Treasure Lake Christmas show and our Back Yard

Seven Springs was lots of fun!  Two beautiful autumn days and a gorgeous mountain venue with lots of happy customers.  It just doesn’t get much better than that.

We thought Seven Springs was going to be our last show of the season, but, nope, one more appeared on our horizon.  This one in our ‘back yard’.

Treasure Lake, in northcentral PA, is our home.  Our house, known to friends and family as the Spa, is way off the beaten path.  We have solitude in the middle of a sprawling residential community.  I like being in the middle of nowhere but I also like being 15 minutes from my small town downtown.   I have the best of both worlds.

I stated that this coming show is in our back yard.  Well, that makes me smile because we don’t have a back yard.  What we have is a forest - in the back on the sides and in the front.  Our house sits amid 80′ tall hemlock and beech trees with a nice sprinkling of maples, oaks and black cherrys.

Because I never used it, I donated my lawn mower to our community fire department years ago.  My weedwhacker and I commune once or twice a year, that’s it.  I also have a nice relationship with my leaf blower.  Nature takes care of its own here at the Spa and we revel in its beauty—-in our back yard.

So don’t forget, if you’re in our back yard, stop by our booth and claim your Free Gift for having read and commented on this post!!!!!

Campfires

One of my favorite things about living in the Pennsylvania Wilds is Campfires!!!!  We can have them anytime we want to as long as Smokey the Bear says it’s OK.

For instance, we recently were invited to a party at the home of some friends in our neighborhood, Bonnie and Bill.  Venison burgers were the featured entree!   The Waldorf salad was simply amazing and I have never had macaroni salad that tasted as good as Bonnie’s.   Good eats!   Our friends had a campfire that evening.  While it was still daylight the children were chasing through the woods in search of sticks for marshmallow toasting, the men were being manly and carrying logs and arranging them in just the correct configuration for the most robust fire and the women were enjoying good conversation and relaxing yet all the while overseeing all of the above activities.

Campfires in the summertime may cause you to sit as far back from the fire that you can because of the heat and, conversely, in the fall you want to get as close as you can for that very same heat.  I’ve known more than one person who heated the soles of their shoes to the point of a hot-foot; they did that when I was a kid camping with my folks and they still do it now.  Some things never change.

There is so much to like about a campfire;  they are relaxing, convivial and cozy.  So much to experience: the smell of woodsmoke, the sound of the crackling fire, the sight of the bright flames or red hot coals, the feel of the heat on our fronts and the cool night air on our backs, the conversation, the sing-a-longs, the story telling, the s’mores, the mountain pies, the hot dogs sizzling on sticks, the red hot ashes rising on the thermal air of the fire, the small excitement of a log tumbling in the fire, listening to the woodland sounds of owls hooting or a coyote yipping, leaning back to look up at the black sky filled with a brilliant skattering of diamonds (there, I knew there was something about jewelry in this topic!) and maybe catching one of those diamonds falling from the sky.  The only downside might be in trying to decide which way the smoke is going to blow.  Everyone knows that smoke follows beauty and you can just count on that being said whenever someone goes into a fit of coughing and watering eyes.

If you’ve ever been to or had a campfire I bet you’re smiling at a memory right now and I’d be willing to bet that if you haven’t yet experienced the simple joy of a campfire you will want to at the first chance you get. 

Come to the Wilds and join us, we’ll have a s’more cookoff!

Seven Springs Ski Resort show

It’s coming up FAST! Our last scheduled show of the season and our First show at the Seven Springs Ski Resort.

http://www.7springs.com

Dan will set up his lampwork booth and will be demonstrating glass bead making when he’s not careening down the Alpine Slide – I can hear him now, “Look Marti, No hands!!!”

If you visit Seven Springs for the Oct 23/24 Autumn Weekend we hope you stop by our booth and say hello.  Tell us you read this post and we’ll have a Free Bracelet for you!

Autumn Berry Bracelet