Just a peak...

As you can see, there isn't much of a draw on the sign...YET...
but we are hearing more enthusiasm from people maybe interested in doing a business out there
and certainly more of the public that want the mall to live again.
There are actually 30 business' out there right now, way more than in the downtown area.
They just need more big name stores and clothing stores...

OK, just a little peak at what a candle shop will provide...candle warmers and tart warmers for the ever popular candle crumbs that Piper crumbles up from the same candle scents.
Don't forget to bring in your clean jars for candle refills...it really saves you the bucks...
and it's recycling!!!

...always the old junk...I mean great stuff...
they make the best displays for the candles and the soaps!

Hey, I can't goof off here, I have soap to make...

Later!!!

A recipe for failure...

This is the main artery that runs through our historic district from the South...
the main biz district is one block to the right, where we had our shop.
Before the bypass was built on the 4-lane around the city, this was a bustling thoroughfare filled with traffic, as is the legacy for many a small town.

The wild and treacherous Mississippi River runs to the left of the photo...
a riverfront that has been beautified with parks, fountain, bike path etc...
do you see anything strange...
Right...way down at the end the road it has been blocked for resurfacing, yes, all four lanes are closed and they have been for two months
and supposedly will not reopen till the end of July.
I feel for all of the business all along this road.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!!
or not!!!

This is a shot of progress and quick thinking...
one of the trailers heaped with the trash of our trade.
Not willing to partake any longer in the idiotic reasoning of a city that could care less about the downtown merchants...
onward and upward!!!

And the response from everyone has been wonderful, they all see hope and a vision for our mall again and are anxiously awaiting the brave souls to make it all happen...
(and the pain pills)
SOON!

...and how does your garden grow...

Soon...luscious strawberries will be the battlefield between me and the resident robins...but ya know, it's a trade-off, cause they eat lots of bugs and aerate my yard looking for worms, so eat hearty my lil' red-breasted friends(within reason)!!!

Beans, beans the magical fruit...well anyway, these are yellow wax beans, the green beans are on the other side of the garden adding nitrogen to a new patch of garden...always expanding, I also planted the spaghetti squash over yonder. It's vines have plenty of room to grow out to the field and up the old fence...mmmmm...yumm!

We'll see if the broccoli makes it this year...it had just produced 4 inch heads last year, when something came in and ravaged them ALL overnight...I have no clue what it was, I couldn't find any tracks, but I suspect coons. No bugs could eat that amount over night, unless they were super bugs and thanks to Monsanto, the bugs these days have become super bugs!

Purple cabbages, these are so beautiful in a garden, you just must plant and not to mention the yum factor here...can't wait for fresh coleslaw!

This is the second year for my rhubarb, so you know what that means...rhubarb cake and

Willow Manor had the perfect recipe awhile back...I must go back and find it...
like I have time to bake right now...ha!

Just a typical Spring morning out my front door...there are many beautiful states here in the USofA that I would love to live in, but being born and raised in the Heartland, it's hard to get out of your blood...the lush growing season and fertile soils make it a gardener's paradise...
the winters suck, but boy when spring gets here, there is an appreciation that fills your soul...
a renewal in faith that a new beginning is at hand and to appreciate all that we have while we have this short space in this one lifetime...
till we come back and start this soul journey all over again...

We got the keys yesterday to the new store, so now we can run with it...got the gazebo up and the counter painted, so all day tomorrow we create the displays...I would like to be open for biz next week...all of our salable merch is out there, so I can sorta be open in the afternoons until we get the stove moved out there and Piper can get ta cookin'...

SOON!!!

...and I hope to be able to stay awake long enough to visit all my bloggy friends...
I miss you guys!!!

Before...ARGH..............after......................

Well, this is the last shot of the old Candle Shed you'll be seeing...cause...

...this is what it looks like now...did I say ARGH!!!!!

This is the crew of crazy kids that helped gitterdone...
hope their insurance is up to date...

The guys were awesome, they wouldn't let me lift a thing and the girls...WOW, what powerhouses...I felt like I needed to be on a directors podium telling them which box goes or stays and ...load, load, load...all I can say is...

YOU ROCK!!!

So now back to organize the rest for the next big move this coming weekend...

The perfect ending to a back-breaking day...
is this a sign...?

Shadow Shot Sunday...Seal the Kiss...

There were no shadows on my porch last night
only storm clouds fading
billowing knuckles shading each others
tempest boiling to the North...
a lone robin sings retreat
into the inflamed universe surrounding me
one last volley sealing the scarlet kiss
as night descends...
winds cease all but a whisper
a single chime haunts from afar
as a star appears
all will soon be moon shadow...
close your mind
feel the trees sway
be quick
or all will be lost to the daylight...
catch the dance of the dark
endless hustle under the moon
forget all things human
be one with the scent of the night
cool silent harmony of life
do you see it
or is your mind closed
and weak
diminishing all that is real
in the world of a night
without shadow

only a faint sigh and

I hear it


s.wilson


Did you find shadows after the storm...or is it still storming...do you love the surprises of Spring?! Let's see how Autumn is doing down under and the rest of the shooters are faring...go here!!!

Then I am off to begin the moving of a shop of ten years, my daughters first move, since moving the original Candle Shed, oh so many years ago.
Many have given positive well wishes and we are ready for the change, both in the candle part,
as well as the soaps and junk biz...
no great deal for this picker, it's all about the biz...
if you don't come, we move on.
A community needs support from the city and it's peeps,
but if they fail, you move on.

I'll post pics as we progress...this is going to be GRAND!!!
...and the sky is blue...

