Mountain Musings

Dayton Days 2019

We had a beautiful fall-y day for the 40th annual Dayton Days craft show! So many people came out to this event and filled the streets of small-town Dayton:

Dad, Jonathan, and I (Hannah) drove our loaded-to-the-brim vehicles full of products, tents, and tables to begin set-up of our booth before sunrise:

This was Dad's debut appearance of his Pleasant View Woodworks furniture business, so we had vinyl banners printed and hung for the occasion, along with my various signs proclaiming SOAP was for sale, to catch a distant buyer's eye:

Here are Dad and I together, ready to start the long but enjoyable day of (hopefully) selling our handmade wares and gaining exposure with potential local customers:

Our completed 10' x 30' booth spread:

You can see quilt racks, cutting boards, and a poster advertising his other products available for ordering in this shot:

The beautiful arched wall mirror and Shaker-style end table had many admirers:

There were several styles of cutting boards on display, too:

My Pleasant View Soaps portion of our shared space was fun to arrange, and it all brought back memories of being a vendor at the farmers' market back in 2012-2015:

The many varied scents of soap wafted out to the passers-by and beckoned them to enter our stall!

Mom joined us part-way through the morning, and we all enjoyed chatting with folks who stopped by to visit:

Dad especially enjoyed explaining his wood-working processes to interested browsers:

And here is Granny's side of the equation! Her baskets made it to Dayton Days again after a few years' hiatus (read about past years here).

Mom brought Granny to the show during the morning so she could get in on the action. She has always been a saleswoman with her baskets and loves interacting with the customers:

No sooner had Granny arrived than we had surprise visitors. The pastor and his wife from Granny's hometown church found our booth since they were traveling in the area and had heard we would be at the show:

Granny had such a good time at her booth, she hated to leave when it was time! Mom wheeled her around the rest of the show before finding their parking spot.

Here is a bright garden scene they came upon as they strolled the residential streets of Dayton:

And another vendor was selling fresh-baked pumpkin rolls:

The field across from our booth was quite the popular location! The reason being it was a field full of sunflowers, and everyone was invited by the owner to pick for free....loads of people of all ages took him up on the offer, and sunflowers were the theme of the day! Almost everyone passing by throughout the day carried armfuls of the golden flowers.

Here is Granny, posing in the field with Mom's bouquet:

It was a full day of activity! We were thankful for the opportunity to participate again this year and share our talents with the public.

~Hannah

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ July

For Today, Saturday, July 13

 

Outside my window...

It's a hot and humid, sunshiny summer day here in Virginia...89 the high today and 92 tomorrow. These days are best for staying inside keeping cool. I think that's my plan today!

I am thankful for:

Family and friends .... those close by and those at a distance who let you know they're praying for you when you need it most.

 

From the Flower Garden...

I posted this photo on Instagram today...both the cleome plant and the garden name plaque I received for Mother's Day. I've enjoyed seeing them in the garden this year:

From the Garden to the Kitchen...

Tomatoes are beginning to arrive in the garden, great for fresh salsa! And jalapenos, peppers, and zucchini! Last year our zucchini plant died...and, unfortunately, no one tried to pawn their bounty off on us.

So we waited for this year's harvest...we've enjoyed such good zucchini meals! Zucchini Squares has been a favorite recipe for many years...great for a quick lunch meal:

Zucchini Squares

1 c. Bisquick (we use 1 c. ww flour, 1 ½ t. baking powder, ¼ t. salt instead)

½ t. each salt and pepper

1 t. oregano, dried

1 T. parsley, dried

½ c. grated Parmesan cheese

½ c. onion, diced small

1 clove garlic, minced

3 c. zucchini, sliced thinly

½ c. olive oil

4 eggs, lightly beaten

Combine dry ingredients, add veggies, and toss to coat. Mix in oil and eggs and pour into a greased 9” sq or 7 x11” pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 min.

And Hannah has been utilizing her spiralizer to make zucchini noodles, affectionately known as zoodles. I can't tell you the number of times I've said zoodles this past week!
 Zoodles are good served with cajun-seasoned tilapia. And to really spice it up...cover the zoodles with Bobby Flay's Diavolo Sauce:  Today's lunch was a winner! Hannah can whip anything up...it seems with hardly any effort. Spicy Coconut and Butternut squash soup topped with cilantro and leftover zucchini squares: I have to say that I've thoroughly enjoyed using my Magnolia chalkboard I received as another Mother's Day gift! Here's a recent family meal menu:

One of my favorite things...

