Snapshots of Thanksgiving

Cory and I are lucky that our parents practically live on the same road. It makes holiday traveling so easy and stress free. We are so lucky, because I know a lot of couples who have to make hard decisions when it comes to where they will be spending their holidays. We started our day at my mom's house for a small dinner, just me and Cory; my brother, Stephen; my aunt Susie; and Mom & Gene--my step dad. After we had a few hours of laughs and conversation, we headed over to Cory's aunt's house, about 30 minutes away. Today I will be joining my maternal family (all 35 of us) for a big feast at my aunt's house. I love how the fall and winter holidays linger for days. 

Here are a few snapshots of our Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving be it alone, with family, or with friends. Feel free to tell me about it in the comments--I love a good story!

xo,
Liz

P.S. Check back at 6pm EST tonight for the first post in a new series: Deck the Halls!

Black Friday // Thanksgiving Weekend Sale

I have a lot to be thankful for this year: my family, my friends, my health, and my readers & customers. For that reason, I want to give as much back as I can.

On top of giving away a FREE pair of coordinating fingerless gloves with EVERY cowl, I am also offering 15% off all purchases. Use the code BLACKFRIDAY to claim your discount!

(Discount code will be active until Sunday!)

I wish you the happiest of Thanksgiving. Take care and soak it all in. :)

xo,

Liz

How do you wear your Donna's?

Since the beginning of fall I have had the pleasure of seeing random people in my community (and online!) wear their Donna's Decembers merchandise! So cool! Here are two lovely ladies sporting their drawstring cowls!

Bri in a Grass Drawstring Cowl 

Katie in a Navy Drawstring Cowl.

Would you like to be featured wearing your Donna's merchandise? Email me your photo at donnasdecembers(at)gmail(dot)com!

Also, don't forget if you order ANY cowl between now and December 1st you will automatically receive a FREE pair of coordinating fingerless gloves! woo hoo!

Hope you have a great Tuesday!

My Craft Show Set Up

Now that I'm finished with all my autumn craft shows, I wanted to share with you a few of my set-ups. I never really set up my merchandise the same way each time, so it's fun to get some photos of what it looks like and compare & contrast.

Show #1: the East Street Jewelry & Wearables Show

At this show I had a few winter accessories, but focused more on home goods (ie: pillows) and jewelry. This was the second year I participated in this local show and I hope to participate again!

Show #2: Catoctin Colorfest

This is a 2-day show in the mountains of Frederick County. It's one of the biggest craft shows on the east coast (100,000+ customers!). I couldn't crochet fast enough to keep up with the demand. These photos are from the very first day; the second day had much less inventory, but I tried my best to crochet while I provided customer assistance! As you can tell, I focused way more on winter wears even though it was a stifling 80 degrees both days. 

 Show #3: 2hands Indie Craft Market in Severna Park, MD.

This show was my favorite of the season! Such enjoyable and chic customers. I sold out of nearly every item I took, which was a first! Craziness! You'll see that I only sold winter wears and only had one table. Because of that, I limited my inventory to 5 items: button cowls, drawstring cowls, puff cowls, and neckwarmer cowls. I didn't even have room for my bust on the table!

Show #4: My Picture-less show. 

This past Friday evening I set up a table at a local elementary school for their holiday bizarre. I totally forgot to snap a picture, but just like the Indie Craft Market, I only sold winter wears.

Show #5: Liberty High School Fall Craft Show

This show is pretty cool because it supports a local high school band. I'm always down for helping out students and schools! I was so lucky because my good friend Lisa came to visit this weekend and she helped me all day at this show. It was great to have the extra hands and customer service! This show has 2 parts-- a spring show in March and a fall show in November. I participated in both this year and have already reserved my spot for next year, too!

So, what do you think!? I know a lot of the photos are low res and poor quality--but that's a droid for ya. 

Did you participate or attend any autumn craft shows? Where/when? Which tables were the most impressive? What caught your eye?

