Friday, November 1, 2013

A Recap of Handmade U - Fall 2013 The Prep and Vendor Night!


Hi Friends,

I am so missing the magical weekend we had in Omaha at Handmade U - Fifth Semester!  This Fall we had two amazing teachers that truly blessed us with not only their talents but their kind and generous hearts.

The class of students were also a wonderful bunch of ladies!!  Every semester it just gets better and better!

The days leading up to the event I had a blast putting together some handmade goodies for the ladies.  I always enlist the expertise of my Mom, Sara Velder of AcornRidge Quilting for a fun giveaway for each lady.  We like to personalize them for each student so they can take a piece of the weekend home with them and use it forever!  I would say my Mom outdid herself this year!  These fall inspired totes had each ladies' name embroidered in the middle block....you'll see mine in upcoming pics!


As I was unveiling my new line of Handmade U beaded bracelets (found on etsy HERE more bracelets to be added soon!), I needed some cute packaging...that's half the fun of buying Handmade isn't it??  I purchased a very cool stamp of my Handmade U logo from the super sweet owner of etsy store Brown Pigeon.

I thought it looked so cute on these little bags!


Fall makes me think of warm fabrics, oranges, blacks, fun textures, etc.  I started to work on a fun Handmade U Banner out of Burlap and this cool Chevron fabric!!  Wait to see the results!  I loved getting my sewing machine warmed back up!


After lots of inspiration from surfing Pinterest I decided to make all the afternoon snacks myself! (Follow me HERE) Using a Hotel is handy for space and lodging, but the food is just OK....so we had only lunches at the hotel, but dinners we went out on the town, and snacks I brought in myself!


And please check out this cute little bear my Dad carved for me....our little Handmade U Mascot!



Who doesn't love rice krispy bars?!?  How about ones that look like candy corn?!


Now these Pumpkin Molasses cookies were a HUGE Hit...They were nice and soft and so tasty!  Oh the smell was so FALL!  Recipe was found in the Matthew Mead Halloween Edition!  Thanks Matthew!


After baking and creating all the snacks on Thursday Morning, I headed downtown to the hotel to set up the Art Room!


Thanks to Mollie for coming down to hang out and help put goodies together with me.  Also to all the other students that wandered in to say hi and ended up making tissue flowers to hang ;)

We started the night at the Nosh wine bar across the street from the hotel.  We shared Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Brushetta, Flatbreads and fun!

After getting to know everyone and we went back over to the hotel and had our Vendor Night and Dessert!  



I rolled out my new Handmade U line of beaded bracelets!  All were one of a kind, except the Fall Only Handmade U bracelet that was pre-order only!  It is hard not to want to keep them all!  

Shop for your own Handmade U Beaded Bracelet! Shop open and more bracelets to be added soon HERE!  Bracelets will be added continuously!



Mollie brought her amazing ephemera loot that she collects and finds at antique fairs, and shops! Love her cute apron!


Stephanie Ackerman (one of our teachers!) brought one of a kind pieces of artwork, little art cards, bookmarks, notebooks, hand-carved stamps and more!  I picked up a few pieces!  I'll share what I am doing with my items soon!



Jennifer rolled out her new The Turquoise Tomato Leather Cuffs!  They are so cute, I love my JOY cuff and my HAPPY one!  Check her out HERE.  


Michelle had another amazing selection of all her goodies from Hold Dear.  Michelle is an amazing ephemera MAGNET!  Find her on Instagram to watch for her amazing finds!  Did you catch that I think she is Amazing?!  She is.


Lexi Grenzer , our second super talented artist teacher had an amazingly cute table of lots of beautiful necklaces and cuffs.  I was so overwhelmed with wanting them all I lost focus and didn't take a picture of the table!!!  I did however go home with these two pretties!  One gifted to me by the generous artist, and one purchased!

Love them!




Nothing like shopping and eating a cute cupcake for Dessert!  I believe this is another Matthew Mead idea!  Aren't these cute little clementines I found?? Adorable!  Chocolate Ganache topping, chocolate cookie crumbles, and parsley on top!

Stephanie served up seconds!!


Great start to our weekend of FUN!!!!

Stop by again to see Day 1 with Stephanie Ackerman, and Day 2 with Lexi Grenzer!

Hugs,
Rach

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