a good weekend after all

Yesterday was pretty much a wasted day. We'd been preparing for weeks for a "commerce day" in a nearby town where among many other things, the network for female small business owners that I'm in was to be represented. 17 of us had tables at the bank where we were prepared to sell our wares and/or talk about our services. I do bridal shows regularly, so this wasn't so new for me, but it was the first time for many of the others. I was impressed how nice it looked and how well everyone used their space. Most had very nice table cloths and decorations which created a very nice atmosphere. Unfortunately hardly anyone came to see it. The theory is that the weather was too nice and that people were either working in their gardens or out doing other stuff. It was rather unfortunate that there was quite a bit going on this weekend for people to choose from: a carnival, a 1950's themed day in another town, and an antique tractor show (yup, tractors are big around here in more than one way).

The up side of the day was that the 17 of us got to know each other a lot better. We had plenty of time to talk to each other both about business and other stuff. I suppose I did better than most since a couple of my colleagues bought some of my greeting cards. In general, I'd say that we were our own best customers.

Yesterday was also my 16th wedding anniversary. We didn't celebrate in any way, but at least my husband remembered. Had I been thinking, I should have suggested that we go out for dinner. That's something that we pretty much never do since it's so expensive here. Instead, I did my best to make a nice dinner even though I was really tired after being on my feet all day.

I didn't have high expectations for today, but it turned out well. Once again the weather was fantastic. It was jeans and a t-shirt weather for the first time this year. I spent the morning scraping off all the bad putty and flaking paint from the windows on the side of my gallery/the little barn. I was expecting to spend the afternoon at the dress rehearsal for my daughter's gymnastics show, but my mother in law took her, so I got to oil and replace the putty on the windows. Some of the windows are relatively modern, so I got to use the plastic putty in a tube instead of the old fashioned linseed oil based putty that is appropriate for the antique windows. Admittedly I've had a lot of practice with the old fashioned stuff, but I was surprised to discover that I didn't find the modern stuff any easier to use. If anything, it was stickier. I'm kind of proud of myself that I got so much done. Usually my perfectionist tendencies make tasks like this take a very long time, but today I kept telling myself, "It's just a barn, and nobody's going to wade through the nettles to look closely at my handiwork."

This evening, I made homemade spaghetti sauce, one of my personal favorites. While it was simmering, we went for a walk in the forest. The trees are just starting to get their leaves, and the forest floor is still covered with the lush green foliage and white flowers of the wild anemones. A neighboring property is for sale, so just out of curiosity, we went to check that out. Amazingly, this was the first time in the 10 years that we've lived here that I've gone for a walk and left our own property. This place was really beautiful too, and slightly different than ours in that it has lakes.