Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails…

thistledewmercantile — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:28:21 +0000

… That’s what little boys are made of.

Guess who visited us this past week? Our daughter Jordan, her hubby Luke, and our two grandboys, Jackson and Derik!

Here they are sharing nicely!

Now who could resist mooching these sweet cheeks? We almost wore them out!

Or playing cars with this little guy? (And grabbing a kiss on the go!)

As you can tell, we had a grand week! We had tea parties (yes, little guys do like tea, especially if Oreo’s are involved!)…

and fed the chickens…

and the goat…

and washed and packed eggs…

and swang on swings…

and got sleepy…

… and took naps (I volunteered for nap duty… I think I wear out as quickly as the boys!)

and woke up the next morning to crow with the roosters!

My girl went home to California yesterday afternoon with all three of her guys, and it was quiet here this morning.

A little too quiet.

Abundance…

thistledewmercantile — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:56:33 +0000

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.

thistledewmercantile — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:13:01 +0000

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!

thistledewmercantile — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:21:01 +0000

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!

Rain, Rain, Go Away…

thistledewmercantile — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:44:03 +0000

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!

thistledewmercantile — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:04:16 +0000

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.

thistledewmercantile — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:11:02 +0000

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…

thistledewmercantile — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:12:06 +0000

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!

Hot, Hot Hot… American Folk Art Update!

thistledewmercantile — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:58:03 +0000

We are officially having a heat wave here on Delmarva! We really can’t complain, since we’ve had such a lovely summer, but the past week has been HOT. The stay inside and crank the AC sort of HOT. Which is a perfect opportunity to work on papercuttings. My current work station is sitting on a little kid’s stool at our coffee table…

The air conditioner is in the window six feet behind me, and I alternate between having in on and freezing my back, and having it off and getting HOT. (Note the air conditioner remote control thingie sitting right in the middle of the muddle.) It’s a delicate balance. Just ask my family.

Kate’s little corner of the world is across from me at the other end of the coffee table. She’s working on some cute fall stitchings to put in the store…

Perched between us is a stack of inspiring magazines… we’re currently into self-sufficiency sorts of magazines. Most likely because we know the electric meter is spinning around in furious circles as I flip the AC on and off. Maybe we can come up with a solar-powered air conditioner. Hmmm….

Of interest on this HOT day… today at noon, American Folk Art is updating it’s theme! The theme of the day is Dog Days of Summer, which I think is incredibly appropriate. Pop on over and check it out!

A new old treasure.

thistledewmercantile — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:18:04 +0000

On one of our recent antiquing excursions I found a new old book. Nothing terribly surprising about that, because books are what I usually have in my hand when leaving antiques shops. Only now that I’m older, no longer a homeschooling mom, and have overflowing bookshelves, I’m a little more discerning about buying books in antiques shops. They have to really catch my eye or tug at my heartstrings. Or be deeply profound. This one was all three.

It was a little scruffy looking on the outside, but the name “Eric Sloane” told me there was good stuff inside. I used to buy Eric Sloane’s books for the pictures and historical reference. They would sit on the shelf until I needed to know what a plow or a spinning wheel really looked like. And then one day I read one of his books. Let me tell you, they are historically interesting… but they are also very profound. Mr. Sloan had great insight to what we used to have as Americans and what we’ve lost somewhere along the way. We weren’t in the car five minutes before I started reading aloud quotes from the introduction to Hubby and Daughter Dear. (They’re used to it by now.) This was one of my favorites…

The truth is that 1776 belongs to 1776. We cannot hope to recapture the old ways easily, partly because we have so destroyed our past but also because we ourselves have become different. The godly, frugal, content, thankful, work-loving man of yesterday has now become the money-oriented, extravagant, discontented, thankless, work-shunning man of today. The original spirits of America past have become worn out, obsolete, and not very adaptable to modern living.

What’s amazing to me is that quote was written over thirty years ago. It sure fits for today. Sloane then goes on to quote Abraham Lincoln, written over a hundred years earlier… and I’m sure this quote seemed just as amazing to him. Matter of fact, Eric Sloane called this quote profound…

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

Thought you’d like those quotes. July is a Red, White, and Blue month for me… but it’s more than flag waving and firecrackers. It’s honoring the principles our forefathers honored. Common sense and an old-fashioned work ethic. Liberty and justice and loving God with your heart, mind, and soul. I hope to always have the spirit of 1776, even though it’s 2009.