2011 already! Where did 2010 go?

Best wishes for the year ahead. 

So far we've had a fairly open winter with sun and crispness.

Last time I wrote I had a nasty cold type of thing which hung on tightly for 8 weeks and I am still coughing but life continued.

James has had a show hanging at Kingfisher Used Books since early November and it will soon be coming down.

James and I did the regular craft fairs: one in Wynndel and one sponsored by the Creston Arts Council here in town, as well as James having been asked to show his work at the Images Art Show & Sale in Nov.

On the weekends where there were sales and Farmers Markets James and I did the "divide and conquer" and drove ourselves around the bend but we did it!

The poppy painting in the upper left corner is James' and sold as soon as someone saw the invitation.

In mid-Sept the Farmers Market moved from its outside venue at Millennium Park to inside Morris Flowers Garden Center where we continued until Dec 18.

I feel like I have been baking forever, We also sold James cards made from his paintings, mine made from post cards my grand parents exchanged in the early 1900's, my knit hats, Raku fired pendants James made, lathe turned candle holders James made, and tea cozies I have begun making. By the end of the market we took 2 tables. We will surely continue to need as much space as James also plans to plant a market garden for this coming year.

Our son and his fiance plan to marry in August so we won't be lacking things to do. 

 Here are a few of the tea cozies I'm making. The body is knit and the flower is crocheted. These are for a 4 - 6 cup tea pot and sell for $25.00 + Shipping and Handling, tea pot not included.

 

January can be an enjoyably slow month but I have eliminated that opportunity and will be beginning a 12 week course at Kootenay Employment Services for people over 50 who want to start their own business.

I am thinking of new endeavors other than birdhouses and need to get on a better business footing. I also need to learn how people sell on line.

James is relishing the thought of his "12 weeks of solitude." 

He has been keeping himself busy building a 16 inch band saw from wood, a project he saw on You Tube, but rather than order the pattern he has been designing it himself, and it is quite the beauty.

James has an ongoing show of his work at the Coffee Creek Cafe here in Creston. The restaurant has been recently sold but the new owner wishes to continue showing James' work and that is good for us too. The cafe will be reopening this week with a similar menu, keeping the great Borscht we all expect, but the new owner plans to be open in the evening also.

It's a Kootenay Sunrise

I went to Straight from Earth organic store and coffee shop today and found some beautiful locally grown carrots. Yum!
I'm so excited. I've been mourning us not having chickens but today I learned of a friend of a friend who is going away for 4 months and would like someone to take her chickens for that time. There are only 20 and they will go home before James has to lug water and such in the winter. I like them even just to look at. The eggs will be nice too.
Tomorrow is James' show opening at Kingfisher Used Books and I now need to go cut up veggies and make hummus so I'm not snowed under in the morning.

Another Thanksgiving

The truth be known, the leaves have mostly fallen off the trees and it's frosty mornings and ice on the puddles and any day could bring snow. Tomorrow is our son Larry's birthday. I remember when....
Next week will be American Thanksgiving which falls on James' birthday this year and the anniversary of the day we met 39 years ago, can it be so long?!
Sat the 29th is the Christmas Craft Fair and the next Saturday is the Wynndel Craft Fair and then we may get a chance to rest a wee bit.
Right now we are very busy with calendars. Every year I make calendars of James' paintings which we sell, along with cards, at the craft fairs. James likes this better than when he had to help lug in my bird houses to sell.
Sadly, because of the recurring problems with my hands I have had to give up building bird houses.
My hero has been a friend of ours, Ted Diakew, who said "I'm retiring" from doing spectacular pottery, and on a given day, he invited all his friends, threw a retirement party, and quit. I have had to ease into it, but I now can say "I don't build bird houses any more." It is still hard.

This is James bull floating concrete, while our friends Sandy Kunze and Bruce Johnston help, as they pour the floor for the storage room for the Wynndel Mudders' "Mud Hut."

The Wynndel Mudders are a group of us who work in clay and we are retrofitting the old changing rooms at the Wynndel Hall into a place to use for our work.
I think they just squeaked in under the wire on pouring the concrete before the freezing begins.
As we were cleaning up and finishing up from the "pour" yesterday we looked up to see 3 eagles soaring by. I have never seen more than one at a time before and even one I receive as a blessing.
When we were growing up in the 50's and 60's we never saw an eagle but happily their numbers are getting pretty healthy.
The other day as I was heading out for town I looked up in one of our bare poplars and there sat a fat little pygmy owl. He looked like a little ball with a tail. He was probably looking for little brown birds, but even the little owls have to eat.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving

My mom's brother, David, and his son came to visit my mom for Thanksgiving. We were able to bring her out to our place for a turkey dinner Sat night and then Sunday my uncle and I joined her for turkey dinner at the lodge. We are well turkyed.
Other than seeing my mom this holiday for my uncle's visit was sort of a wash as people are out of town or busy with their own family dinners.

Poor Uncle David, not only are people occupied or out of town this time but he is 88 and hasn't lived here since the early 50's and there are less and less people he remembers from his past still living. I guess that's why we need to live in the present.

So, in that we did the turkey dinner on Saturday, the "not picked clean" carcass is simmering along on it's way to lots of turkey soup.I'm not sure which is the best part of the turkey: the cranberries and stuffing or the soup!We're thankful for both.And many little packages of sliced turkey for sandwiches, with more cranberries.
There's also some left over sweet potato pie, so we can still celebrate on the actual day.
Uncle David and Bruce left on their way home as there wasn't enough excitement and "Dad doesn't like to sit around." Some of us wish we had time to sit around a little more.
James and our friend, Garth Huscroft, made the annual pilgrimage to the back to pick apples off the "secret tree" but this year there was not apple one. It's a bit late so the deer and elk and bears and ravens may have got a few but apples have a good and bad year and last year was very good so we were prepared for less this year. Well, maybe not this much less!