The Art and Needlework Shop in Nauvoo, IL

www.artneedlework.com

This is where I've been spending my Monday afternoons this summer. The owner of this unassuming looking little shop is my neighbor, Mary Lou. Her family and my husband's family have been neighbors for 5 generations.

You will find the kind of things here that you'd expect from the name, but there's so much more!

You'll find lots of Nauvoo souvenirs.

Hair hats

Ready made pioneer clothing

Lots of pretty dolls

 

more stuff you'd expect to see in an art and needlework shop

There's a selection of basic Avon items and you can order from the Avon book here.

Need a pillow tie for that traveling man of yours?

T-shirts or bonnets?

Kids toys? 

It's also the only place in town where you can buy sweats. She made a ton of money when it was cold in July for the Pagent.

I'm tired of loading pictures! No way I could give you an inventory of what all is here.Truth is, behind this tiny looking shop front there are 3 very full rooms in which you can get lost. I've been working here all summer and I'm still discovering things! Mary Lou and her husband Jock have spent DECADES going to auctions and garage sales buying and collecting. There's jewelery, ready made quilts, antiques ... You name it, it is probably here.  So, if you're in town, stop by, tell Mary Lou, "Hi", and have fun exploring this awesome little Nauvoo treasure.


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Pear Trees

Been playing with growing trees from seed. Now to figure out what to do with them!

Rhubarb Patch

Just can't resist showing off my little flower garden! This is the little patch that I dug up for the extra rhubarb that I got last spring. I put some flowers in it too, just for the fun of it. Isn't it pretty?

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Sweet Corn Sacrilege

Growing up, the rule in our house was: "If there is corn on the cob on the table, you continue to eat until either it is gone, or you throw up." No one ever actually threw up. It's hard to get that much of anything when there's 10 - 30 people at the table for every meal ... But you get the idea. I thought it was a great rule! I loved all things corn. Give it to me from a can, frozen, scalloped, whatever ... I woofed it down! And corn on the cob was THE best!

Grampa Tom used to shake his head in wonder at how many ears of corn I could consume, but lately, something very strange has happened. While I don't dislike corn on the cob, it just doesn't trip my trigger like it used to :(  Grampa Tom says it's not the corn, He still loves it. It's just me. Sometimes, when it gets stuck in my teeth, I just wonder why I am doing this to myself. Often times , my meal ends looking like this:

Mom, can I ever be forgiven? LOL! I feel like such a traitor :(

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Late Potatoes

I had some Yukon Golds that got kinda green sitting out at the markets, so I put them in my fridge and was peeling the green off of them as I used them. Then they started sprouting eyes.

The seed companies tell you that you shouldn't plant potatoes that haven't been treated for disease, but my sister-in-law says she's never planted seed potatoes. She just gets them from the grocery store and plants them when they have some good eyes. She moves her potato patch around every year and she's never had any problem.

I suggested to Grampa Tom that we try planting these even if it was the first of August. We have never heard of anyone planting potatoes the first of August around here, but the stores don't carry seed potatoes this time of year. He wasn't so sure, but I think if I hoop them and cover them with plastic when it gets a little colder, we might just get a nice late crop of potatoes. We've got a couple of raised beds that we've harvested and were sitting empty, so I decided to fill one with potatoes.

I headed out to the lot where the compost piles are and got a wheelbarrow full of composted manure that's been working for over a year. 

I worked it in and put the potatoes in at the same time. Shhhh... Don't tell Grampa Tom, but I stepped in the raised beds to do this. I am to short to reach across these beds when they've got a trellis on the back. Why, you ask didn't I take the trellis off the back? 

Because my bailing wire fix job on my umbrella clothes line only lasted about 2 weeks.

Then I had to chicken proof it. I think I did a decent job. I haven't found a chicken in it yet. 

I'll let you know if it works!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Why We Need an Assault Rifle

A couple of weeks ago when it was really hot and I had the air on and the windows closed so I couldn't hear, a few of coyotes drew our dogs off about a half mile away. Then, the rest of the pack went into one of our hen houses and pretty much decimated the flock. There were only a little more than 50 left out of around 125.

Last night, I heard them out in the corn field at about midnight, but the dogs ran them off. Then at about 2, I heard them again. This time the dogs didn't respond. They must have been tricked again. I threw on my shoes, grabbed a baseball bat and ran outside yelling at them.

I could hear them in the corn field. If I'd had a assault rifle with a night scope, I could have sprayed a few bullets out there and maybe convinced them that our chickens aren't a desirable late night snack.

I take the baseball bat just in case they should decide to attack me. As far as I know that's never happened in this area before, but I'd rather be prepared. Grampa Tom is always on my heels when I go chasing coyotes, but I hear better than him so I'm always the first one out.

My son came by this morning. I told him about my night. He was shaking his head at the image I painted in his mind about his dear old mom out there yelling at coyotes while swinging a baseball bat. Grampa Tom was laughing too. He told Jess, "You think you were scared when she came after you when you were little!"

OK, so I probably do look a little silly out there in the middle of the night in my night gown with my baseball bat.

City dwellers, please don't let people tell you there is no one out there who needs a military style rifle. That is just wrong.

And to our wonderful Macomb customers who just started to get our eggs again, we feel just awful. We just can't justify spending the gas money to run only a few dozen eggs clear out there.

Sometimes farm life sucks,  but we know there is a huge market out there for our eggs. We will keep trying. We bought some chicks back in April that should start laying in a few more months, and we bought another batch of chicks a couple of weeks ago that will help. $2,000 worth of electric fence would solve the situation, but we don't have that. Once the weather cools down, we can put the water and feeders back into the hen houses and totally lock them up at night. We've got them shut into the inner lots at night now. They are really pretty secure, but I'm nervous.

In the meantime, if you are out my way in the middle of the night, don't be surprised to find a crazed old woman running around outside with a baseball bat screaming her head off :)


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Hold Your Nose

Grampa Tom found a clutch of eggs today. He didn't  know how old they were, so he started candling them to see if any of them were good. The first 3 eggs were good,  but when he picked up the 4th egg, it exploded in his hand! Yuck! He had to strip down and I had to cover the entire kitchen with bleach water! We threw all the eggs out, even the ones that were good. Even then it wasn't until well after the clothes in the washer went through the rinse cycle that the smell finally subsided.

It's not often that stinky smells make Grampa nauseous, but he says he almost lost it this time. Reminds me of my youngest who used to take great pride in taking out stinky garbage because he was "the farmer and farmer's are stinky". :)


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue