HIGH BUTTON SHOE

September Newsletter...In all honesty...Mom had this out September 2nd...I'm just putting it on now!!! And the only reason I'm putting it on here is so that you know what we were up to in August...and that you will know what she is talking about in her next newsletter...to be out shortly...or so she tells me!!

Blessings~ Robin

Good morning, all.  Alright, I know. I'm late. And I know. You haven't heard from me in a while. A few of you have written wondering just WHEN the new letter was coming out! I have already told you about being up so drated early in the morning...still true but now the alarm goes off just past 5:30 (which is an improvement over 4:30!) I have gone back to at least 4 cups of coffee, so that should have helped... I have really been trying to leave chocolate in the store and not smeared down my chin.. unfortunately in place of chocolate, I buy the BIG bag of strawberry licorice tweezlers. Our grass continues to grow, not as plush as the early summer months but still needs weekly attention. But probably my biggest excuse is that along with tired, I have been gone a lot in August. Robie and I headed off to Tennessee in late July to go to a show I was supposed to do but didn't. Long story. I won't bore you with the details of WHY we didn't do the show, but suffice to say, we didn't. Instead we spent those 4 days we had planned for the show, in the Civil War battlefields of Franklin and the war museums (a passion of mine.. Civil War I mean). Then we started shopping. It was a really fun trip. We antiqued, laughed ourselves silly, sat in on the 420 mile yard sale from Covington KY to Alabama, found great shops in southern Ohio, and a new outlet for my folkart. I drooled over the vast amount of red cedar trees along all the roads we were on, including interstates, but Rob REFUSED to jump out and dig one up, even when I promised to go to the next easy on, easy off and come back to pick her up. That became a theme in our travels, my wanting a tree, her refusing to jump out and get it. Somewhere along the line, in one particular hour of crazy madness,  possibly sitting in the delapilated parking lot of a  small rural Kentucky town, sitting on the tailgate of the truck, selling our things out of boxes on  the dirty cement, as 2 trains in 20 minutes roared past...in the top of the 420 mile sale..we changed our names to Beulah and Clotilda. Rob is Beu and I am Miss Clot, for short. This madness was fueled on by the constant source of red licorice tweezlers between us on the front console. After the frustrating night of watching the woman in the parking lot of our motel in Franklin TN, who in spite of the heat was dressed in heavy dark clothes and had on rubber barn boots to her knees. While that was enough to draw attention to her, in that heat, it was her vehicle that drew first and prominent attention. She had Reynolds Wrap wrapped around her steering wheel, tailpipe, radio antenna, dashboard, visors, passenger seat, luggage rack, one foot up the hood of the car , and the top portion of the drivers rear seat window.  She stood there for long periods, chain smoking evident by the pile of cigarette butts around her knee boots, and was in constant state of fidgeting. The sign in the parking lot warned of not responsible for things left in your vehicle, and our truck was loaded. Bue and I took up draping ourselves over the table in front of our motel  window looking down over the parking lot, with the lights off and a crack in our curtain to watch her. There was an open motel room door just 2-3 doors down from ours and we were convinced it was for her. She sat the night in her car, with the door open as usual. Bue noticed in one of our vigils that she was gone. Now THAT'S scary!! Where is she?? When I got up at 5:30 to keep the surveillance, she was back in the car, washing her teeth carefully and with great purpose  with a white motel washcloth, and sipping on coffee from a white styrofoam cup, presumably from the motel continental breakfast. We checked out the truck for evidence of her, but found everything OK, while she watched us with cigarette glowing and in the middle of all her Reynolds Wrap. Later that day, we had supper in the Shoney's across from where we had stayed, as we were leaving town. In she comes! with her large purse, with Reynolds Wrap spilling out the top. We could hardly believe it. That road was even difficult to DRIVE on. It was 6 lanes wide with lots of traffic. We searched the parking lot for her car, but didn't find it so she must have walked across that busy highway. Evidence that God watches over us!! This account later became rather humorous...but for a while it wasn't. Anyway, that trip plus another trip back to Ohio 2 weeks later for another show has taken up most of August. Plus making all the stuff I was selling. So THAT is why you haven't heard from me, or seen anything new.  Plus when I got home, I had to bake Ron's cookies for the construction crew, mow lawns, and do laundry. And make the new stock to take again. I do however, promise to get some new things going in September to show you. Ranting Raven came out on the 1st, when I didn't.  I was gone to a huge flea market yesterday down state and left by 6AM and came home dirty, hot, tired, dragging my right leg, And had to unpack my truck when I got home to survey all my new goodies, so you didn't get informed. We are showing 2 new black dolls, Miss Lottie and Miss Kismet, a game board, a Civil War sampler in antique frame and the sheep on a cart. Check us out.  http://www.rantingraven.com/Exhibit95.php If I did that right, it should take you right in to us, other wise go to www.rantingraven.com  and click on the directory, and look for me. Also, we are featured in the RantingRaven ad in the Country MarketPlace magazine (fall issue)  on sale now. Please go buy it or at least LOOK at it! Kathy works hard on these ads and they are great!! We will be updating our calendar of events soon (this week). For those of you in Michigan, we are doing the Harvest Market show at Saltbox Farm on Sept 27th in Howard City. This promises to be a fun show. Sharon works hard to put on a great show for the public. More information is available at www.saltboxfarm.com . Also a footnote, incase I forget later (ME?) we are NOT doing the Breckenridge show in November. And Robie (Beu) will have new pictures of the shop up soon on the shop tour. While I always change the shop over for the fall season, we will be changing several displays in the next few weeks as I can find time.  All this shopping in the southern states has spurred my creative juices into full drive and I plan to make some changes in room displays, with quilts on the walls, more old doors and windows evident, and more dryed foliage evident. Everything has to be moved to do this, so bear with me. I think the end result will be great!! Lastly! (you thought I was never going to stop, didn't you!!)  I want to share a WARNING mailed to me by a friend. DO NOT OPEN ANY ATTACHMENT, even if it comes from me or a friend, NOBODY, that has in the subject WORLD TRADE CENTER, WTC, or anything that says September 11 or 9/11. There is a very bad virus from this. DELETE this at once. Isn't it too bad that our world is full of brainy people who do nothing but use that brain to ruin computers for the rest of us? OK. That's it for now. I have coffee perking, and have samplers baking in the oven. While the oven is on, I suppose I SHOULD  make Ron some cookies too. So better get started. 'Sides don't want those samplers to burn. Thanks for asking to be a part of our life....... Miss Clot   www.highbuttonshoe.net