What I have been up to

My two fans have been wondering what I have been up to the last several days so I will start back on Thursday. Otto was here for my massage Thursday morning - it was great- and I left here for the 2:15pm bus to Paraiso, loaded down with all the goodies from Oregon and chocolate for coffee time. The ladies were so excited when I started unpacking things from the red bag. It was so fun to hear the oohs and aahs which told me I had made some good choices. The lady in charge, Rosa, asked about prices and I got out my book where I had carefully listed each item, the price in US dollars and the conversion to colones. I had used a conversion program to make sure I had correct amounts. We had a little trouble when I tried to explain that the big spool of thread was less than the little spool because I got it at buy one get one free. I was able to explain that the little packages of patterns had a price but all the books and torn out patterns were free. Donna and I went through her craft room and sorted through her books. We didn't send many books because of the weight but tore out the patterns. A lot of them were from her woodworking days but I figured the ladies could use them to trace for embroidery or even appliqué. When it came to the fabric, the flower squares and the Santa squares seemed to be the most popular. So, now we get down to pricing. Rosa used tape to attach prices to everything and in every case she upped the price a little so I would make a little money. She also came up with some creative dividing. The Santa fabric was $6.50 for a yard. There were 10 rows of squares so she cut it into rows and sold them for 600 colones. Times 10 that is 6000 or about $12.00. Same idea with the flower squares but there were 18 of them because I bought 2 yards. They spent a lot of time going thru the patterns and seemed to like the crochet thread and the quilting thread. I left everything with them and Rosa will collect the money. I didn't bring the batting because I couldn't carry everything so next time.

Friday Katherine and her girls came over. I had brought hot chile seeds for Katherine and Donna gave me bubbles and bubble blowers and a bubble gun that I gave to the girls. Courtney wanted to open her's and load her gun but we convinced her to wait until she got home.

Saturday was laundry and off to Cartago to see Ziomara. I had a bag of items for her and a big bag of wicker plate holders from Gerry and Donna and John and Sandy. She was thrilled. I had also bought some yarn to give her company names and a kit to make a child's hat. I took a few of my skeins of yarn along explaining that I had one skein of a lot of different yarns and if she wanted to have a bargain basket I would sell them to her for $1.00 each. She bought almost everything I had with me and said she will talk with her partner. She sells some quilting fabric and said if I want to do a consignment type of thing on fabric we can do that. From the bus window I saw a yard stacked with chiverre which is a Holy Week treat. That was what Vera was teaching me how to make.

Starting Saturday there have been parades and cannon type notice going off as Holy Week is starting. Sunday morning I went to church but I have to explain. There is the old church I always go to, then the museum, then the new church. It is being completed as they have the money. The outside is complete but not the inside. There are only chairs and never enough. It is very large. I don't so much like the new church. When there is a big event it is in the new church and Holy Week is a very big deal here. Thursday and Friday a lot of places will be closed. Anyway, mass was in the new church and I spent an hour in the old church. I have my missal book so I read that and God and I talked. I assume all the Easter services will be in the new church also.

Ziomara invited me to lunch on Friday at her house. I will be able to meet her parents. I am bringing the Pumpkin Log that I made for Thanksgiving and maybe something chocolate. The buses operate on a different schedule during Holy Week so Emilio is checking the times for me so I can meet Ziomara about 1:00pm. 

That brings me to today. Donna had picked up black upholstery thread so I could repair my chair on the front porch. I did that and made magnesium oil for Ziomara and myself and did a little gardening. I see a couple cosmos so I think the mowed down ones are coming back.

I have to tell you about my crown of thorns. When I lived in Oregon I had a bunch and I would even break off small pieces and sell them at The Grotto as a fund raiser.  Heather found them a couple places here, along the sidewalk, but they are quite big. It would be hard to just break one off. They have wicked thorns. I have been told if it is out in the open it is ok to take a piece. Not so if it is inside the fence. So, as I was walking to the bus Saturday the owner was out caring for his flowers. I said beautiful and pointed to the crown of thorns. He said you like and proceeded to find a smaller shoot and broke it off. He bent back the thorns and handed it to me. I put it in my sunglasses case so I wouldn't get poked and dug out my container of chocolate. I gave him one and said thank you. It is now in with all my other cactus.

Tomorrow I will go to the hardware and appliance stores with chocolate as I haven't been there in a while. I also want to track down Janet and bring her here and show her the sewing machines and fabric. I am still looking for someone to teach.

In case I don't write more this week, Happy Easter to all - or both - of you.

My (John's) tomatoes are big enough they needed bracing so I used the bamboo dreamcatcher frames.

The cactus we saved have flowers. The leafy one is my crown of thorns.

More cactus babies.