Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope everyone is having an excellent 2018 so far. At the very least I hope we are all keeping warm.
giggleFritz
I haven’t shown up here in the last two months. What have I been doing? We participated in St. Ann’s Holiday Gift Fair and that was a lot of fun! The people were great and sales were good. It really got us into the holiday spirit!
After St. Ann’s I had a large order to fill and it took me some time to finish. Afterward, my family and I spent most of December sick. It was odd, we are usually healthy and haven’t been that sick in years. I really think our daughter being in preschool this year had a lot to do with it. Combine the stress of the holidays with lots of germs from small children and you are left down for the count!
I am up and at ‘em again! It’s back to school time and I have been cleaning up, organizing, and making plans. I am working on inventory and will be filling my shop soon.
Looking South down Main Street, Downtown West Bend, Wisconsin
I had a few things to pick up today, and where better to get my stuff than the West Bend Farmer’s Market? We are down to the last three weeks of the Farmer’s Market for the 2013 season. I picked up a 1/4 peck of Macintosh apples, 4 lbs. of yellow potatoes, a sack of white and red onions mixed, and a big delicious jar of honey that will be perfect in tea over winter.
The weather was dreary and it rained on and off, but it is always wonderful to walk through the Farmer’s Market when you have a chance. The West Bend High School marching band played for a while on the north end of main street. There was another musical act performing in Settler’s Park near the middle of the market. The performer was getting people involved with The Hokey Pokey. As we walked through we could smell breakfast cooking in the restaurants and grilling burgers at one of the stands selling food for a local children’s group. There were beautiful bouquets of flowers and tons of veggies and canned goods for sale. We walked with young and old people, and moms with babies strapped to them with a sling! There were plain pumpkins and painted pumpkins and gourds and squash! It was just a good day to get out and enjoy Fall!
White Pumpkins Only $5 each. That’s a steal!!
We stopped at a few more places on the way home: Halloween Express to look over the costumes and makeup, Hobby Lobby for some glitter for my daughters part in the high school play “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” as the White Witch, and Family Video to pick up some scary movies we are watching in a few minutes. When we got home I was exhausted and needed to rest this baby bump! In a few months I should be good as new and ready to conquer the world…I hope!
Now, I am off to watch one of the many “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movies with my family. Wish me luck with that…
Tonight I will be watching the Packers and the 49ers do battle in the playoffs. This morning I gathered my three Packer’s shirts (one is in the laundry), and asked my husband and daughter to each pick one for Packer playoff day. I was anticipating some resistance but was surprised that with a little coaxing my husband decided to wear one. My daughter was actually excited to wear one!
A few months ago I brought my daughter to Inspired for You on a day I was working in the store. She looked at all the handmade items and liked what we were selling. One of the things she fell in love with was a green and gold Packers inspired tutu. “I want this!” she said repeatedly.
I am frugal (no, not cheap!) and a self-proclaimed DIYer. My daughter knows this. She did ask, “Can you buy me this?” She quickly changed that question to: “Can you make me one?” I should have bought one to promote the store, but I knew I would save money making my own. I have made tutus for sock monkeys I sell. I waited for Hobby Lobby to have a sale on their tulle and bought the needed yardage.
Up until last weekend I had not made my daughter her tutu. Last Friday I worked in the store again. I decorated a dress form with Packer inspired clothing, took a picture and posted it on Facebook for promotion. One of the items was the green and gold tutu. I thought to myself later that night, “Now is totally the time to make that tutu. I could actually make two tutus and bring them to bowling when the game is on, and it could be a lot of fun.”I ran this idea past my daughter (I did not want her to feel like I was stealing her tutu!), who was fine with me “borrowing” her tutu. My sister and I each wore one and they were passed around by several people. We had so much fun! The Packers won! We even bowled well!
Packers and Tutus
Tonight, my daughter will be wearing HER good luck tutu. I will be wearing my Packers shirt watching and sleeping. As of yesterday I am sick with some sort of something that makes me very tired and my head hurt. Nonetheless, I am excited for the game tonight and really hope they win!
I’m excited for the new year! It’s different this year. Some years I have handled going into the next year with indifference. I felt it was just another year, same as the last. I was sick of all the new year garbage on television, radio, and internet of “quit smoking”, “lose weight”, resolution this and that. In other years I handled going into the new year with the attitude that it was a “clean slate”. I made my resolutions and kept track of how long I could go without swearing, eating chocolate, or drinking soda. It’s different this year because of the way I am looking at the layout of this new (and hopefully improved) year. It’s not a good idea to be indifferent about your future and you can’t disregard failures and successes with a “clean slate” attitude.
On this last day of 2012 I am looking back thoughtfully and planning ahead optimistically. I’ve set some new goals for 2013, both personally and vocationally. I want to attend more events and travel locally with my family. I want to be more active outside before spring gets here. I want to read more and participate in more events at our local library. I want to make more sock monkeys! These are a few of my goals for the new year and the year after that, and the year after that….
I don’t know what the next year will bring, but I know what I will be doing this evening. To bring in the new year I will be with my family eating those little smokey cocktail weenies my daughter loves, drinking wine that I love, and eating Mamba chewy candies that my husband loves. We will watch the ball drop and clink glasses and say, “Happy New Year!” Tomorrow we will work on making the year Happy!
I hope you are looking ahead optimistically at 2013.
