Are you on the fence about coming to Handmade U?

So I have people that see the photos of Handmade U and say - "Wow looks like such a fun time, what a great weekend it looks like you all had!!"  I agree, and say "It was truly such a fabulous time, we have another semester coming up in May, come and join the fun!"  Many times the response then is "oh I'm not an artist, not crafty, I've never learned how to do any of this...."

Ladies, we all start somewhere.

Why not start at Handmade U??

If you've noticed I have had many teachers come through the barn door.  Painting, mixed media, leather cuffs, paper collage, book making, soldering jewelry, doodling, we have covered a lot of crafty/artsy ground.

And you know what??  Not every student had ever soldered, or collaged, or tooled leather, or carved a stamp....some even said they didn't think they'd ever figure out how to carve a stamp for instance...

and you know the funny thing is...they did it, and I heard they even did it again after class!!

So come, don't let your fear or intimidation that your work won't be as good as your neighbors stop you from the joy it could bring you ... if you let go and come for the friendships, the weekend away, the meals someone else will cook for you, the creative process of learning from these amazing teachers, to try something new, you'll open up something within you..I just know you will.

Be vulnerable, be open, be ready for a challenge and some fun!  You might even surprise yourself...

And the one thing I know for sure is true... you'll have a lot of new friends cheering you on!

Come join in!  Your creative side (yes the one you might not even know you had) is asking so very sweetly!!

www.handmadeu.com

Early Bird Pricing for May 12-14, our 10th Semester, ends Oct 31.
-Rach

Handmade U - Semester 8 - Day 3 - Class Time, Wood Fire Oven Pizza and a Fond Farewell Dinner

Hi All -

I'm loving remembering this joy filled weekend!!  Even though I might have been a little crazy busy during the weekend, I enjoyed every moment with these students!!

Saturday morning we started by finishing the little birdies and plaque with Melody.  The painting and collaging really added to the personality of each little birdie.


All the beautiful work from the students!



I hope they grace a special place in each of your homes!!

While everyone worked to finish their projects in the morning we had an Oven Fire Pizza making machine come set-up for lunch!




















Even in the brisk weather and drizzle they braved the elements to FEED us!  So grateful!

Thanks to Rolling Fire Company for bringing in lunch and cranking out those pizzas!  Did you know those ovens get to over 800 degrees??  After a day of cooling off they can still cook a chicken in it??  Wow, HOT!

The pizzas were super tasty!  They were also very accommodating for our gals who were gluten free, even egg and corn free along with a few other things....


Judy was able to eat pizza after not having it for years!!  Yay!

After having our fill of pizzas that kept being delivered into the barn, we finished up Melody's fun project and I provided my Handmade U Barn stitching project to everyone that was ready...

I gave a few stitching lessons to those who were embroidering for their FIRST time!! How exciting!

Though this project wasn't going to be completed in an afternoon, I was so excited to see everyone get started with a stitch or two!  We have been sharing on our FB group and instagram the progress.  I'll do an update blog post when I get more finished project photos to share.  I love seeing how differently all the gals are choosing to stitch their project!

I put together a little "self-published" {aka copied and sewn} book together of my favorite basic stitches.  I hope it helped the newbies!!

One of the gals favorite gifts of the weekend was the amazing Quilted Red Barn needle keeper that my Mom created for each student, personalized and all!

After everyone finished their projects and started wrapping up the gals either went back to freshen up at their hotel, or even snuck in some extra shopping....

Dinner was at Lazlo's in downtown Lincoln in an area called the Haymarket.  I had chosen kebabs, steak or chicken, and salads.  Such good food, and great service.



We had our own special room which was away from the crowded restaurant, so it was relaxing and private to share one last meal together and my thanks to the group!!



We even had an impromptu photo shoot at the end of the evening...



Thanks to Melody Ross for being such a wonderful teacher, and impromptu helper - given I was a little behind due to being under the weather the few days before HU.  She was a trooper and I can't thank her enough!



Thanks too to all the Sponsors, I will be doing a special blog post coming up on the Sponsors, they make HU even more FUN!!  Who doesn't love a goodie bag?!

