Upcoming Omaha Craft Fair Events

I realized after talking to all the wonderful vendors who attended my craft fair on Saturday (thanks again everyone!!) that there isn't always a lot of communication about craft fairs. So, I took some time to put together a small list of events that I knew about through other vendors or acquaintances, etc.

Here they are:

· Nov. 4^th at St Joan of Arc Church. Contact person is Clarice Murnan 402.203.4121 .$35 . Set-up begins at 3pm and the show is 5-9pm

· November 11th to November 13^th. Heartland Women’s Expo. Grand Island. Held at the Heartland Event Center/Fonner Park Complex. Scheduled to run from Thursday, November 11, through Saturday, November 13. The hours the show will be open to the public are 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and then 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is $5. More information is available at www.HeartlandWomensExpo.com

· Nov. 20^th at Ironwood Country Club, 126^th and Pacific in Omaha. Contact person is Diane Vacek at (402) 515-1759, dhv798@yahoo.com . $50 for 8ft table. Setup begins at 7am, show runs from 9am to 3pm.

· Nov. 20^th at St Matthews Church in Bellevue. Contact person is Roxanne 402.990.2964.

· Nov. 27^th at Millard South H.S. Booster Club Craft Show. Runs 9am to 4pm. No contact info.

· Dec. 3 & 4 at Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs. Contact is Callahan Promotions, Inc 563.652.4529. Show runs Friday 3-9pm and Saturday 9am – 5pm.

· Dec. 4th at the Sarpy County YMCA in Papillion. It is the Strong Kids Craft Fair. Contact person is Liz 402.339.9861 stop in to the Sarpy YMCA just south of 72 & Cornhusker to get a vendor packet or more information.$30 registration fee = 10'x10' space with table and 2 chairs, additional $10 for electricity.

· Dec. 4^th at Westside Conference Center. Christmas Gift & Craft Fair. Location 3534 S. 108th Street, Omaha. No Contact info.

· Dec. 4^th at Benson High School. Winter Boutique. Location: 5120 Maple Street. Event Hours: 9:00 am -- 4:00 pm. Contact Phone: 402-573-9012.

· Dec. 11&12 at the Old Market in Omaha, Holiday Craft Faire. Contact person is Heidi Walz, hwalz@vgagroup.com . $375 is the cheapest table space, and it is mostly full. Show runs 10am-7pm on Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday.

I also have an email list of great Etsy and non-Etsy vendors in the area that like to keep informed about craft fairs. If you want to join it, send me your email through my contact form at: http://www.javajesspublishing.com

Thanks! I won't be attending all of these, but will be attending the Ironwood Boutique. :)

Want to win a $100 Gift Card? Come to the craft fair!

That's right - the craft fair, that I have been going on and on about, includes a raffle prize that is a $100 gift card to Restaurants.com, donated by ME!!! There will be a whole lot of other prizes as well, and plenty of chances to win!

We have lots of great vendors too - jewelry vendors, quilters, homemade salsa and pickles, crocheted items, handspun yarn, Tupperware, soup mixes (with FREE samples!!), handmade cards, fused glass, tshirts, handmade wooden tables, stained glass, hula hoops, and so much more!!!

There's going to be a fully stocked snack bar too, with sandwiches and baked goodies and even big dill pickles!

The craft fair will be this Saturday, October 23rd, from 10am to 2pm at Mt. Calvary Lutheran School, 5529 Leavenworth St, Omaha, 68106. I really hope to see you all there! :)

Craft Fair THIS WEEKEND!!

That's right - we will be running (and participating in) our first craft fair on Saturday! We hope that any of you who are local will please stop by the fair. There will be a BIG raffle, there's free parking and free admission, and we have over 25 vendors participating!! Most of the vendors are great Omaha area Etsy artists. :)

And in case you missed it originally, here are ten reasons why you should come to our craft fair on Saturday, October 23rd from 10am to 2pm at Mt. Calvary Lutheran School at 5529 Leavenworth St in Omaha, NE:

1) 10% of proceeds from sales goes to support a local small school and help keep it open!
2) It has FREE admission!
3) There will be a fully loaded snack bar!
4) There's a raffle with lots of great prizes!
5) You can get your holiday shopping done early!
6) Shop a variety of products, including jewelry, paintings, quilts, t-shirts, cork crafts, crocheted items, stained glass, and even hula hoops!
7) FREE parking!
8) Great way to support local small businesses!
9) It is family-friendly and free entertainment for your kids!
10) Because JAVA JESS PUBLISHING will be there!!! :)

We hope to see you all there!

Fiverr and a Review - Got Bad Credit?

So, you all know that I love to introduce you to new ways you can make money online, or build your business for cheap/free. Recently I discovered the following site called Fiverr, and was blown away by how totally cool it is! :) I know that I will be using it to build my business, and I can pay for it by adding my own gigs that I will do for $5.

But this review isn't actually on Fiverr - I already had someone contact me to earn $5 for reviewing their business and giving it some love here on the blog! :)

Without further ado, I would like to introduce you to Wonga.com.

Wonga.com is a really neat company geared towards those who live in England, though I'm sure they get applicants from other places as well. It's a lending company that considers applicants who have bad credit (note: bad credit does not mean bad debt) and gives out loans to help them with what they need. It's a way for folks who maybe had problems in the past but are now doing fine to get a loan without having their bad credit get in the way.

