Friday, November 20

Mother and I had a lovely day today. I was up by 6 a.m. to get ready to drive four of us to another town for a craft extravaganza. Mother and I were delighted that the scrapbook club member who lost both her husband and son this year, decided to go along.

The weather was pleasant for the hour drive...sunny, but cool enough to wear sweaters. As a nod to the final days of fall, I wore a pumpkin colored sweater with a gold shell underneath. One of the other ladies wore a Christmas sweater, and another one wore a rust colored jacket over black top and slacks. Mother wore gray and black.

We arrived at the event venue around 8:30 and sat in the van and chatted until the doors to the church fellowship hall opened at 8:45. Other women...we assumed they were the event organizers and program presenters...arrived early, too. As we were watching the ladies enter the building, one of the four of us commented, "there sure are a lot of old women going in." The rest of us broke out laughing, because no one among us is under sixty-five. Two are in their late 70s to early 80s, and Mother is 87!

The event started with a continental breakfast of pastries, brownies, cookies, various sweet dips and crackers, bananas, and a choice of coffee, hot tea, and hot apple cider. Mother and I shared a small plate of goodies, from which we took only a few bites, since we'd both had breakfast before leaving home.

After that there was a program on proper food handling at Thanksgiving that included a demonstration by one of the Extension Homemakers, who portrayed a lady in her kitchen doing all the wrong things, like letting the turkey thaw on the counter overnight, cross contaminating food, improper hand washing, etc. This was followed by a slide show illustrating proper thawing, cooking, and hygiene methods.

Then another EH member demonstrated how to make a sewn tissue box cover. Mother and I do not sew, so we weren't interested in this craft.

After that, a younger woman led us in an aerobic dance routine that was so energetic that most of the ladies were unable to keep up with it. But I enjoyed it and was glad to do it, since I missed water aerobics this morning.

Following a break, we had craft breakout sessions. Our group attended a Christmas craft demonstration for making beaded tree ornaments. We bought several kits for these, but did not make them at the session. We thought the kits would be good for kids, since they are easy to do. The kits, which include materials for three ornaments, were only a dollar each.

After this, an EH member from our county demostrated how to make gift baskets, one using bath items from the everything's a dollar store, and one using a cookie sheet filled with kitchen items and a boxed cookie mix.

When this session was done, we moved to the main room for a "pampered gifts" session. For this one, participants chose baskets, and then went down a table, filling the basket with jars of homemade hand cream, hand scrubs, and bottles of bath salts. The hand cream is made from ingredients that can be gotten at an everything's a dollar store (Vasaline, baby oil, vitamin E). The hand scrub is simply baby oil mixed with epsom salts. Various shapes of bottles were provided for the ladies to fill with layers of colored homemade bath salts. Instructions for these beauty products were gone by the time our group arrived, so we are to receive them later from our Extension agent.

For Mother and myself, I chose black wire baskets with heart-shaped handles, which I filled with squares of tissue paper in various colors, and then filled with the jars of creams and salts. When I got back to the table with our two baskets, the other two women decided they wanted to participate. They would have preferred the black wire baskets, but there were none left, so they settled for wicker ones. The cost of this craft was $3.75 per basket.

By this time, it was 11:30, and time to go to lunch. The four of us went to a favorite buffet restaurant. At 1 p.m., the event resumed with breakout sessions again. This time, we four started with a patriotic craft demonstration, where kits were sold for $2 each. This was a plastic canvas craft, where ribbon is weaved to make a red, white and blue angel. But none of the four of us was able to complete the craft without a plastic canvas needle, so we decided to finish the item at home.

Back in the main room, we participated in a bow-making session, with varying results...some of them laughable. I have my own method for making bows, and made a presentable one, but I brought instructions home to try the method shown by the demonstrator. In an earlier session, though, a presenter showed us how to make bows using a bow-making machine that can be purchased inexpensively at the WDCS.

The last thing on the agenda was the door prize drawing. There were several gifts, but the four of us came away empty-handed. After we left the event, one of the members requested that we stop by a consignment shop to look around. We spent about 30 minutes there, where I found a sleeveless, brown, rib-knit turtleneck shirt that will look good under my pumpkin sweater. I also found six clear dessert/salad plates with a fruit design that will work with my unmatched patterns of China. The other ladies found a few items they could use, too.

By now, it was 4 p.m., and time to head home. I called Hubbie to let him know we were ready to leave the other town. We were home by around 5 p.m., still daylight enough for the other ladies to feel comfortable about driving to their homes (they don't like to travel at night).

Hubbie had heated the potato soup for our supper, and after we ate, Mother went home, and I collapsed in front of TV.

Note: right after supper, someone dropped by to deliver our "repaired" remote control for the upstairs TV. It still doesn't work. Boo.