Well, it’s certainly been a while since I have blogged. The school year is coming to a close, our kitchen is finally finished and we’ve had more and more guests coming to North Fork B&B. Tim has purchased Jernabi coffee shop in Potsdam and I’ve been doing the baking. We plan to offer teas as well. Currently, I have approximately 25 different kinds of lose leaf teas. I have many that are perfect for iced tea as well. The addition of the coffee shop is very exciting! We will be having our grand opening so stay tuned for that. We have some work we’d like to do before we’re ready to have our grand opening but I’m sure it will be in the very near future.

This summer I’d like to begin offering some of the special packages I’ve mentioned in the past, like craft classes. I’m always looking for input on what people would like. I’d love to have a weekend of quilters at the B&B so if you quilt and you and your friends are looking for a quilting retreat (up to 7 people) we can provide that for you.  All of you that spin are welcome to bring your spinning wheels and come for a weekend too. The spa package is also still an option. Let me know and I can have the massage therapist on hand for a pampering weekend. I have lots of ideas but so far, no takers on these. I am looking forward to summer and hoping we have good weather. I will be at the Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays and Saturdays in Canton with tea and coffee. I also plan to be blogging so please look for my blogs as well.

I’m off to make breakfast for our guests. If you have requests for special weekends (or during the week) please let me know.

Yesterday I spoke about the kitchen and how it’s taken so long to do. We are finally nearing completion! Today I spent a good part of the day painting the River Room. When they put the new carrying beam into the ceiling in the kitchen, many of the walls upstairs in the River Room cracked. They were all spackled and sanded but in need of paint. When I started out this morning, I realized the paint was the wrong color. This set me back a bit time wise but I was able to get the correct color and carry on. The room finally looks back to normal except for the stuff from the kitchen. Hopefully as the week progresses all of that will be remedied as well. It certainly will be nice to have guests again and I’m very excited about serving breakfast in the kitchen!!

There are lots of new things on the horizon. I will be blogging to keep everyone up to date. Went for a ski today. I must say it was really nice to have some winter, finally too. Look for news from Specialtea Teas which will be upcoming too.

If any of you have been looking to see if I’ve been blogging, you’ll notice that I have not. Since early October, we’ve been struggling with our kitchen. It has literally been the project from hell with one set back after another and every possible problem right down to damaged flooring! We haven’t been able to fully run the B&B either. When they say that the kitchen is the heart of the home, they are not kidding. We are finally down to what I am hoping and praying is the end of this endeavor. This upcoming week should be the end. At this point all that is left is some electrical and a ton of trim, lest I forget, flooring! At any rate, for the 3rd week in a row, I’ve been promised that this is the last week. My goal this weekend is to finish everything needed for the B&B. I’m going to include some pictures of the progress. As I stated earlier, we are nearing completion.

Our new kitchen will feature a wonderful breakfast bar. When we have guests coming by themselves or continental breakfasts, guests will have the option of using the breakfast bar. It’s always nice to have choices! Our kitchen will also have a lovely eating area which is currently under construction.  We can certainly serve our guests in the dining room in the meantime but we’re looking forward to the cozy, homey kitchen where on cold winter mornings our guests can have breakfast near the woodstove. It is all very exciting but it certainly has taken a very long time. In an old house where nothing is level or plum and everything has to be recreated, time is required. If anyone thinks they can just go and purchase their cabinetry and come home and put them up, think again! Check those walls first and the floors too. Are they level? Anyway, most of my energy has gone into this renovation. I’m hoping to get back into blogging. I do enjoy it. There are lots of other things to let you know about and my plan is to start updating on everything via my blog. Here’s hoping that time allows.

Obviously, I have not been blogging. I enjoy blogging but I have not had time. Between school starting, trying to make products, running the B&B and about fifty million other things, let’s just say that life has gotten in the way!

The kitchen renovation has taken up a great deal of time. I honestly thought that you took out the old cabinets and then just put in the new ones. Well, not in this old house! The wall had to be rebuilt so the cabinets would hang properly. The electrical had to be redone. The flooring has yet to be fixed and the penninsula (sp) has to be taken out and reinstalled because it’s not plum and level. It works but not correctly. The mixer lift doesn’t work at all because nothing is level! So, on it goes. It’s wreath season so I’ve been working on those orders too. Something had to give and blogging was just one of several things that had to change. The kitchen is coming along but it’s going to be a slow process. But I figure if I can make breakfast with a blue tarp for a wall and no counters, I can certainly manage at this point.

Anyway, I have 2 shows coming up in the next 2 weekends. It’s all fun and very exciting but it all takes time. I did want to at least make an attempt at doing something, which is better than nothing. I’m also struggling to help my husband by building his new website. Yup, it’s a lot. For the most part, I really love all of it too.  I’m putting some pictures in so you can see what has been going on.

