Christmas in the Country

I'm slowly getting my energy back after spending 4 long days selling scarves at the Christmas In The Country craft show. A few of you asked what craft Chris and I sell so I thought I'd show you.

We went out to Hamburg, below Buffalo last Wednesday to set up the booth. It's a 4.5 hour trip from where we live. Thursday and Friday are very long days starting at 10AM and ending at 9PM. Saturday and Sunday are better hours, 9AM until 6PM Saturday and 10Am until 5PM on Sunday, but they're very busy, which is good. Standing around at a craft show is not good! People come by the busload to this show, from all over the Buffalo area and beyond, even Canada, which is not far away.

Friday was a busy day too but there was a snow storm on Thursday afternoon which put a damper on the crowds. After that very nasty storm Buffalo had a few weeks ago people are wary. There are still huge piles of branches by the curbs waiting to be taken away. It was the same heavy wet snow, but luckily it only lasted a few hours and then melted.

Chris owns the business and I help her. We've been doing this together for at least 12 years now. I look a bit like a drunken sailor in this photo :) The photographer who had a booth opposite us very obligingly took the photo with my camera. He had the most amazing wildlife shots, taken with a film camera. No digital for him yet, but he's converting next year.



This is our booth set up for the Springtime in the Country show which we did back in April.



Here you can see a few of the fabrics up close. The scarf is a unique design which is copyrighted by Chris. A loop is sewn into the end of the neck edge and then fabric is pulled through the loop to form a bow. There are at least 12 variations so the scarf can be worn different ways.



People can see the colors matched with tops and jackets on
display around the edges of the booth. This also helps them to decide what outfit they might want to put a scarf with. Have you ever tried to think of what's in your closet when you're shopping and trying to match an accessory? Most people draw a blank.

When that happens we suggest they think of the colors they wear most and then select something that will match those colors, rather than try to pick out something specific in their wardrobe.

There are some lovely vibrant colors, and some softer...lots to choose from, and they're all washable. Am I sounding like a salesperson? Sorry!



Here's Chris at the spring show in Hamburg



And here she is at Letchworth on Columbus Day weekend, which of course was an outdoor show

The one thing I dislike about sending the pictures to the blog using Picasa and Hello is that I often receive comments before I'm finished editing the post and adding dialogue. I just received a nice comment in my inbox from Motherkitty. She says she's surprised we weren't wearing scarves. We don't usually have the scarves on since we're continually demonstrating how to use them. I guess we weren't thinking very well that late in the day or we would've put one on for the picture :)

We'll be off to visit our son and his family this weekend as it's our oldest grandson's 5th birthday. It'll be wonderful to see those grandkids!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Another Craft Show

Tink playing on the fence yesterday morning.

We're having another sunny day...yah!

I'm shuffling off to Buffalo to work at a 4-day craft show. It's in Hamburg, below Buffalo at the Erie County Fair Grounds and is called Christmas in the Country. If you're anywhere in that area you should go. It's a wonderful show, with hundreds of fascinating crafters.

I'll catch up with everyone when I get back. I'll miss you all!



Here are a couple of tired little trick or treaters (1977) Kylie is wearing my 'Farrah Fawcett wig :)



Kathy with her Pumkin and Rufus the kitten in 1987

Kylie was a rather less curvy Catwoman in 1977!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Craft Show at Letchworth

The top of the gorge at Letchworth State Park

It was a very successful craft show last weekend at this beautiful park, with huge crowds, perfect weather in the mid to high 70's (around 23ºC) and lots of brilliant sunshine. It's a very popular show and covers a large area, with hundreds of craft booths.

Under the trees were some wonderful picnic settings which the crowds took advantage of.



When I walked through the trees, over to see the view, there were about 7 turkey vultures soaring over the gorge. The light was too bright to get a good picture so this is overexposed, but I like the way the light is shining through the bird's wings.



After the show closed on Saturday, Chris and I drove down to the bottom end of the park to see the waterfalls. The gorge winds for 17 miles through the park.



Here at Inspiration Point you can see a wonderful view of the Middle and Upper Falls. The Lower Falls is further back and quite a treck to get to, so we didn't take the time to see it. The sun was setting and the light was beginning to fade. It was about 6:30Pm and I was surprised the pictures came out as well as they did. I thought we'd be too late to get any decent shots.



The Middle Falls



And again

There weren't a lot of bright reds in the fall colors this year, but still, they were gorgeous.

The really spectacular colors appear when the season is dry. That's not an adjective that applies to the spring and summer we've just come through!

The leaves are falling rapidly here at home, and the fall colors will soon be all gone. It's such a brief burst of beauty, but so lovely while it lasts!

