Skiing in Paradise!

These are pictures of porcupine trails. I hope I spelled that  correctly. My daughter, a wildlife scientist, taught me what they look like. It is always a pleasant surprise when I find one in the woods while skiing. All those feet trudging along from one tree to the next producing the most amazing foot path. In this picture, above, you can see the path right by the tip of my ski. The top picture is where I tried to show the depth of the path and photograph how neat it is to see one of these in the woods!

This picture is coming onto the back trail. I took these yesterday when I went for a ski. It was snowing like crazy. I love skiing into the woods when it's snowing. The snow just kind of sprinkles down into the woods. This path has a watering place for the deer in the winter. As I skiied, I noticed several places where trees that are leaning over from the weight of the snow have been eaten by the deer browsing for food. It's quite magnificant. No matter how many times I ski the trails, I'm always amazed by one thing or another.

I am sooo glad that this picture came out! I took several, trying to get the right shot. This is it! Snow laden branches, deep in the woods. No wind has touched them yet. The quiet takes your breath away. I just had to share these experiences. Some of you may live in the south and miss the snow. Others, may be wishing you could have snow. So this way everybody gets to see the snow and the woods in winter. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Pressed Flower and Hand Painted Candles

North Fork Gifts has beautifully crafted candles done in pressed flower designs or hand painted. These candles are a wonderful way to brighten a winter day or create atmosphere on a cold winter evening. As the candle burns, the light shines behind the design. They are very pretty and a great "pick me up" for the winter months and into the spring and summer. We have both scented and unscented candles. Each one is different and unique. Due to the fact that they are all hand made, no 2 are exactly alike.

My hope is to be able to make some new things very soon. Having moved everything, I'm in the process of figuring out just how I'm going to put together a work space. I have just about all of it figured out now and hope to begin creating as soon as this evening. The only thing standing in my way at this point is tiredness. I am very, very tired. I'm not sure if it's all the extra at work, the weather or a combination. Hopefully, I'll be up and running this evening and presenting some cool stuff by tomorrow. We'll see what happens. Now it's off to work!

A Wonderful Day to Ski!

Well, this is a picture of some of the brush that surrounds our woods. On this particular day they were just beginning to be snow covered. Today the woods are absolutely breath taking. I hope to get some photos of them to share when I go skiing. Yesterday and today my skiing took place in the dark. I had appointments after work and by the time I could get out there it was dark. I love it when it's like this. The snow is all sparkly and there's a hush that comes over the woods as the snow trickles through the trees. It smells different too. It is simply wonderful and there's really nothing quite like it. It's been difficult the past couple of days because while I'm at work and watching the snow, I'm thinking that I should have brought all of my ski gear so I could ski on my break. Anyway, I wanted to share this most wonderful thing. Our guests can ski at no extra charge when they stay at our B&B. You need to bring your own equipment. We don't have rentals available but we have some awesome trails. Snowshoes work too!

All the things that could freeze in the gift shop have been moved for the winter. They are safe and inside where it's warm. I will work from the house until the spring. I'll work on really making extra things for our customers so we'll have a great selection of various things available in the spring.

Why blog?? What's a Gift Shop to the owner and creator???

I'm not sure what to do with the link thing at the top of this so I'm going to skip it right now. Over break I watched Julie, Julia or Julia, Julie. I really loved the movie. I wasn't too keen on the ending. I have enjoyed break but I feel like I'm destined to find places for things and that is my life's plight. Find a place for this and reorganize that. Throw that away and put this here and that there. Often I ask myself, why blog? Does anyone read it? Has anyone even seen the darn thing? And if they had, did or do, what do they think or what is their reaction? No one has ever commented so who knows!

