I awoke to a beautiful day. My sister and brother-in-law live on three tranquil acres near Woodstock, NY. Kathy has a really cool garden and I walked around with her and took pictures while she tidied up and fed the bunnies. A bird family has taken up residence in her hanging geranium basket.

We had a nice relaxing day. One of the things I always want to do when I am visiting her is go to the dump.

They have all kinds of random things that people leave there that you can take if it strikes your fancy. They also collect garbage, accept recycling and you can leave your big pieces like old appliances, swing sets, outdoor furniture, etc. My favorite thing to do is throw the glass bottles in the glass dumpster. You would not believe how much fun that is!

I didn’t see anything interesting till we got to the big scrap pile. There I found a rack that I will use to hold dies, a galvanized trough for inks, a weird lamp that I may or may not keep and pins samples to as a display and some metal pieces with brackets for labels which I am not sure what I will do with but were small and cool enough to bring along and think about.

We also went to a few antique stores and estate sales. I found a cool wooden box with nails and hard ware in for $20 plus a nice yellow yardstick (I collect them from so that one day I can use them as a chair rail). Kathy and I shared a wooden box of sewing supplies- I got the box and she got the sewing stuff. When we got home we cleaned them up and they look a lot better. Got some Chinese food for dinner and then drove to my nephew Garett’s place to pick up his daughter Jana for the evening. Garett is a metal work artist and has all of these amazing pieces throughout his place.

Here are two necklaces that he made for his sister and girlfriend…

This is one creative family! Thanks Kathy and Mike for the hospitality, for help with Scotty and laundry service!

Tomorrow I am off to Springfield MA to the Stamp Show. Another day of fun! What are you up to this weekend?