Mountain Musings

Somebody's Gone Antiquing Again!

Granny visited some antique shops last week when we were on our fall family vacation to Abingdon and picked up five different potato mashers with various colored handles to use for making her potato masher baskets.

Each of the shop owners thought she really needed the mashers to actually mash potatoes. When we mentioned she would use them to weave a basket around the bottom, they looked at us like...what?? So funny!

Anyway, we had an enjoyable time searching for just the right mashers, and now Granny has some fun work cut out for her! She loves making these baskets!

Here are Sarah, Hannah, and Granny making some memories on vacation:And now we're settling down this week with more baking, soaping, basket-making, and quilting!  Never a dull moment!

~Deb

Sunday Scripture ~ Mark 1:17

Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become

fishers of men." Mark 1:17

~Deb

Time Changes Things

I'm sure regular readers of our blog will remember past posts of fun times we've had with our Texas friend, Erich.

Well, it just so happens that he's back in Virginia for a couple of days for his annual flight training. Erich wrote us soliciting an invitation to stop by for a meal while he was in town. Sure!

Here's a photo taken of Erich and Jonathan, both in their Dynamic Aviation work gear. Notice Erich's nickname on his shirt...3 Bear...the strength of three bears! Well, not only was Erich married last October, but he just became a dad last month to a beautiful little girl.  We saw pictures!!! And heard stories of how he delivered his baby before the midwife arrived!!! Oh, my!!

"And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.” Exodus 1:19

That was definitely a perfect verse for their birth announcement! It was very fun catching up with Erich's life now, and hopefully we'll be able to welcome his wife and daughter to our home some day.

Time definitely changes things! Thanks, Erich, for stopping by to see us!

~Deb

Job 37:14-15

Come Ride With Us...

...to Stanardsville, Virginia!

Granny, Hannah, Sarah, and I headed out yesterday morning for a destination that not only had we never ventured to before, but I'd never heard of before! Stanardsville? After checking mapquest, I found that it was a little spot in the road only an hour and a half away and just north of Charlottesville, west of Ruckersville.

Our goal was to reach Noon Whistle Pottery...quite the delightful little shop located on Main Street in a 1930's era gas station. Just priceless!And why was this our destination? Well....the owner Holly had visited Appalachian Piecework which I've written about before and purchased one of Hannah's soaps displayed there.

She contacted Hannah and wanted to start carrying some of her soaps at Noon Whistle and invited her to bring 100 bars to her shop. Here's Holly and Hannah after their business transaction: I loved the old Whistle sign in the background in the photo above. It says "Just Whistle, Morning, Noon, Night." If you follow these links, you'll read why some towns still blow a whistle at noon. Very interesting.

Here's another shot of the checkout area complete with antique cash register and a calendar with a date of 1956! Here's a closer view of the register. This is really a blast from the past: Come on! Let's climb these steps and go look at the next two floors of treasures. The shop has three floors filled with the artwork of over one hundred American artisans, potters, and crafters:Some pottery pieces were creatively displayed from the ceiling:Here are other pieces. I loved the rainbow prisms hanging from the window and almost made a purchase: And another display that I loved because I love watering cans!: Holly, the owner, wanted to take a photo of Hannah with her soap in this rocker which was for sale for $2500. Holly said the man who makes the rockers sells about one a month. It was gorgeous and the wood sooo smooth! The soap photo will soon be on the Noon Whistle facebook page: Well, it was soon time to leave for home after browsing in the shop. We could have brought so many things home with us, but we were good girls. Here's Granny headed to the car as we're leaving: Did I entice you to visit Noon Whistle? We all loved our day trip adventure and look forward to going again!

~Deb

Autumn Celebration in Dayton

In our area of the Valley the first Saturday in October is filled with so many activities that it's hard for folks to choose which to attend!

Sarah counted at least 8 events going on this past weekend...it's her way of determining how much baking she should bring to farmers' market based on whether customers might go someplace other than the downtown weekly market.

And out of all those events, where were we, you ask...at Dayton Days, of course! The streets are closed to traffic, and tents are set up as far as you can see down two streets. Take a look at this crowd! Bright and early Saturday morning we loaded up all the soap and baskets here at home and traveled to Dayton to claim our assigned spot.

