A Pretty Autumn Day Drive, and a Partial Reveal

Back in March I posted a few pics of my drive from VA to MD via the ferry. I went to see June (Hi, June! *waves*) again today, and I took the same drive back to MD, so I thought you'd like to see some pics of my lovely, lovely drive.

This is White's Ferry Road. Just after you turn off the main road, you get this. It is not even wide enough to sport a line down the middle! So peaceful and quiet.

The road bends at a right angle next to the river, and this house is on the left as you take the curve. I covet this house.

With that house on the left, this is the shot out the right side of the car. The Potomac River. Just lovely.

Driving to the end of the road. At the very end, it makes a really sharp turn, which, coming the other way on a bike is a real b1tch. I speak from experience.

Just before the last turn is this sign, which must be new, or else I've never seen it before. The ferry was headed to the other side, so I had plenty of time. I got out of the car to take this shot. 1782! We're talking history here, people!

From under that sign, I turned and saw: my car - I am first in line! My car is pointing 180 degrees from the road I was just on. Told you it was a sharp turn!

Sitting in my car, and here comes the ferry!

This is the approach on the MD side of the river. See how steep that ramp is? Uh-huh. Try it on a bike some time, from a dead stop. I think I walked it on this side.

This is the store and snack bar. You can rent canoes here and all sorts of things.

See those high water marks? Yeah, difficult to believe, but the water got that high. It happens when you are this close to the river.

Side story: I just caught the top of a red truck in this pic. The guy stopped to ask me about the ferry, and how else he could get over to VA. I told him the ferry was only $4 one way, and it was a good deal. He grumbled. His GPS had told him he could take this road to get to VA. This is true, you can! If.you.take.the.ferry.to.the.other.side. The road has the same name on both sides of the river. He wanted directions to go around by land. I gave them. He went back to his GPS. It told him that was almost 40 miles. Uh-huh - yep. TAKE THE FERRY! It drops you at the same point you'd end up if you drove around. So he checked with the lady cooking my hot dogs on the grill. She told him the exact same thing. Geez, for $4, TAKE THE FERRY!

She said a lot of people stop in because their GPS has them at the dead end at the river. She has to convince every one of them to TAKE THE FERRY! I am so glad I can read a map. I mean, these are some serious back roads here, and he was taking his GPS instructions blindly. That's just crazy! But I digress. I am on vacation, so I chilled. Oooohhhhhhmmmmm... all better. Actually, we just laughed after he left. She watched my doggies and I made sure he got on the boat. Heh heh.

Yep, we are in the South. Check out that flag, bottom left. Uh-huh.

Okay, enough of the beautiful great outdoors! I was going to wait until I had all the cabinet doors installed before I did a reveal, but I am too tired this evening to install them, so I'll hold off on the official tour until I get them done. But for now, I'll give you an After view of The Other Room. I need a drum-roll please!

Are you ready?

Ta-Da! This is The Big Empty. I even vacuumed! Isn't it amazing? I just stood there and looked at it. But wait! The first thing I did was this:

I added a 4' table. Not 6', just 4'. Niiiice.

So! Whatdya think? I know, you never saw any Before pics, but let me tell you, I literally had paths to get to the closets. I'll see if I can dig up any of those to show you.

Once I get the doors installed, I'll do a quick tour of what is where.

Okay, off to get in a little stamping this evening. Thanks for stopping by!

Spot The Mistake - We Have A Winner!

First of all, let me just say you are ALL over-achievers! You never fail to find mistakes even *I* did not see, and I thank you for that. No, really!

The one mistake on which *I* was focussed was the it's instead of its in this sentence:

I spied this dress in one of the tents and needed to take it's picture.

Other than that, you guys also found these boo-boos:

--> (Was that a redundant statement? Is anal-retentive hyphenated?
I left off the ending parenthesis. ACK!

-->I used to grow these, but mine were green, not purple on the outside.
Missing comma after not purple.

--> missing apostrophe from Maters and taters
You know what? YOU ARE CORRECT and I am horrified! All these years I have been abbreviating those words and not inserting the requisite leading apostrophe! OMG, I am so ashamed.

--> the offerings and quantities of veggies is beginning to wane
Should be are beginning to wane. CORRECT! I missed this one, too. *hangs head in shame*

And a few Nice Try's, but NOT mistakes:
--> Butternut vs Buttercup squash
--> Acorn vs Buttercup squash
Nope. When she said Buttercup, I asked "Butternut?" and she said no, Buttercup.

NOW, to pick a winner. At this moment I'd like to give you ALL something for being so NICE and for reading this blog in the first place, but alas, I only have one item selected this time, so there can only be one winner. And I select ... drum-roll, please ... oh, the tension is building ... ... ... Zanne! YAY! Who-hoo! The crowd goes wild!

Zanne - please send me an email with your mailing address and I'll get your goods in the mail!

Thanks for playing, everyone!

A Witchy Monday

I am in Week 2 of my Staycation, and what a whirl-wind day today was! I started with an 8:00 am Dentist appt (just my 6-month cleaning), then I hit the grocery store(s) and the liquor store. Got home, and did a refrigerator purge ... rummaged though all the stuff that kept getting pushed to the back and purged it right out of there! Then I emptied a few old boxes of SU stuff to see what I forgot I had, then I STAMPED.

Note: I had to go to two stores, cuz one did not have everything I needed. And after two stores, I ended up with about 15 items, and only 1 of the original 3 things I started out to get. Isn't that always the way? Grrr ....

Remember this card from yesterday? Well the other two I made came out completely different(ly). This happens to me a lot, largely because I am incapable of stamping anything straight and I need to embellish to make it look like I meant to do that.

For this one I have three buttons instead of one because there is a glob of adhesive under the ribbon that needed to be hidden.

And the sentiment is one I salvaged from a base that was actually trashed. I stamped the sentiment crooked on the base, so I stamped it again on a scrap and cut it out with a Nestie and layered it on a Modern Label punch shape. That was all to cover up the mis-stamped sentiment. Then something else went horribly wrong and I had to dismantle the whole parts-is-parts of the card and start over with a new base. This is the resulting card. Sigh.

And for this one, that oval was actually my first attempt at the above card - to cover up the crooked sentiment - but it was too big, so I used it on this card on purpose!

The next project in my staging area was to make some more "Things just haven't been the same since that house fell on my Sister." cards. Last time I used the PTI house from Boards & Beams, as it was the right size for the witchy feet, but this time I decided to forget all about scale and I used my new, smaller house instead (less coloring).

I am pretty happy with how these turned out! The patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding 12x12 pack(s) I got a few years ago (or whenever it was first out). The ribbon is a 12-yd roll from Martha Stewart that I had to have a year or so ago (it is green, after all) and I finally used it!

I mentioned to someone about these cards, and she said the sentiment would be funnier if it was said about the other person - she changed it up to: "You just haven't been the same since that house fell on your Sister."

HA! Oh, this one could be a best-seller! What a fun way to tell someone they are being witchy!

Okay, I have a few more projects queued up in the Staging Area, so I should have something to show you tomorrow. AND, tomorrow morning I plan to head back to IKEA and get the right doors for my cabinets. If I can manage to get them installed tomorrow, too, I'll do a FULL REVEAL on The Other Room. I PROMISE!

Thanks for stopping by!

Some Aging Rockers

I did some minor stamp storage re-organizing this morning, and along the way I rediscovered some stamps and remembered why I'd bought them, so today's plan was to make three or four projects, several cards each.

First I finished up my Dragon Fly magnets, and one of my Tweeple bought all of them! She did, and I love her for it! Now I need to make more to sell at my markets. ;-)

Then I grabbed some of my brighter-colored Basic Grey paper to use with my retired SU rocking chair and a Viva Las Vegas Stamps sentiment. On a scale of 1 to 10, I hate these. But some stuff I do not like actually sells, so I have no plans to trash them. I just think I was operating outside my comfort zone.

First one: I started layering and could not stop. I did not like it and kept adding more, which is not always the best plan of attack. But I DID sneak in some ribbon. ;-)

Version 2: The colors are right, but I am not feeling the love.

Version 3: I like how the dots get smaller and smaller, but I am not convinced, even now, that the orange dotted ribbon was a wise choice. In fact, I am pretty sure it was not.

Version 4 (and last): This is perhaps my favorite of the four, which is not really saying much.

I do not like spending an entire afternoon on four cards that I do not like. :-(

I then snapped out of it and made this next card:

Same Basic Grey papers, but I fell back into my comfort zone and it seems to work better for me.

Check out those ribbons! The blue card stock I used is the retired Bermuda Bay, and I hoarded all matter manner of Bermuda Bay ribbon at the end of the catalog year back in June. Sooooo happy I did. I used some of that blue satin. Yummy stuff!

Ta-da! A Leslie card! I even stamped the freakin' sentiment crooked.

I think I'll go make some Chanukkah cards, or maybe some witchy cards, both of which are in my staging area. I'll report back later on how those go.

Thanks for stopping by!

ETA: Don't forget to enter my Spot The Mistake contest!

Spot The Mistake!

It is time for another round of Spot The Mistake! I found a boo-boo in yesterday's post, and I did not correct it on purpose! I have a little something (actually, it's kinda big) already in a mailing envelope for the winner of this round. Please post your answer on THIS post by 10 pm Monday, Eastern Time (USA). I will select a winner from all the correct responses through some random, non-scientific process.

