Shows this Week: Nov 2 - 6

Oh yeah, I forgot I promised to post the whole show list for this week. I'm doing 4 different crafty shows this week and I'm a little frazzled trying to get it all together at the same time as I'm getting the Winter Holiday newsletter out and web site updated. It's been a real crunch. Thank God it's Halloween and the house is full of chocolate. More for me. Less for the kiddies.

Nov 2 - 5
Red Ribbons & Reindeer
Hollywood Schoolhouse
14810 NE 145th St, Woodinville
Wed 3-8pm, Thurs & Fri, 10am-8pm, Sat 9:30am-6pm

Nov 3 - 5
Pickering Barn Christmas Craft Show
Pickering Barn, 1720 – 10th Ave NW
(behind Costco) Issaquah
Thurs & Fri 10-7, Sat 10-5

Nov 3 - 5
Yuletide Treasures
Skagit County Fairgrounds
Thurs - Fri 10am - 7pm, Sat 9am - 6pm

Nov 5
Eastlake Holiday Bazaar
Eastlake High School, 400 – 22th Ave NE, Sammamish
Saturday only, 9am - 4pm

The first 3 are bazaar type shows, where my booth display is there but I am not. I will, however, be physically sitting at my table at Eastlake on Saturday. All of them are great shows. Most of them I do every year and look forward to seeing you guys. Yuletide is new for me, but it's always gotten great reviews, so I'm excited to see how that turns out. It's a bit of challenge to squeeze it in this week, but Janet asked me personally to do it, and I wanted to give it a try. Pickering is adding an antiques show in the other side of the barn this weekend, so it's really a double show - twice the space, half craft and half collectibles. More to love.

I'll have Winter Holiday stuff at all of them this time. Not so much of the fall scents left, but there may be a few random bars at different shows. The fall soaps are mostly sold out at this point. Boo.

Happy Halloween!

Haunted Houses

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses.Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

We meet them at the door-way, on the stair,
Along the passages they come and go,
Impalpable impressions on the air,
A sense of something moving to and fro.

There are more guests at table than the hosts
Invited; the illuminated hall
Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,
As silent as the pictures on the wall.

The stranger at my fireside cannot see
The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear;
He but perceives what is; while unto me
All that has been is visible and clear.

We have no title-deeds to house or lands;
Owners and occupants of earlier dates
From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands,
And hold in mortmain still their old estates.

The spirit-world around this world of sense
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere
Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours dense
A vital breath of more ethereal air.

Our little lives are kept in equipoise
By opposite attractions and desires;
The struggle of the instinct that enjoys,
And the more noble instinct that aspires.

These perturbations, this perpetual jar
Of earthly wants and aspirations high,
Come from the influence of an unseen star
An undiscovered planet in our sky.

And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud
Throws o'er the sea a floating bridge of light,
Across whose trembling planks our fancies crowd
Into the realm of mystery and night,--

So from the world of spirits there descends
A bridge of light, connecting it with this,
O'er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends,
Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.

Source:
Longfellow's Poetical Works
Copyright 1893
Henry Frowde, London

Snow Day

Wow, for the folks in the Northeast it really IS a snow day. But it's a snow day here in the studio today too. It's a blizzard of bath salt making for next week's shows.

I had no idea that peppermint would be so intoxicating. There's only a little bit of it in the scent blend, but with all the mixing and stirring and whirling and filling, the studio is filled with peppermint fumes. Boy are my sinuses clear. My head feels almost mint-a-holic, even with the window open.

But all in all, I really like how the scent turned out. There's vanilla sugar, a pinch of spice, a little orange zest too. It's the perfect cool, fresh, tingly mix with yummy warm good stuff in it too. Exactly what a snow day is all about.

And the packaging is adorable too. I've wanted to use these small French square jars forever. With a little tiny square label and a bit of red-striped bakery twine - so cute. I hope it's going to be a big hit for stocking stuffers, little office gifts, or added to goodie baskets. I can't wait to see how they do next week. Which reminds me, I'll have to post my show schedule here tomorrow to that you all can find them out there in the craft show world.

These little Snow Day bath crystals will be announced Nov 1st and on the web site for purchase on Tuesday - this is just a sneak peek. Cuz I'm mintified.

Open for business

I'm back from vacation. Two weeks is a long time. Not while you're gone - that's easy, time flies. But when you're finally back, catching up on two weeks worth of phone messages, emails, orders, news, laundry, blah blah - that is really super long. What a mountain.

So what did I do? Took a trip to Europe on a whirlwind tour of bits of Italy, Turkey and Greece. Rome, Capri, Crete, Mykonos, Ephesus, Athens. We were on a cruise, with a couple of extra days in Rome at the beginning and Athens at the end. We packed so much sightseeing into every minute, utterly exhausting. But worth it.

Anyway, just thought I'd put in a quick post to say I'm here and I'm working and everything is back in full swing. A couple of weeks from now the fall newsletter will go out as planned, and that first week in November is four different shows. The usual ones: Red Ribbons and Reindeer at the Hollywood Schoolhouse, Pickering Barn, Eastlake High School plus a new one for me - Yuletide Treasures at the Skagit Fairgrounds in Mount Vernon. Details are on the website calendar and I'll post the whole shebang here too next week. But for now, I'm leaving you with some photos of my journey in the sunshine and warm weather - which I am already missing here in rainy, grey Seattle.

Rome, Trevi Fountain

Capri, Sorrento

Taormina, Sicily

Sunset on the ship

Gorgeous Chania, on the island of Crete

Mykonos

Ephesus ruins, Turkish markets

Athens, the Acropolis and Parthenon at night

Sensory overload. In a good way :)