I love day trips, quick overnight trips, spontaneous outings, and rare planned vacations. We knew we wanted to do a quick getaway sometime this summer, so two weeks ago we traveled to Alexandria, Virginia, for their pre-4th of July Fireworks over the Potomac at Mount Vernon.

First we enjoyed a D.C. Monuments boat ride on the Potomac in the afternoon:

On the lawn at Mount Vernon we listened to the marching band playing patriotic numbers before we toured the mansion: The night-time fireworks display was amazing! They did an excellent job! Here's historic Mount Vernon awaiting the fireworks over the Potomac:

I am creating...

I'm in between projects at the moment while I recuperate (more on that shortly)...but this Fig Tree bundle of goodness arrived in the mail recently. My friend Chris and I plan to do a long-distance sew-along together in September, making a Pumpkin quilt. Should be so fun!:

I am wearing...

Navy around-the-house paint skirt, navy tank, fuchsia blouse.

 

A shared verse:

"All these blessings shall overtake you because you obey the Lord your God." ~ Deuteronomy 28:2

 

You were praying...

For our grandson who was having surgery last month when I wrote the last Daybook. I wanted to thank you all for your prayers and let you know that Andrew's surgery was a success. He's doing well and continuing to improve.

Here he is with his little brother arriving to visit us last week for my birthday and the 4th of July holiday. Yep, red, white, and awesome says it all!:

The boys noticed the flag right away, and Aunt Hannah showed them all the animals:

We sure enjoyed the holiday visit with the whole family:

It was great having little ones running and playing in the yard and garden:

And riding the tractor with a doting Grampa:

Around the house:

Making special 4th of July desserts for our little guests:

Closing Thoughts:

I wanted to ask prayer again...this time for me. As it turns out, the reason I wasn't feeling well last month when I last wrote was a tick bite that I had gotten that produced fever, chills, severe headache, neck ache, extreme fatigue, and generally momma-ain't-happy feelings.

I've been on steroids, anti-viral meds, and antibiotics; and while we were in Alexandria, out of the blue I developed Bell's palsy, which can be associated with Lyme. A trip to the ER and an additional couple of weeks of antibiotics later, I'm still recovering and start physical therapy on my face next week.

Please pray that I will fully recuperate and get back to normal. There's still a lot of summer left to enjoy! Thank you so much!

Closing Photo of the Week:

(Mosaic tile along the stairway at National Harbor on our trip to Alexandria)

 

If you'd like to visit other Daybook entries, visit The Simple Woman.

 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting us here at Mountain Musings!

~Deb

Craft Show at Polyface

One beautiful Saturday morning recently Granny, Hannah, and I loaded up all the baskets, soap, and tent paraphernalia and headed out in the country to Polyface, Joel Salatin's family farm, located down the road in Swoope, Virginia: The Salatins offer farm tours for folks who want a first-hand learning experience, complete with hay-wagon rides to see the pastured broilers and egg-mobile that Joel Salatin is famous for.

This spring they started a monthly event called Free Range Saturdays with "local artisans, seasonal produce, music, tastings, sunshine, and fresh air."

So...off we went to set up our big white craft tent at Polyface with hopes that the folks who were booked for the farm tour would wander over to this side of the farm to check out the artisans. Here's Hannah setting up:Sheri Salatin was setting up her line of beautiful handmade quilts for sale: This jewelry vendor had a nice colorful setup for her wares: I think this is the first time Granny's had her baskets set up in a field, but it was a beautiful area and a perfect day:Hannah arranged her soap display alongside Granny's baskets. Since she's not a vendor at our local farmers' market this season, this was a good venture to try: There were approximately eight to ten vendors this particular Saturday. Here are several tents set up on our side of the lawn:We introduced Granny to the Lunatic Farmer himself, Joel Salatin: We thoroughly enjoyed getting re-acquainted with Joel's mom, Lucille. She also lives on the property and is quite involved with farm life and knows all the many interns by name who come and go constantly on the farm: During part of the morning I browsed the Polyface Farm Store while folks hung out on the front porch waiting for the hay wagon for their tour:I thought this item was quite interesting for sale in the store:Unfortunately, most of the folks who arrived for the farm tour didn't come to shop, but this out-of-state lady stopped by to purchase soap from Hannah: Granny tried her best salesmanship to sell a basket to these girls. She was thankful that the face-painting vendor to our right walked over and purchased a basket before the morning was over:All in all, it was an interesting day. I enjoyed going to help Granny and Hannah and loved talking with some of the folks there.

