Beyond The Picket Fence: Cabinet First Aid

I love this Blog!!!  I was actually looking at the cabinet she built to go under the first aid cabinet.  Such a simple design, cute and functional.  I think I could actually make this one!  Enjoy!

New Craft Pictures

I guess it's about time for me to show off some of my crafts!  I'm not making as many of the funny barn wood signs, but all sorts of cute stuff out of barbed wire.

This is a large personalized wall or door sign.

These are a huge hit.  These are 15" and I make them 20" also.

A lot of my items start from a request of a customer for something different.

Spring Break Houston Livestock Show

Spring break Houston Livestock Show was fantastic!!!  As expected, the pig gets sick a week before the show and drops 15 pounds.  We get him recovered and were lucky that his weight was at the maximum for the medium weight class.  Houston is filled with sift after sift, but Brady (my 3rd son) was waved straight to the ring with his pig.  The cheers rang out through the barn from friends and teachers who were also there.  They place ten, he was either 11th or 12th which is awesome.  The reason he didn't place higher?  One of the judges noticed the pig would swing a leg differently every once in a while.  That is how competitive this huge show is.  This is Brady's first year to breed, raise, and show his own pigs and he did VERY well in two major shows with two of those pigs in spite of all the obstacles he had to overcome.   We were tickled pink!!!!  Now, we start all over again.

Venues for Buying and Selling Crafts Online Comparison

I was just searching the internet to see if there might be another website other than Ebay to sell my crafts.  I found this great website I thought I'd share with everyone!  It's called Craftdom and not only has a detailed list of venues, but all sorts of other informative craft news and tips.

The Hazards of Working with Power Tools

I've had a couple of unfortunate accidents in the last few months!!  In November, I hit a hard knot with the circular saw and the saw "lurched" back so hard I couldn't control it.  It went right across my left hand that was holding the board.  The Dr. stitched it up so well, you can't tell at all and he actually extended my lifeline.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a  brand new table saw!  The wind was blowing extremely hard, and the guard flipped up and didn't come back down.  Just turning to push the OFF switch and the wind caught me and the very tip of my ring finger on my left hand went right under the guard.  I'm not including a picture of that one because it was just gross looking.  I don't know how, but it heeled up fairly well too.  I'll have to send the ER doctor a really nice Thank You card!

I didn't post this to gross everybody out.  JUST BE CAREFUL!, especially if you are unfamiliar with a power tool.  I was following all the safety rules and still had two potentially life changing accidents.  They say not to wear gloves when you are working with power tools, but that is exactly what kept these cuts from being MUCH worse.  They are leather and I get the child sized large gloves so that they really fit.

Livestock Show 2013

The County Livestock Show went REALLY well this year!!  I'm so proud of my 15 year old who is breeding and raising his own show pigs.  One of his pigs won Reserve Champion of the breed and brought over $1000 dollars at auction!!! He was soooo excited because he'd been diligently saving for a truck and that put him over the top.
They took one pig to San Antonio for a show and one day before they left, the pig got sick and lost over 15 lbs. Guess what the judge whispered in my sons ear as they cut his pig from the ring.  The pig's composition was great, her just needed some more mass (weight).  That was disappointing, but he got quite of bit of interest from people wanting to buy from next years litter.  One more show to go.  We're going to Houston in March.

New Informative Pages!!!

Finally just set my mind to it and got a couple of pages made with information about how to choose the right kind of barbed wire for your craft project and about how to care for your barbed wire project once it's finished.  I tried to keep it short, but full of things you need to know.  Check them out!!!

How to choose barbed wire for craft projects

How to care for vintage and antique barbed wire

They should also be listed in the right hand side of this page.

Our Virginia Vacation!

I wanted to say, "We're off to see the wizard!", but we went to see my niece get married in Virginia.  We stayed with my older brother and his wife for a week.  The entire family got to go, including Dad, who unfortunately was taking the pictures and not in them.  It only took us 21 hours to drive there, one way.  We have a Chevy Traverse, but decided to buy a small trailer to haul all the extra stuff.  One of the best investments we ever made!!

We're half way back home now and I can't wait to get there so I can get some rest!

More Barn Wood Crafts!

Been a while since I've showed off some of my new stuff, so here goes!!!

I make these simple country rustic picture frames is all sizes, from a 4" x 5" to a 16" x 20".

These are a couple of new shelves I made.  Even something this small is a challenge to get half way level.  The picture is crooked, so it's actually a cute little shelf.

The simpler, the better, I say!

I'm all of five foot tall and maybe 115 lbs.  It's hard for people to imagine me with a circular saw, goggles, ear plugs, and saw dust all over, but here's the proof that I actually do look like a really small "Tool Time" guy sometimes!

I don't make anything much bigger than this little side table because I don't have the skills to make this old warped wood come out level!

Feeling Old!!!

My oldest son graduated from High School last Friday Night!!!  Don't know whether to laugh or cry.  He's got Asperger's Syndrome and graduated just one year behind!!!  It's been a long hard road, but I'm proud of him!!!!  You Did It!!!

Yes, he's over a foot taller than I am.

My second oldest boy, just got his driver's permit and the third oldest boy is just a few weeks from getting his.  By the way, if you haven't read my profile, my husband and I have 5 wonderful adopted children.

Notice the Name Change!

I fully intend to update this blog more often!  I recently had to close one of my sites because it was getting to be more than I could handle.  That's a good thing!  I also opened a store on Ebay because of all the sells and traffic I am getting there.  Another change you might have noticed is the name I use for my business.  It's just one of those "Key Word" things.  Now that I've downsized to were I can schedule my time a bit better, I hope to make this a more informative site!

