We were Lucky...

Good Morning...We made it through the storm with only a bit of a leak in the shop, broken branches and some debris in the yard that flew in from who knows where.  It's still grey here and chilly. The leaves came off the trees all at once and hopefully they will be dry enough to rake this weekend. Checked in with our families and all are safe.  Holly and Chad are the only ones who are without electric and are staying with his Mom who leaves not too far from them.  I'm sure Debbie is enjoying having the grandbabies there.  Meagan and Erik live up the street from us and we could see their porch light on and knew they had power all through the storm and were safe.

My heart just aches watching all the devastation on the news.  People have lost so much and getting back to normal for them is not going to be a quick fix.  Praying for those families and for this country.  Hoping all my blogging friends are safe...know some of you are north of us and were hit much harder than we were in Maryland.

On a lighter note...Lou and I will be going with the grandkids to watch them trick or treat tonight.  It's going to be a bit chilly so I'm thinking it probably won't be a late night. 

Oh Sandy....

This is a photo from the kitchen window, looking east on Saturday.  The first sighting of Sandy, heading up the east coast.  We are about 150 miles from the Atlantic, a bit north of Baltimore.  Seems we are right in the middle of it. The wind started on Saturday and it has been raining constantly since last night.  Lou and I have made preparations to be without power for several days if necessary. Water, food, flashlights and batteries, radio, m&m's, both peanut and plain.  Brought in some firewood.  I filled zip lock bags with water and stuffed them into every open space in the freezer so there will be big chunks of ice if the powers goes out to keep the frig cold, at least for a while. We are as ready as we can be. 
This is one big, scary storm. 
Wind, rain, flooding and snow.
Appears the hurricane will be making landfall closer than was first thought.

I have been worried about getting orders finished and shipping them if the electricity is out for a long period of time. So my plan was to get everything done that we needed power for finished by this morning.  Saturday and Sunday we were in the shop sanding, putting keyhole slots in the back of signs, spraying the finish on already painted signs and printing shipping labels.  We have almost 100 orders ready to wrap for shipping.  Had hoped to get them to the Post Office but thinking it will be closed today as most government offices, schools, malls, libraries are not opening today to keep folks off the road.   May not be until Wednesday before the pile of packages make it to the Post Office.

After having only about 7 hours of sleep the past two days, maybe Lou and I will sleep through the storm.  Also wondering how long Lucy can "hold it" as she won't go off the porch because she doesn't want to get her feet wet. 

For all of you who are in the path of Sandy, please be safe.
Stay home if you don't absolutely need be out in this and hunker down
until this dangerous storm passes.

How Proud Yia Yia and Poppou would be...

On Saturday night we were at my sister-in-law's home for another batch of family birthdays.  We do them in bunches with the husband's family...there are just so many of us now.  Lou's sister and her husband still live in the home where they grew up and it hit me, while looking at all the babies in the family that Lou's Mom and Dad, the children's great grandparents, must be smiling down from heaven, watching all the great grandbabies. Another generation of children will be having fun and playing together at Yia Yia's and Pappou's. 

The Haunted Mansion

 The Haunted Mansion is one of my favorite attractions at Disney World...

photo: marciodisneypictures.blogspot.com

I rarely make a sign just for me, but this year for Halloween I will have this
Haunted Mansion tribute hanging on my front door.

Welcome Foolish Mortals

It's Friday Already?

It's a foggy, soggy day here today...we can certainly use the rain.  

It does make it easier to walk up the hill to the shop to work.  I find on beautiful days I'm wishing I could be outdoors.

It will be quiet here today.  The last two days the grandchildren have been here.  Look how much the baby girl has grown.

Holly has been here designing and creating garlands for Thanksgiving and Christmas, like the ones she made for Halloween pictured below.  Some of the steps in the process she can work on at home but most need to be done here.  Dylan is happy in the studio with me.  Give him a box full of wood cut into blocks of various sizes and he'll build castles and bridges for  hours and of course there's always
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to watch on the tv in the studio.  

Holly and the baby were in the house working on the laptop and when she needed to be in the shop for painting the chipboard or to use the cutter machine for cutting out the lettering, Mariah J spent her time on my lap, in her Gramp's arms or sleeping
on an old quilt in the corner of the studio. 

Looking forward to seeing the Christmas garlands.  I'll be putting them up on the website as soon as they're finished.

 

 Halloween Garlands on The Country Workshop Website

A Sky Blue Pink Day...

My days have been running into each other lately...trying to get online orders made and shipped and making merchandise for Colorfest in Thurmont.  Set up our booth for that show this past weekend.  Wonderful weather, wonderful visitors to our display and we were able to have dinner with some of our old friends/vendors from the Basket Accessories Roadshow days.  Been running ever since we got home Sunday night playing catch up with emails and getting more orders finished and shipped and have been moving along in a daze.  

This morning, while putting on the coffee, this was the view from my kitchen window...

Took a deep breath and remembered to be thankful for the simple things.

Wishing you all a beautiful sky blue pink day!

September Photo Contest Winner

Playing catch up here...wanted to post this a while ago but time has gotten away from me.  This is Champ who won the photo contest on  100% Angel - A Charming Store for Dogs Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/100pctAngel  

The prize was my All Guests Must be Approved by the Dog Sign 

Congratulations Champ...You are a cutie!

 

Blowing Bubbles...

Had the grandkids overnight on Friday and I always try to find something fun to do with Dylan after Mariah J goes down (hopefully) for the night.

I had read on Pinterest, that if you take bubble solution and add the contents of a glow stick, you would have bubbles that glowed in the dark...Well folks it didn't work. We ended up turning all the outside lights on so the grandson could see the bubbles he was blowing. He didn't mind at all but his grandparents were oh so disappointed.