Weekend Wrap-up

So I turned what started as a bad weekend into a good one. My vending job did not go as well as...well, it was the worst. So Saturday I played hooky and spent the day exploring Kernersville, NC with Adam. We checked out the K-ville Indie Flea which was very cool. I knocked out a couple of Christmas presents there. I'm hoping to find a free Saturday in the next month or two to go out and set up my own table. Then we walked around the Honey Bee Festival. The weather was beautiful. Adam really enjoyed watching the iron works demonstration while I browsed the booths.
Tonight we wrapped it up by getting some end of summer chores done. We made pesto and cooked some eggplant to freeze for making baba ganoush when we need an appetizer for entertaining friends. I also tried my hand at making homemade crackers. This recipe comes from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I think they are going to be tasty and they were very easy and economical. I think we'll have fun experimenting with different herbs and seasonings on these. Tonight I just did a basic sprinkling of sea salt, wheat berries, and flax seeds.
In crafting news, well, I hope there's no where but up from here. I got a lot of encouragement from friends and then found this in my in-box tonight. This local blogger put one of my pendants in her weekly etsy treasury. Click here to check out her blog, especially if you're in the Triad area - she's got lots of info on the local scene!

Labor Day at Grove Vineyards

Took me a whole week to get to posting this. It's very hard to fit five days into four and I've been exhausted. I'm spending this weekend recovering!
So last weekend I did a craft show at Grove Vineyards and Winery in Gibsonville, NC. Crafts and spending the weekend on a farm of sorts? That's my kind of business! It was a beautiful weekend!Here is some of the vines. We were invited to pick and eat what we wanted. All of us vendors decided that "Niagara" was our favorite grape. They make a wine by the same name that's as good as the fruit. It had sort of a pear and pineapple taste to it. Needless to say, a bottle came home with me and I'll be looking for a vine for my garden!

Of course, the activities including shopping the great selection of arts and crafts. And tasting wine. They also had grape stomping contests that were fun to watch!

Starting Over

I've been hibernating for sure. Even from the internet. However, I seem to be coming out of it. Tomorrow is the first day of September. Of course that means we have a few more weeks until the first day of fall, and here in the Carolina's it will be summer still for every bit of it. But tomorrow marks the beginning of the end.
Here's a run down of the season. The very ambitious garden did not do so well. It was so hot that even if I had spent more time out there, it probably wouldn't have helped much. I spent some time out there tonight pulling up squash vines that never produced and digging up the very few potatoes that grew. The craft shows have not been profitable at all the last couple months. My table is still full of half finished projects, projects never started, and some projects have just been forgotten completely. The house is still a mess, sometimes feeling like it's going to come down around me. It feels too full so I've slowly been trying to sort through our stuff. No major house projects got done this summer either. I spent this last evening of the month having my first meeting with a personal trainer who confirmed that I'm more out of shape than I even imagined (take note people - just because you're thinner at 30 than you were in high school doesn't mean you're in better shape! Apparently my non-office job doesn't help much either. Our health is more important than fitting into our "skinny" jeans!). And looming farther out on the horizon is Adam graduating this semester and looking for jobs. While we would like to stay put a couple more years, we don't know if that will be possible.
This all sounds kind of negative doesn't it? Very much like causes for stress. But tonight I'm not feeling the stress, I'm seeing the opportunities. This is the last day of the last fully summer month. Tomorrow starts a month that will see us into a new season. I'm seeing a new season for myself as well. I see a more restful period for the garden, maybe only growing a few potted vegetables this fall and focusing more on tidying up (I figure that if I plant a full fall garden, that will insure that we have to move). I see me getting through sorting out the rest of the house and getting a few things done. I see a better craft show season as people start preparing for the holidays. I see proving to myself and the personal trainer that I can get in better shape and enjoying all the benefits of better health. I see employment and location questions finally being answered, and see the celebration we'll have when Adam graduates (I'm so proud of him!).
We shouldn't wish time away for sure, but neither should we stop looking forward to what comes next. And I think (and wish and try) we should wake up every day and "start over". Put yesterday down and see what we can do today. So tomorrow when I wake up, I'll be ready to tackle the day!

Weatherspoon Art Museum

Last night we went to the Weatherspoon Art Museum on UNCG's campus. It's been a long while since we've stopped in. The Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids exhibit is currently on display and was pretty interesting. One of the things I read was that Warhol liked to keep a camera with him in order to create a "visual diary" of his life. I wonder if he would have been a blogger?
My favorite exhibit on display right now is Arnold Mesches: The FBI Files. I'm in love with collages. These are particularly interesting because apparently Mesches was under surveillance for many, many years for his involvement in the communist party and other related activities. He finally received 760 pages of the FBI files under the Freedom of Information act, most of them with the information blacked out. He then made these into his collages. It was interesting to find that we wanted to try to read the works as much as we looked at them.

