Saturday, April 28, 2012

Yes! I'll be back at the Farmers Market starting tomorrow!

 Well this came kinda unexpected I must say.  I had planned on going back to having a stall at the Farmers Market at the Archwood Green Barns in The Plains this season.  But then we got the news from Belgium, mom has breast cancer and needs surgery.  So I stopped making plans to going back to the barn and made plans to be with my mom.  In the meantime, 2 surgeries behind us and two trips to Belgium I'm home again thinking I missed out on getting a stall for the upcoming season since the first market is tomorrow and I just got back from Belgium last weekend.  But then today I received a message that one of the vendors decided not to take part and a stall was up for grabs!  Now I thought about it for a couple of minutes ... not sure if I could pull this off.  I still had all my boxes with everything I need for the market ready to go sitting in the basement.  I did need to price all the items I made this past year but my kid could help me doing that.  Now 9 hours later I'm exhausted but I got everything ready to go!  Tomorrow I'll be back at the green barn selling my stuff.  I'm so excited!  I think my stall is the 3rd one on the right side as you come walking through the front entrance of the barn.   Originally I had started planning on how to set up the stall this time, a bit different from what I have done in the past but of course none of that has taken place at this point since this was a last minute decision made today.   Anyway do come and visit us!   If you can't make it tomorrow there are plenty of Sundays ahead. 


The market is located in Northern Virginia. Just 8 miles west of Haymarket, on Route 245 exit 31, right off I-66, it's close enough for a day trip!   Roam the stalls of an old horse barn looking for the right treasure.  Ask all the questions you like....the people selling the product are the ones who made it!  We are producer only, and proud of it! 

Weather doesn't have to play a factor we are an indoor market with some outdoor vendors as well.  The variety of wonderful items will keep you coming back!   Baked goods, goat cheese, fresh meats and frozen are all available for the perfect meal. Don't forget the fruits and vegetables, cheesecakes, flowers, bamboo, gourds, quilted specialties and other arts and crafts to browse through and enjoy!   Bring the family and spend some time together at the barn!.  


         See you there on Sunday!
Location
Rt. 245 and I-66, Exit 31
The Plains, VA 20198

When and Where  

(April-November)
Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Last Sunday in April through the 2nd Sunday in November. Open the first 2 Sundays in December for the Christmas on the Farm Show.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Pixie hat and a Redskins hat

Just listed this gorgeous pixie hat.  The flower has not been sewn onto the hat yet in case you want to purchase it for a boy.  I do love the color combo I used for knitting this one.  

Click on this link to get to it:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/98581485/knitted-pixie-style-hat-for-baby-or?ref=pr_shop


I also knitted this Redskins hat for a customer.  




Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Amigurumi - Meet Mister Turtle in his basket!

Here is Mister Turtle in his own little basket!  Just listed him in my Etsy shop.  Have a couple more Amigurumies but need to take some photos before I can list the rest of them.  I started out following a pattern but ended up making up my own basket.



Monday, April 23, 2012

Finally some pictures!

Yeah, now that I'm home I can download the pictures I took while I was in Belgium taking care of my mom.  Some pictures of her cats.  Pictures of the three figurines I made and pictures of the baby elephant toy I made.  The Elephant toy will be for sale in my Etsy shop in the next week sometime.  The little bunny I made for my niece's birthday.   I made a bunch of other things but I haven't taken pictures of those yet.  I was hoping to take some today but due to the rain I couldn't.  But at least here are some of the pictures I promised!



Saturday, April 21, 2012

Treasuries, confusing keyboard and heading back

First I want to say thank you to those of you who featured any of my shop items in all those lovely treasuries these last couple of weeks. I usually feature those treasuries on this blog but since I've been out of the country for almost two months taking care of my mother I haven't been able to do so. I couldn't get it to work properly on my I pad. Then I tried using my moms laptop! Oh boy, it's a dinosaur from 2000 AND it has the AZERTY keyboard. Which in itself isn't that bad except because it's a 12 yr old computer the keys have been used A LOT so most of the description on top of the keys are worn off which made it impossible for me to work right. But I'm heading home this weekend so once I'm back in the swing of things I will be making treasuries again and feature the once my items are in as well. I made a bunch of new things during my stay here in Belgium but I will need to take photos first to get them listed in my shop. Now some good news - mom gained 3 kilos this past week! Yeahhhhhh, I'm so happy about that. She lost so much weight since dad got ill with lung cancer, the passed away last summer and then she got diagnosed having breast cancer which only added to her loosing weight. But now that she decided not to go for chemo and radiation she isnt all stressed out anymore, has been able to focus on eating more and will hopefully gain another 6 kilos soon which would bring her back to her normal weight. Of course having me her has helped her with eating and trying different foods and dishes so I hope that when I leave she will continue with that. Alright folks, this is my last day in Belgium. Got to pack my suitcase. I'm sad having to leave my family again but happy to go home to be with my kid, my husband and the animals ... And my own computer as well! Come back soon to find more treasuries and pictures of all the new things I made and will be listed in my Etsy shops.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Have you ever heard of "Pietepap"?

