I have to admit that I love it when people go out of their way to make my job easier. Connie Vogt did the Make It/Take It in our store on Wednesday, and she knew that I was scrambling to get everything done so I could load the truck and head out for the Springfield,...

Some of you will notice that it has been almost a week since I last rambled incoherently (of course, others have enjoyed the silence) . . .As soon as I finish this, I will go into New England Mode. This weekend is one of the biggest shows of the year -- we'll be at...

I'm sure a lot of you take classes at your local store. I never realized how much prep time goes into one until we started offering classes in our store and I noticed that the teachers are always there! So today I'm offering a look behind the scenes for those of you...

I think everyone has a snickerdoodle recipe. This one came from my wife, and she got it from the Betty Crocker Cookbook when she was little. I was always a chocolate chip cookie kid, so I had never had snickerdoodles (and I thought the name was silly) until we started...

This is the Make It/Take It card that Dawn Cutter led in our store last Wednesday. Dawn was very thorough -- gave me a detailed list with supply and assembly instructions. Now that you've seen where we're headed, this is how to get there. It's quick and easy and comes...

This is what remains of my favorite two-wheeler (some of you may know this contraption as a hand truck). It has a nice wide base and I have used it for nearly ten years when setting up and tearing down our booth. Only the tires have been replaced over the years -- it...

This was an idea suggested by a customer, who wanted to know what a day on the road in that big truck was like. So I started snapping pictures Thursday morning. Some of them turned out well, and some are truly awful (but as you'll see, I guess they're proof that I was...

I decided that if I waited until I got back from Maryland to take pictures of the blooms from our new Venus Dogwood (Cornus Kousa Venus), they might be gone. I really wasn't expecting any this year since we just planted it a month ago, but got a surprise when a...

I took the weekend off from work. That makes it sound like I took it easy -- people who know me well know that I rarely sit still. For example . . .Friday evening, Ryan's girlfriend came over to spend the evening. So I picked up some hamburger and an assortment of hot...

The last four months or so have been full of mileposts for my son, Ryan. Some of you know Ryan (or feel like you do) -- I have mentioned him often in my e-mails over the years, and for several years he traveled with me to shows (a lot more than he preferred).Ryan...