Thanks to all the 'peaters this semester!!  The 1-peaters or the 2, 3, 4 or 5-peaters!!  I loved having you at the Homestead, I hope you enjoyed it!!

Ya'll come back now ya hear?

-Rach

Handmade U Semester 8! Spring 2015 - Welcome Night

Hi All!!

How have you been?!?  Things have been crazy here.  Crazy.  I paged through my older posts and there is so much I haven't shared!!  I need to catch you up.  I do.  I promise I will.


First things first.  Spring Semester of Handmade U.  Wow.  Every single semester just keeps getting better.  I think wow, I love these students, I want these students back EVERY single semester....then of course some can't make it all the time, some come nearly every time, and then we have a new Freshmen (1-peater) class and WOW, I am in love with this new community each semester.

Where do I start??

Thursday night is always WELCOME night with introductions, hugs to old friends and new, goodie bags - full of amazing sponsor goodies, a Cook-Out by the Handmade U Grill Master himself, Jim McGough, and VENDOR NIGHT!


The weather held out pretty well our first and second day....Saturday brought in a little rain, but the new windows in the barn helped keep it a bit warmer!  Note to self.....next year Spring semester will be in May!!!



Vendor night is an opportunity for anyone that attends HU to bring their handmade wares to sell to the other students.

After dinner all the vendors headed up to the Red Barn loft to set up shop!  The rest of the gals waited anxiously downstairs getting ready to shop till they drop!



I rang the big bell at the top of one of the cupola's to let them know the shops were OPEN!!


{Thanks to Melody Ross for all the super cool chalk art on my chalkboards!}

I had screen-printed posters made of last year's t-shirt design as well as this year's design.  They were sold for $12 a poster...I have some left in stock if you would like one send me an email!



This semester Barb from Thoughtful Images Ink and Heidi from Simply Bungalow, the adorable shop in Lincoln were both sponsors and though they didn't attend the weekend Barb joined us for vendor night and brought both of their fun things for us to shop through!



Shopping and chatting.....



Nicole made these fun etched glass mason jars!



Jennifer from the Turquoise Tomato of course brought her fun leather cuffs!



And much more!!!

I love to include a special dessert for Welcome Night....this year were tasty Caramel Apple Cupcakes from Goldenrod Pastries Bakery in Lincoln!

What a fun first night.  More adventure, crafting and bonding to come.....stay tuned for the rest of the weekend!!

Note: We are over half full for the FALL SEMESTER!!  If you are interested in joining us with Lorraine Bell and Rae Missigman please sign up now over HERE!!

Hugs,

Rach

Handmade U Semester Seven - Welcome Night and Day 1 of Classes

When we started looking for property outside of town we kept our eye out for a home that would allow us to host Handmade U on site.  No more hotel conference rooms, no more schlepping supplies and decorations down and having a small window to hang things up, and no more concern about whether the tape would hold things up on the walls - and no more Hotel lunches and dinners!  YEA!

Well it was kinda hard not to envision some amazing Handmade U craft weekends in this barn when we saw it.  The loft was gorgeous on its own, and with a few lights, banners, and tables we could be in craft weekend heaven.

Fast forward to moving into our new home July 19th.  We decided a Fall Semester could be possible, it would be tight, a lot of work needed to be done, but we had faith we could find the help we needed and we did.

This is what we came up with....

Thanks to my husband for #1 supporting all the work that was done on the barn to get prepared for Handmade U, #2 tirelessly shopping with me at all the local antique malls and piling all these tables in the trailer to bring up to the loft, #3 feeding us all weekend and cleaning up!

Thanks to my Mom for sewing all of these fun oilcloth banners and making all the gift bags for the girls, and thanks to my Dad for helping hang up all of the banners, and especially for power-washing all the floors to get ready and helping with moving the furniture!

Also thanks to the amazing group of women that came from all over the US to be our guinea pigs for the 1st Handmade U in the Red Art Barn.  We had many "peaters" come back again to be 2-peaters, 3-peaters, even 7-peaters (meaning they've been to EVERY SEMESTER!).  We had our freshmen too, and I always love that the freshmen fall right into the classes just like the 'peaters!

