I have decided that living on an island is not all that bad. Once you accept the fact that there really isn't anyone else there - no one hiding behind a palm tree or nobody living on the other side of the island who wants to sits around the fire with you, it gets to be not so bad. There can be something calming about the oneness of it all - just you and maybe............Wilson.

Gardening - Knees hate it, soul loves it

I have been a gardener for most of my adult life. Every spring (actually it starts in February) I start to think about what I am going to plant, where I am going to plant it and how much of the stuff I planted last year is going to withstand the winter and come forth when the ground begins to warm.

As I age, it gets a little harder every year to crawl around on hands and knees to dig the dirt, pull the weeds and nip the fading blossoms. I am usually full of aches and pains every spring from bending and pulling. But it is worth it. Right now I am eagerly awaiting my lupin (pictured below) to come into full bloom. They really came back in full force this year. This is the most blossoms I have ever had on one plant. Pure Soul Food!



The other bonus in flower gardening is being able to bring all these wonderful scents into the house. My lilacs are just about ready. Can you see that the buds are almost fully opened? In a few days they will be ready to come inside to become eye and nose candy for Grampy and me. And, about the time they are done, my peonies will be ready to take over the "good smell" duties. Pure Soul Food!



In the meantime, while I await the lupin and lilac to reach full bloom, I sooth my soul with the Columbine. Aren't these beautiful? This is only their second year gracing my gardening, but already they are offering me some wonderful sights and hinting at how wonderful they will be in the years to come. Pure Soul Food!

So, the knees will just have to suffer! The back can ache, the nails can be broken and jagged. I need my Soul Food and my garden gives it to me every day!

Bad Granny!

I have been a Bad Granny! It appears that I have not posted anything in my blog for a long, long time. Guess I need to find a good excuse as to why this is so. So - here goes. See if this excuse works for you.

A couple of years ago I purchased a brand new sewing machine. It is a glorious sewing machine! It has bells. It has whistles. It has doodads on it that I still don't know what they doo or dad. But little did I know when I purchased it, brought it home and set it up that the darned thing TALKED!.

Yes! It talks to me. Whenever I start to do something like make a blog entry or check and respond to email it starts talking to me. It is the DEVIL! You should hear it when I try to do something like head for the closet that holds the vacuum!

Ewww! It takes on that low, sultry voice and starts in. "Hey, Baby. Come on over here. Take a seat. I am waiting for you. I have a full bobbin"

And it just goes on and on. "Remember that brand new needle you just gave me? Well, it is here all shiny and new just waiting to caress that new fabric that came in the mail 2 days ago. Yes, I saw that package. I know what it is. Let me push the chair out for you, baby. We have things to do."

So there you have it - that is why I have not posted is such a long time. I think I need to find out where Mr. Sewing Machine's mouth is and cover it with duct tape or something so I can get something done around here!

But it is not all the machine's fault. I guess part of the blame needs to go to that new etsy shop that I started with my daughters at the end of December. You see, we started it because we all had way too much antique and vintage stuff around that we really needed to get rid of. Both my daughter Tracy and I had gobs of vintage jewelry, paper ephemera, sewing patterns and stuff. We thought that this would be a great way to sell some of this stuff - you know - so we could buy more stuff! Well, it has been highly successful! I sold out almost everything I had in very short order. And - of course - I had to buy more so I could sell that too! I love antiqueing, treasure hunting and going to garage sales. Results? No blogging for a long, long time.

I still have my original handmade etsy shop going but right now I am pretty much only selling off already finished items. I have not created any new stuff for the shop for quite some time now. Overall, between the shop and the annual craft sale in Minneapolis, I have sold around 3 thousand needle bags and I am kind of tired of making them. I will be going into a new handmade direction in that shop as soon as a good idea falls out of the sky. I keep looking up but so far - nothing.

Anyway, I will try to be a little more regular in my posting here. I mean, I do muse alot and probably should write some of it down while the mind still sorta functions.

All Packed and Ready To Go!

OK! I am ready! Well, at least as ready as I am going to get. The BIG Craft Sale is tomorrow in Minneapolis. No Coast Craft O Rama actually starts today, but for logistical reasons, I only participate on Saturday.

