You better watch out because...

Come back this Monday Dec. 3rd to see our new 2012 handmade holiday ornament collection.

Love Young House Love!

I know this isn't a DIY blog, but boy do I love to follow DIY blogs. One of my all time favorites is Young House Love. I can't remember exactly how I came across it, but it has been at least a few years that I have been following the blogging husband and wife team, Sherry & John from Virginia. I just love reading about their DIY projects and being inspired to try a few of my own. Their following has grown and they recently published a book of DIY ideas to inspire others. If that wasn't enough, they are on a book tour! Paul and I were lucky enough to go to the book launch that our local West Elm was having. And yes, over the past year or so I've made Paul read many of YHL posts, and he's come to enjoy them as much as I have. So he was excited to meet them also. I was probably one of the few people who DIDN'T preorder the book, so I was looking forward to getting my hands on a copy.

And my mom was excited to come over and babysit the kids for us, so it was a WIN WIN situation -we couldn't pass up this chance.

The event was on Wednesday Nov. 7, and if you're from New England you know that we were in for a major Nor'Easter storm, and boy was it a doozy! We thought that it might be cancelled, but we called and thankfully it was still on. We made our way in to town for the event not knowing what to expect. The event was scheduled for 6-8. We arrived at 5 and there was already a huge line! Thankfully the line was inside because outside the storm bearing down on the city. The West Elm staff did a wonderful job of organizing this event. They had servers passing around hot cocoa and yummy cookies.

At around 6pm John and Sherry got to their seats and the line started to move, albeit very slowly. But we didn't mind, because we knew they were chatting it up with everyone and taking pictures. Earlier in the week we were tossing around the idea of bringing them some of our ornaments as a gift. Since we're so close to Thanksgiving, we thought our very popular Turkey ornaments would be perfect! We packaged them up carefully so it could make the trip back to Virginia with them.

By the time it was our turn to meet them it was almost 7:30. We were nervous, but they were so warm and personable. We got a picture with them and presented them with our gift... they were so thankful!

So despite the horrible New England snow storm, it was a great event and we love the book and we love Young House Love!! I would suggest to anyone wanting some great DIY inspiration to follow their blog and go out and get their book!


Disclosure: We weren't paid or asked to review or talk about the book, this is just something that we LOVE here at Swirly!

Craft show LOVE!

Images from the our craft show at the Wellesley Marketplace Nov 17, 2012

Well we surivied our craft show over the weekend. Hooray!! We kicked off the start of our Craft show appearences this past Saturday and ending on Dec 8 and 9th at the SOWA holiday show. I know it doesn't seem like a lot shows, but for us these shows take a lot out of us. It seems like we are always scrambling up to the last minute, making sure we have everything we need and constantly second guessing every decision we make. We were working on only three hours of sleep and then we were on our feet for seven hours.

You might ask "Then why do you do it??" ... well the answers is so simple...
We do this because of YOU, our Swirly fans! You guys are the best! When those doors opened at 9am and the people came flowing in you always make sure your first stop is our booth. WOW! It   reassures us how truly blessed we are to be able to create what we love and have you treasure and enjoy them as much as we do. We loved hearing the stories from many of you on why you were buying an ornament. One woman was buying a patriotic ornament for her son-in-law who just became a US citizen and a Dad and his kids came by and let them each pick out a special ornament - it was great to see them choose an Easter and Halloween ornament! Someone even told us they drove two hours, then got lost, just to come see us. In the spirit of Thanksgiving this week, we just wanted to say THANK YOU for appreciating us and what we create here at Swirly.

Here are a few shots we were able to take during that crazy day for anyone who wasn't able to make it. Don't fret if you missed it, our Christmas collection we be launched online Monday, December 3rd.

Have a great Monday!

Christmas Collection update

Clay Tip: Scissors & Clay

Clay Tip: 
When working with clay you can create so much with a pair of inexpensive scissors. We use the scalloped scissors in so many of our clay ornaments to create borders, feathers for our mini turkeys and to make holiday pine cones.

Craft show season is here....

Hello~ We are busy working on our new Holiday collection and getting ready for some upcoming craft shows this weekend. Our first show to kick off the holiday season is coming up on Saturday, Nov 17th the 36th Annual Wellesley Marketplace.   If you are in the area on Saturday please stop by and say hi and do a little early Christmas shopping.  It's a really fun show.
Enjoy your weekend!

Be sure to join our mailing list for updates and launch info about our new 2012 Holiday ornament collection. You can also like us on facebook and chat with other Swirly fans:)