Farmer's Market/Craft Show......

We went to a Farmer's Market/Craft Show the other day in a place called Gravenhurst.  We've been to Gravenhurst before and I will share more photos from there; but in this post I wanted to talk about selling home made crafts.

As many of you know I have done that with my sewing, so I know how much work is involved creating your masterpieces to sell.  I also know first hand, that if you were to charge for all your time, plus materials in creating your items, no one would want to buy them at crazy price.  So I do appreciate it when items are priced fairly.  Finishing off your items to a highest standard is a must in my books, as it's a very competitive market out there.  They must look as professional as possible and I must say there were a couple of vendors at the market where the finished product needed a bit of polishing up to bring it up to standard!

Now onto things I was impressed with.

RedBeard Yarn.  A super nice guy and I just loved all his colours.  The majority of his yarn is $20 a skien, I think he said the mohair was more?  

He told me he is having a giveaway, I am guessing on Instagram?  His Instagram link is here

This hat was knit with his dyed yarn that he calls Skittles.  He didn't have any left in stock.  I was very tempted to buy some yarn, but I haven't done any knitting in ages.  I am sure if I look around I will find some yarn in the house.  However, yarn is like fabric; you can't have enough!!

This lady lake glass/pebble pictures.  The quality was a super, and she does custom orders.  Reflections In Stone.

This lady's Instagram page is @earthen_obsession  I really loved her platters.  You can see more of her items there. And yes, I did pick up the poppy, as everyone knows I adore poppies.  I think it was a brooch?  I talked to her for a bit, as our daughter did a pottery course through parks and recreation and was telling her about that.  I loved the glazes this lady did.

Finally I loved this lady's products and plan on buying some closer to Christmas.  I was very taken with the Fruit Loops soap, and the Unicorn Poop soap...LOL  Here is her Instagram link where you will see more of her products.

If you get a chance check out this people all deserve our custom!

Facebook Marketplace................

 As you know I have been selling a bit of stuff on Facebook Marketplace this year; and have been quite successful with decluttering stuff.  However, it's now been put on hold until October, and for an unusual reason.

We live in a small tucked away, on it's own subdivision at the south end of the city.  There is a pretty easy way to get to where we live from the rest of the city but it involves using a particular intersection/road.  Back at the beginning of July they closed off this intersection for road works.  Luckily there are a couple of other ways to get to us, but one involves going through another subdivision and they are building houses all over the place there.  The second way also means going along a larger road, which is also partially closed down with road works.

"The straw that broke the camel's back" though was back in July when I decided to sell a pair of bowling shoes I had to a "directionally challenged" woman.  I truly thought I was going to lose my mind with her.  She was driving and her husband was in the passenger seat, and she wouldn't listen to anything he or I said!!!

After dealing with her, I decided I would hold off from selling anything else until the intersection is open in October!!

I did however sell this coffee/dessert set in June, after it being put on Facebook Marketplace back in the summer of 2025.

The reason it sat so long, was it is a Ukrainian brand, therefore a specialized item.  It sold to a man who was originally from the Ukraine.

So roll on October, when the intersection is open, and I can get back to decluttering!!!

Rainbow Bridge

If you have ever owned a pet, you are familiar with "The Rainbow Bridge."  We were visiting the town of Gravenhurst the other week and walked over an actual "Rainbow Bridge."

A lovely thing to have in the waterfront park.

Itchy Boots........

My new latest obsession..........

I have no desire to ride a motorcycle, but I stumbled upon this Dutch lady's video's and fell in love with her video's.

You have to admire how adventurous she is and how brave she is going to some very dangerous countries, by herself.   The main reason I love the video's is I get to travel with her to places I will never ever go to.  She has many series, I have no watched many yet, as I only "found her," within the last couple of weeks.

I hope you find time to watch some episodes, they are generally around 20 minutes long.

I think my adventurous days are over with now!

One of the best books I have read in a while..........

 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

I picked up a damaged copy of this book during a "moonlight sale" in a town where we were visiting the other week.  I had seen it advertised and it looked interesting.  Thought it would be a book I would enjoy.

