Our 50th!

We'll be celebrating our 50th anniversary on Saturday!!!! How blessed we've been! We even still like each other!!!!

I Wish We Had a "Teaser" Day

This winter has seemed so cold and gray. Usually by now we've had a "teaser" day where the temperature has gone up to at least 60 to let us know that there is hope that Spring is around the corner. That hasn't happened this year here in the Hudson Valley.

After being on Etsy for a year, I finally sold something! Like everything else that I'm doing lately, including this blog, I feel like I'm on a big learning curve and have to ask myself why, at my age, I'm doing all of this. The challenge, the learning process, the need to keep mentally sharp? Perhaps it's because baking pies, cakes and cookies is no longer considered a healthy thing to be doing nor do I consider sitting around watching tv all day something that interests me. Sure I could sign up to do volunteer work somewhere but "somewhere" is at least eleven miles away and at $3.39/gallon of gas, something to give a second thought to.

I'm writing a newsletter for the craft guild that I belong to which is stimulating and challenging. Half of our membership receives it via snail mail and the other half via e-mail. I've learned how to do it in booklet form on Microsoft Publisher for the snail mail but then have to transfer it to Microsoft Word for the e-mailing part..........that's where my current challenges lie but ............I'm learning each month how to overcome one more little problem. I've always said that "you're never too old to learn". Now I'm following through on my preaching!!!!

My Wreath Sold!

Downhill Day

Saturday afternoon went downhill fast..........a heavy rain added to time meant 2" of water in our basement without our even being aware of it! Fortunately, nothing was ruined and we worked to sweep the water out the doors for about four hours. The puzzle was how did it come in so quickly? In over 30 years, we had never had a problem like that before. My hubby finally figured it out...........the drain pipe leading to the back yard obviously was filled with tree roots.

A trip to the rotor rooter rental store secured an electric snake and after pulling out mats of tree roots (and two dead frogs), the house, patio and property are now draining beautifully, thank you! The drama, the excitement of it all......combined with all the time I've been spending on this machine has left little time for things like doing laundry, dishes, and those other important chores one normally does in the span of a day. It's great!

Not Quite Ready

Ooooops. Not quite ready after all............I meant to type www.doughroses.etsy.com.

The Learning Curve

Well, my second blog and I've already learned from my mistake! You don't set up a blog address as an e-mail address!

Thanks to Connie for pointing it out!

The correct address is www.mydoughroses.blogspot. It's always frustrating to realize that the computer is "smarter" than you are! Well, perhaps it doesn't get tired the way humans do so I won't beat myself up too much about it.

Now I'm ready to announce to the world!!!!

Norma

Cakes and flowers

I just viewed a blog by Kelsie regarding her flowers for her cakes. She's only 16, not only baking and designing cakes but taking pictures and putting them on a blog. Good for her!!! She's so advanced compared to those of us who grew up in the 50's!

This is my first blog.......I have no idea about what I'm doing or the direction that I'm going in but we all have to get our feet wet sometime. My daughter is a blogmaster, whatever that means. She's a thousand miles away though so unless I really get into a jam, I think I'll struggle on by myself and see what happens!

I'm a professional crafter creating roses (and some other flowers) from bread dough for over twenty years and am now working in cold porcelain which is very much like bread dough. I've traveled New York and New England doing craft shows for all of those years and am slowing the traveling end of my business down now. It's been a fun experience; I've learned a lot, made wonderful friends, been to places that I'm sure I wouldn't have traveled to, and best of all, made dough with dough!!! If you would like to see some of my creations, you can check out www.doughroses@etsy.com.

I'm a member of the Hudson Valley Artisan's Guild, an organization for craftspeople throughout the Hudson Valley of New York. You can read more about the Guild at http://www.hvag.org/. The Guild has been a great networking source for many people over twenty five years and is still going strong!

Well, time to move on............have a great weekend!

Norma