Summer Shows Are Finished!

Rockport was great, as usual! Because July 4th was actually on one of the weekend days, the town was packed and the show was BUSY!! We sold well and saw lots of old friends and customers. Thanks to everyone who came out.


A couple of customers sent us pictures of some of their bells. Both gave us permission to share with you.

A small child in this family apparently refers to these bells as "Tree earrings". Pretty appropriate, I think.

It's been a wet year everywhere. So much so that moss is growing on this bell. 

AN EVENTFUL DAY FOR WINDSONGS WORK SPACE

The day started early with the arrival of something new for the Windsongs shop.

Previously supply storage and bells being made ready to sell were held in the box trailer we used to pull behind the truck to go to all shows

But now, we had this spiffy "little" container brought it and placed just to the side of the shop.

It was interesting to watch how it was discharged from the vehicle that transported it.

I believe some shelves will be built inside and then its ready. We probably need to plant some bushes around the side facing the road so as to make it look a little more appealing?

SPRING SEASON BEGINS!!

Although bells have been leaving the shop frequently via the "Brown Truck" during the winter, the
Bellmaker is speeding up production to start getting ready for spring shows.  

What other things kept us busy during the first three months of 2015?

Philip landscaped the front yard area of The Little House.

We took a few trips - 1) Salt Lake City, UT (friends), 2) Pacific Grove, CA (friends) and BurkeVA (Jenny's family).

On the trip to Salt Lake City, UT. I attended a genealogy conference and visited the LDS Family History Library. I am researching all families. So far, no famous (or infamous) relatives have turned up. 

We binged watched the following TV series.

The Fall

The Killing

Miss Fridays Mysteries

House of Cards

Sherlock

I was at least productive while we binged watched - I started embellishing squares from those old quilts I own that are falling apart. I cut the squares apart, patched them, then embroidered, and added beads, lace, etc. Here's a few examples:

Hmmmm... not sure what to do with them now that I have done them, but I have plenty more to keep working on.

The spring vegetable garden is partially planted at this point. I am planting using the Keyhole gardening technique for at least part of the garden. I have tomatoes, peppers, squash, cukes, zucchini, beans and watermelon and WEEDS. 

 

In the process of gardening, we have discovered we have the racoons, many squirrels and at least one ring-tailed cat  living somewhere out here on the property. 

So, that catches you up on what we have been doing. Hope to see you all at the upcoming shows.

Still January and Cold

It's the end of January. It's been cold, really cold and then warm.... and now cold.
We've been working on bells, home projects (more about this in the next post) and enjoying the birds who hang out right outside the front door of Little House.

First, the Cardinals and Sparrows show up...

                                   ... then come the Dove

                                              .... and finally, the Woodpecker.
                          There is another one of these that comes around too. It is all only red;
                                                     no orange  like this one.

We have a Crow that sometime visits down in the pasture. We can see it fly down there, light in the trees and spend some time "crowing" and then flies off.  I guess it is just passing through.  

2015

The Holiday season has come and gone. Thanks to previous and NEW customers, we had a good selling season. Shipping went well - only a couple of glitches with bells having a hard time getting to where there were meant to be.


As for our actual holiday celebration? Well ....see below for what we did.

                                         All five little "angels" ready for Santa to show up.

It was pretty cold Christmas morning, but they had to try out the new swing/clubhouse/etc anyway.

And then your bellmaker opened his present from Carla and Jenny.

It was hard to take a picture of this DRONE in action, but there it is on the ground. He has learned to fly it pretty well now. Not sure what it will be used for, but it was a good surprise gift. 

So, now it's January. Very cold. Next thing on the agenda SHOULD be TAXES!!

Hope you all have a great 2015

THE HOLIDAY SEASON

So maybe it is genetic or maybe it is because we drug our two daughters around to all those art shows during their young years, but here they are a couple of decades later with their own Etsy business. AND, they have done this while never living close to each other. In fact for a while, they lived in different countries. Anyway, they share the work and the success of The Blue Agave Studio.

They use beautiful and trendy fabrics to sew an assortment of items. They specialize in reusable gift bags, Christmas advent calendars, pillow covers, zippered bags and little girls' dresses.

Here are a few samples:

If you want to go to their Etsy shop, just click on this link;

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BlueAgaveStudio.

.

SUMMER FUN

So for the fun things we did this summer and fall...

Both daughters' families were here this summer. And these were the five little creatures that kept us all busy and happy:

Then in July, our oldest daughter and husband both found out they had job offers here in our area. So, they made a hasty move here and it only seemed practical that they take up residence in our big house and we moved into the smaller house on our property. This used to be Philip's parent's home, which we recently had updated. We moved from about 3000 square feet to 1200 square feet. Talk about down sizing!!
But we love it. We have let go of lots of "stuff" which has been a good thing.
We went from the house in which we raised our girls;

  to the "The Little House" as we call it.

We still have work to do - finish painting, put in some grass, hang curtains, etc, but we ARE IN.
The bell shop is still the same, still the first thing you come to when turning into the property. We just have to walk a little further to get to it and we have to watch out for a grandson on his bike!!