Moving Along...

It's Primary day in neighboring New Hampshire and the GOP race is down to 2 - TFG and Nicki Haley. IF I were a Republican, I would not have any choice and would stay home...TFG would NEVER be an option and especially now that he has shown over the past weeks that he is in severre mental decline. And, of course, I don't believe the man has any soul and he certainly does not have any ethics. And Haley? Well her stand on abortion and her vow that she would pardon TFG if elected eliminates her in my book. So far, Dixville Notch has gone all in on Haley (including former Maine resident and fellow IC alum Les Otten). Stay tuned. Another storm a week or so after Christmas created even more havoc on the Maine coast - wide-spread flooding and incredible damage all along the coast. Not so much inland but no one neede this, for sure. The aforementioned throw top has been completed. Just need to layer and quilt. And I have fabric for the second one in hand and ready to start. But I'm working on some simple runners to have on hand for quilting practice. Once all those are quilted, I'll start on some wall hangings and determine if I need more placemats (probably) and go from there. D. went to Titcomb this past Sunday for the afternoon. 4 runs and finally determined he needs to ditch his boots and just rent from now on. He thinks he can get new bindings put on his existing skis but I don't think so. We'll see. Had a few social gatherings this month - with the Longfellows crew at the Weathervane in Readfield, at Portland Pie in Waterville with the Atkins crew and at the premiere of Maine Local Market at Snow Pond this past Saturday. Interesting concept - they create locally-sourced dinners/entrees you can oder ahead and pick up. Eventually they plan to have a drop-in market somewhere on the grounds there. Worth checking out I think. I don't know if they will be providing food for events at Snow Pond or for the camp this summeer. And, speaking of Snow Pond - they are going big time this summer with an outdoor concert with Melissa Ethridge and the Indigo Girls. Pricey tix plus a parking fee put it out of my reach. Onsite and off site parking - I could see me buying off site and having to drive to Augusta to be bussed back to Sidney! It will be interesting to see how it works out. But it will work out without me. Oh, and several of the ticketed areas were labelled as "Standing Room Only" which would be a non-starter for me. And finally, racing has had it's challenges the past couple of weeks - tracks from Texas to Pennsylvania and New York have cancelled due to weather issues - cold, rain, snow, ice. Eclipse Award are Thursday and I might tune in to see if Archangelo pulls off an upset. And Baffert and his owner have finally withdrawn their appeal over Medina Spirit's DQ from the Derby in 2021, making the results final. (About time and RIP Medina Spirit)

January Blahs

Christmas has come and gone. The decorations are packed away again and the only reminder of the holiday past is the bowl of cards still on the table by the door. They will move on shortly and so will I. After another successful show season I have sewing and quilting to do. I sold 2 couch throws this year so will need to concentrate on replacing them in my inventory. I already have one planned and fabric prepared - just need to start cutting and sewing. Along with those 2 I also have another throw to layer and quilt. Several years ago David spent a week or so in Wilmington, North Carolina helping the people who purchased the business he worked for here in Maine get up and running. He was looking for other things to do so I set him up with my cousin Alliene, who lives in Wilmington and he spent an afternoon/evening with she and her husband, Ben. David came home with a few presents from Alliene, one of which was a hand-pieced quilt top. She was unable to provide much as to the provenance - perhaps it was pieced by her mother (my Aunt Jane) or her grandmother (her namesake, Alliene Estabrook). We just don't know and sadly have no way to find out now. I have the backing and batting and will add it to the mix while learning to quilt on my new machine. I'm still experimenting with tensions etc. to get the right mix, which of course changes depending on the fabrics in play. I am not going on the usual January fabric acquisition binge as usual because I need to conserve funds for show applications. Since I am no longer a Board member at UMC I no longer enjoy the perk of free spaces, although I did negotiate a deal for some credit in exchange for wrangling the Facebook page. We'll see how that works out. I thought I did a decent job this past year (certainly better than previous efforts) but I know I have more to learn. Christmas Day was quiet for us - and cold as the boiler chose to leave us without heat or hot water that day. We waited until the next day to call and Dead River was here within an hour. 3+ hours and over $1000 we were back in heat although the system needs to be cleaned and serviced as that got dropped this Fall. As I write this we are in the first hours of our first snow storm since my difficult ride home from the Holiday show over a month ago. This snow, however, is powder and so light you can blow it away. We needed this but it will be gone in another drenching rain storm on Wednesday. We had one of those a week before Christmas that sent trees crashing down and ripped shingles off in some places. There were people without power for several days and I noted yesterday when I drove home on Prescott Road that there is still a missing pole and downed wires there. We experienced fierce winds and drenching rain but kept our power.

