HIGH BUTTON SHOE

HIGH BUTTON SHOE

July 2005

...even whispering about Mother Nature, so she won't hear me, apparently is taboo. She heard me anyway. I have told you many times that May and June are my favorite months of the entire year. I think it snowed here for the first week in May. Memorial Day we wore sweatshirts and had a wood fire in the stove. Then it got hot and humid! That coupled with NO rain, has made life rather miserable, and burned up my grass that I delight in mowing for days on end in those two months. Last night, after me complaining LOUDLY about how hot is has been for the past two weeks, it was evident it had rained close, as the temperature started dropping. Today we are getting the much needed rain, not a heavy rain, but enough that I don't have to water the gardens tonight or the cemetery urns. For that I am grateful. Today it is about 35 degrees lower than it has been. Lately I have been just kind of slloooowwwwlllly moving from one fan to the next one. We won't even talk about hairdo's! As I have sworn off licorice again for a while, I haven't even had that to boost my energy. Finally in desperation, we went up to Home Depot Sunday to buy window air conditioners that were advertised. Apparently the entire town was as desperate as us, as there were none to be had. Drats! So I guess I will keep my weather comments to myself, and try not to even THINK about it, as I am now convinced Mother Nature can read my mind and will punish me for some deed that I did, that got past everybody else, but not her!

I sorely needed that energy too, as we are doing the show in Ohio this Saturday, and there was lots to be done to ready ourselves. As I didn't have any, as I lay slumped over a chair in front of a fan, I am now relying on lists, and hoping that when I made the lists I had a few moments of clarity. Topping the lists are the tent, clothes, a FAN, probably now a sweatshirt and my boots, the money box, and money in it. and a couple chairs to sit on. Oh, and my glasses, to wear over my contacts, so I can read the instructions for the new tent to put up. This is the NEW tent, which we did a trial run on last Saturday putting most of it up in our garage, as the wind outside was nasty! And as I mentioned it was HOT! Making sure we put all the parts back into the bag, and making 3 copies of the instructions, and numbering the parts by marker to go with instructions, our goal was have all of it in ONE place. So what do we find 2 days ago, about 10 feet from the tent bag...2 of the pole pieces!!!! That was not my doing, but rather the other half of this tent duo. I put ALL he handed me in the bag. Yegads! That would have been a disaster for sure. I think I know who would have been standing there holding the 8 foot span (for the entire show) where the 2 pieces were missing together. So I will inform you later on the tent putting up event. I know. You will be waiting.

My pumpkins and sunflowers and sweet annie is coming along nicely, inspite of the fact that it is ME growing them. I did the planting without the farmer. That, alone, is cause for defeat. It has to be all the hand watering I have done in the past two weeks and all the time I spent there. After ONE more costly visit from the well man, we did eventually get water. I am convinced I paid for his summer vacation. So far, no varmits have figured out how to get into the fence. So I may have a garden yet. Course, last time the groundhog waited UNTIL the pumpkins were about ready to harvest before he chomped several bites out of each one. I have weeded until I remember how much that hurts. There always seems to be weeds. And we added manure, black dirt and fertilizer to the open ground before I planted, so dirt that normally would have only made my barefeet dirty, now makes them nasty black.

Probably ought to scrub them up some in my bleach water, before taking off and scaring the good people of Ohio have to death.

We are thinking some of driving back across Ohio and Indiana to GreenOak on Sunday. www.greenoakantiques.com It is out of our way, but that has never stopped us when it comes to that place. I think BrunieMae plans on running down on Sunday too. Her summer Harvest Market is June 25th and she wants to make sure she has plenty of goodies for it. www.saltboxfarm.com . I will be set up there too, along with about 10-12 other vendors in the yard. This is in Howard City Michigan by the way, just north of Grand Rapids. She has quite an impressive roster of exhibitors. And of course, the shop is delightful. And she recently opened the barn for antiques, and her greenhouse is open. Lots to see!

Our Market here at the farm is July 9&10. I will be adding to the list of things(on the website) for show and sale this next week. While the idea WAS to empty out the barns of so much stuff, and that idea still is.... we have been on buying trips for the past two weeks and have several truck loads of new stuff to add to the roster. We just got some great primitive early painted pieces that are going to Ohio with us. Wish they were coming into my house! But I am determined (ha, there it is again, that word, determined!) to get some breathing room in my house too. I really am paring down on some of my own collections. I bought a harvest table from the Shenandoah (sp?) Valley. That will be on the show here. These tables are so hard to find!! I toyed with the idea of keeping it myself and selling mine from the dining room, as my harvest table is pretty great itself. But have decided against it. So, IF you are within any kind of driving distance, this event here will be a good one. All information is on the home page of the website. www.highbuttonshoe.net

www.crowsoup.com came out this afternoon. We can be found at www.crowsoup.com/Market586.php I have been making dolls again and am showing two of the newest black dolls. I have more. Beulah will be uploading them. And we have more of the piekeeps. Piekeeps? you ask? Check it out. Ooan Crankshaft is wearing a lovely old dress. Another doll, not shown on crow soup is equally nice. Slightly different than my normal doll in her face. Still primitive, still "ugly", as a few people call my dolls.

We will be gone Friday morning early thru Sunday night or possibly Monday, and I am taking the things from crow soup with me, so if you think you might want something better let me know....

I had a great birdhouse for crow soup, but it sold before crow came out...so had to change that! I want to take this opportunity to tell all you also, how much I appreciate your continued support of our work. You are a dedicated group of primitive lovers. Great true primitives aren't that easy to find and I am grateful for each one of you.

Update on my rosemary plants! They are still alive and actually growing, I know! You don't believe it! Often, I surprise even myself!

Oh, another place to check out on crow soup once you get there, is my friend Jan Mihora. She has Stars and Stripes Forever. Her shop is in Bay City. Only 1-1/2 hours from here, I need to get myself down there some day. Her shop tour shows a wonderful shop full of needful stuff! When things calm down some around here later in July or August, me and BrunieMae will be off on another road trip. We have one planned for August anyway for GreenOak and The Old Granary in Quincy. Watch out! We will be on the road again. In the meantime, I plan to work on running my new luggage around the yard behind me for a while, and learning how to keep the wheels on the ground, rather than in the air, as seems to be my method of doing. Geeeeshhh. You would think I could master that, wouldn't you?

Ok, check out crow soup. Let me know if you must have the dolls. They are one of a kind. They are going to Ohio with me. I will let you know about the tent and the show next time. Unless I get clunked on the head putting up the tent. Which is always a possibility.

in fond regard, Miss Clotilda