I'm excited to announce a bit late that inside that old 1917 barn that was destroyed, I have found at least 6 different types of antique barbed wire!  Not just a few feet either!  I've began to sell a lot of it on Ebay, but if someone wanted to special order through Paypal, they can contact me at anevapeirce@yahoo.com.  It's a little bit cheaper because there are no Ebay fees.  I'm also going to create a separate page with pictures and information for that if you are interested.

Down on the Farm. Livestock Show 2012.

My 14 and 15 year old sons are getting a taste of raising animals through FFA in High School.  This year they decided to raise pigs.  My 4-H days came back to haunt me!! I raised pigs for 3 years and the one that did me in would run away as soon as he was out of the pen.  My 14 year old had a similar pig this year except his was at least funny.  His pig thought he was a dog and when you went to show her, she would run around, roll in the dirt, and try to get the other pigs to play with her.  Needless to say, she irritated the judge and she placed fourth out of six in her class.  My 15 year old had a GREAT pig, but 1 1/2 weeks before the show, he came up lame.  The judge didn't give him last place even though he was visibly limping and actually stated he could have at least placed 2nd had it not been injured.  BUMMER!!  I'm proud of them because even though both boys had some trials with their animals, they both stuck with it!  Lesson Learned!

Hope Everyone Had a GREAT Holiday Season!

Of course, the other reason I haven't posted for a while, is the Holiday Season, and trying to keep up with a blooming business.  I'm glad I started earlier in the year and had gotten the hang of things, and had a "kind of" routine to follow.  When all was said and done, I only sent one package to the wrong address, but the lady was so gracious as to let me know and then send it back.  Don't you wish everyone was so honest and helpful!  I did have one picture frame get lost in the mail, but it finally showed up 4 weeks later, torn to pieces.  I really don't know how they were able to tear it up so bad with all the reinforcements I put in the packaging, but they found a way.  All in all, made some money and some friends.  Had a little fustration, but a lot of fun and a great Holiday Season!

Congratulations to my Nephew!!! 2nd in the State of Texas isn't bad!

One of the many reasons I haven't posted in a while, is the fact that my "little" brother's son's football team (The Cisco Lobos) made it all the way to the State Championship game with my nephew (Reid #75) as a starter on the offensive line.  We had the opportunity to go to the Dallas Cowboys stadium just a week before Christmas.  My husband got to be down on the sidelines as their photographer.  It was soooo cool!!!  And they lost by ONE point!  They were just crushed for a couple of days until they started realizing how huge Texas is, and how they were #2 team by only one point.  Anyway, my nephew has gotten some good college offers since then.  I just wanted him to know how proud we are of him!!!!!  I'll try to get my husband to send me some of the pictures he took, so I can post them here.  If you're really curious, you can search his sight at http://www.Peircephotography.com.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just thought I'd take a few minutes out of the Thanksgiving holiday to say THANKS to all those on the internet all around the world who've helped me in SOOOO many ways!  I am very thankful for the kindness of strangers!  It makes my heart glad when I see that people are still willing to lend a helping hand, just because it's the right thing to do.

On another note, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving day this year.  I'm ready for some birthday shopping!  I still refuse to do Black Friday!  It's just no worth it to me.

Everybody be safe driving to and from Grandmother's house!

Whirlwind Couple of Weeks!

It's been a while since I've been able to post!  It seems that sales seem to hit me in waves.  I'll go one week where I'll sell a few items, and then the next week, get hit with 2 - 3 times as many.  Anyway, that's a good thing, right!?  Besides shipping everything out, now I have to make more merchandise so I have something to list.  I think I've about caught up.  This week is one of those easy weeks, thank goodness!  I've had to give up on Webstore.  I just didn't have the time to tweak it.  You'll have to decide whether the sites good for you or not.  I'll try to post again this week.

Aneva

An interesting bit of history on the 1917 barn!

I've been doing some research, trying to find out more on the history of our old barn and found some interesting, but contradictory information.  I was told that when the original house was built, the barn was already here, but, now I know that the house, barn, and livestock pens were all part of a housing deal around the Great Depression.  The size of the house, barn, and pens, depended on family size, so the original family that lived here, must have been huge!  The construction date is still 1917, and that doesn't seem to make sense, but I'm still looking for the exact "Law" or "Act" that funded this housing project.  Keep you updated when I find new facts.

Update on auction site! Learning as I Go!

I'm still on a venture as far as finding out what works best for my products, and eventually that's what you'll have to do also.  My crafts can sell great on Ebay, but you might have better luck on Webstore.  My information is based on the selling of mostly barn wood crafts, western jewelry and country decor.  Lately, I've been a bit disappointed in Webstore, but it may be because I'm not working it as hard as I am Ebay.  I've recently posted a few items on Yardsellr.com, to see if I have a market there.  I'm getting tired of being nickle and dimed to death with fees!  Just an update, I'll keep you posted.  I have increased my sales on Artfire.com with just some simple tweets.  I drug my feet and refused to tweet because I thought it was so trivial, but it does get your items more views and that is the only reason I use Twitter.

We're Back!!!!

We've been back for a couple of days.  It just takes me a couple of days to catch up on orders and house work.  Had a wonderful time! We went to DFW, TX, saw some friends and went to Church on Sunday.  Then, we slept late, did next to nothing, ate, took a nap, ate, and went to bed.  Repeat three times!  Except the last night before we went to bed, we went to see "Rise of the planet of the apes!" (I know, how romantic!) and then topped it off with some New York style cheese cake with strawberry topping and it was soooooo good, we took a piece back to the room with CHOCOLATE topping.  OH! I almost forgot!  my husband bought me a laptop computer of my own for our anniversary.  He's a sports photographer with his own website and we were always struggling to get all our "computering" done.  So, the laptop is his present also.