Just Another rainy Monday...

or not. It was rainy but it was also windier than we have ever experienced at this house in 24 years. Wow!! I was sure we would a) lose power and b) lose trees. Happily, neither happened but we did have a few stutters in the power supply, just enough to neccessitate resetting the clocks. Farther North, in Oxford and Franklin counties, they are dealing with major flooding, a combination of all the rain and snow melt, as they still had a good snow pack from last week and the week before. (Saddleback started last weekend almost fully open!!!!) And the rivers down here in Central Maine will crest tomorrow once all the water makes its way downstream. I just messaged my niece to say we will not be attending the family Christmas dinner in a week and it was a good call. They all have have COVID there and are still recovering. No thank you, been there done that this year! We will stay home and have a quiet dinner - turkey with GRAVY (missing from Thanksgiving!) and a few trimmings. None of this over the top amount of food. We had brunch at the Weathervane in Readfield yesterday with the Longfellow's alums. Fun time and good food. Then we visited with Brenda and Garrett for a while before coming home for naps. Such is the retird life.

Holiday Show +

While D. was sunning and golfing in Florida, I was busy making money at the UMC Holiday show at the Italian Heritage Center in Portland. This was a new venue for this show and it was a joy to work in. Easy in and out - no stairs, lots of parking. Nice decor - very cozy and attactive space. It was another good show for LeafLady - sold another throw, a tree skirt and runners and placemats. It all adds up. The only negative was the weather - while sunny and cool on Saturday it was another dicey ride home on Sunday - rain in Portland kept the speeds down on 295 all the way to Gardiner, where it turned to snow - hypnotizing snow!! Fortunately, people behaved themselves and the road had been treated enough to be just wet but I was happy to pull into the driveway and the garage when the trip was over. And I had people checking up on me, which was nice. Overnight we got 5-6" of snow so it was good that I had decided to stay home on Monday and decompress. Noah plowed, I shovelled and it was all good. Had to scrape the driveway on Tuesday before I went out on errands. Groceries have been procured and I just have another trip to Portland to donate my extra sewing machine today then home to make more cookies and do more decorating. D. arrives mid-afternoon, much to Div's delight. While it's been a nice break with no real set schedules, I'll have to adjust to regular meals etc. again. Tree is the first thing on the agenda for Friday, and maybe a trip to Grateful Grains for Greek food on Saturday. Once the cookies are made, it will be time to do a deep clean on the studio in preparation for next year's projects - 2 throws, 2 tree skirts and some wall hangings. (I sold 2 of the 4 projects I hustled up between the last 2 shows this weekend, which is always gratifying.)

Thanksgiving Recap (!!!)