Polyface would be an even better venue if more folks knew about and were willing to make the drive out for Free Range Saturdays. We appreciate the Salatins offering their farm at no charge for us to come and sell our crafts. Thank you so much!Well...time to pack up and head home until the next craft show comes along.

~Deb

Arkansas ~ There and Back Again! ~ Part 5, Final Highlights

I hope you've enjoyed reading about our fun Arkansas escapades! If you missed any parts of this series, you can find links at the end of this post.

Part of planning for the trip also involved finding some neat places to stop on the way there and on the way back.

So, I put together a trip notebook that included detailed stops for each day, maps and directions as a back-up to the GPS, info on fees and hours of operation for some of our activities, and restaurant possibilities. We referred back to this book many times, and it was great to have the information handy: One of our favorite stops on the way to Little Rock was in Knoxville, TN, at Buttermilk Sky Pie Company--recommended by a friend of my sister's who had recently stopped there on her travels. Oooh, the pies inside this little shop! Check out this goodness:The photo below shows various pies behind the display case...it gives you an idea of how hard it was to make a decision on which little pie to pick: We were the first customers in the shop at 9 a.m. and enjoyed talking with the owner and taking lots of photos: My sister picked Coconut Creme, and I picked their best-seller, I-40, which consisted of pecans, chocolate chips, a sprinkle of toasted coconut, and a smooth pecan pie filling combined in a sweet shortbread crust. You can read how the pie got its name here:After visiting this little shop, we were back in the car and on the road. I previously mentioned I'd tell you about the Bed & Breakfast where we stayed while in Little Rock.

P. Allen Smith's Moss Mountain website recommended Rosemont B&B. So I checked out that particular B&B first, liked what I saw, and that's where we ended up for 4 nights. Here's my sister in front of Rosemont: And here's the back of the Bed and Breakfast...nice area for sitting, but we never did. Who goes on vacation to relax when there are so many places to see?  
And here are the steep, quite narrow, curving steps that we climbed many times. We were in the St. Clair, and you can see pictures of our room here. I took the daybed in the sun room and loved it!:The breakfasts which the Innkeeper prepared for us each morning were wonderful! Lots of fresh fruits, stuffed French toast, omelets with asparagus, and delicious coffee cake. Thank you, Susan! I haven't mentioned our trolley ride, but here we are riding along. The conductor took our photo as we rode from North Little Rock across the Arkansas River to the River Market. Little Rock has a 2.5-mile River Rail Electric Streetcar line, so we rode to get a feel for the area from one end to the other: Well, it's time to wrap up this last post of our fun trip, and I haven't even written about our antique jaunts!

Vintage Market Days just happened to be taking place the weekend we were there, so we were flexible and added that to our plan notebook. Market Days was held at the Little Rock Fairgrounds--lots of vintage vendors were inside that old Cattle Barn. That was fun, and some treasures made their way home with us! Here's a fun item I bought from one of the vendors because I thought it summed up my motto quite well and was a good souvenir of our trip: As we made our way back to South Carolina going the southern route through Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, we stopped along the way to take a Mayfield Dairy Tour and browsed several antique shops:And last but not least....whenever I travel I always try to set up get-togethers with bloggers I might know in the areas I'm traveling. And this trip was no different!

I've read Tammy S.'s Love to Crochet and Knit blog for years, and she and her family had just moved a few days before to South Carolina. She actually contacted me about getting together, knowing that I'd be finishing up our trip at my sister's home in SC and knowing that her family would be moved there.

Yes, I'd love to get together! So here we are spending some time chatting and meeting in person for the first time! This was extra fun! Thanks so much, Tammy.

This whole trip was certainly a great adventure!Here are the links to previous posts in this series:

Two Sisters ~ Off to Arkansas!

Arkansas ~ There and Back Again! ~ Part 1, Gardens

Arkansas ~ There and Back Again! ~ Part 2, House

Arkansas ~ There and Back Again! ~ Part 3, Luncheon

Arkansas ~ There and Back Again! ~ Part 4, Presidential Library

 

 ~Deb

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Arkansas ~ There and Back Again! ~ Part 1, Gardens

Hellooo,....patient people! I promised to be back on the blog mid-June after returning from our sister trip to Arkansas to show you some of the sights my sister and I enjoyed while we were there. Bottom line: yes, we had a great time!

I arrived home this past weekend, and these last few days have been a wild ride of catching up! I'm still not unpacked! I think I should get to that today...

