What a week...

...full of ups and downs. The up part had to be our show on Saturday; it went pretty well, considering it was our first time performing as a band. I don't know if that counts, because 3 of us have been performing together for what seems like forever, so just one of us was new. But it still felt new, and of course Joe had the butterflies...silly man. I don't know why he gets so nervous, he's been playing so long he should be able to do it in his sleep. I would think I would be the one with the butterflies, I was so painfully shy when I was young and if you'd told me that I would be not only standing in front of people, but playing and (gasp) singing and NOT having butterflies, I would have thought you'd lost your mind. What a strange universe it is. Preston and Kevin didn't seem to have any butterflies, but it's really hard to tell with them what's going on inside, even though I've been married to Preston for 24 years. All I can say about the day other than we got through it and it was fun, is thank goodness for Kevin, because I kept having technical difficulties and he kept fixing them.

Now for the downs. My car is down. It needed some pretty serious repairs to pass inspection at the end of this month, but the decision as to when to make them was taken out of my hands when I lost my brakes last Friday. At least I was in the yard when it happened. But now it's up on blocks being fixed, and who knows how long that will take.

Also up on blocks being fixed is my Mom, Sparky. She went into the hospital on Monday having trouble breathing, and was admitted and later found to have pneumonia and anemia, and congestive heart failure. Like my car, everything seems to have happened to her at once; also like my car, she needs some pretty serious repairs to pass inspection. Poor Sparky! She can't even get a decent night's sleep because they keep coming in and poking at her and sticking her. But at least they're keeping a close eye on her, and hopefully she'll be fixed soon and back at home where we all miss her, especially the cat who seems to have embarked on a hunger strike and isn't speaking to my Dad.

I just picked the beans yesterday....

....and I swear the little buggers grow 4" overnight because I can go out there today and pick a whole bunch more. Good thing we only planted one row, or we'd be in green beans up to our eyeballs. I gave some to Sparky and froze some, but mostly we've been eating them. The rest of the garden was kind of a disappointment this year, except of course for the cukes...we had more cukes than two people could possibly eat. And everyone around here seems to be in the same boat, because I couldn't give them away...offered some to my neighbor over the back fence, and his response was "Oh GOD no!!"

In other news, our band is playing our first show tomorrow! I'm so excited. We haven't played in over a year. Our fingers are crossed that it doesn't rain, because it's an outdoor show and although WE will be sheltered, there's really no point in playing if there's no audience. So anybody who lives in Southern RI, come on out to Crandall Field in Ashaway for the Hopkinton Colonial Crafts Festival. The band before us is the Parallel String Band, and they are really incredible so come early. I think maybe they start at 11:00, because they play until 1 and then we go on from 2-4. And just so you know, we are NOT a bluegrass band. Check out our song list here; we won't be doing the Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith material, but anything else is fair game.

I don't even have to close my eyes...

...to go to my happy place. This is a spot about 3/4 of a mile from my house, and it's almost like going to another planet. It's completely deserted (because it's completely posted "no trespassing") . The only thing you'll hear are doves, as there are always at least a pair somewhere around. It's just a huge, huge field bordered by woods. Right now the field is filled with Queen Anne's Lace. Usually when I go there it's almost sunset so I brought my camera with me trying to catch a glimpse of how stunning it is, with the sun going down behind the trees. But of course I've failed, because things are never as impressive in my pictures as they are in real life.

As I said, it's posted so I don't go in the field. But outside the field is just as interesting; it's populated by more queen anne's lace, beautiful goldenrod, tansy, juniper, bayberry, and a whole encyclopedia of wildflowers I can't name. And bushes with big fat red berries I also can't name. But I was delighted to discover the bayberries, and as they are next to the road I figure they're fair game. There may be enough there to make a candle, but it's hard to pick berries seriously with the branch in one hand, a bucket in one hand, and a dog leash in the other hand, while trying to avoid being completely wound up and knocked over by the impatient 90-lb dog at the other end of the leash. So I settled for about 1/2 cup of berries, and I took them to the store and put them in my tart warmer. The light bulb under the cup (because my brain can't remember to put out candles, I have to use an electric one) was not hot enough to melt the wax off the berries, but it IS hot enough to make them release their scent. So now my shop smells of spicy bayberry! Sure doesn't take much to make me happy.

It never ceases to amuse me...