We should have heeded our instincts from 2022 and skipped the family Thanksgiving dinner but felt it would be supportive of my brother and his family after a difficult year. (They would have been fine without us.) The house continues to devolve into a hoarder's dream - so much STUFF! I was surprise that Kattie was able to find the placemats my sister-in-law bought from me at the Augusta show. Again, no place to sit down in the living room as almost every seat is piled high with STUFF. Adding to the general chaos is the ever-present completely covered kitchen counters. No room to do anything in that kitchen for sure. Surprised it yeilded a dinner, although many of the vegetables were prepared by Fred and Betsy and brought in. (Still, we both experienced some intestinal upset the following day, not something I want to chance repeating.) And Kattie cannot seem to moderate her voice or tone at all so there is a constant noise over all the physical chaos. And I certainly will NOT be passing on any of Mom's treasures to her any time soon, until she can prove that she will honor them and not just let them collect dust. I'm really worried that should some medical emergency happen in that house there would be access issues. I'm pondering what/how to approach the issue. I'm worried about them all and I feel disrespected by their lack of concern for creating a welcoming atmosphere in their house. I don't know where the hoarding comes from - but it needs to stop. We will definitely NOT be joining them for Christmas as adding a tree and an over-abundance of gifts to that house would be unbearable for us. D. leaves today to spend the night in Portland before taking an early flight, starting his journey to Florida. Golf and lots of driving in his future. Limited time with his brother. He'll be back a week from Thursday. In the meantime, I have a 2 day show in Portland. I have finished the runner and one set of placemats, and started 2 holiday-themed wall hangings. Will work on those this week, repack the car on Friday and do the show. Next week will be stow everything away until next year, clean the house and decorate inside, and bake some cookies. We'll get our tree when D. returns. And look forward to a quiet Christmas Day. And as of Tuesday, I am no longer the vice-president of UMC, which means a much-reduced work load. I have offered to continue being the Facebook wrangler - (everyone seems to feel I did a great job this year) - and the offer has been accepted, so I can hopefully earn at least one free show space this coming year. There are some intriguing new shows on tap - we'll see if they actually come to fruition. I finished the 2 holiday wall hangings - cute stuff with button embellishments. And yesteday I signed up for the KVAA/Snow Pond show next May. Christa said she'd take care of me for a corner space - it pays to know people and have worked with them. And D. arrived in FL okay (5 hour layover in Baltimore!) and is currently on a golf course. He heads to Tarpon Springs tomorrow for a couple of days with his brother, then on to Carl's in Sun City Center.

Another Successful Weekend!

Always gratifying to have back-to-back good shows. I wasn't certain what to expect from my first SSMC show but it was a success. And I don't really need to make anything more for the UMC Holiday show but I have a runner almost finished and 2 sets of placemats ready to quilt so I will likely work on them for the show. The one thing that put me off a bit was the seeming lack of engagement on the part of the show directors. Had to hunt to find the person to check in with as they were the farthest away from the door when I arrived on Friday. Then there was no direction about what door I could use so I ended up using the one that was likely the farthest from my booth location. And the capper was that after alerting one of them about a potential tripping hazard developing in the floor covering in my aisle, nothing was done save smoothing the cover out - no application of tape to prevent it from bunching again, which it did in about 15 minutes. Sigh. As an officer of UMC I at least make the effort to seek out new members and welcome them and check in with them but there was none of that. Still, they run successful shows so I will renew my membership. Thanksgiving will be a family time again this year, despite saying last year would do me for a few years. It's been a tough year for my brother's family so we will head down for dinner - not as flavorful as in years past as Kattie does not possess her mother's or grandmother's culinary skills, in addition to making everything gluten-free. At least there will be cranberry bread I know I can eat! And I will make a pumpkin pie for us so we don't have to experience the GF option. Looking forward to some "me" time in the coming week as D. will be in FL for 10 days. And I don't have to drive him to and from the airport as he has finally setled on a plan. I kept the appointment I made to donate my little Pfaff and some sewing supplies to Common Threads so I will have to drive down the day he returns but I can be safely home by the time he lands in Portland. I'll spend the time organizing my inventory, finishing my paperwork for year end, and cleaning and decorating the house. Then we can get the tree and be ready for the holidays. Oh, and baking - there will be lots of cookie baking!

Back on Track!!

After that disappointing Sunday show I got back on track with the Augusta UMC show. I did not know what to expect but it was all good. I would call it a success, both personally and for the UMC. We had a few comments about the smaller set up but people were in a buying mood for the most part. I did observe a couple of new artisans who had a disappointing show - and perhaps their expectations were not realistic. And Sunday was very definitely quieter than Saturday. The UMC member meeting resulted in some volunteers for the open positions so we are headed into 2024 with new venues and shows. I sold many runners - and will likely have to make more holiday themed ones for the last show of the season. We'll see how things go this weekend. I'm doing my first show with Society of Southern Maine Craftsmen at the Topsham High School. I checked this one out last year and it was decidedly a must to add to my schedule. Politics is getting more contentious. Trump's trails continue and his idiot sons continue to like and hype from the witness stand while the model daughter can't seem to recall anything. These kids have been put in charge of businesses yet seem oblivious to how business works and that they are the ones responsible. Of course, their role model of a father has taught them well that anything bad is someone else's fault not theirs. Had an enjoyable visit with Connie on Saturday night. Likely the last as the Augusta show will be a one day affair next year. It's always good to spend time with her as we agree on just about everything. She's good people and I'm happy to have her as a friend.