What We've Been Doing, Part 2

On Sunday, we went to Sturbridge for Molly Cromwell's annual miniature show.  We had been to one a couple of years ago and enjoyed it so did it again.  I enjoyed it, but it was kind of hard being at a show and knowing that I'm probably not going to be actively involved in miniatures anymore.  I just don't have a place to do big, messy work in addition to which what little bit I've fiddled with in the last few years has not been as enjoyable as in the past, partly because my hands have gotten shaky.  I do want to put together a roombox/vignette/whatever for Chris and January.  I have collected pretty much everything I need for each of those over the years and now it's just a matter of getting a setting for it all.  But I enjoyed, as always, seeing all the really wonderful work of the various artisans.  There always seems to be something new on the market that is just sort of mind-boggling! 

Since our major project while I'm here is to have a tag sale which neither one of us has ever done, we decided we'd better get to work Monday and accomplish something.  That mostly meant going through lots of boxes and bags in the basement and sorting out what to pitch, what to put in the tag sale, and what to keep.  Same thing with a couple of closets that we dug through.  A friend of Virginia's is a veteran of 2 or 3 tag sales, so she's going to come over tomorrow and help us with pricing.  I brought some things from home to put out also, including all my old Nutshell News and Dollhouse Miniatures magazines if anyone happens to be looking for those. :)

So, Tuesday Becky came over after lunch and we spent a pleasant afternoon pricing, sorting, and having tea and zucchini bread.  By the time she left, I think we were both feeling much better about managing to get everything ready before Saturday.

Wednesday morning I did some more pricing while Virginia got the garage cleaned out and ready to start filling up.  Then we quit and agreed we wouldn't work anymore that day.  We all went out for lunch to one of my very favorite restaurants that we go to each time I visit and I was going to take a couple of pictures and totally forgot!  It's called the Lady Killigrew Cafe and is in part of an old mill and its buildings which also house a wonderful used book store, a restaurant open only for dinner and a not-always-open antique store.  I copied a couple of pictures off the internet just to give you an idea - it's tucked away in a real woodsy area.  The bookstore's motto is "books you don't need in a place you can't find" which is a fairly accurate description!  As usual, I ordered their chicken curry sandwich which is wonderful and comes with a little side salad of greens, minced carrots and minced beets with a very tasty dressing. 

So, this is the entrance to the cafe...

This shows the bookstore (The Montague Book Mill).  The part with the railing has a stairway at this end down to the cafe.  The dinner restaurant is around back of these buildings and looks over the river.  It's really a lovely setting.

And this is an image of the interior - lots of comfortable seats, lots and lots of books, and just a really neat place.

In this part of Massachusetts (and maybe other parts too), they sell lots of locally grown produce and eggs and such, so our outings always driving here and there in the beautiful countryside to various of my sister's favorite places.  And it's so neat - most of them leave the stuff sitting out on the edge of their property with a can to put money in and it works!  No one steals their money, they don't have to sit outside at their "stand" and the locals get wonderful, fresh, delicious food.  We've had strawberries for breakfasts, mixed into salads, and, for me, just eaten out of hand, so I've been enjoying that tremendously.  Virginia's quite a cook and so we've had several delicious meals - just dawned on me I should have been taking pictures of her results.  But we've had a delicious chicken breast dinner where she sliced up each breast and plated it on a small salad of greens and strawberries and fresh, steamed asparagus.  And a slow-cooked pork roast, which was wonderful - roast pork is a favorite of mine.  Then when it got cooler (and, thankfully, it did!), she made a big pot of chili - she even cooks her own beans for that.

So, hey!  It's now Thursday morning and I have caught up.  Today Becky is coming over again in the afternoon and we'll start getting the garage set up.  It rained quite heavily yesterday and is grey and wet looking this morning, so hopefully, it's getting all the wet stuff out of the way so that Saturday will dawn beautiful and sunny for our sale.  Keep your fingers crossed!  Oh, and I almost forgot - last night we both started working on our French knot rug kits that we bought at Sturbridge and I'm feeling encouraged - the only other time I tried making one, I ripped out my stitching twice and after a third time, I quit!   Virginia is enjoying it too.  If we make enough progress (doubtful with the tag sale), I'll post pics of that.