...what a diverse parade of people I get to meet in my line of work. Among the customers in my little store I have policemen, firemen, miltary personnel of several branches; I have an art teacher from the 'burbs and a teacher who works with the mentally challenged in the city; I have bikers and soccer moms; I have the self-professed "gardener to the rich and shameless" LOL; Christians and pagans, gay and straight, black and white and everything in between. I have a man who guides hunting trips in Alaska and shoots bears as big as Volkswagens (I've seen the pictures!); A caterer, a stonemason, a well-known local musician, and a man who gave me a fascinating history lesson about where Cajuns come from. I even have the reigning County Fair Queen.

And then there was today.

Today as I was working and pondering (as I have been for several days now) an especially unpleasant situation in my little life, in walked Lady Amazon, resplendent in tie dye, tattoos, and cool jewelry. She said she had driven by the store several times and always meant to stop in, but chose today to do so even though she was dreadfully late for work already. Well within minutes of a conversation you might expect from two people who had never met before, the subject somehow turned to the exact thing that was troubling me. I'll never know why or how, because we were just talking about her tattoo (which is really, really impressive!). It gave me goosebumps (no, not the tattoo) and I couldn't help but think she showed up for a reason. So I proceeded to tell her my stupid little tale of woe, (which ordinarily I never would do to a total stranger) and just as I hoped, she helped me clarify it in my mind.

Anybody who doesn't believe things happen a certain way for a reason, should have been a fly on my wall today. It was the weirdest thing to happen to me in quite some time but I'm so glad she decided to stop in!

Mary and Laura Ingalls....

...were never as cute as these little blue-eyed beauties! Their grandmother commissioned me to make them prairie dresses for their hometown's upcoming 175th anniversary parade. It was a hot sticky day (again) when they came for their fitting, but they were just such good sports about trying on their dresses!

I have been just swamped with projects that all have to be done by mid-August! How come everything happens at once? I also have a little sundress and head garland to make, a Victorian vest for Josh the artist ( he's going to paint a self-portrait in Victorian garb...I already made the shirt), three ribbon shirts for the powwow this coming weekend, and another fancy regalia for Bella similar to this one that I just finished:
Only in shades of purple. I have only managed to progress through the design stage, and it's supposed to be completed by Friday. Good luck to ME.

Am I middle-aged yet...

...because it was my birthday yesterday. (you say, “happy birthday” here.) Thank you. I spent it by going to work as usual, then crawling around under Preston’s truck, both of us covered in transmission fluid, until probably 11:00.

When I was in my thirties, I thought birthdays would start to depress me. Not so. As I approached 40, I thought, oh this is going to be the big one. Didn’t happen. 45 now, and still no existential crisis. I know other people who have had major emotional upheaval at those ages, but I haven’t had mine yet. I wonder why that is? The only thing that upset me was the one person who did not call me to wish me a happy birthday. You know who you are. And let me just say, I have never once forgotten YOUR birthday. Ever.

The truth is, I don’t feel 45. I still feel 20. I don’t even know what 45 is supposed to feel like. Carol says there’s no “supposed to”. And maybe she’s right. But she also says you don't get a year older until you eat a piece of birthday cake. And it has to be YOUR birthday cake, with your name on it. So this year I aged two years.

People are usually surprised to hear I have a 24-year-old son, and I know it’s not because I don’t look my age. I think it’s because I don’t act my age, whatever that means. Everybody I meet gets the real me, for better or for worse. I just don’t know any other way to be. I suspect I’ve lost a few customers at work because of that, but I know I’ve also kept some because of it so it’s ok. It all works out.

They say you learn something new every day.....

....and today I learned that I am utterly fascinated by the subject of Steampunk. Or Steam Punk. I don't know which one is correct; each one, when googled, nets the same results.I'm not sure how to define the word (or words), except to give the above example (and if this is your pic, please don't sue me. I sit in awe of your creativity and only wish to share it with the world!) Steam punk seems to be characterized mainly by the presence of many extraneous pieces and parts, and is inspired by late 19th-century fashion and technology. Think Captain Nemo's Nautilus, H.G. Wells' time machine. Apparently this has been going on for a good twenty years, and what I want to know is, where the hell was I?

The thing I find most intriguing at the moment is that Steam Punk involves it's own sort of fashion trends, which appear to resemble some weird sort of Victorian clothes on acid. I can most definitely get into that, especially since lately I have been commissioned to sew some Victorian mens' clothing for a couple of different people, which has renewed my obsession with Folkwear patterns. I used to have a huge stash of them, expensive bloody things that they are, until squirrels plotted against me and turned my precious collection into confetti. Well most of it, anyway. 15 or so survived, and I have the Folkwear website and a credit card, so all is not lost!