Earring-a-palooza

In the past week or so I've made 31 pairs of earrings. Earrings are my LEAST favorite things to make, so when I do them I do a LOT of them all at once. I make the silver parts all along and when earring inventory starts to dwindle I sit down with all my silver bits and beads and ear wires and do a batch of earrings. Some have beads, some are plain silver. Some are oxidized, some are shiny. This should replenish my stock for the rest of the season and now all that needs to be done is to match up the pairs, put them on cards and price them. Whew. Now I can move on to the fun stuff.

Beautiful Garden Pictures

My friend Kimberly was visiting recently and took these lovely photos of my garden. Thank goodness they're close-ups, because I'm not happy with the garden this year. It's over grown and many things need dividing and I haven't felt like doing any weeding, so some weeds are bigger than the flowers. Ugh. But Kimberly has shown me that there's still beauty if you get close.

Thank you, Kimberly!

Same Old, Same Old

Things around here are just floating along, one day flows into the next with little difference between today and yesterday. There's not a lot of exciting things happening with me. I had some company this past weekend, dear friends from Charlotte who were delighted to get away from the 90+ degree heat. I thought it was muggy and hot here, but they thought they were in heaven. It was so nice to see them and wonderful to get out of my routine. I stayed up way past my bedtime! They brought their dog, who totally ignored Lola, so there was no hissing or fur flying, thank goodness. I don't know that she had ever been around a dog before and I was so proud of her!

My Saturday Morning

I like to get up early on Saturdays in the summer and go to the Watauga County Farmer's Market. It's not only a where I like to get fresh, local, mostly organic produce, but it's quite the social event. I never know who I'll see there. It's held only on Saturday mornings from April through June, then also on Wednesdays from July through October. This is the "big" Farmer's Market. There's another small one in Blowing Rock on Thursdays. It's "L" shaped, the photo above only shows part of it.  Who could resist this?

My friend, David, is a world-famous wood turner turned "Gentleman Farmer", as he likes to call himself. His farm is just over the ridge from me. Before the new highway was built there used to be a huge yellow sign on the old road that said "Fog Likely Next 4 Miles". And it's true. If there's any wind from the east at all, we're covered in fog. David named his farm Fog Likely Farm and people that have lived around here when that sign was up know exactly where he's located.

You can also buy flowers and furniture for your yard:

And, there's lots of crafts for sale, too. This is Susan spinning wool that she felts. She's one of our newest co-op members.

This is a view on the way home. Its so muggy today it's almost palpable. See why they call these the Blue Ridge Mountains? As my Mama used to say "If it doesn't rain today it will miss a good opportunity." I bet we get a thunderstorm this afternoon.

Then a quick stop at the Deep Gap Post Office to see if anyone sent me money. Darn. Only bills today!

And then headed down the lane:

To home.

These are my purchases for today. I have to be careful not to buy so much food that it spoils before I can eat all of it. The flowers just make me smile. I'll add a few from my own garden to make the boquet even more beautiful.

All this and home by 9:00 a.m., before it gets too hot. Now to wait on those thunderstorms. And I wonder what else the day will bring?