Holiday Boutique Dates for 2014

It is that time again!  How could the year go by so fast? It is time to do my crafts boutique again.  I hope to see many friends and to share both my old standby products and some delightful new things.

Here is the basic information with the dates and times below the product description.

Cards for Christmas and All Occasions by Marguerite Manor and Fe Langdon fill the hall rack.

My Potpourri and Sachets—Christmas Blessings, Christmas Rose, Peace Potpourri and a variety of anti-moth and anti-ant mixtures will be available in sachets, hoops and acrylic ornaments.  Great small gifts and some would be nice hostess and thank-you gifts throughout the year.  The anti-moth and anti-ant mixes really do deter these pests, although they do not kill them. 

Below is my mixing bowl with one of the mixtures in progress.

Here is one of the Christmas potpourri balls (just needs its ribbon and tags to be complete).

And here is one of the hoops (new this year) with the ball.  (Balls are 3" and hoops are 4".  I also have 3" hoops available.

Vintage Christmas ornaments, European mouth blown glass , folk fabric ornaments made by me in the 80's will be available as well, along with my Mary Kay holiday catalog.

Here are the Dates and Times

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

Saturday, November 29, 1:00-4:00 pm

Wednesday, December 3, 11:00-2:00 pm

Saturday and Sunday, December 6 and 7, 1:00-5:00 pm

 I AM AVAILABLE BY APPOINTMENT IF THE ABOVE TIMES ARE NOT CONVENIENT. 

 Please contact me at mamm@pobox.com for the address or to make an appointment.

  

Not everything is up on my Etsy shop yet.  Hoping most of it will be by this weekend.  (I need elves!) Still I hope you will take a look, contact me and come by. 

Visit me on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/margueritemanor

Visit Fe on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/shop/FeLangdonDesigns

Thank you so much for your consideration.  A Blessed and Joyous Thanksgiving to each of you.

Catching Up

I see that it has been almost a week since I have been here. It was a long week and threatening to be cold since the furnace quit twice. It seems to be running smoothly now, thank God and the young man who did such a great job of fixing it.

It has been unusually warm, beautiful weather and I hope that the winter is mild and filled with gentle rain. Next week is Thanksgiving already and then quickly after that, Christmas. Many of us will be glad when this year is over, I think and we hope that next year will be better and dread that next year will be worse.

It is up to us all really to take the dread out of it and make sure that it is better. It is a different kind of catching up; catching up to a more old-fashioned notion of community and economy that is built locally from the ground up or over the Internet by seeking out small businesses who are on the web because the local areas alone would not support them

Over the past decade I have extended my community to include used booksellers that I have found through Advanced Book Exchange and found books from all over this country and from Ireland. I have found beautiful yarn, hand-dyed by women who have set up their shops on Ebay and I have begun my own endeavors, my Mary Kay business, Cafepress shop and Etsy shop to add my little bit.

I like this idea of catching up to an older economy of small businesses and entrepreneurs by using modern technology--the Internet and long distance shipping companies to combine small with global. I could never have traveled to all of the places that I have purchased things from or that people are in who have purchased from me--my carbon footprint would have been enormous if I had done so.

We can all catch up to the economy and rebuild prosperity if we stop being afraid. Let's not dread the New Year, but plan how we can circumvent corporate jumbo businesses and support one another.

Happy St Nicholas Day!

December 6, The feast day of St. Nicholas. I love St. Nicholas, far more so than Santa Claus. When I was growing up we always had chocolate at our plates on the morning of St. Nicholas Day. It was a German custom that Mama had grown up with since her German grandparents lived close by. She loved Christmas, the sparkling sweet pungent smelling tree with its glistening ropes that had been her mother's and all of the ornaments that she could collect. Mama began Christmas baking in October (shelling nuts) and November, baking fruit cake and making a confection known as brandy balls that didn't have to be baked at all. She played the piano and we would gather around it each evening after dinner to sing carols.

The creches are especially beautiful and I have photographed both of mine and put the pictures on cafepress on products. You can find them on the link to the left. Click on the Christmas link and the designs will open up.

No chocolate for me today as I discovered that most of the chocolate products I was consuming contain soy lecithin and soy is a no-no for the thyroid medicine that I take. I am almost at the point were I no longer miss chocolate. Almost.

Tomorrow is Pearl Harbor Day and then the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. A full week.

It has been a full week for me too as I got my goods ready to go to market in a friend's Christmas bazaar. I will know tomorrow how it succeeded. I have been on pins and needles all day. What if no one bought anything? Everything was so pretty! I loved it all and want it to go out into the world to gladden hearts and help make people's Christmas's pretty and joyful! I hope that it went well.

A joyous St. Nicholas day! I hope that he left goodies and treats--not coal in your shoe or stocking.