February 2026

Planning ahead for both March and April sales at Good Juju

Good JuJu
By /

Before it was time for my shoulder surgery, I was a busy bee getting my world situated so I function in with only one arm.

High on my list of priorities was to have my booth at Good Juju ready for the march sale.

Knowing I’d be missing the use of my dominate hand, I figured I needed to get enough inventory set up for redos too.  I tagged and boxed huge piles of goods ready to bring in and set up for April and May’s events too.

Another thing I wanted to accomplish in my space was setting up the power strips to be easy to reach, then making a diagram of where they were located so they’d be easy to find.  Other dealers need to be able to turn them off and on for me while I’m away.

Since I move furniture around between sales, I redo lighting each time, and convenience isn’t usually factored in when I finally get to the point of plugging stuff in.  I find myself twisting, reaching, and stretching to pop the switches and it’s been a work out to wrangle my arm behind something and feel around blindly trying to light up the area.

Since I’ll be depending upon the kindness of friends to make sure my booth is tidy and the bulbs are illuminating my wares, I knew I had to simplify how to reach the power strips.  After carefully placing them in spots with easy access and hanging some from hooks, I photographed and mapped out where they were, then printed copies for other dealers to find them.

As I write this, I haven’t gone under the knife yet.  (I’m also pre-posting here, because I’m afraid I won’t have anything to say during recovery).

I have no idea how all will go, and how much I will feel like, or be able to do after.  So part of my prep was to cram as much as I possibly could into the room in case I wasn’t able to do much for a while.

Cramming is my specialty anyway, but I really went for it this time.

She is filled to the brim!
And is decorated in a springtime/Easter theme that will hold through the April sale if needed.

From this angle, you can’t see the bunny ears on this guy.  But he is ready for Easter.

And I think I am too.

I’ve been in a tizzy trying to cover all the bases and be prepared for one armed life for a while.  Lids of toiletries are loosened, new pjs that button down the front are purchased.  My house is clean, as are my car and studio.

I’m as ready as I can be, I guess.  And feeling blessed that my friends are covering for me, so that I can take all this time off to recuperate.

How to make a flower bouquet on focaccia bread

flowers, Food and Drink
By /

Focaccia bread flowers are easier to make than they look.

Here, I’ve used the natural shape of the orange and yellow bell pepper slices to make a sort of daisy with caper centers.

I then turned short strips of peppers into petals to make an another shape of flower.  I used strips of pickled red onion in the same way.

With the onion, a half of a black olive is used for the center of the coneflower-ish bloom.  For the orange pepper, black olives sliced lengthwise become the base of the bachelor button type flower.

Roses are a bit more complicated. I started with a dark red, sun dried tomato center, and made the rose petals from jarred red peppers that I cut into petal shapes, then spiraled around the tomato.  Narrow strips in the center, wider at the edges.

The greenery ties it all together, with rosemary and thyme as twigs and stems.  I used asparagus cut lengthwise to make leaves and stems too.  Green olives are used throughout and the finished piece is  generously filled in with lots of thyme, then I spritzed the bread with olive oil and sprinkled it all over with  Italian herbs.

One flower that didn’t work as well, but tasted good was the mushroom one.  It was a center slice of the stump as the center, then petals formed around that center from the slices of the cap.  The color was simply too neutral to stand out.   I could’ve done the same look with cherry or grape tomatoes and it would’ve turned out better.

The design can also be very simple, like this mini serving with an herb heart and caper  posy that I made for a guest who had food allergies and couldn’t eat the various peppers on the bigger bread.

I made my own dough in the bread maker, then flattened it out on a sheet pan for these.  It’s pretty thin, for a crunchy crust, but you could use a smaller pan for a thicker, chewier result.  I made mine so thin because I wanted more “canvas” to create flowers.

 I can never have enough flowers.

Fab food

family, Food and Drink, Travel, Uncategorized
By /

Did I mention how good the food was in Maui?

The best was at Mama’s Fish House.

My sister-in-law, Terry, is an expert traveler and planner. She booked our reservations months in advance so we could have this special meal in this extraordinary setting.

We had an ideal mix of cozy family dinners made by Terry, by sunset on the balcony and fresh seafood meals at the beach.  One special treat was an appetizer of a goat cheese flight at Surfing Goat Farm.

Dinner and a show, we got to watch little kids playing.

We never turned down a dessert either.


Everything was fresh and delicious.

Maui memories

family, flowers, Food and Drink, Travel
By /

Maui was a delight.

From the little things

To the majestic ones.

The food

The nature inspired artwork


And the nature itself

Friendships

Grand vistas

Sunsets


Spending time with people we love 

And with each other.

Girlies

Good JuJu
By /

After last minute touch ups at Good Juju I wanted to take a few photos to post.

As I snapped a few, I started to see a pattern.

I seem to have a lot of little ladies.

With a similar look.

All have a sweet, pensive face.

Girls of all ages.

And mediums.

I seem to have populated my booth with girliness.

Lots of lovelies have filled the space.

Darlings and dollies

 Beauties and babes

I didn’t even realize just how many I keep on display.

Now that I see the pattern, I’m loving that vibe I’d been cultivating without even knowing.

Forgetting my worries

Travel, Uncategorized
By /

Our Maui visit was very laid back.  Every day but one began with a long walk along the shore and typically an excursion, or just some time to chill.

One morning, we explored the other side of the island.  Stopping at more than one roadside banana bread spots to compare the treats.

All were deliciously different in small ways, but overall they were too good to chose a favorite.

Along that drive, we pulled over for a walk in the woods.  The three of us were the only people there and it felt like we were in a timeless, exclusive space no one had ever discovered.
That was  deceptive feeling, because this secluded jungle was right off the highway, and we could see cars parked along the road.

Did I mention it was a scary road? Narrow, twisting, with a sheer cliff on one side and a drop off on the other.  When another vehicle came across us, we needed to back up to make space.

I’m terribly afraid of heights and get car sick easily.  But on this edge of a mountain road, I wasn’t on the edge of my seat.  For some odd, once in my lifetime reason, I had zero worries about plunging to our death.  Or even feeling a tiny bit nauseated.  And I have deep problems with the much tamer hills of the Appalachians.  I don’t know what got into me, but this drive around the volcano was nothing but pure pleasure.

An outing that I will always treasure

Scroll to Top