Have at it!

Market Update (long)

Fall is in the air, and the market is definitely winding down for the season. We are open through the Saturday before Thanksgiving, but the offerings and quantities of veggies is beginning to wane. One of the farmers will only be coming for another week or two, then they'll be done for the season. Farmer Mike, on the other hand, would go all through the Winter if he could, and calls the rest of us pansies for copping out. To make up for this treatment, I take pictures of his veggies every week, even though he threatens to start charging me for the privilege.

Today was slow for everyone, but especially for moi. Slow, as in: zero dollars. Zero sales. Z-E-R-O. Only my second zero day in 5 years, so I cannot complain much, but you know I will. ;-) So I had LOTS of time to take pics today.

Maters. I took home a bunch of these.

Goose-neck gourds - painted like the one I have. They come in all different shapes and sizes, depending on how the gourd grew.

Peppers and onions (or orn-yons, if you are a Justin Wilson fan, may he rest in peace.)

Sweet taters. Not orange on the inside.

All sorts of varieties of squash. (Was that a redundant statement? Is anal-retentive hyphenated?

Bell peppers. I took home a bunch of these, too. Mostly the ones that are multi-colored. Love them!

Hot peppers. NONE of these came home with me.

Farmer Mike's successful block. Did I mention he is thinking of charging me for taking pics of his veggies? (That sounded odd, didn't it?)

Poblanos. A ton of these came home with me, too. Gonna sooo make some more poppers with these! They were really good!

Basil. It is so unfair to have to sit near a farmer selling fresh basil, or any other fresh herb, come to think of it. It smells so good every time someone touches it. So I bought some.

Fennel. Mine. A gift from Farmer Mike. I ate this today while I was busy not selling anything. (I am not bitter about the not selling anything.)

The Rock Lady had these cute little piggies. Momma and babies! Look at the eyelashes on Mom!

Meece. I have always thought that the plural of mouse should be meece, not mice. I think I'll submit that to the dictionary people and see if they'll bite.

Bunnies!

Then this arrived sporting two people. The lady was lounging in the recumbent front part and the guy in the back was doing all the work. I need to find out how to get in on this gig. Just think: I could go 70 miles and never have to pedal. Sweet!

A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. So handsome!

These are Buttercup squash. I thought they looked like they were doubles, like one was inside the other, but nope, these are normal.

Well, this one is normal. Those other ones were overachievers in the growth department, but she said it is not unusual.

Mmmm, Kohlrabi! I used to grow these, but mine were green, not purple on the outside. I slice them thin and dip them in sour cream. (Note to self: go get some sour cream.) The farmer was trying to convince me to cook the greens, so I cut them off and gave them to her. I don't do greens.

Sitting at my table not selling (I am not bitter), I spied this dress in one of the tents and needed to take it's picture. LOVE the colors!

Our friend the boxer came back. I just love this dog!

Here's my tray of Tea Bag/Candy holders. Have I mentioned I did not sell anything today?

I call this guy a hound. His Dad was across the street and he (the dog) kept howling and howling until Dad crossed over to reassure him (the dog). He looks part beagle, but I think he is too big to be all Beagle. Hound. I'll stick with hound. And I think he may be a she.

THIS, my friends, is my hero. LOOK AT THAT SHIRT! YES, I AM YELLING! I chased him down, got the pic, then quizzed him on a few sticklers. He confirmed that I WAS RIGHT! I love this guy and his shirt. Need to get myself one. I think his wife said she got it at Signals. Oh, yeah, love Signals. I've spent many a dollar there in the past.

This is what the goose-neck gourd looks like before it has been dried in the barn for a year and then painted. I guess you could actually cook it and eat it, but why, when Farmer Mike can dry them in his barn and then have his Mom paint them?

Look familiar? One of my Tweeple dared us to RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE take a picture of our work space and post it on Twitter. Little did she know that my table always looks like this, and I post pics of it all the time for you, my faithful three (maybe four) readers, so you can all feel better about your own work spaces. Several people liked my candid honesty and reveal, and I think they secretly wished they, too, could live in this inspirational heaven.

Speaking of which, I lied last night when I said I was done organizing in The Other Room. I went back in there and did some more assemblage and installation and did even MORE organizing. I was on a roll, so I went with it. I did not stamp. But since yesterday's post was the Penultimate Update on my progress, I cannot show you anything I did until it is the FINAL update, or it would make me a liar, so I shan't. (Oh, wait, I already admitted to lying. Oh, well.) I'm saving it all for the final update and reveal, which should be this coming week. Stay tuned for that!

And thanks for stopping by!