Last weekend was busy! We went to our daughter’s home outside Pittsburgh to attend our grandson’s high school graduation party. Quite a party! I think our daughter could start a business of party planning…if she should ever decide to leave Pharmacy! Haha! I managed to get some pictures before 70+ people showed up…and then I totally forgot to take any once I started visiting!
First of all, my grandson is still much taller than me! And he got his hair all shaved off! Quite a surprise! Since he’ll be here this fall at Penn State main campus, I’m looking forward to seeing him now and then.
The party decorations were wonderful…and yummy!
So many snapshots of him growing up!
We drove down and back in one day so we could be ready for their whole family to come visit us the next day! Ben and parents were to attend orientation meetings for new freshmen. Ben got to spend the night in the dorm and the parents (and sister!) slept at our house. The next day while Ben and parents were attending meetings, Anna and I had a chance to do some shopping and visit the greyhound kennel. My friend Toni let us check out a few dogs and give them some treats.
When the dust settled and everyone went home, I was able to check out the garden. The radishes were ready to pull! Yum!
And the Echinacea was looking good!
Busy weekend. I’m grateful we had a few dry days without rain! Enjoy!
I’ve spent the last year looking forward to the Art in the Orchard festival. This year it will be held July 10-12, 2025 in the big field next to Way’s Fruit Farm on Rt. 550, just past Stormstown, PA. This is the same weekend as the Central PA Festival of the Arts in State College and the People’s Choice Festival at the Grange Fairgrounds in Centre Hall. Busy weekend for all.
Last year was quite a learning experience for me. Being a vendor is so different than just visiting an arts festival. I discovered how complicated it was to set up a booth, display my stuff and interact with the public for several days. Thank goodness I was with my friend Toni, who had done this before. She had the tent, the tables and the know-how to set everything up. Here was my display last year:
This whole year, my focus was on building my inventory of bracelets to sell. With just two weeks to go, I’ve had to stop making bracelets and figure out how to display things. I also knew I needed new business cards, some kind of sign and my own table with a cover. I would be providing the 10×10 tent and we just ordered the side walls. Next, we need to figure out how to assemble it ourselves.
I’ve been trying to make own business cards, but it’s been hard to design what I want with a Word program and card template. (I sure do miss PageMaker!). My original idea was this:
I couldn’t get the “beads” to center properly and I wanted a line to be the “string” holding them together. I could not get the circles to travel together!
I finally went to the printer and ordered cards…and tried to explain my issues with the program. This is what I ended up with:
Not quite what I had in mind…but I had 200 printed. I’ll revise for next year!
Of course, the vinyl sign I ordered matches the new card:
So now it’s time to assemble my display. (First, Bert had to show me how to open up the folding table!) The cover obviously needs to be ironed!
Last year I used baskets to hold each size bracelet:
This year that won’t work…I have too many bracelets!
I also need to figure out how to hang the sign…it kept falling off! The regular bracelets are on the right, and they will the closest to the visitors passing by. We’ll see how long they stay neat and organized! They will be $10 each and come in three sizes: 7″, 7 1/2″ and 8″.
On the left side of the table will be my specialty bracelets. They will be more expensive ($20) and also come in three sizes. There aren’t as many bracelets… 15 different topics from “Ease Arthritis Symptoms” to “Headaches and Migraines” to “Supporting Weight Loss.” They have become very popular but they use several beads together and have a print out of what each stone contributes to the Intention.
On the back of my card, that is included with each bracelet, is this disclaimer:
When it says “Bracelet with Intention” it means when I make the bracelet I’m thinking about how it might help you, and the beads themselves hold meaning. It is not a medical device but it can help you focus your mind to help with the intention.
Finally, I’m trying to get better at taking some pictures that look a little more interesting. I’d like to make a booklet of the various specialty bracelets I’ve made. Luckily, when I first started learning about the stones themselves I collected a variety that I can now use in setting up some pictures. I’m not sure I need to have more stones. I’ll have to worry about this project after the festival!
Most of my bracelets are made with 6mm beads. I’m now getting more requests from guys (my grandson Ben, age 18, is often asking for a bracelet to help with a specific thing, like clarity and focus when he starts Penn State this fall.) So, I’ve started adding larger beads (8mm) to my supplies. Geez…it’s starting to add up! Not a cheap hobby, but so rewarding.
I did have a question from a friend…did I make necklaces? So far…no. But I thought I’d give it a try to see if my elastic was strong enough to handle a necklace of 6mm beads. I made a necklace of a repeating pattern of chakra stones and then made a matching bracelet:
It looked pretty, but was it comfortable?
