A Fresh Day

These are the berets I have recieved for the store. Some will remain plain, some I will be decorating with felt. The quality is great, the colors are good, but one thing remains to be solved: they came wearing the most offensive moth-ball odor which airing out has reduced by a fraction but I still wouldn't expect anyone to put them on their head. Any ideas? I tried air drying them in my dryer with a scented Mrs. Meyer's dryer sheet but that didn't help.

These are necklaces from "My Mother's Buttons", one of two companies I ordered jewelry from (the other being "Bitter Betty Industries". I'll give you one guess as to which one I think has the most kick-ass name...) When my Bitter Betty order comes, I'll post pictures of her super cool necklaces (you can see them RIGHT NOW if you go to the link on the side of this page and go to her blog, there is a link to her Etsy shop. Go on-check her stuff out! She has really great shirts and boxes too.) When I placed my order for "My Mother's Buttons" I ordered one extra pair of earrings so I could wear them to show them off, now I wish I had ordered an extra necklace too. These are so pretty.

Today I am feeling much calmer. I spent a few hours at Red Fox Bakery yesterday rolling out gingerbread with some other volunteers and I had so much fun! It was a real "Chocolat" moment in there. I have always really loved working on a production line, doing the same repetitive activity for hours at a time. You can get into a great rhythm and focusing on one task allows your mind to settle into a calm place. Not everyone likes that kind of work but as unglamorous as it sounds to do the same thing over and over I find it has a kind of beautiful continuity. Laurie, the owner of Red Fox, is a complete spaz which made the whole day wonderfully entertaining. (Hopefully if she ever reads this she won't be offended and she'll realize that I have the highest regard for spazzes and have no use for people who don't get excited about things.)

Other people who were there: Linda, the owner of the toy store "Hopscotch", who is impossibly sweet and energetic and...and...is the first homeschooling mom that I have met personally who has commanded my respect for homeschooling. I know a lot of blogging moms out there home school and I've read some of their blogs and been impressed, but I have to say that I have a prejudice against homeschooling because too many moms who do it seem sanctimonious about doing it. Like schools are evil and those of us who send our kids there are basically just ruining their lives and breaking their spirits.

When Linda talks about it (she actually doesn't very often but I was asking her about it last night) you feel like she does it because it's right for her and her kids and if she feels like schools are evil, she never lets you know it. Just for the record: the reason I will never home shcool Max is that if I did I would have to be sent off to one of those mythical santiariums to "recover" for the rest of my life. Either that or Max would discover he loathes me and run away from home at the tender age of six to go work in a factory in preferance to being anywhere near me ever again.

Scilla, the owner of "Third Street Books" was also there. I hope if she ever reads this she will forgive me for not knowing how to spell her name! Scilla set the festive tone by making sure we broke out the hard cider early enough to be accused of having a raucous good time. Scilla's store is two doors down from our new location so she's kind of our neighbor. I have to say that she has been super supportive of Dustpan Alley and actually put a few of our aprons in her window. She keeps chickens which always makes me like a person even more. I was happy that Scilla was there so I could have a chance to get to know her better.

There were three other volunteers there too: Julie, Meagan, and Twyla. I believe all three of these ladies are "friends of the MDA" and do quite a bit of volunteering. I know Twyla also volunteers at Max's school. It was a pleasure to get to know these gals too. Julie is one of the people who judged the Halloween window display contest, so she is partly the reason we won the most humorous category! I wanted to know more about what Meagan is making in her basement...(that sounds seriously nefarious)...hard cider! But the conversation kept veering off. It's probably better that way, she doesn't know me very well and if I had asked her thirty questions about the cider fermenting in her basement she may have felt I was a crazy person, (I'm totally laughing now!), or an FBI agent looking for unamerican activities such as making your own beverages instead of buying them all from Walmart. Linda's daughter Zoe was also there to help.

Meanwhile, Max was at Rex's house. So when I was done rolling out dough we imposed ourselves on Lisa and Mark's hospitality. I love to hang out at their house, it has such a calming and comforting effect on me. (It's not their house that has that effect on me, it's hanging out with them that has that effect on me.) I brought dinner, just in case anyone is thinking what a rude imposing person I am. I'm not totally without manners. So a day that started out feeling just awful and impossible turned out well after all.

Now I am drinking my morning coffee and trying to gather my wits so that I can tackle a million things today without crumpling up or catching myself on fire. I hope you all had a great week-end and an even better monday!!