If you didn't catch me at a craft show, you can bet your bottom dollar all these items are available for you at my etsy shop. 

Just a reminder--we guarantee Christmas delivery for ALL items if purchased by December 1st!

(There is still a good chance if you order after December 1st that you'll get it by Christmas, as we ship first class priority mail--but you know how it is.)

Fingerless Gloves Promotion!

Just in time for the Christmas delivery deadline, I'm offering a pretty awesome deal.

For every cowl you order through Donna's Decembers, I will toss in a pair of coordinating handmade fingerless gloves! Yep! Absolutely free and no discount code required-- it's just a little thank you for supporting my shop in 2011! 

This offer will expire on December 1st, 

so get your shop on!

xo,

Liz

A little weekend action

Aside from participating in two craft shows this weekend, I found a little time to hangout with my BFF who was visiting from New York City. We had a good time checking out a new restaurant downtown, The Wine Kitchen and looking through old photo albums (yes, I still put together photo albums and I L.O.V.E. them). I had the best time hanging out with Lisa--it was so great getting girl time right before the holidays!

I also received my new earrings from the Bellwether Shop! I'm wearing them right now and specifically picked out an outfit to wear them with tomorrow ;). They're really light weight and the perfect amount of color for my autumn wardrobe :)

How was your weekend?

...No More Silence...

The blog has been pretty quite around here since the beginning of October since I began my autumn craft show season. Life has been pretty busy with teaching full-time and stitching on the side. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty sleep deprived; today was the first time I had hung out with Cory's family in nearly a month, PLUS I found 20 minutes to give myself a mani/pedi once we were home. I know it seems minor, but the fact that I'm not pushing myself to the metaphorical limit, trying to bust out one more cowl, is pretty awesome.

But let's be serious. It's not the end of the holiday rush, by any means. I am still updating the inventory at the two shops where I consign my wears. If you're local in Maryland and want to give some Donna's for the upcoming holiday season, feel free to swing by The Muse in downtown Frederick or Love & Glitter in downtown Ellicott City. Both shops are adorable handmade stores and feature so many wonderful and talented artists! I'm also pretty busy keeping up with Etsy orders, which is so exciting! I really love the entire process of Etsy: getting the order, ensuring the order is perfect, gift wrapping it, and shipping it. 

So, it's been a yarny-good time in my neck of the woods, and I'm appreciative that my friends, my family, and most importantly, my husband, believe that it's totally cool to crochet while I eat dinner or while we're hanging out at a weekend barbecue. Without the patience and support, I would have never survived the last few months.

Now, just to prove that I haven't been living inside a ball of yarn and have actually been keeping myself social, I wanted to share with you some photo highlights...

Top Row: I have been really inspired by late-turning leaves in Maryland. Granted, there aren't many left, but I'm really loving a lot of the reds I'm seeing.

Middle Row: A student bought me a can of Peace Tea to try out. Raspberry! Yum! This is also a little peek at my desk at school... notice the colorful post-its and fancy Office Space-esque red stapler!

I thrifted this mug back at the end of September with some really awesome skirts--I think I paid a quarter for it and am in total love with the design. The color scheme is perfect. I try to drink out of it at least once a weekend since it makes me so happy :). Also, you'll see the blankets in the background--we've been using them a ton to keep warm this winter!

This is a good photo of our friends' condo in Reston, VA...they're big color people... every room is a different color, and some rooms, like this one, are two colors! Crazy! :)

Bottom Row: I love homemade sun-dried tomato & spinach quiche. It's my favorite winter snack and I usually make it once a month. Do you have any great quiche recipes? I'm always looking for new recipes to try out! 

As mentioned, I made it outside at my friends bbq for about 10 minutes before I went back inside to watch football and crochet. 

A sneak peak of new product... announcement coming soon :)

Thanks for stopping by! I promise I'll be back soon ;)