Today, I don't care. Today it doesn't matter to me in the least little bit. Today this is simply a way for me to vent!!! Today I have decided that blogging is a way for me to vent about this stuff. Stuff, there's too much stuff and simply too many things. Too many things to deal with and too many things to think about and too many things to find places for. Today, I had to fish or cut bait. I decided to cut bait. After much thought, a huge gas bill and in an effort to maintain, I turned off the heat in the gift shop. I moved everything that could be ruined by freezing into the back hall or back porch or what ever you want to call it. It's where the wood box is, it's where we keep the skis and snow shoes and it's where my computer and half the gift shop are located. All of the things I need to make soap and candles are scattered in various places. Where ever I could fit them, I put them. I have no idea what's going to happen when I go to make soap or candles. Yup, I had a good cry and then I determined that I was NOT going to let this get to me. I was going to deal with what was in front of me and just keep on keeping on. Sounds so rediculous, I know but in the process of processing all of this stuff I came to realize that I absolutely love making soap and candles, creating. Most of what I have made, I have sold so I have to give myself some credit there. I do wonder, however, why I am so driven to do this stuff. There we are again with the stuff! Anyway, this gift shop and the creation of things is extremely important to me. I enjoy it and I look forward to the next creation. When I'm supposed to be sleeping, I'm thinking about new things to make.

I continue to work at trying to become more known on the web and in my local community. I don't want to have a huge business. I don't want a bazillion orders and feel overwhelmed with it all. I just want to make as much as I can and sell it. It's that simple. Until today though, I really was not aware of how much all of this means to me. All I do know is that I will continue to move forward and see what happens. It's all I can do.

As for this blog and blogging in general....I will keep doing that as well. As best and as often as I can, I will blog and continue to hope that someone will comment and that more people will become followers. There's no way I can sit at the computer for the hours it would take to keep up with everything all the time. I don't have the time or the patience. Today though, I have blogged and I have vented and for me that is all that matters.

Once again this morning, I'm having trouble uploading pictures. I'm not sure why. I'll do the best I can. Anyway, the above picture is a beautiful dried flower arrangement in a pottery vase. A very pretty addition to any decor. A wonderful way to brighten up the fall and winter months!

Here's a picture of some of the dried flowers we have available. Several are in bunches as seen here in our baskets. You can alos see some of our table toppers and a basket of towels. We have a brand new, larger size, assortment of bath teas that make wonderful stocking stuffers too.
I'll continue to update as time permits. Yesterday was outside lights. Oh my did it ever take a long time. That was done in between yet another trip to the store and accompanying at the church for a friend. It certainly is a busy time of year! New stuff coming in tomorrow and I can't wait!

Finally, Pictures!

At long last, I finally have some current pictures. Something is not right with my camera! Tim let me borrow his camera and I took several pictures to update the gift shop. Today was very exciting. We have received more orders over the phone and on the website. One is for a larger gift basket to ship. I just love doing these things for people at holiday time. Actually, any time!

This gift basket has the four holiday coffees; Frosty's Favorite Flavor, Candy Cane, Jingle Bell Java and Mistletoe Mocha flavored coffees. To purchase any of these you can call. Go to http://www.stlawrencevalleyroasters.com/ or http://www.northforkgifts.com/ and call or email. Not all of what we have is on our website yet. Baby steps. We're getting there.

Here's the 2 sampler size gift basket. We have something for everyone on your gift list!





You can even get a mug with one coffee sampler! Now onto the soaps....



We have lots of different soaps in many different shapes and sizes. You can get guest size (1.5oz.) snowflake soaps, celtic knots, oatmeal, vanilla-lavender in goat's milk or shea butter. Most are 1.50 or less. These make wonderful stocking stuffers.

It's taking way too long to upload this evening. Look for us again tomorrow and we'll share more from North Fork Gifts.

Winter Is Upon Us

I haven't written in a very long time. My goal is to try to get to this more often and keep people up to date with what's happening. Last Sunday we had our open house. This past week the weather has made many changes in the scheduling. Our concert was postponed. Yesterday's trip to Utica to see Mama Mia was cancelled. We'll be going to River Dance in April instead. Tonight is caroling followed by hot cocoa and cookies with the singers. In the upcoming week we'll be singing all day on Tuesday as we travel to Ogdensburg and visit various nursing homes and Meadow View Apts. in Heuvelton. Our concert is TBA. The K-6 concert is on Friday and this week is also secret santa so....needless to say, it's going to be very busy.

The shop is warm and cozy. The tree is up and decorated and I spent a few hours the other day putting insulation into the bays along the ceiling to hopefully, keep it even warmer! I'm hoping to post some pictures of all the new things. Right now it's off to work! Hopefully, I'll be able to get back at this on a more regular basis.

The shop is open as long as we're here, we're open!! So please feel free to come by.