Prior to reading this, I thought it would be pretty straight forward, but the more I got into the book, the more the author twisted the storyline, until at the end, you went wow, I wasn't expecting that.

I understand where the author got the idea about the "influencer" part of the story from, in fact I could see from "which influencer's" she based her main character on, Ballerina Farm and The Pioneer Woman, just to name a couple.  I will say the main character, Natalie got on my nerves after a while, but I just had to read more, as I didn't understand the going back to the 1800's part of the story.

I gave it a very solid 4 out of 5 stars.  However, there was a lot of mixed reviews about this book.  Was it worth all the hype?  A bit, because despite reading a week or two ago, I am still thinking about it.  The ending was what made the book for me, I could never have predicted the ending..........

Have you read it?  If so what are your thoughts?

A new plan of action..................

Now that's it's nearing the middle of August, I am getting tired of all this heat and humidity, and am reluctant to go outside in it.  So my garden is suffering because of it.  So my new plan of action is to go into the garden for 20 or 30 minutes a day, and focus on one patch of garden to weed and tidy up.  I have to say so far, so good.  I guess it's just like inside of the house, doing a quick ten minutes tidy up, when you have ten minutes spare.

Below is my rhubarb patch, and it is still growing like crazy.  I was talking to my mother about it, saying I was surprised it was still going strong and could I still pick it.  We thought as long as you peel the stems it should still be fine to stew.  Are they any rhubarb growing "aficionado's" out there that could tell me if that's true or not?

Also growing there are two honeysuckle's and two clematis.  I cut them down to nothing last back end (our word for Fall/Autumn), so was surprised at how well they have grown, albeit with very few flowers on this year.

I also picked up two lilac "twigs" for a couple of dollars each.  You can see a tiny bush on the right hand side, with a black plant pot protecting the stem.  They too are growing quite well, but it will be a few years until we see any flowers I am guessing.

The rest of the photos are just some flowers in my garden.  Nothing exciting, just some coneflowers and some lillies.

I included the photo below, as I put in that cork screw grass into my annual tub.  There is nothing much left alive in that tub, but the grass.  I first saw that grass in Tennessee, in a garden centre, and had never seen it up here, so was surprised when I saw it this year.  You can read more about this plant here.  Our gardening zone is 6a where we live, so I may cut this grass back and cover it with mulch and burlap to see if I can over winter it?  It has two choices, it either survives or it doesn't........😁

Finally this photo shows my hanging basket sitting on one of the rocks in the garden waiting for it to rain!!!  We were forecast for thunderstorms when I took  the photo, so always take them down to get watered by mother nature.

Although I have tomatoes on my three plants, I have yet to have one ripe enough to pick.  I would have thought they'll all be ready in another couple of weeks; no doubt all at once.  However, I am not going to complain as a neighbour gave me them, and they were seeds from her late father's plants.

How is your gardening season going?

Also I have managed to get a few posts written up to publish, so this week, my goal is to catch up with everyone's blogs to see what you have all been up too.  

Finally I am back............

Was away longer than I intended but, have enjoyed the break.  It has been a busy couple of months, and It's hard to believe it's been probably 10 or 11 weeks?

I have done a lot of reading, which I will post about soon.  Read some really good books; one of the latest being Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, what a book that was!!  I have three more sitting here waiting to be started on:

I think it will be the one by Paul Feist.  Mind you if I read the Lyra Parish one, maybe to cooler weather will appear.  I am over Summer now!!

Then I have started doing another cross stitch:

As you can see, I have just done a few stitches in red.  I found my owl scissor holder, it's so cute and my Bothy Threads, needle minder.  I will talk more about this project soon.  I have had this kit for ages so decided to get it done.

We had my mother over for a visit so those three weeks just flew by.  We haven't been away yet, but have booked a few days away in September, so looking forward to that.  

Well, that's it for the moment.  Will get back into regular posting this coming week, and will spend the weekend, getting some posts written, ready for posting.........

Hope everyone is well, and look forward to catching up with you all.😊