Always Be Aware of What's Creeping Up Behind You!

Halloween is just around the corner...

 The time of Ghosties and Ghoulies and
Things that Go Bump in the Night...

 Our Halloween Creeping Up Behind You Sign
is on Sale this week until Saturday at Midnight.

Click Here to find this
Spooky Halloween Warning
in our Specials Section

Lucy and Zucchini Updates

With some info from the ladies below...thanks girls
Dee (Icehouse Crafts)
Gloria (The Little Red House with the White Porch)
the zucchini plants are now in their containers and we will see what happens. I hope end up with a jungle of leaves and vines and so many zucchini that I'll have plenty to share
with family and friends.

Also a Lucy update. The lump on her neck has totally disappeared and and she has an appointment with Dr. Tim on 5/20 for a followup. He talked about doing another biopsy but there is nothing there to biopsy so that is good. Appears the infection is clearing up. She's had a bit of problem with her stomach due to the antibiotics so I'm adding rice to her diet and she has a chewable pill to help her digestion.

The picture below is Lucy sleeping on the landing in the shop. I know she is feeling better if this is where she decides to snooze. For several days she was sleeping on my feet as I painted.

I washed that window this morning and threw the curtains in the laundry. Lucy loves to push her head past the curtains and nose the window.

By the way...those are the stairs I fell down and the window my shoulder went through when I noticed a 6 foot long black snake coming up the steps as I was going down. Twisted my ankle, which swelled the size of a grapefruit but at least didn't get cut by the glass as the were curtains covered the glass. That was many years ago, before cell phones and I couldn't get in touch with Lou. His Dad came to save the day and get the snake out of the shop.

Grudgingly going back to work now. Thinking the sign boards I base coated earlier must be dry. Hope you are all having a beautiful day!


www.countryworkshop.net

Back to Baskets

Many years ago, at a local craft show, I met two ladies who were selling Longaberger Baskets. They asked that I design some tie on ornaments for them, which I did. At the time I was cutting and painting small cut out shapes. That request changed my product line completely. I started participating in shows that catered to Basket Consultants and their customers. Lou and I ended up promoting The Basket Accessories Roadshow which had other crafters who made merchandise specifically for Longaberger Baskets. We traveled to basket loving areas on the east coast, from MA to FL. We always planned the FL shows for the middle of February to get away from the winter here in MD. Of course nothing lasts forever and eventually the "Basket Frenzy" played itself out and we stopped doing the shows.

I do however still paint on baskets for awards for several of the local consultants and have painted some of my own and sold those at shows. I found tub full of vintage Longaberger that I had used as display pieces when we set up for those basket shows.
I decided to paint those and add them to the Country Workshop website.
Sooooo, I was able to get a few painted and up on the site.

While doing the basket shows, we had a non selling website.
Couldn't seem to get a shopping cart installed so we just used it to let customers know where to find us and directed them to selling venues where we had our merchandise for sale. It was an abbreviated spelling of Country Workshop as the full spelling was already taken. Way back when only .com was available. We closed that site down last year when we put up the new website and eventually it just disappeared. About once a week, I do a google search for Country Workshop, just to see where the shop or merchandise may have been mentioned. Imagine my surprise last week when the old site popped up in Japanese. I of course clicked on the link and found that it is now a Japanese porn site featuring pregnant woman. Can you believe that? Can't understand why they would choose that name except that it was a working website for 15 years and they are hoping to trick our old customers into taking a look. Whoa! I looked so I guess it worked! At least I haven't gotten any emails asking if we've gone into a new business.

Getting Ready for Another Show...

Several years ago we participated in an arts and craft show in the town of Colonial Beach, VA. Friends had done the spring show there and talked us into doing the one in the fall with them. What a quaint, little town filled with beautiful old buildings, many of which have been turned into B&B's. It sits on the Potomac River and as we set up on the beach for the show early in the morning, we watched the sun come up.

The booths were set up in the sand and customers strolled the boardwalk in search of unique handmade items.

There are wonderful old houses throughout the town, some large Victorians and some tiny beach cottages.

And at the end of the day more beautiful views.

So we are planning on setting up for the spring show, the Potomac River Festival. I believe this one is set up in a park, very near the beach. This time Lou and I will be sure to slop on the sunscreen more than once a day. Eventhough we were under the tents, we looked like cooked lobsters from the glare of the sun off the sand and water by the end of the day.

We've been working on special signs for this show such as Welcome to our Rivah House (which was a special request from one of the locals there)...Life is Good on the River...and
Colonial Beach, Virginia Incorporated 1892.

Thinking of maybe staying an extra day or so after the show to ready get to enjoy strolling through the town.