Welcome Night

Thursday evening is our welcome night.  The girls started arriving around 6pm.

 There was a chill in the air, but pretty comfortable to be outside for a grill-out.  Omaha Steak Burgers and Grilled Chicken were on the menu thanks to Grill-master Jim.

We had a special guest Thursday night for dinner, Declan, he is a 1-peater now!

After dinner we set up an enjoyed Vendor night.  All the girls that come to Handmade U are encouraged to bring goodies to sell, whether it be vintage supplies or handmade items like jewelry or journals.  We had quite a bit of fun stuff to choose from.

Thanks to Michelle Geller for the below shot of some of the girls getting their first glance up at the loft ceiling.

Everyone was welcomed into the barn with a personalized Swag bag full of fun sponsor treats along with the official Handmade U t-shirt.

My talented Mom made the below bags with a picture of the barn on the front for everyone.  

Class Day 1

I got up early to set up the tables for my half day class.  I taught a few fun techniques to marble paper. We were able to use some of what we made in our journals with Michelle on Day 2 of classes.

The flowers were picked early that morning from around our house, the mini pumpkins were a must since it was October, and a water mug with their names on them.

As everyone arrived we had Jim take our group photo before he went off to work.  Fridays are Handmade U T-shirt days.  These t-shirts are my favorite of any semester, though I love our logo ones, these are so SOFT!  I got a couple extras, and a sweatshirt...let's just say I wear them a lot around the homestead.

What a fun group of ladies!

I rang the big bell atop of the barn to start class...it is a cool bell....I'll have to share the pics of our carpenter and the 40 foot ladder he used to get it unstuck the week before....but that's for another time.

Class was in session.  

 

The first technique is my favorite, and super easy.  We used shaving cream and food coloring.  The kit I provided included all different types of papers and tags to marble.  

The ladies enjoyed this one, we got a little inky, but it's food coloring and washed out easily.  This technique is fun with your kids, and a couple school teachers in the room were thinking of teaching it to their kids.  Jayne did it with her grandkids a few weeks ago!  Fun for the whole family!

Jennifer was really having fun!

Proof of good times....

Papers laid out to dry we used the paper marbling inks you can buy at Dick Blicks as well as Sumi Black Ink to try a couple other techniques as well.

With our papers marbled we moved on to lunch next door at our local restaurant.  The meal was light and beautifully presented.  The salad was made with our apples which was a surprise, they tasted delicious.

Michelle and Jan

Kim and Jennifer

Me and Jayne

Julie and I took a glance outside at the neighbors' lake.

We then went shopping.  After semesters where I didn't really have shopping time built in, but we always squeezed it in here or there, I learned and made time for it!  We stopped at the first antique mall, it's a nice one, some would say the perfect one since it had a bar in it for snacks and drinks for those who finished shopping as others shopped on!

We stopped at one other antique mall, lots of fun was had and special finds made.  Back to the homestead we went to get ready for our Cream Can Dinner.

We had hoped for a nice fall night to sit outside by our new firepit and cook smore's but Nebraska weather wasn't our friend as Friday evening came so did the chillier weather.  We decided it'd be best to eat in the loft at the tables.  We enjoyed standing near the burners for a little warmth while the dinner cooked.  

A Cream Can dinner is made in the old cans as you see below.  You line them with corn cobs, still with husks on.... (thanks to our farmer neighbor who brought the last of his sweet corn over in a bucket earlier in the day - how's that for friendly!)  Then you add sausages, brats, potatoes, carrots and some purple cabbage, fill it up with beer and steam away!  It is good, so yummy.

If we make a small Cream Can we typically dump it out on some newspapers on the picnic table, but since we were eating in the barn, the big galvanized tub worked great lined with some brown paper.

We all ate the warm meal heartily. I heated up some apple cider as well made from the trees right outside of the barn.  It was a fun night.

The girls went back to Lincoln to their hotel with a quick stop at the local Lincoln Makers Market that is on the First Friday of every month.

I sat outside by the fire with Jim to wind the evening down.  Michelle was busy with her class set up....wait until you see my next post on what she had to come!

-Rach