So, it’s been several weeks of seek and find! Now most of the things have a place. It’s still going to take more time to finish everything. It’s very exciting to have a new kitchen. I just had no idea the length of time it would take or what kinds of things were going to happen in the process. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss and this would be one of those!

We have a couple of new handmade coffee tote bags that we’ve added to our shop. I’m going to show a few extra pictures here so that if you’d like to purchase them you’ll have a few more details to look at. Both sides of each of our bags are different and each has a different lining.

The second bag has a calico lining and navy blue straps. As you can see, each side is different. These bagas measure 14×16 and have a 6 inch side panel.

There will be more bags coming as soon as there is enough time to make more.  Right now we have 3 available in our store. There are 5 or 6 at Nature’s Storehouse in Canton as well.

We are taking orders for our Balsam Wreaths and will begin shipping November 25th. We’ll take orders until Dec. 10th. We ship our wreaths and we can include a gift card for you if you let us know when you place your order that you’d like one.

I began making wreaths nearly 30 years ago. It was just a few weeks before Christmas when my children were small and I found out that I had overdrawn my checking account quite by accident. I was a stay at home mom and taught piano lessons but there was no way to make up that mistake AND be able to purchase Christmas gifts so….I went down to the local floral place and purchased some tree bows, wire,wire rounds and ribbon. I found some old pieces of ply wood and propped them up against the mail box on either side and wrote ” For Sale”. I banged 2 nails in each side of the plywood and began wrapping greens on the front porch while the kids were napping. I vowed that if I could somehow manage to get through I would always make wreaths. And, here I am,still making wreaths. Needless to say, I sold the wreaths and I sold so many that I had to keep running back for more greens. That year I began to establish what would be my customer base.

Since then, I became a teacher, moved from Connecticut to New York, began teaching and eventually opened the bed and breakfast  and started the gift shop. My children are grown and on their own but each year I continue to make wreaths. I look forward to making them each year. I just love how excited my customers are when they get they get their wreaths. I love the smell of the balsam, the time in the woods gathering greens and just being outside.

Our wreaths and our wreath page will be coming soon and we’ll begin taking orders so check back in a few days. We look forward to another wreath season and more happy customers!

We are going to have free shipping on all of our soaps through the holiday season. If this works well, we will continue having free shipping on all soaps.

Turkey Guest Soap

Green Tea and Cucumber Olive Oil Soap

More soaps being loaded onto our website daily. Check back to see what new

soaps we have added to our site. All at free shipping!

We are introducing our new specialty candle tins. Each tin is made with a specailly designed cover so when you’ve used the candle, you can upcycle the container. These are the first we’ve made and we have more coming soon! These are Very Merry Cranberry.

These are two of our new covers. In the Very Merry Cranberry, there are 4 different covers. We also have four different covers in our Autumn Wreath Scented Candle. Check back, when the internet is working again and I can upload pictures, I’ll happily put all of them into this blog. Right now, nothing is working correctly and I’m not able to put any more photos here. As soon as the problem is solved, I will post the rest of the pictures. You can see them in our online store in the candle section.

I thought it would be a good idea if I shared some of the new soaps I’m making. Very exciting stuff! I just love working on them. Later today I’ll be trying some totally new stuff which I will share, whether they work or not. Right now I’d like to just show you some of the things I’ve been working on.

Moose Soap on a Wooden Soap Holder

This soap is all natural goat milk. The colors are natural as well. The fragrance is warm vanilla sugar. The background has sparkle in it. I’m thinking for some it may be too much sparkle. This is what happens when you put too much brown in your soap and have to try to lighten it up without wasting it. It is very pretty but I’m not so sure that it’s the best way to do this.  All of my first animal or wildlife soaps are this way.

Bear Soap

Buffalo Soap

This could also be a bison depending on your point of view. At any rate, these are what I’m calling my animal wildlife soaps. I have made more of them and have decided that using oatmeal soap makes a nice background color.

Here are some of the others with more new soaps coming up soon.

Turkey Guest Soap

So these are some of the things I’ve been working on. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing them. Some are in my online shop and some aren’t there yet. Gradually, all of them will be in the online shop.

I have not been blogging. Blogging is something I really enjoy but time has not been my friend at all lately. August was extremely busy with the B&B which I’m very happy about. School has begun and the start is always draining. It takes a while to adjust to the schedule etc.

I did want to take a moment to let everyone know that I’m introducing organic soaps to our soap line and that they will be made with organic essential oils for fragrances. I’m very excited about these and will be posting pictures and more information in the very near future.

We have several new soaps to introduce as well, just in time for the fall and upcoming holiday season so look for these in the very near future.