Lily of the Valley | Jewelry & Art | Berea, KY

Updates have been long overdue.  This summer, my awesome and creative friend of 10 years, Amanda, joined the Lily of the Valley Team officially.  We had a great summer’s worth of Artist’s Market Saturdays (every Saturday June-August) and we are sad that it’s over for the year.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been working for a Cradle Will Rock (a local children’s boutique) on weekends.  Matt and I attended a festival this past weekend at Bi-Water Farms representing both my booth and the Cradle Will Rock.  It was a benefit for UK Children’s Hospital called “Rock the Farm”.  Unfortunately the event didn’t seem to draw much of a crowd, and I didn’t detect the slightest hint of “rock” going on.  There were, however, some awesome pumpkins.

Only one pair of earrings sold on Saturday, I felt pretty bad that nothing else sold after Matt and I lugged everything out there.  I’m not sure what did it (either the sour gummy worms or the apple cider) but something I ate out at the farm set me into a terrible migraine that put me in bed all day Sunday.  Matt returned to the farm alone to get the tables we had left there.  I hated to miss out on a day there, but knew that we were not going to sell anything anyway.  I know Rhonda, the owner of Cradle Will Rock, was also pretty bummed out.  She had paid the booth fee for the event and got absolutely no return on it.  Other than the Artist’s Market, success at festivals has been hard to find this year.  I guess it just shows that times are tough on everyone right now.

Even though Rock the Farm was not a success for us, I am still itching to do more festivals.  I’m working on a lot of new items (lots of cameos!) and also have ideas in the works for Cradle Will Rock.  I haven’t gotten too much sewing done in the store yet, but I did complete a couple of things, including this super comfy baby blanket.

Other than having the festival season slow down for the year, I am happy and relieved that fall is beginning.  I feel so much more alive when it’s not hot and humid outside.  I guess I am the opposite of a lot of people in that way.  I love fall and winter and spring, but summer is just miserable.

The trees are still mostly green for now, but I’ve seen a hint of red and yellow here and there.

The sweet peas are still blooming by the house.  They remind me of visiting my great-grandmother when I was a little girl and she still lived in a little house in the woods.  We sat on a porch swing on her front porch, and I remember drinking water out of the well bucket.  There were sweet peas all along the back of the house.