More done and another show in the books...

Last week I made two new fragrances of soap- Chamomile and Bergamot. I don't think they will be ready for Musikfest with all this humidity but maybe for the last weekend if I am lucky and can crank up the dehumidifier in the workshop.

I also was a crafter at the WXPN XPoNential Music Festival down in Wiggins Park at the Camden Water front. Pros: good music, good volume of sales, nice organizer. Cons: windy, getting lost in Camden, individual sales were low $.

I was referred to this show a few years ago and am glad that I finally got to do it. I was really bummed that the Toby Keith concert at the other side of the marina was going on when the only band I really wanted to see- They Might Be Giants- was on.. so I din't really get to hear them play but a few songs.

The booth was right on the water and the wind certainly made things interesting. They came by and tied everyone down and provided additional weights for people who needed it. C did a great job when we set up and we needed no additional tie down, which was cool. At the end, a storm was comming so volunteers helped people tear down and pack to get us out before the rains came. If they got the stom we drove through on the way home, it would have been a nightmare to packup in that deluge.

There isn't many vendors, maybe 15 or so. I hope to be back next year, it was fun and could turn into a good show in a better economy. It is sort of expensive, but since I like the music it isn't all bad.

My past week or so...

Well I have made a quite a bit of soap, mostly Egyptian Cotton and Lavender-Patch. I wanted to make sure I had enough to get me through Musikfest and into the fall. I also worked on Merlot soap and am experimenting on using a slightly different recipes, so hopefully it won't be quite so crumbly in the future.

I also worked on making samplers. The last for the year I think. I have run out of crates and they are so expensive I don't think I will be buying anymore this year if I can help it. Last time I bought them I bought enough for 2 years and I probably will do that again, so I have to be sure I have enough room to store them all too.

I have harvested about 1/2 of my garlic from the garden, about 20 or so cloves. Some are really small, I think my soil got too compacted, but some are huge so I think I will have more garlic than I need for quite a while. I have also been harvesting beans, a handful here and there. I like these that I am growing because the harvest is ongoing. Last year I planted some that you harvested all at the same time and then they were done, so I had a ton that I had to eat right away, this year I can have some every week.

My tomatoes are growing and have little green tomatoes. I am wondering what kind my volunteers will be. I sort of hope they are yellow, since the ones I plated are red. I also found a few more volunteers amongst the wonderberry... The wonderberry are flowering, the cauliflower is almost ready to harvest, the green peppers have flowers, and the luffa is growing so tall pretty soon I will need to harvest it from my second story bathroom window!

I met a nice crafter who reads my blog. At first I thought it was odd, she knew so much about me and I knew so little about her, but then I felt almost famous in a silly way. But we were neighbors at the Blueberry festival and we had a good time being next to each other, so I think I made a new friend:)

OK, i am off to do work. I have been lazy today. The heat and hours of the Blueberry fest kicked my butt and I am tired and sore. I have to get back into shape for these shows, I lack the stamina. But since I have 5 weekends in a row now, I think I will be back in shape in no time!

Blueberry Festival at Burnside Plantation

UGH!! 28% down in sales. Only about 40 crafters this year, and I would say 1/2 of them were lame (or not even crafts...). 10% of the crafters were soapmakers.

Me and another business usually are there and our items are so different it doesn't matter and hasn't mattered to my sales. I would have been livid if I was them, because the promoters actually put another soapmaker right next to them! I mean as they both set up I thought it was the one business expanding, not two seperate places.

As usual, although sales were down, I did meet some new people and I saw a lot of supporting, friendly, repeat customers. What a blessing! One person said she came just for me and to get bath fizzies, and given the show has an $8 entrance fee, that is a HUGE compliment!!!

I am going to have to really think about this one next year. I am going to look through my list of shows at some that I have never tried because this one has been so good in the past, and think about trying something new next year. Also, it will depend if K is in town next summer or not, it is certainly a show she could do by herself now, so that may be an option as well.

I hate to see a good show falter and this one has been teatering on and off for a while, but at least sales have been steady for me in the past. I am looking at it in a positive light- I have a brand new show next week, so I am hoping that fate is telling me I will need the inventory there!!

Some more knitting related stuff...

I got to meet a fellow Ravelry member last week. JMknitster and I met up at Mountain Knits and Pearls and had a lovely time. First was breakfast at a local diner and then some yarn shopping. The camera battery was dead so the owner of the shop took a pic for us and sent it so we could have it. How cool!!!

I have also been trying to finish a bunch of old projects. I completed a sweater that was over a year old and a skirt that I started just about a year ago as well. I finished some charity items and am starting to seam together the afghan I am knitting so I don't have it all to do in December when it is complete.

Cooking my CSA

We joined a CSA this year. For those of you not "in the know", CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically I prepay a local farm for food that I pick up once a week during the growing season. This gives the farm some opperational cash during a quiet time and during planting, and gets me farm fresh veggies once a week at a considerable savings from my local farmer's market.

But every week they bounty is a surprise, and every week I need to figure out what in the heck I am going to make from the food.

In the beginning it was easy, I got lots of lettuce and spinach and peas- so lots of salad. Then radishes- fo radish salad.. and then it started- I got Swiss Chard. What in God's name is Swiss Chard?? After being happy that umanity had invented Google, I searched and learned it would be sort of like Kollard Greens. So I would like it, and C wouldn't. So one night I made myself up Swiss Chard with bacon for dinner....

Then what to do with my Zuchini (since I can't eat zuchini bread unless it is gluten free).. off to my cookbooks where I found an Amish recipie for Zuchini skillet. Basically ground beef, zuchini and other vegies.. Very yummy...

The basil became pesto sauce...

The peas became Risi E Bisi- risotto with peas. Yummy too! I think the freshness of the veggies really is taking this food to the next level..

I have lots of leftovers for this week without C and I still have some peas to figure out what to do with. But I am looking forward to this weeks surprise and can't wait to figure out what to cook next!

Revenge for what I put my parents through...

I don't want to go into too much detail, I need to protect the innocent. Lets just say that a child of a friend (who is a young adult now) went for an "adventure" this weekend- visiting a person that they met via the internet, many hours away (albeit at this person's parent's house).

I was told of this adventure, in confidence, so that if anything was to go wrong at least someone would know this young adult's whereabouts. I asked to be texted along the way so I knew of their safety. After the initial "I am here" there was silence- I went to be worrying, I woke up and worried, I texted, I called, I e-mailed....

I learned that the phone was off to conserve battery and that all was OK. But during this time I imagined having to go and tell parent's of the adventure and having to deal with some awful calamity.

And then I thought that by the time I was this person's age I had gone off to live in Nevada, at the other side of the country, with friends my parents had never met, and no job until I found one, and no car, and no apartment. Wow, I really put them through hell. And this was life's revenge...