I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, crafter, and blogger living in rural New England. As seen in Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, and more! | Tutorials, DIY, crafts, parenting tips, recipes, money saving tips, product reviews, local product features, New England living, intentional living, and more! |
This year I was inspired by an old friend from high school - every year she makes themed “stacked characters” out of her family’s gifts. One year it was all Santas, another year all penguins, etc - complete with accessories! I thought it was such a cute idea and wanted to give it a try myself this year, but on a much simpler and smaller scale. So I opted to make each kid their own “present snowman” and they loved it! I think this has just become a yearly tradition in our family as well. | This post contains affiliate links |
To make the snowmen you don’t need to buy anything special - in fact I just used regular Christmas wrapping paper but wrapped the gifts inside-out so the plain white back of the wrapping paper was facing out! I chose 2-3 gifts for each child that stacked well on top of each other and wrapped them, white side facing out. Then I used a sharpie marker and orange colored marker to draw the face and buttons.
Our oldest daughter recently asked for one of our New England Lakeside Baseball Caps of her own so obviously we had to give her one for Christmas! The hat made the perfect finish for her Snowman and she got a huge kick out of it on Christmas morning.
This was such an easy and fun surprise and I hope you’ll give it a try too and make Christmas morning just a little more magical.
So excited to have some of my custom ornaments heading down to ACK 4170, a beautiful gift shop located on the island of Nantucket! They are currently closed for the winter, but in the meantime you can shop their store online and then in-person again when they reopen for the season in April.
I wish I could mail myself down there with the ornaments - I haven’t been to Nantucket (yet) but have always wanted to visit!
I’ve had this plant cloche for awhile and just picked up a little Boston fern for it today. This is a special little corner of our dining room - my grandparents’ candle sticks, a photo from my great-grandparents’ farm, and an old photo of my husband’s grandmother.
As you know by now, I love sharing about companies and products we love on the blog and our Instagram - and most especially those made right here in New England. Next in our series of interviews from New England Makers, we have Glenna Oliver of Away Up North! | This post contains affiliate links |
Tell me a little bit about yourself and your business.
My name is Glenna Oliver and I am married with two grown children, living in the western mountains of Maine. I am the owner and creator of Away up North and enjoy hiking, skiing, camping, and many other outdoor activities that Maine has to offer! At Away Up North I create handmade wool fabric Christmas stockings, decorative pillows, and balsam pillows.
How did you start Away Up North? Had you been making stockings and pillows for awhile or was this a new leap for you?
To me it seems I have always known how to sew and create. When I had children, I made clothes, doll clothing, and quilts. Christmas has always been my favorite time of year to make gifts for family and friends, including Christmas stockings for my family and then stockings for a friend’s antique shop where she started to sell them. After being a stay-at-home Mom for twenty-plus years, I was looking for work when my daughter suggested making and selling Christmas stockings on Etsy - that was seven years ago.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I am an early riser and do have an exercise routine that helps me keep up with all my outdoor interests and also helps me mentally jumpstart my day. I begin with my work day about 9AM and depending on the time of year, I am either prepping and preparing for my busy season (September through early January) or sewing and making inventory. During the busy holiday season I am personalizing and completing stockings as the orders come in. Many days you can also find me working on orders well into the evening hours. During the slower times of the year for my business you can find me enjoying the outdoors where I find the inspiration for so many of my designs.
What is your favorite part about owning your own company? And least favorite part?
I enjoy the flexibility it gives me - I enjoy using my passion to create and also to spend time pursuing my outdoor passions. An unexpected pleasure I have found with the business is watching families grow as returning customers request new stockings to celebrate the new additions in their families (babies, adult children getting married, grandchildren). My least favorite part is the administrative side of the business - keeping the books and keeping track of numbers. I much prefer creating over numbers!
What has been the most exciting moment for Away Up North since you started?
In 2013 I was asked to submit a stocking to Downeast Magazine for their Maine Made Gift Guide. When I received the magazine, I saw my Woodland Bear Christmas Stocking on the front cover! I had no idea it would be on the cover! It was a very exciting moment for me. Since then Away Up North has been in other publications and newspapers, but the Downeast Magazine feature was definitely a highlight for me.
What advice do you have for people just starting out?
