Rain, Rain, Go Away…

Well, we’ve pretty much had a monsoon the last day or so. And lots of gray & drizzly before that. I don’t mind, really, because we’ve had plenty to do inside this week, and the store has been BUSY since we opened! But, Hay Creek was cancelled for today, so we’re leaving today instead of yesterday. (Which gave us more time to get more things in frames!)

We’ve had a grand time with our new fall designs… and just updated the Current Designs Page with a few things! Keep an eye there, as we add designs, and also on the Gallery. We’ll be moving a lot of designs over there, just so you can see them. It’s going to be pretty much impossible to keep a currently available list on the website for the next couple of months, but if you see something, we just might have it in stock… or we’ll be glad to make it for you if not!

Hope you all have a honey-drenched (instead of rain-soaked!) weekend!

Peaceful Tidings!

Sounds a little Christmas-y for early September, but Early American Life’s Christmas issue just arrived in our mailbox, and we’re excited about what’s on page 54!

Schnibbles and Bits… or the state of things.

This photo just about sums up my life at the moment:

That’s about all the schnibbles I can balance on my cutting board without spilling them. I think I dumped at least three loads of schnibbles in the trash today. Yesterday I had an incredible creative thought to save them and make handmade paper with them for Christmas presents. Today that thought seemed absolutely insane, so I threw away yesterday’s collection of paper bits. Wild imaginings and occasional melt-downs sometimes often happen the week before shows start.

Hubby said to take a picture of the tables, so as to give a better impression of the state of things. Here’s the art room table (Note the Very Important Cup of Coffee!):

And the dining room table… which must be cleared for birthday cake by tomorrow night (Somebunny’s turning 20 tomorrow!):

Extreme papercutting. It should be a new sport.

I’m off to soak in a hot tub with lots of bubbles and MJ’s latest magazine. Maybe I’ll get some more creative ideas!

Oh dear.

In Celebration of September…

In honor of today being the first of September, it was wondrously cool here in Delaware. In the 70’s all day, beautiful blue skies, and a soft breeze. I am ready for fall to get here for good. Really ready. Beyond ready. Can you tell I love fall?

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry’s cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I’ll put a trinket on.

~Emily Dickinson~

It’s still a few more weeks until it’s officially my favorite time of year, but one has got to be in the proper frame of mind to carve pumpkins out of paper! A cool day was just what I needed…

I’ve not been very wordy lately… maybe thinking in pictures instead of words as we’re hitting the “get-ready-for-the-shows” crunch? Lots of new things are starting to find their way into frames, though, and I’ll try to post some pictures as they get finished up! Our first show this year is the Hay Creek Festival… it’s a wonderful mix of history, folk crafts, iron working, steam & gas, music, and really really really good things to eat. (Hubby and I eat Chicken Bot Boi every day while we’re there. Sometimes twice a day. We’re usually first in line asking when it will be ready.) If you can make it, stop by our booth and say “hello!”… we’ll be up on the hill!

Wishing you all a great September!

Itty Bitty. And Not So Itty Bitty.

Mini’s are back!!!

We’ve sold mini papercuttings for many years, but we bought the miniature frames unfinished and grain-painted them. They were so tiny that Chris wasn’t sure he wanted to make them. (He’s become quite attached to his fingers, and two inches is just a little too close to tablesaw blades for his liking!) However, the inevitable happened, and our supplier stopped making them a couple of years ago. So we bought all we could and used them sparingly. Last spring, we ran out. It was a sad day.

In a burst of creative energy this summer, Hubby Dear decided he would try making them, and figured out a way to do it safely. Our first batch of mini scherenschnitte, in our very own Itty Bitty frames made right here on the farm is  ready to go…

And a close-up, since they’re hard to see…

They’re slightly smaller than 3″ x 3″ and 3″ x 4″, and are $24 and $26, respectively. The frames are Hills & Valleys or Tiger Stripe, in either Cranberry or Umber. Colors vary slightly… sometimes the reds & blues are switched (except on the flag of course, because that would be not right.) and the larger eagles say America! or Liberty! or Freedom! Three of our favorite words. I think they deserve exclamation points. Especially when written very small.

