Saturday, May 2, 2009

Another lovely Saturday

I had to get up early (for me on a Saturday) because i needed to get to the Farmer's Market before picking up a friend to go to a bat mitzvah....which i had to get to early because i was bringing the yarmulkes and prayer shawls and Kiddush cup (for blessing the wine) in my car!
The Farmer's Market had double the number of vendors as last week. And everyone had gorgeous greens, since this last week's cooler, rainy weather was perfect for them. As early as i got there, i still didn't get there early enough to get the first asparagus of the season *pout*, but i did get a beautiful head of red leaf lettuce, a bag of mizume, a bunch of radishes in mixed colors, a bunch of rapini, a slice of berry pie, and little bags of biscotti, rugelach, and almond cookies. All set for veggies and breakfasts for the week! Oh yes, and the lady with fresh salsa and chips was back, too....yummmm.

The bat mitzvah was wonderful. I've known the young lady since she was about 4 years old. It was wonderful to see how confident she was, and how well she read and chanted the Hebrew. Rose, our lay leader, did a superb job of preparing her...but it was up to her to carry it off, and carry it off she did! There were probably 150 people there, which for our tiny congregation was huge...lots of friends and family from New York came down for the event.

After the ceremony, they moved tables into the room and set up a sit down lunch. The most amazing thing was that each table had a gorgeous glass vase on it, with flowers in a complementary color, on a quilted mat...the bat mitzvah girl's father made each of the vases himself from blown glass and his mother--the girl's grandmother-- made all the mats. I got to take one of the vases home!

I made two cards, one for the gift from me and one for the gift from the congregation, which i presented. The young lady volunteered at the local animal shelter as her special project leading up to her bat mitzvah, so i put a kitty on her card from me!


On the way home i stopped off at Borders to pick up a gift for next weekend's bar mitzvah...i realized if i didn't get it today, i won't have a chance until the weekend, when it will be too late!

This evening, the cats have been playing musical nests...and i had the camera at hand when Fuzzy took his turn on the boogie mat...

12 comments:

  1. Fuzzy on the boogie mat is really speshull!

    We love your cards - you are very talented. The cards you have sent us are so lovely and speshull that Mom is having them framed to hang on the wall. She has been decorating the spare bedroom and the card that came last week is just purrfect for the colour scheme.

    Love Milo and Alfie xx (proud owners of 2 boogie mats - and sharing them like good boys!)

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  2. Sorry you missed the asparagus! Our green asparagus guy (the French mostly ear white..) was at the market in full force on Saturday!

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  3. Thanks for stopping by my blog today, Paula.
    I never wrote to say how lovely it was to meet you - finally! - a few weeks ago when you stopped by and picked up your edible Helianthus tuberosus.

    I caught on my reading on your blog and really enjoyed all the pictures of your garden - and the quilts. You are so talented.

    Tell me about the Warrenton Farmers' market: last year they voted to stop being a producer only market. What's happening this year? are there more vendors? are they bringing produce from elsewhere? can you tell?

    Asparagus are here for a while longer so get there early next week...

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  4. You had a busy weekend but is sounds wonderful! My cats keep swapping boogie mats. They don't care which one they are on!

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  5. Sounds like a lovely day! Your cards are wonderful!! Are they cut from cardstock and scrapbook paper? So pretty!
    The tables at the bat mitzvah are beautiful! Hand blown glass vases? Amazing!
    We are supposed to have a farmers market in our town this summer. Can't wait!

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  6. Ooh, the farmers market sounds fantastic Paula - what a lot of stuff, you guys are way ahead of us....mmmm, cookies - we've been busy making these too, well, Tiddles has, I just wash up! Bat Mitzvah sounds great too, indeed, a lovely Saturday. Actually, we had a lovely Saturday too, weather-wise, but now it's gone all wet and damp (which is why I'm on here and not out there!!)

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  7. Your mommy is very busy these days, but with lovely things! We are so sorry everytime you tell us about your two girls. We wish they would get along!
    Mom here:
    I'm monitoring the girls behaviour too as in the last month there were about five occasions of Siena hissing or growling at Chilli because she was annoying her. Everything is fine afterwards though but still... I'm a worry wart (got that expression from you!) ; )

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  8. Hmm so many nice replies! I don't know if i should answer them here or on each person's/cat's blog?

    Milo and Alfie, it's so nice to know that you're happy with your boogie mats, and i'm delighted that your Mom likes my cards so well..that's a very nice compliment! I picked the paper colors to match your furs as closely as possible and then picked the papers for the wallpaper and rug to go with them, and to match the elegant furnishings i've seen in your house...cool that i even had the color combination right for your spare bedroom!

    Tom and Tama-Chan, it's really funny about asparagus...it's very hard to find white asparagus here in anything other than a can, when they're yucky. I could blanch mine easily, but since i've eaten green all my life, that's what i prefer (now that i like asparagus...used to hate the stuff as a kid).

    Hi Sylvie (the other Sylvie *g*). It was wonderful meeting you, too, and thank you so much for the Jerusalem artichokes! I hope they'll get enough light in my garden. As far as the Warrenton Farmer's Market, last week was only their 3rd week (and only the 2nd that i've been to). The two soap ladies are missing; the emu meat/oil go is also missing, so at this point i don't think anyone is selling meat of any kind, although several vendors now have eggs; there's a new veggie vendor from the Fredericksburg area who's quite good; Gene Swartz has retired from the market but the guys who used to work for him are still bringing stuff. From what i read in the paper, it's once again not a producer-only market, but i believe that there's a limited percentage that they can bring that's not theirs. I didn't see any abuses last year...in fact, much to my surprise, i was in favor of it when i realized it was the only way there would be apples and peaches at the market! There was one vendor who i was always suspicious of...who has red tomatoes in mid April??...but on the whole, it appears that people are bringing what they grow. That means right now it's mostly greens galore.

    Hi Angel and Kirby. You kitties are nice and well behaved with respect to your boogie mats!

    Hi Judy. Thanks for the compliment! Yes, the cards are rubber stamped on cardstock and scrapbooking paper. It's more a craft than an art...someone else has done all the beautiful line art to make the stamps, i just stamp 'em out and combine them with the papers, ribbons, etc. Most but not all my stamps, papers, and notions are from Stampin' Up!, a home party-type company that i'm a hobby demonstrator for (that means i sell to myself to support my habit! *lol*). I hope you get your Farmer's Market this summer...there's something so satisfying about knowing exactly where your food was grown and knowing that your money is going directly to support the family that grew it.

    Hi Liz. I saw Tiddles' cookies on your website...they look scrumptious! We've had mostly rain since Thursday...yucko.

    Hi Chilli, Siena, and Mom. I wish my girls would get along, too. It's almost 3 years now and has only gotten a tiny bit better. I even tried putting Gingy on Elavil, an anti-depressant, for a while but it didn't change her behaviour at all. She still sprayed (yes, a spayed female, with very territorial tendencies!) and still squabbled with Sylvie. I think the two of you get along great most of the time...such delightful snuggling...so a few annoyed hisses shouldn't be much concern for worry.

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  9. Sounds like you had a busy but fun weekend, and another coming up. The flowers are pretty and I love that vase! Of course your card would have a cat on it.

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  10. Your Farmer's Market sounds wonderful!
    What a busy Saturday you had but filled with great things! The vase is beautiful..what a unique centerpiece. Fuzzy sure does look content!

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  11. What a shame about the asparagus. I love asparagus. Yummy, yummy.

    Cliff

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  12. Hi

    Cliff is so single minded. We love the cards and think Fuzzy looks very cosy on the boogie mat. And we still love ours to pieces.

    Olivia

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