It takes a lot of work to set up tents, tables, and displays...and Tom was our willing and able helper doing everything for us! He was great! Here's our booth ready and waiting for the customers to arrive: Here's Granny with one of her first browsers...a lady she met just recently and who is the owner of The Crow's Nook in Verona. This lady said she came especially to check out Granny's Baskets!  Here's a view below of both Hannah's side for her soap and Granny's side for her baskets. We were located near an alleyway which needed to be kept open for emergencies...a perfect spot for a little extra room for our booth:Granny and Hannah anticipated a good day of sales:Below: Here's Granny all set up on her stool and ready to greet her customers, while Hannah is in the background adjusting her display. My station all day was behind the tables with the money box and calculator:Hannah manned her booth below and answered questions. Notice the lady taking a sniff of one of the soaps? Everyone who came by said they could smell the wonderful aromas wafting down the street before they even got to our booth, and everyone had to give her soaps lots of sniffs! Some of our friends stopped by to see us to buy soap and baskets; these girls were good customers! They came to see us at last year's Dayton Days show, too!Here are the cupcake vendors...the line was really long waiting to buy at 10:00 in the morning! They usually sell out quickly....even with cupcakes that are $29 a dozen! No, Sarah's are not that expensive!But this booth was my favorite and the blackberry pies were delicious: Granny had a good sales day and many folks left with beautiful handmade baskets! But...we brought some baskets home with us, too. They're all unloaded now and put back in the basket shed ready for future orders...Granny ships her baskets all over the country.

Remember the Turning a Failure into a Success post? FYI: The bread basket sold; the tissue basket did not! Life is funny! And while we were busy in Dayton, Jonathan and Sarah were holding down their booth at the downtown farmers' market from 7 until noon. Jonathan took Hannah's place with a smaller inventory than she normally takes to market. He always does a good job when she needs his help: Jonathan even arranged the whole display and organized her soaps. Looks pretty good! Below you'll see a basket of her soaps and a couple of her newest body balm scents...Frosted Woods and Apple Rose: Needless to say, we were all quite tired at the end of the day and glad to get home! But we were very thankful for the sales and especially the beautiful--though hot 85-degree--weather.

The girls have 7 more weeks of farmers' market dates left until the end of the season, finishing up the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Then I think they'll enjoy some much deserved rest over the winter season.

~Deb

Random Friday!

Hello people! It's been a hectic going and coming week around here! Hence...no blogging until now!

Earlier in the week Granny and I made an overnight trip back to our hometown of South Boston, Virginia, and I took her around to see many of her friends.That was interesting, especially when we visited a 96-year old and a 92-year old and a few 80-somethings!

Lots of photos were taken so she could remember her special visit. Here's Granny with her long-time friend, Cheryl, who served us homemade buttered rolls with tomatoes and her delicious peach and apple pies:And Granny enjoyed her visit with another long-time family friend, Nathaniel:Photo credit below: thanks to the South Boston and Halifax County website. That's my town! And...we have SOAP coming out of our ears these days! Hannah has been busy in the kitchen making a variety of different scents!

In addition to all the soap being wrapped and prepared for Dayton Days...which is Saturday (come join us!), she's making double batches of her unique Dirt Soap for JM Cremp's boys' adventure catalog again this year.

And it seems that the museum gift shops and stores around the area that carry her soaps are ordering more now for the holidays! So she's been in cranking-it-out-mode so it will have an adequate four weeks to cure! That means we three girls have become quite adept at juggling kitchen time!

Here's Sarah latest fall venture at farmers' market...caramel apples! They make their debut tomorrow! She made six to see how they sell:Last but not least on this Random Friday post, I recently found a new recipe website that I've enjoyed perusing--Taste of Southern. Tonight we enjoyed the Grilled Vidalia Steaks with Sweet Italian Sausage.

Here's a photo taken from Steve's Taste of Southern blog. And guess what? Mine looked exactly like this photo!! Everything was yummy!Thank you, Steve, for some great recipes that I've found on your site!

Well, that's it for this week's random-ness.

What's happening in your neck of the woods this weekend? You know where I'll be....at Dayton Days helping Granny sell baskets!

~Deb