As an example, when I first got married my credit score went down quite a bit due to my husband's bad credit. He was in the military, and had been missing credit card payments whenever he got sent overseas (which was often, because he was in satellite communications). Since then, we have been able to build up our credit quite a bit, but at first we had a hard time getting any kind of loan or financing due to the bad credit history. With Wonga, we probably would have been able to get a loan that we needed despite the previous history of bad credit!!

Cool, right?

So for any of you that are interested, here is the website one more time: http://www.wonga.com/money/bad-credit/ .

Check them out today!

Ten Reasons You Should Attend the Support Our School Craft Fair!

There's a fun craft fair coming up on Saturday, October 23rd from 10am to 2pm at Mt. Calvary Lutheran School at 5529 Leavenworth St in Omaha, NE!! Here are ten reasons why you should attend:
1) 10% of proceeds from sales goes to support a local small school and help keep it open!
2) It has FREE admission!
3) There will be a fully loaded snack bar!
4) There's a raffle with lots of great prizes!
5) You can get your holiday shopping done early!
6) Shop a variety of products, including jewelry, paintings, quilts, t-shirts, cork crafts, crocheted items, stained glass, and even hula hoops!
7) FREE parking!
8) Great way to support local small businesses!
9) It is family-friendly and free entertainment for your kids!
10) Because JAVA JESS PUBLISHING will be there!!! :)

We hope to see you all there!

Omaha Craft Fair - Come Support a School!!

Java Jess Publishing and several other great vendors will be participating in a fun craft fair on Saturday, October 23rd from 10am to 2pm!

The event will be held at Mt. Calvary Lutheran School at 5529 Leavenworth St in Omaha, NE and 10 % of the vendor's sales proceeds will be donated to the school to help cover expenses.

There will be a variety of vendors, a full snack bar, and even a door prize raffle! Plus, there's no admission fee!

Come get your holiday shopping done early and help support a local small school at the same time! :) For more details, or to register as a vendor, please visit: http://www.soscraftfair.weebly.com .

Hope to see you there!

The Gluten Free "Unza", or Un-Runza

Before I begin, I'm not affiliated with Runza nor do I want to get sued by them. However, when trying to eat gluten-free, you often have to take your favorite foods and modify them in order to ever get to have them again. So, I love you Runza restaurant and I still think your food is soooo AWESOME! :) If you ever have a gluten-free Runza sandwich and other gluten-free offerings, I'd be there in a heartbeat!

That being said, for those of you who aren't aware of what a Runza is, here is their website: http://www.runza.com/ . It's basically like a bierock, except better. I have no other way to describe it! lol. I grew up on these and miss them tremendously, along with Runza fries and onion rings because they are better than any other fast food restaurant... but sadly, I really can't order anything from Runza because they don't have gluten free options. Maybe someday. So, if you don't have a Gluten allergy and live in an area that has a Runza, go buy theirs first!! Even if you don't live in the area but have family or friends that do, you can actually order Runzas in bulk, frozen, and then have them bring the sandwiches out to you or figure out how to ship them to you.

Otherwise, if you have a gluten allergy or aren't able to go get a real Runza, then this is for you. I did a little research on various recipes for Runzas on the internet, and combined them along with my own ideas as to what would work to create an AWESOME gluten free runza-like sandwich!

My Gluten Free "Un"za:

Ingredients:
1 bag of cole slaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots)
2 lbs of ground beef
1 onion, diced
Salt and Pepper to Taste
1 tsp Olive oil
Pamela's Gluten Free Bread Mix and Flour Blend
6 packages of Chebe Gluten Free Pizza Crusts, thawed
Cooking Spray
Butter (if desired)

Brown the hamburger over medium heat in a large saucepan with the diced onion until no longer pink, seasoned lightly with some salt and pepper. Drain the grease and return the pan to the heat. Add the bagged cabbage mix and 1 tsp olive oil and cook until the cabbage is soft and slightly translucent. Set aside.
Meanwhile, prepare a surface (I use a cutting board, but you could use wax paper or a cookie sheet) with a medium pile of Pamela's mix. Also preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put out a large baking pan/cookie sheet, 12X14 or larger if possible so you only have to do one batch, and sprinkle it with some Pamela's and spray with a cooking spray. Flour your hands with the Pamela's, then remove the Chebe crusts from their packages *Note: they will be extremely sticky, so you may need to re-flour your hands often to get all of the dough out*. Place the dough onto the pile of Pamelas, then roll into a large ball. Flour your hands, then remove a fist-sized amount from the large ball. Flatten that smaller ball on the floured surface to desired thickness *Note: if you go too thin, it will just break when you try to wrap it around the filling, so you have to keep it fairly thick*.
Place desired amount of filling into the center of your flattened circle of dough, then carefully bring up the edges to form a pocket and pinch them to seal *think hot pocket, or Runza if you have seen one before)*. Take this filled sandwich and place it seal-side down on the baking pan/sheet. Repeat until you have used all the dough and filling.
If desired, brush some melted butter over the top of each sandwich. Place the filled pan in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or so, depending on the size of your sandwiches.

Enjoy! :)

This recipe makes a whole lot of filling, so if you want to make smaller amount of servings just use fewer Chebe crusts and freeze any leftover filling. You can then thaw it and reheat it later for other batches!!
I like the pizza crust taste, but it's not as similar to original Runzas as the Chebe sandwich buns would be, so feel free to switch it up and see what you like best. You can also add a slice of cheese inside each circle before adding the filling to make the Runza with cheese variety. Or, you can top them with cheese when they come up, which is what my husband does!