Abundance…

Goodness, it’s been a crazy fall! I just realized it’s been nearly a month since our last blog post! Falling down on the job, I guess! (Or maybe just too busy at the job to have anything in my brain besides schnibbles!)

Let’s just say we’ve had an abundant autumn… in more ways than one! Lots of work to do, lots of places to go, and lots of wonderful people to see. A “great plenty” of blessings! And we’re looking forward to a very wonderful November… our sweet daughter Jo, our son-in-love Luke, and our dear little Grandboys will be visiting! And then it’ll be Thanksgiving and Christmas before we know it! Time sure does fly, doesn’t it!

We’re moving right along with Fall things… I’ve been wandering through punkin’ patches…

…chasing after turkeys (we seem to have an abundance of “Turkeys” around here!)…

… planning a feast with the Pilgrims & Indians…

… and generally living life abundantly!

I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly.
~John 10:10~

And we’re headed to Smith’s Fort Plantation this weekend… see you there!

Join, or Die.

Hubby and I laughed while setting up our table at Mount Vernon… I told him it looked like “War and Peace.” Half of the pictures were peaceful… Lions & Lambs in peaceful kingdoms, Distelfinks standing on hearts that say “Peace,” and lots of gentle quotes and Bible verses. The other half was a stark contrast… a Patriot on horseback brandishing a sword, tea being tossed of a ship in the Boston Harbor, and Patrick Henry raising his clenched fist at tryanny. After a good chuckle at our attempts to make these themes fit on the same table, we decided Thistle Dew Mercantile is definitely well-rounded.

One of our newest silhouettes was inspired by the “war” side of our well-roundedness. Friday morning, as we were packing to leave, I had an idea. The kind that’s not always the best thing to have as you’re packing to leave, as ideas can often mean that we don’t leave quite on time. This idea was inspired by a political cartoon created by Ben Franklin and published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. Hubby was a good sport and gathered up framing supplies to take with us, as I worked feverishly on the pattern. I was just finishing cutting the first one as we went over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It’s a little different from most of our cuttings, since it’s in pieces, instead of all one piece. I think that’s the point of the cartoon. I had to be really careful not to lose the snake pieces with the AC blowing in the van!

And it was the first thing to sell on Saturday morning.

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.
~Thomas Jefferson~

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

We returned home today from Mount Vernon’s Colonial Crafts Fair, and had a wonderful weekend! The weather was much more cooperative than last weekend’s… not a single drop of rain! There were so many wonderful crafts, fun entertainment, talented musicians, and we especially enjoyed the Virginia hospitality!

When we pulled into the driveway, we were greeted by freshly washed clothes hanging on the line, a “Welcome Home!” note on the door, fresh flowers on the table, and new homemade curtains… Somebunny had been busy… and somehow managed to hide those curtains from me as she was sewing them! Thanks Kate!

And… tomorrow at noon, American Folk Art is updating it’s theme! Head on over there to see some pumpkin-inspired folk art!

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!

A few updates…

I just had a chance to update our website’s main page, and added a couple of things to our Currently for Sale page! (And subtracted quite a few… thank you to our dear customers!) If you get a chance, go take a peek over there!

The papercutting above is I think my very favorite new design… it was fun to work with a limited palette of blues, greens, and golds, and also to incorporate those fun fraktur flowers! The basket was inspired by those seen in old theorem paintings. Scherenschnitte always seems to “come to life” for me with the final touches of ink and lettering, but this one was alive from the get-go, with the happy colors & florals!

And before I go, I thought I’d share this little critter with you… I caught him with the camera a couple of weeks ago. He was a very tiny “little man that goes to church” (our family’s term for a praying mantis… dubbed so by a little cousin of mine many moons ago!) in the music room… he was maybe an inch long?

However, he took offense at being photographed and begin waving his arms and coming toward me…

… and climbed right over the lens to attack me!

Sorry for the blurry picture… it was taken in haste! He was a fiesty little critter, and soon thereafter was placed out-of-doors. Mostly due to the GET-HIM-OFF-OF-ME tone of voice I had as I was requesting help from Hubby Dear. Who, by the way, thought the entire situation was hilarious.

Thought you’d get a laugh too!

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!