Cyber-Monday FREE Give-Away

Every order placed in my Etsy shop today will receive a FREE ornament with their purchase.

... and each item bought will enter you into my Dec 1st 's give-away. This is a quick one (only lasting today, Dec 1st 2008, and orders already placed today will be retroactively entered into the fun) with a sweet prize: the four ornaments in this picture could be yours!!! The funny thing is these are my "seconds", mostly the bows heated funny, sometimes one loop closes so they hang funny, or they don't hang at all. I am not sure what you will do with them, but I do hope you will enjoy them. Get crafty, hang them or glue them to something... who knows!

so get shopping - each item purchased counts as one entry, and every order will include a free ornament!

Happy Cyber-Monday!

.

Cyber Monday Holiday Shopping

I always loved advent calendars as a kid. And for the record, mine had no candies or toys behind the doors, they were simply little pictures. Mine were flat advent calendars that usually the 24th door would be a big double door with a picture of Jesus behind it. Then when I got a little older we had German foreign exchange students. One of their mother's sent a big metal chest of Christmas treats for us, mostly chocolate and hazelnut stuff, and these fabulous advent calendars that had candies behind the doors. I had known these existed (many of my prep school friends had fancy advent calendars) but this was the first time I had my own. My mother was not impressed with the idea of us having piece of chocolate before breakfast. She preferred to encourage us to embrace the illustrated calendars, some years we would make them ourselves with funny drawings and handcrafted little tear-out doors. And I always LOVED December 1st to eagerly wake up and open the first door of my calendar.

Anyhow - its December 1st - Cyber Monday for you online shoppers.

Later today I am going to do a quick Cyber Monday Giveaway on my blog, stay tuned! (I will post the giveaway opportunity at noon my time, 3pm EST)

By the way, the picture is from SantaCon 2007 - hundreds of drunk Santa Clauses that decend upon Portland for a pub crawl, this particular Santa was giving presents to people who had been naughty, he called himself the "Pro-Naughty Santa".

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday weekend!

.

Vending Makes Me Tired...

This picture was taken around 4:30pm. It was already pitch dark here in Portland. I have some green Christmas lights that I usually string on my booth to keep it festive in the dark afternoon, but I've broken too many of the bulbs and now the strand has finally stopped working.

I really busted my butt to make the booth look good for this weekend. In spite of my car troubles (car is still in the shop, still has a broken transmission), I really tried hard to remain upbeat and happy while vending my artwork. I have been stocking up, and while this weekend was exhausting physically, my inventory held strong and there is still plenty to go around.

I know you want to give mobiles to all your friends and family this year! Right?! It would be my honor to help bring smiles to as many people as possible!! :)

This last picture is my little Christmas tree setup at the market... I thought it looked pretty cute this weekend

Stay Home for Black Friday Shopping !

Oleo the cat liked Thanksgiving this year a lot, until I swatted her away from the bird and told her that turkey was not for kitties!

If you are tempted to stay home and do a little "Black Friday" shopping - go to Etsy! My shop offers FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING on all small purchases. How sweet is that. Why bother with the crowds and lines in stores, with free shipping, I am saving you gas money!! Give everyone you know the gift of smiles for years to come with a little dancing mobile! How 'bout those geeky computer people in your family - give them a computer mobile! They will love the touch of handmade goodness.

For realz. Ditch the car, forget the crazy shopping out in the rain and cold. Go to Etsy. I'll see you there.

If you would like to see more pictures of my Thanksgiving dinner, click here

.

Happy Thanksgiving

"the Founder of the Feast"

by Mary Pellegrini (my Mom)

.

Holiday Season Breathing Exercises

The holiday season is on top of us. I am a bit in disbelief that Thanksgiving is this week...

this time of year means 3 things to a small businessperson like myself:
1. assembly (I have been prepping like mad for weeks, so now I can bury myself in the finer details of package assembly)
2. shipping (the website orders are picking up, the boxes are going out, and of course my favorite stuffer is out of stock, but not to worry - there are plenty of orange LeahGlass.com pencils to go around to all my happy customers!)
3. vending (holiday shows - madness people, madness)

This year you can find me at:
Portland Saturday Market
every weekend until Christmas Eve
Super Crafty Wonderland Holiday Show
Sunday, December 14th from 11am-7pm
Handmade NW at the World Trade Center
Tuesday, December 2nd from 10-6pm


my online shop has been picking up the pace - many wonderful new customers and many of my glass mobiles and other little glass creations going out in the mail. Now that I have no car all of a sudden, I am utilizing my nice post man a little more these days. Its nice that they pick up at the door, and thankfully

Already bought a turkey, pre-brined organic birds at Trader Joes - gotta love TJs. Now I have to get a bunch of root veggies and butter. I am out of butter at the house, whats Thanksgiving dinner without butter! madness I say, madness.

Hope everyone else is having fun this week prepping for the holidays. Usually this weekend is pretty crazy at the Portland Saturday Market. I'm crossing my fingers. This girl has got to buy a car. I am not holding my breath though, I just gotta keep breathing.

Walking Adventures

Today I had an adventure with Portland Public Transportation. Tried out an easy route from my house to my shop using the 33 bus and the yellow line of the Max Train. In a total Leah moment I got off the bus too early (instead of at the train stop like I was supposed to). Moment of confusion, no biggy, I knew where I was, so I just started walking. About a mile down the road I passed a bakery, the amazing Grand Central, and stopped by there for a sandwich... then I ended up at Mississippi and walked all the way down the hill to Interstate (at least another mile) where I picked up the train. How did my route run so amook? I dunno. It took 2 hours to get to my shop. Which usually I could drive to in 15 minutes. But I had a good time! The walk was brilliant and the weather was sun-shiney. I successfully did make it to my shop and back. And I got a bunch of work done. So I can't complain.

I could complain about the fact that my car died last Thursday (the transmission on my perfectly good '99 Rav4 just ate sh*t and now I am facing $$$$ to fix it or donate it for a tax refund and get a new car). The predicament is overwhelming and the reality of the matter is I have no wheels now. My brother let me use his car last weekend to vend at the Saturday Market, and today it was soo nice out and I simply don't have time to shop for a car with all the prep-work for Thanksgiving weekend at the market, I gotta get work done. So public transport was my wheels today - and it was an adventure in many ways. I have been meaning to use my bike and public transport more... so I am taking this opportunity to do so. (and trying to remain calm all the while - what else can I do!)