In the meantime, here we are at Moss Mountain Farm...the highlight and main reason for our trip!Unfortunately, umbrellas were the rule of the morning...here's part of our tour group headed out to the gardens. P. Allen Smith was just arriving and shook hands with us as he headed to the main house.

We were so glad to meet him and learn that he would be in attendance during our luncheon--something that couldn't be promised when I selected the date we would travel:We started the outside part of the tour at the barns/planting sheds where all sorts of plants were growing. P. Allen Smith is in partnership with Bonnie Plants for testing purposes, and everywhere we looked plants were growing--in huge pots, in the ground, and in the vegetable garden:Everything was well-maintained and wonderfully green and healthy!The lady in the straw hat on the right was our garden tour guide. All the vegetables were growing on both sides of this graveled walkway:We then made our way down to the Rose Garden:Here's another view. As you can see the area is beautiful, even though the sprinkles kept coming:My sister, Betty, in the Rose Garden: Like I mentioned, absolutely everywhere we looked there were beautiful flowers to see: I was taking pictures left and right while balancing my umbrella:Having a flower garden this beautiful takes a lot of work:And another view as I walked on: 

Pots and pots of flowers by the fountain:Here's the front of the house (only nine years old but made to look aged like an 1800's house would look) with our tour guide giving us information and instructions before we go inside for the house tour: And the house tour is Part 2...and the luncheon is Part 3, so stay tuned.

~Deb

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ April

 

For Today, Saturday, April 16

 

 

Outside my window...an absolutely beautiful spring day in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley with temperatures almost reaching 70. Unfortunately, the much-needed yard work was postponed until next week, but I did make a trip over to Jonathan's in-progress house today for the first time in quite a while--pictures further down in this post.

 

I am thinking...that Spring is my favorite season. I'm looking forward to pitching fresh mulch in my flower beds, filling the new bird feeders, and planting annuals in the watering cans down the front steps. Spring is a busy season!

 

 

I am thankful...that Sarah and baby boy are doing okay so far and are hanging in there! We traveled to GA to visit them over Easter weekend. Since Sarah was on bed rest while we were there, Hannah and I stayed busy in the kitchen:

Granny and my sister were able to travel with us to see Sarah and Eric's home for the first time and enjoyed getting to see them again. I'm sure Sarah would rather have been up and about hostessing us, but she was being a good girl and taking it easy:

We are praying: that the baby will wait quite a few more weeks (or months!) to be born! Sarah is now in the hospital on bed rest for the duration of the pregnancy.

 

We left Hannah in Georgia with her sister, originally to help out in the home with cooking and homemaking duties, but now she keeps Sarah company in the hospital each day.

 

Please pray with us that the Lord will sustain Sarah and the baby and keep them waiting patiently. Full term due date would be in August.

I am creating...a soft minky baby blanket for our little grandson. My sewing machine came out of hiding to get this finished before our trip:

Granny is creating...a custom basket for a customer. Once she began feeling better after a compressed fracture in February, she again started making baskets. I think it must help her recuperate faster to do something she enjoys so much:

 In my kitchen...well, as you can imagine...once Sarah got married in November and she wasn't around to help in the kitchen, there was some adjusting for me to do!

 

Now...I'm adjusting even more since Hannah has been in Georgia with her sister. A very dear friend and her husband came over and brought the whole entire meal one night recently. Here we are working together in the kitchen. What a fun blessing!:

I am visiting...our local Farmers' Market this morning:

Since the season started the first weekend in April, today was the first time I'd been down to the Wharf. Hannah and Sarah's Spot 22 was looking mighty lonesome, and their two smiling faces were missing since they both retired from vending at the end of last season.

 

I enjoyed walking around and seeing some familiar faces. Here's Farmer Brown's booth where we've made some delicious purchases in the past:

I am hoping...to get a lot more painting done on Jonathan's cabinets this coming week. We moved six over to his house this morning, and Tom worked on installing them.

 

On these six cabinets I've applied the primer coats and the first coat of paint. The final coat will be painted once installation is finished. I've been busy!:

I've been promising some pictures of the house, and here's the open living area with the hardwood floors finished and the painting done. All the paints are from the Williamsburg Color Collection, and all the downstairs is painted Cornice Tan:

I think Jonathan likes his house! He's done a ton of work on weekends and long nights since construction first began in September, 2014, and we're so proud of him:

The upstairs rooms are painted a variety of colors, and this is the beautiful gender-neutral green nursery, a shade called Levingston Green:

The carpet still needs to go down once all the trim has been painted. And there are several other work projects inside that need to be completed. I'll update again in the future.

