March 5, 2008   
the farm update
High Button Shoe
 
...the white of winter still blankets the farm, the air is cold, a robin returned 10 days ago and found its way back to the tool shed where the tractors are housed and where she nests in the rafters each summer with her young. Where the snow was plowed and my paths were shoveled is ice. Winter is not losing its grip. I have lost mine. But then I get this way each winter toward the end, when spring is elusive, and I am so weary of snow. I believed when told, this would be a winter of smaller amounts of snow and warmer temperatures. Wrong. But at least we have gotten more sunshine in the past two weeks, so that helps brighten the house and my spirits.
 
I made it thru the entire cold/flu season, avoiding people who were sick, missing entire aisles at the grocery store because a shopper was hacking, coughing and sneezing in the aisle, washed my hands several times each day, sanitized the door knobs, phones, steering wheel, and by the sounds of it when written on paper and the words stare back at me, became obsessed with cleanliness to avoid germs. I failed. A sore throat, while only slightly sore, quickly filled my sinus  tracts with infection and since Friday I have battled eyelids that hurt, hair hurts, teeth hurt, ears hurt, shoulders and neck hurts. Now at day 6 and having taken my last antibiotic pill, I am hoping the worst is over. Indeed, I believe it has. I don't have Vicks smeared over my face, and the heating pad tied to my head. So perhaps things are looking up. Along with several other personal 'not' attributes of mine, patience is topping the list. I am surely not a patient patient. In my self pity party for a face that feels like I hit a brick wall, I think of those who are truly sick, facing grave health issues and am angered at myself for my lack of ability to just wait this out as surely it will go away. And like the mounted snow banks and the icy paths, it will. Just never it seems, in MY time frame. I have taken the time, while slumped on the couch where the heating pad would reach an electric outlet, to pour over some old Country Living and Country Home magazines that I can never totally get rid of, it would seem. Often hampered by the fact that with Vicks on my face, I don't wear my contact lens, my glasses are a very old prescription and they don't stay on my nose good, when said nose is slathered in Vicks. Am I pathetic or what?
But today I intend to do a few things and see how far I get. No Vicks, no heating pad. At least that is the plan of the moment. Time will tell.
 
Today, the 1800house released new items for sale.
The reason for my letter, besides to tell you I am sick and the snow is still high. www.the1800house.com  We have a few new items listed, along with the other contributors. Please check them out. For the most part, these are antiques with folk art thrown in for interest.
Our sale items don't all show up on our website, and are spattered in these host sites for viewing, so you may want to check out the links below. For the 1800 house,  use the link above and please do look at all the group links as well as Karen's smalls, accessories and seasonal links. We are in group shop 1 and in the seasonal.
We will be making some changes in the countrycraftshowonline link and will be taking the items off soon. Eventually they may make it back onto our website under the Tilda Collections, but for the moment, they will vanish soon, to resurface at a later date in our living estate sale that will be held here at the farm. Ah, more boxes. If it didn't hurt so bad, I would frown.
So, check out the new things released today on the 1800house, and check the links listed below. Many things are one of a kind!
 
as always, thanks for asking to be a part of our farm.
Should you decide not, merely reply with remove and it will be done.
in fond regard,
Tilda, the puny