants. Here are a couple pictures of what I've made so far. I will soon be getting them listed in my Etsy shop--after I get back from a much needed vacation!

Fun Printable Mazes

My husband likes to make mazes for our kids to do when they need to sit quietly. He just finished a set of three and offered to let me post them on my blog in case anyone else wants to give them a try. These mazes are a bit non-traditional in that there are words, pictures, math equations, etc that when you reach them, you can "jump" to the item that corresponds to it. For example, the one below has sets of objects and numbers that correspond to them. Feel free to print these mazes for your own personal use. They are in PDF form. If you like them and want to share, please link to this post. Also, my husband would appreciate any comments on how well these mazes are enjoyed--are they too easy, too hard, confusing? Download them here. Enjoy!

Kitchen Greenhouse

Not exactly a craft, but definitely an art--which I'm still trying to get figured out...

It's seed-starting time and this year I'm excited about my indoor setup. Last year, my seedlings were tucked away on a table in the corner of my bedroom with a few UV lights and they got a little neglected. I also tried to skimp and had bought cheap soil. Not sure how much of a roll that played in the demise of dozens of tomato seedlings, but I decided not to take any chances. This year, I purchased a huge bag of good potting soil and planted four flats of seeds--that's 144 seedlings. :) Some are landscaping plants, some are vegetables. We plan to actually put some effort into landscaping our front yard this year and I'll grow as many vegetable plants as I have room for in the back. The remaining plants will go with me to the Farmers Market where they will hopefully find some good homes.

In order to give my indoor starts adequate lighting, I have used work lamps with cool spectrum UV bulbs. This year, since I had so many flats, I either needed more work lamps, or something more heavy duty. I ended up going for an actual flourescent light fixture that uses 4 foot T4 bulbs. My husband built me a great stand to hang it from and now I've got a nice lighting setup for my indoor greenhouse. I still use the work lamps to sort of "spotlight" a few areas. Ideally, I would hang a second light fixture next to the first--maybe next season.


For anyone wanting to start seedlings indoors, I buy the florescent bulbs that are labeled as "cool." I think some call them "daylight." The important part is you want one that is 6700K. This is a blue light which promotes plant growth. A lower number is a warmer light, which promotes flowering and fruiting. I was able to get my light fixture and two bulbs for $20 at Walmart.

My kids helped me plant the seeds--which was a little chaotic at times when my two-year-old wanted to help, but I am glad they are learning at a young age the love of gardening. My husband and I both grew up with parents who gardened so we never really discuss if we should garden, just where we should try to squeeze it in. It is also fun to use this as a teaching opportunity to discuss with my kids the needs of plants. Lately, most of our discussions are all about not over watering. :)