Morning at Market.

family morning at Central Market downtown Lancaster...
flowers in bloom.


Ben Dimitris (fellow preschool co-oper!) and his families gorgeous new stand at Market...




Natural Pet Treats:)

Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative



Music for all.

Strawberry girl. The Ride Home.

Top Pics from Wednesday

Wednesday May 25...our last day co-oping at the Lancaster Cooperative School for Max.

Thursday is graduation. I'd be sad I think if we hadn't been working like crazy this year getting Max ready for kindergarten. We're ready! But I can't stop thinking about the wonderful people we've met at the school over the last two years- a fantastic assortment of artists, organic farmers, massage therapists, yoga instructors, green living fans, teachers, world travelers, activists, city shop keepers, Central Market stand owners, landscape architects, and folks who know what community means.
Later today I turned around at the My Aunt Debbie Shop and saw this little Lady Gaga. (and when we got home we discovered her two top teeth had arrived!

While at the shop, I checked out this crazy wooly necklace that Debbie made. The shop is rocking...

This pic of Debbie from her weekend trip with the girls made me laugh...and I loved the Mexican tunic. I noticed one of my flowers in her hair, and I loved the photo even more...til I found out that cone was a trash can!!!

...More after graduation, Lady Gaga has been keeping me up for days:-)
PS. My blog has gone crazy the last month, with over two thousand hits from all over the world. I can't really figure out "why" but I can say, "Thank YOU!!!!"

Santa was here...

Max got a Lotso. (his dream came true!)

For little Mimi, from left to right:
a frenchy baby shirt from Target, a Parisian rooster dolly, (her Corolle dolly,
2 mini brooches, a Lumpkin and baby tights.

Santa also sent lots of other gifts by way of family and friends. He even brought uncles, aunts, and cousins to play with, and who we've spent the last five days with...

(we're very tired now...took little Mimi lots of places, and Max wrestled with his cousin Jake...every day.)

We survived a sort of scary hit of snow- bringing the cousins here sooner than expected, and left Momma clenching the steering wheel one night, with two kids in the car. here's the beginning of the little storm we had..

As a group of 13, we hit El Rodeo (they gave us the special function room!!!), the movies (Max went twice, Mimi once!), Isaac's, That Fish Place, Central Market, the Marriott, Britain's Best...




and last but not least, Mimi has a soon-to-be-Godmother, her cousin Abby! :)

Lovely day

it was a lovely day, I took some pretty pics in downtown Lancaster...Joy is finishing my website and the plans called for more photos...
took these neat ones...the doorway of Peachy Green for my stockist tab, and surprise...my little flower headbands made from Wensleydale wool are in the window.
Lancaster is really beautiful downtown...I kept wanting to take photos of peoples porches and windows...you could see paintings inside the houses, lit by little lamps...things like that...
so take my word for it...if you get to Lancaster downtown...walk around, these little city houses would be millions in other cities...and all the people that live in those houses get to walk to Central Market for their veggies, and have their snacks in cafes...and this is only 1.5 miles from my house?
i'm a lucky girl.

super busy...

well things have been so busy around here! I sold the Central Market chair, so that was a lot of picking up at the Hotel Brunswick and dropping off to the owner.
Then I picked up my things (incl. 2 more chairs) at Building Character, and brought them to the State of the Art Gallery and Framery in East Petersburg.
I've also been getting the pieces I made ready for the show at Square One Coffee for Friday, and making lots of SUPER cool things for the Lancaster Yarn Shop.
Here's a pretty picture from Saturday afternoon. I picked up those little gnomes at State of the Art, made by Maggie Mowery. www.happysilence.etsy.com
Things will slow down a little tiny bit after Friday's show. The winter is going by so fast!

"Central Market" Chair at the Hotel Brunswick

So Friday was the Building Character event. That day or the day before, I found out that I would be able to display a chair in the window of the Hotel Brunswick! www.hotelbrunswick.com
This hotel is right downtown, on the corner of Queen and Chestnut. Currently they are displaying art from local artists. The Obama headquarters has moved out so the space is empty and currently for rent.
So since I was bringing two chairs to Building Character, I decided to make a new chair for this occasion, and I had three days to do it. I decided on another red chair since the hotel window background is black. I have been reading the Central Market Cookbook lately, (the descriptions of the downtown market at the turn of the century are just wonderful to me...something like, "the carriages drive down the city streets under the street lamps, with shutters closed...bleary eyed children help their parents unload fruits, eggs)...having driven down the streets to Eastern Market in the early morning to set up my stand, this was just really sweet for me to read.
So here's the chair at home, and set up in the hotel window (drop off was today). Thank you to Hollis for offering me this neat opportunity.
As I was painting this chair, I realized that I am developing an open bright folk art-y style. I know that I was really really influenced by the Niederhoffer house, as I spent so time there, surrounded by so much folk art it was unreal. When you see that much folk art at once, over a period of time, you see honesty and whimsy, but not forced whimsy. I know my letters often are not centered or styled in a certain font, but it is my own thinking, my own writing, and that is why I say I'm a folk artist.
I hope that the chair inspires people as they walk past the Hotel Brunswick. The chair celebrates the Lancaster, so I hope it makes people smile and be proud of Lancaster.
The edge of the seat says all kinds of things you can get at market. my favorite part is the front of the seat where I put, "Friends, Flowers, Fassnachts, Fish" it continues around to say, "cheese, gorp, fruit, chocolate, etc etc.
Available for sale for $240