What To Do On A Sunday Night

We are wild and crazy. You never know what we'll do next. How about wrapping myself in duct tape? I've been wanting a dress form for awhile now. I had seen the articles on how to make your own with duct tape but that seemed like such a hassle. I was hoping to find a vintage one in good shape at a good price but was starting to get impatient after combing Ebay for months. I had moved my cursor several times over the "add to cart" button on Joann's Fabrics website. Ultimately I just couldn't bring myself to spend the money without trying the homemade method first. After all, it's about living simply right? Plus it seemed logical that this way would be even more true to my form than even the adjustable dress forms. So Adam picked up the duct tape yesterday and last night set to covering his wife in it. I have to say he did a great job and really put his artistic and technical mind to it! We used this Etsy tutorial and WikiHow article as guidelines. I still have to stuff the dress form now and I think I might "dress" it up a bit. I'll share when I get it finished.

Today's Garden Visitor

You are very welcome here! Eat bugs, have babies, live long and free.

Shopping Week Pt. Deux

Goodness, has a week already gone by? Where was I? The rest of my shopping adventures...Last Saturday I stopped by Lost In Time Antique Mall in Winston-Salem. So far this is my favorite antique mall in the area. My finds included a wicker stand painted robin's egg blue. I used it as a display the next day at the Solstice Festival - so cute!I also couldn't resist this old Brownie scouts handbook. I never was a girl scout or anything (I don't remember having the desire to) but it's one of those things that I wish now I had done. I liked the illustrations that went along with the activities in the book.











I also found some neat vintage trim to use in projects.

I finished the day with a trip to Sew Original to finally pick out my birthday gift (thanks Mama!). I love getting new fabric but it does mean adding to my stack of projects to get done! The first one is (hopefully!) going to be the dress in the top left corner of the pattern picture. The fabrics in the second picture are going to be a couple summer tops.

Shopping Week Pt.1

Not a good thing for my wallet but I've visited a couple interesting shops and found some neat stuff! I'll split it up into a few posts considering that I'm supposed to be getting ready for the Summer Solstice Festival tomorrow!
Last weekend I spent a day with the gals in Raleigh. We went to Father and Son Antiques, my new favorite store. This place has all kinds of stuff from furniture to clothes to dishes and toys. I found a vintage cafeteria tray and a loteria game. I must have been in a southwest kind of mood after hearing about my friends' trip to Sante Fe. They were so sweet to bring me the beautiful pot holder (Chickens and coffee in one item? Awesome!), some hologram Jesus stickers, and chocolate in the shape of a pepper! (Chocolate not shown in the picture because, of course, we ate it!)
Hope everyone enjoys the longest day of sunshine tomorrow! If you're in the area, be sure to come out to the Summer Solstice Festival!!!

What's for Dinner?

I rarely get all Betty Crocker when I'm home by myself for dinner, or anytime really. Cooking is something that I wish I could learn to enjoy. But tonight I was trying to fix something semi-healthy with what I had. Egg sandwich, broccoli and carrots, and a black berry smoothie for dessert. Not bad! I think I have one more small serving of broccoli before the plants are all done. These are the secondary heads after I cut the first ones back. They went to flower during an early spring heat wave before we could eat them.
We're getting quite a few blackberries from our few canes. I couldn't stand to put the bird netting on them after last year- we caught more birds than we kept out! While picking the blackberries, I noticed a spider web on the top of one of the canes. Then I realized that it was filled with hundreds of baby spiders!!! The little white specks in the photo are the spiders.

What's blooming!

Just wanted to share a few pictures of the garden before we're off to the beach! Not much to share vegetable-wise as I got started pretty late but I'm sure we'll make up for it later. But the blooms are everywhere now, including the hydrangeas which hadn't bloomed in the last 2 summers we've lived here. I think they heard me threaten to dig them up this year!

New Aquisitions

Sometimes fate has a way of making sure what needs done gets done. After groaning to myself last night that I needed to keep up better with my blog, I pulled the troublesome muscle in my neck again. So here I am, typing about the only thing I can muster to do. And do I will!
I wanted to share a couple vintage jewels I've come across this last month. The first I found at Liberty Antiques Festival. It's a 1963 Huffy Sportsman made in England. It's in good condition. All it needs to get rolling is new tires and the kick stand tightened up. It has front and back brakes, and a light that's powered by a small generator on the back wheel (still not sure if that's working yet).And it's red! And it has a place to attach a basket! Here's the catch - I have no idea why I needed it. I haven't been on a bicycle since about 20 years ago! I am looking forward to riding it though so here's hoping that it's true what they say about riding a bicycle!The other find was again at Wild n Crazy Vintage. I've been wanting a kitchen scale for a long time and found this one while browsing the store on Lee St. in Greensboro. It has lists on both sides of items to pick up at the grocery store. There are tabs that (used to) slide up and down to point at particular items. I was sold when I read the small print at the bottom that gave the copyright as 1948. It will go great in our 1947 house!

The Shindig is Almost Here!

