Sunday, November 23, 2008

Driftless Studio Tour





For the record, I opened my store and workshop on the Driftless Studio Tour today. I took some pictures in the afternoon when the sun came out, between Tour-goers. Today was also Opening Day of the gun deer season, a day that began with a fast snow fall that made the twisty county roads slippery. Our first taste of winter driving: slow down.

On the good side, for me, was getting the store ready for the approaching Christmas season.
As a storekeeper, I don't know what to expect this year with the trainwreck economy, but I've decided to proceed with some confidence. There will be customers. Today there were many friends and customers who came to see what I was showing, and to sample my Finnish rusks (disguised as biscotti).

I'm still waiting for toys to arrive, and more books, and many things I can't remember now.
There will be a tree from our woods, and fresh balsam branches. Advent calendars, real German tinsel, milk weed pod garlands, and bottle brush trees. I am making some new hand puppets, with felt heads, like the ones I bought in Finland, and have wanted to make for so long. My version is a cat and a mouse from the Grimm's fairy tale, Cat and Mouse Keep House. It is a story of a bad roommate situation, and just to forewarn, it does not work out well for the Mouse. Stay tuned.

4 comments:

Brittany | the Home Ground said...

All of the stuff for your store sounds awesome! I wish I could see it all :) Sounds like the tour went well, too.

Anonymous said...

Oh oh oh!! Real German tinsel!! I want. As a child, we used to carefully take ours off the tree each year to be saved for the next. It was the last item to be placed upon the tree before the angel on top, and the first to be taken off.

Oh -- and how about those foundation garments??! Those were a little surprise, I must say.

Your store looks just like the place to which I would love to drive and spend my time and money. No malls for this girl.

We had over 2 feet of snow yesterday, and it is absolutely lovely out today. Definitely holiday mood!

Cheers!
Jane

Avalanche Looms / Susan Johnson said...

Jane, it is heavy and it wrinkles. Very satisfying to put on strand by strand, though some like to throw tinsel at the tree. Not me! Ha, the bra and girdle belong to a mythic Big Bertha, the female counterpart to Paul Bunyon

Dirk said...

I love a good studio tour, though slippery snowy roads make me a bit fearful. Nice to visit in photo form, though.