 

I am learning...to wait patiently on the Lord.   "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waits for him." ~ Isaiah 64:4

 

One of my favorite things...showing hospitality to friends. Tom's best man in our wedding and his wife stopped by last week for an overnight visit. What a very fun reunion and time of catching up. I love new entries in our guest book!:

Whew! I hope that caught you up on the happenings around the Mountain Musings homestead. I've not been very faithful in writing on the blog this spring, have I?

 

But stay tuned...hopefully I won't be away as long next time!

 

~Deb

A Look Back at 2015 ~ Part 2

Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward. There is none to compare with You: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. ~ Psalm 40:5

We've been highlighting some special times and remembrances from 2015. Part 1 ~ Winter/Spring was posted here. And today begins Part 2 ~ Summer/Fall.

July, 2015...Georgia Visits Virginia. In July Eric and his family came to Virginia for a "courting visit." Fourth of July celebrations filled a fun weekend! Here's the gang around the picnic table: At the end of the weekend, we took a picture of both families together. Very fun times:Also in July we celebrated Granny's 87th birthday. Jonathan, Hannah, and Sarah brought in her favorite pound cake with a candle in the middle. I think turning 87 should certainly be a highlight to a year, don't you?August...Virginia Visits Georgia.

On this particular courting weekend we toured a historical home, painted a garage together, played games and more tennis, and visited an Olive Oil store. Here's Hannah tasting some flavors of vinegar: My friend, Victoria, and I visited a flower garden:There are actually so many pictures that I could post of visits from this summer between our families....but everything can't become a highlight! This is just a smattering to give you an idea.

This photo of Sarah and Eric together after church on Sunday is a nice highlight from our trip to Georgia:  

In August Tom and I celebrated our 35th Anniversary in Alexandria, Virginia.We wrote last year about our anniversary trip near the end of this post, along with other happenings around that time.

Someone volunteered to take our picture together here in front of Alexandria's City Hall and Market Square:Here we are enjoying a meal at Mount Vernon Inn.: One more entry before we wrap up the Summer portion of Looking Back at 2015...

Labor Day Weekend....Georgia Visits Virginia.

We wrote about Eric and Sarah's engagement on this post back in September. These are some extra photos from that weekend.

Here are Eric and Sarah after hiking to the top of Humpback Rock: A grilled fish taco picnic on the Blue Ridge Parkway: Labor Day finally arrived, and a fun scavenger hunt took place. Here's everyone trekking around the yard trying to find clues...Sarah was looking for "something."  Look what was waiting at the end of the hunt! Highlight of all highlights!!Here are the rest of us back at the house watching and waiting for Eric and Sarah to return from the proposal site: Now that the engagement was official, a wedding was planned for November!

Looking Back at 2015...Fall.

Since the wedding to-dos kicked into high gear, posting on the blog in October was almost non-existent, although there are three newly written posts I'd like to link to.

I dated them with October dates so they will appear on the blog in the order they happened back in October, 2015:

October, Dayton Days...Hannah and I sold baskets and soaps! Read about it here.

October...Friends came to visit, and I wrote about our special time here.

October, NCFIC Conference...we spent the weekend in Asheville. Read about it here.

The best highlight of 2015, Eric and Sarah's wedding: 

I hope you've enjoyed this look back at 2015. We're looking forward to the good things the Lord will bring about in 2016!

"I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old." ~ Psalm 77:11

~Deb

A Look Back at 2015 ~ Part 1

Most bloggers write their previous year's highlights post in early January. Well...Hello, February! How did you get here?!

We're finally getting around to "looking back" at a few of the memories of 2015...some photos may not have made the blog the first time around and others you might remember. And some events/happenings we didn't take time to put on the blog. Take a look:

Winter, 2015....A big portion of the winter was spent over at Jonathan's house helping with various building chores. My main job was writing verses on the studs all over the house. We blogged about it here and here:Last February, Tom's sister came to visit...fun times! We're anticipating another visit from Aunt Toots at the end of this month and hope that she isn't greeted with lots of the white stuff again: Also in February friends from over the mountain came to visit...we had lots of fun talking and playing games: Here I am with my friend: On the week leading up to Valentine's Day each year, Sarah makes meals for our family..lots of delicious and varied meals all week long! We all just love Sarah's Cooking Week!