Something else we did today was to list a couple of early limited edition pieces on Ebay… we re-painted the living room a while back, and some of the things that used to hang on the walls never made it back onto the walls. Actually, very little has been re-hung… I’m really liking the white space. Must be middle age? In the midst of the folk art that didn’t get re-hung were two limited edition pieces from a while back…If you click on their titles, you’ll find the link…

Blessed is the Nation

…and…

God Grants Liberty

They need a good home!

And before I sign out, you’ve got to go take a peek at some Itty Bitty things that aren’t so Itty Bitty anymore… our sweet little Grand Boys! Jordan just put up the cutest pictures, and Nana’s are allowed to brag a bit, aren’t they? And while you’re there, check out Jo’s new photography site! It’s fabulous!

How eXciting!

I finally had a chance to pick a winner for the free papercutting! First I jotted everyone’s name on little slips of paper…

And then I folded them up…

And put them in a mug…

And had Kate pick one out…

Congratulations DiXymiss!!! I’ll get it on its way to you!

(Did I give it away in the title of the post?)

Scratch & Dent Freebie…

Actually it’s not scratched or dented. At one of our spring shows, we had a very rainy day, and fortunately, this picture was the only casualty. The damage was so minute that we just discovered it. So, it’s either toss the papercutting and recycle the frame, or offer it as a Freebie on the blog! I thought you all might like the Freebie idea.

It’s a pretty Pennsylvania German floral, with my very favorite Bible verse penned around the border… Philippians 4:8. The water damage is a little smudge in the bottom right hand corner…

… and you pretty much need your bifocals on to see it. If you’d like to be included in the drawing, just leave a comment on this post, and I’ll randomly select one on June 30th. (Please make sure you leave your e-mail as you comment… not in the post, but in the “posting process” so I can get in touch with you!) Winner to be announced as soon as I can get a post up in July! 

The only gift is a portion of thyself.
~ Emerson ~ 

Etsy, revisited.

Hello folks! We’ve been working tonight on getting our long-neglected Etsy site up and running again. Hopefully, we’ll be putting some of our picture frames on there, but all we managed tonight was to upload a set of small scherenschnitte… Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. I added them in the correct order (like the old S & G song) but forgot that they would show up backward, so the song reference lost something in the translation.

On a happy note, we saw PEOPLE in the store today! Mom and I have been getting a little lonely wondering where everyone was hiding, but we had folks in all day today! And they were happy people, which means a lot to two lonely shopkeepers! We had tea and discussed its many virtues with a lovely Scottish lady who was nearly 90 years old. She had played 9 holes of golf before she came to the store today with her two daughters. I hope I’m doing that good at 90! 

Have a good night and God Bless!

After Show Updates!

Hello Folks! We’ve just spent the last 5 hours or so scanning and adding pictures to our Currently for Sale page… and we ended up adding Page 2 and Page 3  because it was getting so crowded! Now that we’re home from our spring shows and I can keep track of what we have, we can finally add all those things to the website we’ve been working on this year! There’s still more to come, so check back in the next couple of days. I just got too bleary-eyed to do any more. 

 

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on Thee.
~ Isaiah 26:3 ~ 

Apples of Gold in Settings of Silver…

Hello folks! Just wanted to let everyone know that American Folk Art updated it’s theme today at noon! “May Apples” is the new theme, and I know there will be some great folk art to check out over there! Go take a peek!

Apples of Gold
11″ x 11″ Framed Size
(Frame is Burnt Umber Hills & Valleys with Swirled Corners) 

This is one of my favorite verses from Proverbs! I think still life paintings are my favorite to do… but the silver bowl was a challenge! (Especially on paper that’s been stained brown to look old!) The frame wouldn’t fit in the scanner, so I scanned it frameless!

Our other contribution is…

 

Paradise Lost
8″ x 10″  Framed Size
(Cranberry Folk Swirl Frame)

 What a lot of trouble those apples caused! The biblical story of Adam and Eve is one of my favorite themes to use! (It’s a bit of a challenge to keep them modest though!) Here it is in the New England Primer… homeschool families are partial to early primers! We actually used a lot of these old readers when teaching the girls to read. McGuffey’s was our favorite!