I have all my junk (I am too modest to say Treasures) packed and ready. Grampy and I are heading up to my daughter's house today and then we are all making the trek from Eau Claire to Minneapolis early tomorrow morning. Grampy serves as the grunt to help with the heavy lifting and my daughter is my sales assistant. I could not do this sale without either of them! I am grateful that they are willing to give up a weekend to indulge my hobby. And I cannot forget the other daughter - she is the co-founder of this successful annual craft sale! If she was not so involved with this sale I doubt I would even make the trip to Minneapolis to participate.

It is with a little mixed emotion that I prepare for this sale. For reasons that I do not want to make public right now, this is probably the last year that I will be taking part in this sale. I think I will really miss the excitement of the event. But I probably will not miss the pressure of getting enough product ready each year to make it worth it for me and my family to to make the trip.

Without the pressure of having to have such a huge stockpile ready, I think I will be more inclined to do some experimenting with new and exciting items to sell at my etsy and my madeitmyself on-line shops. I have wanted to get into some other things that are maybe a little more adventurous and creative but have been reluctant to take the time.

More importantly, however, is that I feel that I never have time to sew for my grandchildren. They are the whole reason I got back into sewing in the first place after a 10-year lapse! So, now perhaps I will have time to sew for them more often AND to keep up with my shops and still have some semblance of a life!

Anyway, wish me luck tomorrow! I will post again to let you know how it all went.

Getting Ready for the Big Craft Sale!

As many of you know, I participate in only one craft sale a year. it is NoCoast Craft O Rama in Minneapolis. Besides being a super wonderful sale, I take part is this one because my daughter is one of the co-founders. She and a group of wonderfully bright and talented gals started up this annual event 4 years ago. It keeps growing and growing and is fast becoming one of the "must do" Holiday events in the Minneapolis area.

My other daughter has always gone with me to be my sales assistant. And believe me - I could not do this without her! The second year of this event I had made us some vendor aprons to keep our money, pens, and other misc. items in during the sale. They worked ok but they were not great. I had just slapped them out with some fabric I had laying around and, other than serving their purpose, they did not have much appeal.

But this year, I am taking it up a notch! I found these great vendor aprons made by MyLittle who has a great shop over at Made it Myself (referenced in my last post). She embroidered my shop name on them. How classy is that!

Here they are. If you need vendor aprons - give this shop a look-see!

Halloween

Wow! This was a great Hallowe'en for Granny and Grampy! We went to visit with our granddaughters and go out Trick or Treating with them. The weather could not have been better! And the kids were out in huge numbers. I mean the streets were loaded with goblins and witches and spidermen and bunny rabbits and all kinds of fun and interesting creatures.

I love going to visit my grandkids at this time of year. They always have the most creative costumes that they put together with the help of their very creative mom. And the people in this small community really go all out. Lots of the grown ups wear costumes, they houses are decked out with some of the most creative and fun decorations I have ever seen!

Here are a few more of the creativeness we saw on Halloween night:

Still Trying to Learn the New Camera

So I got this new camera a while back and am having mixed success in learning all the ins and outs of using it. It is a Canon Rebel. I like it because it is a digital camera but has features that Grampy and I missed when we gave up our 35mm manual camera - the ability to take lots of shots without the delay you get with a digital, having a zoom lens and focusing ability. One of my favorite settings in the "Sports" setting which allows me to just hold the button down and the camera will take about 5 or 6 rapid shots. This is especially useful when trying to get photographs of my grandkids when they are riding their bikes or doing gymnastics.

The above shots are not very good, I admit. I was trying to get some good shots out my patio door of the birds at the feeder. I was trying to catch some in flight using the Sports setting. The lighting wasn't very good and the darned birds were just too quick for me most of the time. I sorta just stood there with the camera aimed at the feeder and was trying to catch some as they were flying in. Unfortunately, they were already landed before I started clicking - bummer!

But, I will keep trying. So along with the pictures I posted some time back of the Red Tailed Hawk that adopted us, I thought I'd post a couple of my not so hot bird pictures here and maybe we can see how I progress as I post some more in the future. Winter should be a good time for getting some great bird shots!