Monday, November 23, 2009

catching up on projects

Things have been so busy lately. We are in the midst of closing our physical shop and, of course, the closing sale is really bringing in the customers. We will run it through the end of the year and then get our new online shop up and running. In the meantime I have been making Christmas ornaments- these are a special order going to North Carolina.

I have also been making some changes at home. I used some of the silk flowers from the shop to make this arrangement. The container is an old aluminum pitcher that I painted and decoupaged a number of years ago. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing that- I might do some pieces for the online shop. We might do some art fairs and farmers markets next year. There are quite a few good local ones. It will give me the opportunity to make cookies, handmade soap, and jams.


These are jars of my raspberry/blueberry jam and some of my bread and butter pickles. I also just finished some cranberry/raspberry jam and candied apple jelly. The candied apple jelly has a hot cinnamon flavor and should work well in thumbprint cookies. With Thanksgiving this week there will be plenty of cooking to do. Then it is cookie baking time!






Thursday, November 5, 2009

Swan Song Pincushions

It has been a somewhat disappointing fall this year if only for the shortness of color. This picture was taken a few weeks ago in October and we were looking forward to many drives in the bluff country along the Mississippi, but weeks of cold and wet(it even snowed a little) caused many of the leaves to drop quickly. We drove down to Maiden Rock to deliver pincushions to Swan Song Gallery and all the trees are bare. It is still beautiful countryside and we saw plenty of eagles, but I miss the color.
These are part of the order we left at the gallery. This is one of our consignment orders so I hope this holiday season the spending is better everywhere than it was last year. Suprisingly, even though today is November 7th the temp. is in the 60's and sunny. Apparently October and November have decided to switch.