I wonder if she's told her new husband, Eric, that she has to leave Georgia and come home to Virginia to cook for us all next week? Somehow I doubt it since it's his birthday week. We'll miss her Cooking Week for sure this year!

Last March Hannah introduced a new product, Beard Oil, on her website and blog. Jonathan was her tester, and here they are together after Hannah gave him a sniff to check out the fragrance: Also in March, Hannah and Sarah met with their friends Anna and Abigail for a delightful picnic lunch and some girl talk. These are the girls who were such wonderful helpers for Sarah's wedding in November....but who knew back in March that she'd be getting married last year? In March we also hosted our friends from PA, Nelson and Sarah and their family, who were overnight guests: Spring, 2015...In April we made a trek to Atlanta for the Civil War History Tour with historian, Bill Potter. Lots of families were on the tour, including our Atlanta friends here: Little did we know that Eric and Sarah's first real conversation in this graveyard on the tour would lead to friendship, courtship, and marriage:

Market Saturdays beginning in April were a huge part of 2015 for both Hannah and Sarah. Here's Tom with Granny and Hannah at the Memorial Day market:  In June we made a trek to Michigan to honor Micah as he graduated from his Residency program:On our route back to Virginia, we met up in Ohio with Eric and his family who were also traveling back home to Georgia from a weekend away. It was a great family lunch date and their first face-to-face meeting after their long-distance courtship started:Here we are getting better acquainted with the family: Well, that's just the first half of the year! More wonderful memories to come in the second half. What highlights will be next?

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.~ Psalm 103:2

Stay tuned for Part 2.

~Deb

Labor Day Weekend Baking

Anybody want a pie for their Labor Day picnic? I'll have plenty at market tomorrow, if you're in the area. ;) It's been a busy Friday of baking and preparing for company tomorrow. What does your weekend hold?

~Sarah

The First Four Weeks

Well, it's May, and we've already been at the farmer's market for a whole month! I think I'm STILL trying to get myself back in the routine of preparing and setting up each week.

The first morning was dark and chilly while getting ready for the Easter weekend crowd:

But later on the sun came out! Yay! And this vendor's pretty pansies brightened up the front row, since the veggies were still scarce.

This year, we have a new vendor...a fish farmer. This is the first time the Staunton market has offered fish, and it seems like they are doing well. They sell whole fresh fish, although you can pay more if you want them to clean and fillet it for you.

Gloria's Pupuseria has been at the market for a couple of years, but this year they have upgraded to a new BRIGHT food truck. They are becoming quite busy and popular! This past week, Hannah and I decided to get some pupusas to share, and it was a 30 minute wait. It was totally worth it, too. :)

Hannah introduced her new product, Stonewall Beard Oil, and has had many comments on it. One bearded vendor, when told that it tames the beard, said, "But I want my beard to be wild and free!" :) It's amazing how we both now notice all the men with beards who pass by when we didn't before!

Out of the 4 weeks of market so far, most of the Saturdays have been beautiful days with good sales. One week was really quite cold, with sleet off and on all morning, but other than that, it's been nice. This past Saturday was an annual 5K race that starts and ends right beside the market. It draws a big crowd of runners - it's nice when they decide to walk through the market after the race. :)

This vendor always brings such beautiful, colorful flowers. It's always nice to see her customers walking around market carrying bouquets from her booth. She usually has a bucket, as seen below, of single free flowers that she gives out to little kids. They love them!

As Mothers' Day is approaching, this vendor brings many, many hanging flower baskets and does a brisk business! 

Lots of us at the market like to walk around before the customers come out and chat with our fellow vendors. Varieties of veggies, weather, planting techniques, and more are common topics of conversation.

Our handy dandy chalkboards have been put to use once again this year, advertising our wares to the passing customers. I bought some more chalkboard paint this year to refresh both of our boards, and it made them like new and easy to write on.

Hannah's board is usually artfully decorated with flowers and other pretty chalk pictures. She often grabs people's attention by listing her more unusual items such as shampoo and shaving soaps - and now beard oil!

 

 

I have enjoyed seeing all my regular customers again after the winter off-season. One lady often comes by to purchase a linzer tart for the priest at her church, since she knows it's his favorite. Just this past week, she brought me a magazine she had finished. She had thought of me as soon as she saw it and wanted to pass it on. Wasn't that nice?!

That's the update on the market front these days. Tomorrow I'll be preparing lots of pie crusts ahead of my baking day - it's Mother's Day weekend, and I hope people will be buying a yummy dessert for the occasion. :)

~Sarah