Like Alice, I had trouble posting these pictures tonight, with some of them posting as only half a picture. Is anyone else having the same problems with the updated, supposedly improved (ha!) Picasa? It's a royal pain in the neck!!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend :)

Stoney Grove B&B

When my friend Chris and I work at the Letchworth State Park craft show, we stay at wonderful Stoney Grove Bed & Breakfast near the village of Mount Morris. Sharon West, who runs this lovely place, makes us feel like we're spending the weekend with an old friend. She's such a sweetheart and so much fun to be around. It's no more expensive than staying at the local motel, and SO much more enjoyable! She spoils us with wonderful breakfasts, and sends us on our way with coffee and fresh baked banana bread.



The house is decorated so beautifully inside and out, and the grounds are lovely, with pretty gardens, a pond and horse trails leading back to a view of Conesus Lake.

Here's one of the incomplete pictures, which I can't seem to fix. I've reposted it several times, to no avail! So I give up! It'll just have to stay broken for now.

Edit 10-23-06: I thought I'd repost this picture one more time to see if it would come out whole. Low and behold, it did, but when I went to delete the partial picture I found it was now whole, and so were the other 2 in the post above, which I intended to try and fix! I don't know how it happened, but I'm happy all the pictures are now whole...without any help on my part! Blogger is a strange bird! :)

P.S. I posted the picture into a new post using 'Picasa' and 'Hello' and intended to copy the code and then paste it into this post, and then delete the post with the resent picture. That's the method I sometimes use when Hello sends my pictures before I'm finished queuing them, and I want to add more pictures to a post. If I try to add them using Blogger it never works for me.




Early morning mist in the back yard. How lovely it was to wake up to this view!

While we were eating breakfast a mama deer and 2 fawns wandered through the yard, past this pond and down along the trails. I didn't have my camera right there by my side, darn it all, and by the time I ran to get it, they were gone!



Sunshine makes the colors pop out!

Sharon has bright Fall decorations by the lovely fence and the front door. The house is filled with the most esquisite pottery made by her sister, who has a shop in Hammondsport at the bottom of Keuka Lake. I can't believe I didn't take some pictures of the pottery!

Maple and dogwood trees

This is the Finger Lake region...a really beautiful area of NY State, with lots of wineries. If you're ever in this neck of the woods, you should stay at this beautiful B&B. It's in a wooded area and is truly a little bit of heaven. What a way to spend a working weekend :)

Blondes

The craft show I worked at last Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday in Western NY was not as busy as it has been in the past. Spring shows are notoriously slow, but this is usually quite a good one. The weather was beautifully warm and sunny and this keeps people at home working in their yards and gardens. We have better attendance when the weather is cold and wet. However, we appreciate the customers we do have, and enjoy seeing our fellow crafters and their wares.
Our husbands always call to chat at night once or twice while we’re away…we just like to check in with each other. This time I hadn’t left a phone number for my hubby so we planned to have Chris’s husband call him with it. Saturday night when she was chatting to her hubby about the events of the day I remembered seeing a number on the room key card and so I gave that to Chris to read off to Dick. He agreed to call Ross and pass it on.
We became engrossed in the movie "Bewitched" which was showing on TV, so it was some time later before we realized that Ross hadn’t called me yet. I joked to Chris that apparently my hubby didn’t love me anymore, and we continued watching the movie.
Now picture this: The closing scene with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell in a romantic embrace, whispering the final lines to each other……suddenly Chris sits bolt upright, eyes wide, and spouts, "I’ll bet that was the number for Domino’s Pizza!"

"What?" I say, bewildered…..trying to ignore her and watch the closing scene.

"The key card had a picture of a pizza on it!", she says, and begins to laugh.

The realization of what she’s saying begins to sink into my thick head, and I start to chuckle, saying, "Hush, you’re ruining the end of the movie", but she keeps laughing, louder now.

Then I begin laughing and we can’t stop………

We just kept on laughing hysterically for about 10 minutes…couldn’t stop for the life of us! It seemed like the funniest thing we’d ever done. Then of course, after a while, it seemed like the stupidest thing we’d ever done....the ‘blondest’ thing we’d ever done :)
When we eventually managed to contain ourselves I felt rather bad about not calling Ross earlier, since he hadn’t called. He always calls! I had assumed he must’ve fallen asleep on the couch while watching TV or reading, which he often does. Anyway, I called him at about 10:45PM and woke the poor guy up. He had indeed reached Domino’s Pizza! Strangely enough, he wasn’t anywhere near as amused as we’d been by our little fiasco. Sometimes men have no sense of humor, you know?