Do your research before your begin, but don’t hesitate to take the leap. Surround yourself with resources, not only reading information but good people resources. And always be ready for the “big moment!” No matter how slow it’s going, always create product, always be prepared with photos, samples, and new ideas because you never know when your “big moment” is going to happen.
What is your long-term goal? Where do you see yourself in five years?
To develop year-round pillow designs and possibly DIY kits for the stockings. Eventually I would also like to develop patterns for all my stocking designs.
Who’s one of your favorite New England Makers?
Alana from
A&E Stoneworks! She and her husband Evan make a great product. They make stone cheese boards, coasters, and other products from stone. I love her cheeseboards and her energy! I personally love prodcuts made from stone and natural materials, they compliment the outdoor environment I love and how I enjoy deocrating my own home.
A note from Away Up North: Items ordered after November 29th will ship in early January, 2019 - but there are currently three designs ready-to-ship available on Amazon with Prime Shipping:
Woodland Bear, Woodland Bunny, and
Wolf in the Pines.
DO YOU OWN A NEW ENGLAND-BASED BUSINESS AND WOULD LIKE TO BE FEATURED IN AN UPCOMING INTERVIEW? OR WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN HAVING ME STYLE, REVIEW, AND FEATURE ONE OF YOUR PRODUCTS? Please drop me a note.
New sign design in our Etsy shop! And I think this makes for the third new listing/design in the last week! (I have a been a busy bee, haha.) This farmhouse-inspired "gather" sign would make the perfect finishing touch to any gathering spot in your home! Shop this design and our others at our Etsy shop:
New sign design in our Etsy shop! These distressed CAMP signs are just what you need to bring some rustic charm to your cabin/lakeside retreat or your everyday home. This sign has a hand-painted, antique feel to it and is just what you've been looking for. Shop this sign and more in our Etsy shop:
New sign design in our Etsy shop! This one is for a Custom Last Name Established sign - perfect for a wedding, anniversary, or housewarming gift! This rustic sign is made on a wide grey-stained board with crisp permanent white vinyl lettering. Shop this sign and more in our Etsy shop:
A few months ago, Food Network Magazine emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in designing a New Hampshire-themed egg for their Easter issue! I was completely blown away and honored for the opportunity. My New Hampshire egg design was a gold-dipped, faux birch bark egg - gold-dipped to represent our State House with it's golden dome, and the birch bark paint finish to represent our our state tree, the white birch. Fun Fact: My great-grandfather was a steeplejack and did the gold leaf on the New Hampshire capitol dome back in the 1920's! | This post contains affiliate links |
Creating one of these gold-dipped birch eggs for yourself is pretty simple! Here's the full how-to:
Materials:
faux egg (for the Food Network Magazine example and most of the photos in this how-to, I used an Eggnot, a fake ceramic egg - but you could also use a wooden egg. If you use real hardboiled eggs I would not recommend eating them after painting)
white acrylic paint (if your fake egg isn't already white to begin with)
paper cup
thin paintbrush
tinfoil to make a stand for the egg to dry on
How-to:
1. First, make a tinfoil ring to hold your egg while it dries between steps. Then if your egg isn't already white, paint white and allow to dry between coats. It may need several coats of paint.
2. Next shake the gold acrylic paint well and pour about half an inch of it into a small paper cup. Dip the top of the egg carefully into the cup. (I found it best to to do the gold-dip first, then paint the bark pattern after since sometimes the black lines were visible under the gold-dip.) Gold paint tends to be thick and you may have some swirling or thick drips after dipping. You can try to smooth these out a bit with a paintbrush but it usually looks cleaner if you just leave it as-is, even if you end up with a thick spot within the dip. After the gold dip, carefully place the egg in the tinfoil ring to dry.
3. Once the gold-dip is dry, use a thin paint brush to paint horizontal black lines on the egg, all the way around. Vary the placement and thickness of the lines a bit to mimic the look of birch bark. You may have to carefully hold the egg for a few minutes to let it air dry a bit before carefully setting it, gold top down, into the tinfoil ring to finish drying.
And that's it! While making them can be tedious with the drying time between steps, it's really quite easy. And in the event you don't feel like tackling this project yourself, I have a limited supply of painted Wooden Gold-Dipped Birch Eggs in my Etsy Shop!
