Light at the end of the tunnel

I have been cutting and bundling curly willow in anticipation of the Flower and Patio show's demand for bundles of willow. I ran out last year and that makes me very uneasy. Hard work has propelled me forward and I now have trimmed and bundled the branches from five trees, three more to go, but I think I will make it. Bundles of curly willow have come to be HALF of my sales during the year, and so I take this very seriously. Must say I do enjoy the physical challenge of doing something that no one else I know does and it being a great success. The worst thing is sore fingers. I will take some of my heart inlaid willow tables to the Judge Stone house for their Love, Lust and Poetry show starting Feb 14. I also plan to attend the opening of Bruce Neckar's opening of his wildlife art show at the beautiful Cicero library February 13. His band, the Poison River Boys will perform and I really enjoyed hearing them at First Friday last week. They will also be appearing at the Tipton library later in the month. The guys play traditional bluegrass standards and it is a wonderfully intimate setting to be able to experience music live. If you have never seen Bruce's bird and wildlife drawings/paintings, they are very evocative and reasonably priced. Bruce and I have collaborated in that he frames some of his prints with my birchbark frames, and the combination has proved to be a good combination.