3rd Annual Scarecrow Festival

Wow, does time fly by or what!!! It's Thanksgiving weekend already and the trees are all dressed out in their prettiest colours for the season. Where did the time go, it has been a bit of a blur this year that's for sure.

So since it's fall and Thanksgiving you know what that means? Right? Scarecrow time is here!! We have been gathering up all the makings for our annual fundraiser and as always the local businesses have gladly pitched in with donations. This year the funds we raise are going to Joseph Stoness and his family. Joseph was the boy that was so terribly burned this past May and was a good buddy of my son Quinn's. His family is really struggling under a financial strain that we are hoping we can help to relieve a bit. They are actually working on having Joseph home soon but he is in a wheelchair so they need to have ramps put in and some other alterations to the house in order to make this happen.

It is going to be a fun Scarecrow Festival this year with hotdogs and drinks, facepainting and popcorn as well! It is this Saturday October the 10th from 10 am to 4 pm. Also our goats, are looking forward to visiting with everyone as well. Coco and her sister Smores (she is the one that looks like the colour of marshmallows) love to play with my kids and their mom Nana Aggie is always just looking for something to eat. This is a fun event for kids of all ages and it's for a really good cause.

Don't forget it is also the last weekend for ice cream at Black River Cheese Factory so don't miss out, it's along time until April!

The store, of course, is full of some new cool things I found in Montreal like my crazy purses. I've been carrying the silver magic bus purse and it has been getting tonnes of comments from people. There are also purses of volkswagon bugs cars, pug dogs, trains, cinderella carriages, high heel shoes, a red snail wearing a rhinstone necklace and many more.

Also I just got another big order of our funny old signs and there are some new ones I've never had before. So don't forget to come and read the walls and have a good laugh and giggle.

We are now open Thursdays and Fridays 11 am to 5 pm and Saturday and Sunday 10 am to 5pm. We can also ship things out to you if you can't make it in to the store. Just send me an email at lesley@gallopinggoat.com and let me know what you are trying to get a hold of and I'll do my best to help you out. Someday maybe our website will get fancy enough to shop online but I doubt it. I am constantly picking up new fun things so I don't think we could keep up with the changing stock in the barn and on a website.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and hope to see you in the barn real soon!

Turtles, Turtles Every Where Turtles!

Well these are not goats but they are baby snapping turtles that were born on the shores of the Galloping Goat Gallery.

We have a mother snapping turtle that comes every June to climb the hill surrounding our house and lay eggs all over our lawn in front of picture window. This turtle is huge, bigger than a dinner plate and fairly scary looking so we don't bother her while she goes about her business. This year about a week ago we noticed there were holes torn up all over the front lawn. Little round sections as if someone was digging all over the place in small sections. No egg shells anywhere to give us any clues but as I was walking from the barn to the house I saw one tiny turtle just plodding along. These guys are about the size of a looney. I went and got Tim and then we started wandering around with our eyes peeled on the ground. We found about 8 of these guys all over our property, going every which way and obviously no idea where the water was. We put them into the bottom of the wheelbarrow and took them to the river shore. We plopped them into the grasses on the shore and left them to do what turtles are supposed to do.

We stepped gingerly for a few days with hopes that the turtles all made their way to the water. It's funny how you like these guys when they are cute little babies but when they are adults they are kind of creepy and a bit evil! We saw a baby swan get eaten by a turtle and they will take a full sized Canadian goose down as well. I think next time I might not be so helpful getting these guys to the river. We did find another area of lawn holes from another nest of turtles so just on our property alone there must have been more than 60 small holes dug up so that means 60 or so turtles heading to the river. I sure hope they don't all make it or there won't be much else living on the river with these guys taking down anything they can get their jaws on!!

Labour Day SALE!!!

We are cleaning up and clearing some stuff out so that means it's time for a SALE!!

50% off Christmas items,

50% off bits for the kitchen, like wine charms, pate knives, dip bowls and such.

25% to 45% off some of our garden statuary

and more!!!

Still Shopping and More to Come!!

I got to go to Montreal to the Gift show there. My girlfriend Charlene is expanding her store that is in Deseronto into a gift store so she came with me and we also brought our guys along. Not always the smartest idea to bring men on a serious shopping trip but they actually did well without too much hovering or reminders of "are you on a shopping frenzy or is this something we really need?" What kind of a question is that??

I shopped for the store for 2 days and the last day I shopped for myself and for once picked up some treats just for me! I of course did get the kids there token souvenirs and Tim found a really nice jacket. The clothes I saw in all the shops were amazing and all had a funky style to them that I love!! I don't clothes shop much, since everything is all so boring and the same. Montreal is so the opposite it rocks!! I'm doing the trip more often, the prices were even reasonable and the ladies in the shops were helpful and really nice. My french unfortunately is so old and rusty that it is pretty much useless to me. I hate that when I went backpacking back in my early twenties I could actually manage to converse and understand french when I was in France but now, forget it.

Anyway I did find some new artists and wholesalers and have a fairly decent amount of things I asked to have delivered ASAP so hopefully over the next week it will start arriving. I'm probably crazy to fill up the barn at this point with the season slowing down but I have a feeling there are going to be alot of visitors this fall coming to see the fabulous foliage colours. Plus lots of people will be looking for Christmas gifts and such. I found some really cool and funky new metal wall art that I'm going to put in the upstairs of the barn and on the outside as well. This company had some really neat pieces and good prices.