Romancing the home...

This is the newest addition to the chateau, I couldn't resist...something about the little girl and her playful kitten that just tugged at my heartstrings...

What was going on in the minds of the Victorians back in the day, that they filled their homes with these wonderful old prints.

Romance obviously...the dreams of the perfect relationship and fairytale lifestyle...

...and the toil of the day(every day) was a walk in paradise, blossom filled paths lead to a darling cottage in the valley...

...and every home had this special portrait of a special deity...though I'm not quite buying the blue eyes...it was necessary to have to confirm your devotion...

But they all make my lil' pink shack feel cozy and warm...you know, like granny just moved out...

Crowning Glory...

Wouldn't you just love to sleep under the stars in this grand old dame...
simple, yet elegant beds of old...wonder what the foot board would've
looked like...I went to my fave haunt yesterday, didn't get much cause I forgot my checkbook...
oh the horror!!!

I didn't go shopping under the stars yesterday either, though I did drive a few streets, but most of the heaps were mattresses and fake Walmart furniture and TV cabinets...and I pondered at what a throw-away society we had become...

I watched a program last night on PBS...a woman half Vietnamese, half American...a product of our invasion of Vietnam, wanted to seek out her roots and meet her Vietnamese mother and family...well you can just imagine what happens...

She was adopted by an American family and lived in the states all her life...then thrown into the family culture of Vietnam, she was smothered by loving kisses and hugs from ALL of her family, you could sense a tension in her, then it was seeing her mother's home, cooking with wood, no air-conditioning, rough shack in a neighborhood with chickens and dogs and kids running free...

She was afraid and confused...went to the fish market and couldn't believe these people ate this stuff...more confusion...
Then the family asked for her financial support to help with the caring of the family and their mother...
...she was mortified and hurt...
A stranger to her own flesh and blood, she couldn't wait to leave, to get back to the states...
and normalcy...

Define that please...when did we get so normal, that families and lifestyles are just throwaways...
She never had contact with her family again and a mother filled with guilt from the adoption, the child with an American, the disgrace of a life scorned by her own people and a war
and poverty...

Like the beautiful Victorian headboard, a throw-away...yet there is purpose there...
some see the beauty, some don't...
but this is what makes our lives whole, the choices we make...
are we willing to grow and accept what we have...or
are we still searching...and for what!?

It's those damned Jones again...

The harbinger of Spring...

Big garbage pick-up...yayyyyy...

Hey, this is recycling at it's finest...they set it out, you pick it up...right...
I couldn't believe it when I saw these shutters all in a heap...
they are lavender on one side and green on the other!
The blue boards are shutters too and the door is white on the other side,
a few panes missing, but went did that ever matter...right...

...and this cool old wood table with an old painted linoleum top which I'm going to try and flip
to expose the wood on the other side...don't ya just love it...
and I'll be right back out there tomorrow diggin' through the trash...
I mean inventory...ha...

But, as I was driving down one of the streets, I glanced over my shoulder and saw this strange sight...

I knew they were moving this wonderful old home, but I wasn't sure quite where...
you wouldn't believe where they moved it from, a maize of small streets 3 blocks away as the crow flies...but whew, what a move...but isn't she grand!!!
...and not one curved glass window broken...dang!

I was really thinking kudos to the guy that bought it from the city for $1000.00, but then I found out he was one of our infamous slum-lords...
my bubble burst
I'm back to my pickin...

Transformed...

I took up an old picture to hang on the newly painted walls to see what the old finish looks like against the gray and black paint we decided to paint the walls. We don't have much wall space, it's mostly windows so the backs of cupboards and shelves will have to be used for each setting...no problemo...

The gray just looks so elegant and the wood around all the windows will be left unpainted adding contrast to the painted woods that will be dragged in, this will be interesting how we will pull off the look in this new space...

...but covering most of the red on the walls and painting the light fixtures flat black, make the space look bigger...

Kids gotta be kids...as people strain to see inside through all the paper on the windows, Piper and her friend Pat drew a stick person with eyes cut out so the peeps can check out the progress...
all we see is rolling eyeballs...LOL!

I really think painting above the light fixtures from white to black, makes a statement, it just isn't as busy and looks fresh...

The mall entrance by Tan World, we are down the hall from them...

...our hall, newly carpeted, looking toward front entrance...

...side entrance of Tan World, one of the new stores that is really taking off and will be major for getting new peeps to the mall...
we're excited, so week after next, we start to move it all in...
did I mention my brain hurts...

Shadow Shot Sunday...Dances With Dogs...

I walk the path 'round my self
following each one of me
to the temple behind
the old flowing lace
I have many faces
seeking many dreams

I long to dance with wild dogs
dust drifting from paws
coursing the winds of my fables
gather me into your legend
whisper into my ear
that I am free

sing songs to a breeze
o'er ancient plains
where great storms
carve channels into
the whirlpools and canyons
of my soul
creating me

a feather falls
it brushes my cheek
opening my eye
sister lark calls
step out of the currant and drift to a cloud
into the brilliant blue eye
of the now
and be comforted
that you may soar with the gull
and he will say
she danced with wild dogs


s.wilson

My lil' semi-wild companion catches some rays before the shadows of the rainclouds envelope us this Shadow Shot Sunday...we won't see the sun for days as this system moves East, however we need the rain for the gardens...I was having to water new seedlings, this rain should make them POP!!!

Check out the others, as we take you on adventures all over the world in search of the illusive shadows...and I continue to find more of me in the vast expanse of my soul...
For me, it's the music, it sets my sails...
so don't forget to turn up your sound to expand your own inner journey...