It was more comfortable that I expected but I had to use over 75 beads…enough for 4 bracelets! Maybe if I had enough of the 4mm beads it would be worth it, but for now I think I’ll skip necklaces! If you’d like to see more of my bracelets, come find me at the Art in Orchard festival July 10-12, 2025! If you have questions or comments about this post, please just email me directly: maryjkisner@gmail.com.
Enough rain already!! We certainly have not had to water the garden for several weeks. Unfortunately, the plants also need sunshine! Bert has been keeping an eye on the plants and the focus has been more on fungicides and slugs. Today, the sun actually came out for a few minutes, so I put my old sneakers and slogged out to take some pictures. The grass is so tall my ankles were soaked in minutes!
I’ve pulled the first round of radishes and replanted. The first batch were yummy, but a few were a little spicy. The second planting is doing well.
I cut the Black Seeded Simpson lettuce a few days ago and we’re enjoying it in salads. The other lettuce is ready to eat. When I replant, I’ll stagger the plantings so it isn’t all ready at once!
The onions are crazy. We’re pulling them as we need them.
The small tomatoes…called Raindrops…are doing very well. They will be great in salads!
On my way up the hill to the other garden, I stopped to check out the pumpkins Bert planted by the wood pile. The fence seems to keep the rabbits away.
Up in the garden on the hill, the lavender stems are filling out.
The tomatoes are making flowers so there’s hope tomatoes will follow!
We can finally see the carrot tops! I was sure they had drowned!
Yay! We have bean plants!
Bert had to buy more zucchini seeds, but finally we have plants.
My beloved Echinacea have spread to fill up the space! Lots of potential flowers…and one daring to open all alone…for now!
I was outside for about 20 minutes…and then it rained AGAIN! And then the sun came out about an hour later…for a few minutes and it rained again. Geez!
If you have any comments or questions about our garden, please just email me. Every day I get about 100 spam comments in foreign languages. I don’t want to miss anything from a REAL person and I’d love to hear from you so use my email! maryjkisner@gmail.com
To continue my review of fabric resources in the area now that JOANN Fabrics has closed, I checked out our local Michaels store. I also just saw the headline that Michaels has bought out JOANN’s. If a JOANN’s store reopens near you, know that it is owned by Michaels. Interesting.
Anyway, I stopped by our local store to see what was happening. Just in the last several weeks, they seem to have expanded their fabric collection.
Ribbon selection is good.
Embroidery floss looks all organized.
They still have their wide collection of yarn, although I don’t know if they’ve begun incorporating the brands from JOANN’s.
They have some cut and packaged pieces, but WalMart seems to have a much broader selection.
They have this standard display of thread.
They have a small selection of batting and stuffing.
Within days of JOANN’s closing, Michaels had this sign on their State College store!
I can see, eventually, there will be more fabric choices around town. Depending on where you live, you may also have a favorite independent fabric store near you. It’s nice to know I still have choices near me, but I might have to look a little harder to find which store has what I need. Enjoy!
With more than 6 inches of rain over the last month, the garden is having a hard time getting started! We finally have a few days with some warm sunshine, so I expect everything will go crazy. Here are a few pictures to show you how things are doing today!
The dogwood trees in the front yard are finally in bloom and the blossoms are turning from an off yellow/white to a brighter white.
On the patio, I’ve pulled the first batch of radishes and replanted with new seed.
The lettuces…Little Gem and Black Seeded Simpson…are ready to be thinned (and eaten!). Yum!
Bert has been thinning the onions and eating them! Here’s how big they are now:
The cherry tomato plants are doing well, with blossoms showing their color!
Up in the garden on the hill, the established plants like lavender and echinacea are doing well.
However, the seeds for carrots, beans and zucchini are barely coming up…just too much rain. I’ve had to add some bean seeds to the rows because the birds were picking them out of the ground as they tried to sprout.
So far, one tiny zucchini plant has made it out of the ground! Somehow, the weeds are doing very well!
One final group of seeds/plants I had not included before…Bert started pumpkin seeds a month or two ago and decided to plant them right beside the wood pile…no fence at all. I hope they get big quick so the rabbits don’t see it as their own salad bar!
Hopefully, with the sun finally coming out, the garden will do well. Enjoy!
If you have comments or questions, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.
It appears the automatic spammers have found my website. What started as a few inconvenient “comments” that made no sense or were written in another language has exploded into 25 to 50 “comments” every day relating to old posts or no specific posts. Occasionally, I hear from one of you about a specific post, so I have to be careful to check the expanding list so I don’t miss your comments! From this point forward, I have turned OFF the comment feature on any future posts.
However, I do love to hear from you…it reminds that maybe someone is actually reading the posts or trying to make something similar. It is encouraging! I usually post a partial story on Facebook with a link to my website and some of you just comment there. I enjoy that also!
So…if you want to comment on anything I’ve posted, please just send me an email directly and I’ll see it right away…maryjkisner@gmail.com. Thanks!