I haven't had "Pietepap" in a 100 years I think. It's pasta pudding! First you boil the pasta in water, my grandparents used to make it with spaghetti but my mom always used macaroni. It doesn't really matter what kind of pasta you use for this, to me it tastes good with any kind of pasta. Drain the water off the pasta, then put the pasta with milk and sugar in a pot and bring it to a boil. Mix some vanilla pudding powder with a bit of milk in a cup and once the milk with the pasta starts to boil you thicken it with the vanilla pudding powder mixture. You need to make it a bit more runny then a regular pudding. I used to make it when I had a bit of left over pasta from a dinner dish. You have to eat it while it's still nice and warm. You can keep left overs till the next day but your Pietepap will be a lot thicker by then since the pasta will absorb a lot of the liquid from the pudding. A friend of mine who's mom always made it with macaroni used to call it macaroni pudding but it's the same thing. As a young child I used to make a game out of eating it with my grandfather. We used to slurp the long spaghetti's of the Pietepap. I remember my grandmother yelling at my grandfather for doing so, but we would both ignore her and keep on slurping our "Pietepap"! So guess what I had for dessert tonight here at mom's house? A nice big bowl of Pietepap! It was delicious! I think I might have the left over for breakfast tomorrow. Kids love this dish!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

So what would you do?

Mom decided not to go through with chemo and radiation! I know she really really dreaded having to go so when she made her decision last night my brother and I fully support her in making that choice. In the meantime we have contacted the surgeon who did the mastectomy and whom mom really liked. She will be going back to him to have her stitches removed and for her follow up scans. She is so much more relaxed now that she has made peace with her decision and if the cancer does come back we will deal with it then. She has been through hell these couple of months, I'm heading back to the States this weekend. I know I will miss mom but I'm looking forward to get home and hug my kid, my husband, the cat, the dog and even the fish!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Wishes for my mom

So yesterday we found out mom does need chemo and radiation treatments which sucks. She is so darn skinny, barely 80lbs. She took care of my dad who battled lung cancer last year until he passed away during the summer. She kept busy and never sits still which is a good thing but on the other hand she just can't seem to get her weight back up. Having had two surgeries for breast cancer in just one months time hasn't helped of course. And now she is dreading thhaving to go through chemo and radiation, worried about loosing more weight. I must say she eats very well and snacks in between meals the appropriate foods as well, no junk food. The crazy thing is that originally she was told if she went for the masectomy she didn't need any other treatments so that's what she went for. Then we found out something got screwed up during the biopsy and everything changed. So now we are told that when they poked the biopsy needle through a lymphnode they went too far, ended up extracting some of the bad cancer cells from the original tumor through a healthy lymphnode! Oopps!!??? The other story is that when they removed a piece of the original tumor it somehow got lost inside moms arm pit. Its a long story but when she had to go back for another scan and somehow they found another piece of cancer that wasnt there the week before and depending on who we talked too the story changed and thingsmjustmdidnt add up we got really worried. Then when mom was told she needed another surgery to go find that mystery piece of tumor we realized something was really screwed up. Also the fact that the second surgery was going to be done by a different surgeon. The first one was going to asstist we were told. Anyway, We all know things can go wrong nobody is perfect but the least they could have done is explain it to us and don't try to cover it up which they tried to do. What they didn't know is that I lost my best friend to breast cancer, she battled this decease for 15 years. During those years I learned a lot through her as well as doing research on procedures so with asking the appropriate questions and adding 1+1 and knowing it didn't add up to 2, they had to admit something got screwed up and because of it she now does have to go through chemo and radiation because the cancer went from being non-invasive localized to the milk duct to invasive because during the biopsy somebody made a mistake which really really sucks. Anyway, no matter what we say or do is not going to change the fact this happened and mom at 76 has to move on and make the best of this. I don't want to scare anybody out there having to go through this kind of stuff but just be aware sometimes things just don't go the way we want them to go. Now I hope to God mom will be strong enough to make it through her treatments. MI do know this will be a long summer!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Amigurumi

Ahhhh I love the little cute crocheted animals. My aunt gave me a pattern book and that's all she wrote! So far I've made an elephant, an owl, a turtle in a basket, a lop bunny and a pony. The last two wont be for sale but the other ones will be. I have photos but I still can't get them to show up on my blog via my IPad ... Which is driving me crazy! So, for now you will have to be patient till next week when I get home and back to using Tomorrow another big day for mom. We will find out the results from the second surgery, the head ct scan and if she will need chemo or not. Keeping my fingers crossed that all will go well. Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Moms surgery and my Easter Treasury featured

After a bad start this morning things turned out ok with my mom. First she was told they couldn't locate the cancer on the scan anymore! So she was told probably no surgery but then 3 hrs later things changed and she was told surgery will happen, they were going to look for it and I mean really looking for it by opening the mastectomy cut she got about four weeks ago!!! Needless to say, frustration,anger and being scared is what we had to deal with. In the meantime surgery is behind her, they supposedly found what they were looking for and removed it. At this point we don't have any other details then that so we are still frustrated and confused but happy mom is doing pretty good for now. Hopefully we will be able to get more info tomorrow as to what the deal is, what they removed, how bad it is, chemo and or radiation still on the menu? Very emotional day it was indeed. Now to change the subject, one of my Easter treasuries is being featured on It's a madcap life blog! So hop on over and find my treasury "Bunnies, chicks and more!". Here is the link: http://itsamadcaplife.blogspot.com/p/madcap-madness-team-treasuries.html