I am so excited about this! Arts and crafts, vintage, music, food and beer?! What a great afternoon! I've been working really hard to have some new beachy, summery pendants and a few more wall hangings made with children's book illustrations. So cute! Come and see them for yourself! For more info go to http://mischiefmakers816.blogspot.com/.

Earth Day

I set up my wares last week at the Earth Day Festival in Center City Park, sponsored by Sustainable Greensboro. What a great time! I met lots of new friends, caught up with lots of old friends, and enjoyed a snack from Zen Cat Bakery (best brownie ever!) and my favorite Tea Hugger beverage. Good day! I hope everyone had a great and green week last week!

Ode to Spring

There's something about this time of year that makes me want to live more simply.

That makes me want to wear holey jeans and rubber garden shoes as a daily uniform.

That makes me want to hang the clothes on the line intead of throwing them in the dryer.


That makes me want to plant more vegetables (peas, onions and garlic).

That makes me want to play in the dirt (Beulah taking a dust bath),


look at the flowers (didn't intend on getting azaleas at the Farmer's Market this morning but have you ever seen such a deep red on one?),



and feed the birds (the house finch Ella's babies in the vine on our front porch - I'm really going to miss them when they all fly away).

That makes me want to spend more time in the kitchen making homemade cookies, pizza, and coleslaw (thanks to our friends who surprised us with a present of cabbage!).

How has spring fever got you?

Happy Easter!

These are the new babies! No, I didn't plan on getting chicks for Easter. Our silkie started sitting a few weeks ago and stopped laying. Adam tried to bar her from her nest to trick her out of it but she wouldn't stop. Okay, we're down one hen, maybe we should let her experience motherhood. My chicken mentor, John, brought me some fertilized eggs last week to give to her to sit on. That same day she stopped sitting and has lost all interest apparently. So yesterday we drove to the Southern States a couple towns over and got these two chicks. We had to get two because there were two different kinds of chicks, however, we didn't see the flaw in that reasoning when we changed our minds and got the last two Rhode Island Reds. We're actually hoping one's a rooster this time but I have a feeling that will just lead to two hens!

The First Friday Indie Market was great! I love meeting all the great new people and catching up with ones I've met before. It feels like a party! This was my first market sporting my new banner made by Red Canary. Mama and I added the border. Still needs a little work but I'm really excited to have it up!

It's That Time Again!

Come out and see me and a whole lot of other local artists! You won't be disappointed - it's my favorite place to shop! That's this Friday!

Welcome Spring!

I think it kind of snuck up on me this year. I always know that January and February are going to be rough months for me so this year I told myself to stay busy and don't think about it. And then I look up and wow! We've been very busy getting ready for a new season. The warm season veggies have been planted under the grow light in the dining room. We pulled up the last of the fall carrots in order to plant our peas, onions and garlic. We also have broccoli, potatoes, and brussel sprouts planted. We hit the farmer's market this morning and I bought a few artichoke plants to try (again). In fact, that was the only green I bought. In a room full of vegetables I pick out baklava, baked goods (I think I'm in love with a French woman) and dog treats for my doggie-nephew. I'm pleased. I've yet to hit that spring garden panic that usually comes every year when I have fifty pages of a to-do list. I'm actually feeling pretty zen even though it's gardening season, my first craft show is next Friday, and I'm getting the spring cleaning itch for the inside of the house. Let's hope it lasts!
In chicken news, the girls got a new run built for them a few weeks ago so now they have their own yard. We kind of hated to do it but they were destroying the garden and leaving the whole yard a mess, not mention a couple of escape attempts (well, one succeeded, right?). We spend a lot of time sitting outdoors when it's warm and figure they can have field trips outside of the run on those days. The silkie has decided that she wants to sit. We weren't planning on any chicks until we went to the feed and seed today and saw the babies. Now we're thinking about it. It just might be easier than trying to trick her off her nest!

I'm In Love!

After the excitement of my article coming out yesterday in the News and Record Go Triad, I decided to celebrate with a little shopping. I went to visit my Indie Market friend, Susan, at her shop Wild N' Crazy Vintage. Okay, I was also procrastinating on the piles of work to do, but it's Friday night, right? Anyway, I LOVE this store! Why am I collecting vintage patterns to sew when I can go there and find the greatest dresses? After having Susan take no less than ten to the dressing room for me, I finally picked out these four (I was cheering when one didn't fit because they were all so beautiful, I needed something else to make up my mind).
I love the girl scoutish look of this one. I wish I could find that Etsy seller again who made the scout badges for grown ups!I love the big buttons on this one. It's easy, breezy and I can't wait to wear to the beach!
This one is a little dressier but oh, that blue!
I'm not usually a "pink" girl but this rose color with the tan is really nice. I think it'll work for multiple seasons. However, I think it's the lines of the dress that really get me.
And can you tell what season I was dreaming of while shopping? I'll give you a hint. They're all short sleeved.