Also we will be at the Milford Fair again this year and it's always a really fun day. It's on Saturday September 19th with a parade at the beginning and lots of fun activities for the kids and lots of local vendors with fun things to check out. It's a real old fashioned country fair with contests for everything from the best cake, cookies or muffins to best knitted hat (which I won 1st prize for last year! - I've never won 1st prize for anything before!!), lego sculpture to best photograph. Everyone puts things into the competition, including all the kids so everyone has fun getting ribbons.

On the fall agenda is the Scarecrow Festival Fundraiser as well. It is happening on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, unless we get rained out. I need to find volunteers to help me pull this off this year. It's not that much to set up but more people make a big difference to making it run smoothly and easily. We need donations of hats and clothes so email or phone me to drop off any donations. We actually ran out of pants last year and had to run to town once and then when they were gone I raided my husbands trunk of his old jeans that are fitting a bit too snuggly for more donations! Any loud coloured shirts, scarves, paints or overalls would be welcome.

Almost time to open so that's it for now! See you in the barn!

New Hattitude Hats Added to the Mix

Ok I have to say this hat is now my favourite and might even be worth repeating the combination of colours and yarn. Assuming of course I can find it all again!

I named this hat "Limesicle" for it's tangy green-ness and cool icy blue. I wish the photo was a bit better lighted but I shot this in the barn on the counter before I put it on display. This hat fits me so size wise it's for an average adult-sized head.

I also made another of my glow-in-the-dark skull hats that were so popular with the men in my family at Christmas last year.

This picture is the best I could come up with of the skull glowing in the dark. It actually glows quite brightly.

I have to start working on a special hat that someone ordered for a gift. It is a earflap hat with the batman logo on it. Should be a challenge but a fun one. I do love a challenge.

Garden Show

Well we had a great time at the Edith Fox Life and Loss Garden show "A Bench and a Few Good Chairs". We met lots of new people and a few old friends and put out the word about the Galloping Goat Gallery.

This is the booth we set up at the Crystal Palace in Picton. What a gorgeous building this is, I've never really been in it before for more than a walk through. It really is fabulous even when the sun is tucked behind cloud cover.

I did a little talk about hypertufa and handed out our workshop schedule and seemed to have converted a few people to all the cool things you can make with the stuff.

We are going to be in the Picton Curling Club Saturday June 13th for the Horticultural Garden Tea to set up another booth. I think this time we will take a little less stuff. Tim and I took 2 hours to box it all up and leave after the show at the Crystal Palace. It's so hard to figure out what to bring and what to leave, I hate to leave my favourite things behind. I just need more practice I guess!

Workshop Schedule 2009

Well finally I think I have all the workshop dates figured out so here they are. Also I should add that I'm not going to put the word out in an email until next week that I've put up the schedule since the next 2 days I'm going to be at the Bench and a Few Good Chairs show so don't call to register until at least Sunday. My dear husband Tim isn't up to speed on all the details and I'll have the sign up book with me. Next week I'll be going full force into putting the word out with the classes so once Monday comes don't delay signing up most of the classes only have room for 8 or 9 people.

Hope you are all out enjoying this awesome week of sunshine and warmer temps. Of course I've been trapped inside but at least I get to watch the ducks enjoy the weather in our backyard while I slave at the computer!

Hpertufa Birdbath Class - evenings 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm - (cost $28) - (Taught by Lesley Snyder)
Dates: Wed. May 27th, Thurs. June 25th, Fri. July 10th, Saturday August15th, Saturday September 12th.

Dichroic Glass Jewellery Workshop- Monday evenings 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm - (cost $30) - taught by Marg Seaton
Dates: May 11th, June 8th, July 13th, August 10th, September 14th.

Fused Glass Window Workshop - All Day Saturdays - 9:30 am to 4:00 pm - taught by Marg Seaton or Wilma Kropla - (cost $80)
Dates: May 23rd, June 20th, July 11th, August 15th, September 19th.

Wood Carving Workshops - taught by Diane Irwin
Saturday May 16th - 9:00 am to 12:00 pm - carve a musical frog (cost $38 )
- 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm carve a shelf elf (cost $38 )
Sunday May 17th - 9:30 am to 4:30 pm - carve & paint a fish decoy (cost $55)
Sunday June 21st - 9:30 am to 4:30 pm - carve a bark house (cost $65)
Saturday July 18th - 9:00 am to 12:00 pm - carve a shelf elf (cost $38)
Sunday August 23rd - 9:00 am to 12:00pm - carve and create a medieval shield (cost $38)
- Kids -ages 7 and up can do this class too.
- 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm - carve a musical frog (cost $38 )

Wood Relief Carving - taught by Terry - (cost $40 ?)
Thursday June 11th - 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm & Friday August 21st 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

All Natural Lip Balm or Ointment Workshop - taught by Bay Woodyard - (cost $30?)
Wednesday May 20th - 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

All Natural Soapmaking Workshop - taught by Bay Woodyard - (cost $30?)
Sunday June 28th - 9:30 am to 3:00 pm