Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Etsy Plunge

  Whew! With a long journey (including taking a bag of Sonic hamburgers to homeless people who weren't there) and some creative spirit Flanders Mercantile is now a seller on Etsy! Visit our Etsy shop at this link http://www.etsy.com/shop/merchantships31?ref=seller_info !!!!!

   Now for the good stuff, it seems like finding your niche in the crafting business is like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. Good thing dad is a patient man and passed that quality along to me. We could search high and low for our niche until the cows came home and we would still enjoy the journey. Even though we might crawl home tired and hungry if we don't find it someday....

   With Thanksgiving coming soon I've been thinking some about what I am truly thankful for and here it is: I am thankful for wonderful parents who raised me to follow along in the simple life, a wonderful husband who loves that I crave the simple life, two wonderful little boys who are fishing every day this winter because they also enjoy the simple life and many friends and family who encourage us toward a simple life. Thanks to God for the simple life!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Where is Norm Abram when we need him?

   Yes, where is that Norm and is he Flemish? For that matter, are we even Flemish? For all my life my dad and I have been dreaming about our Belgian heritage. We make a big deal out of Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolate and get really excited when we see anything about Belgium in the news. All of this changed 2 years ago when my cousin journeyed over to France and stopped in Belgium to find our city of ancestry.

    She reported that we are in fact Flemish and not Belgian. Now to be truthful we do not understand fully what this could mean. I mean they are the same country now sort of.....right? So for us sitting ignorant in the United States we dream of Flanders and everything Flemish without truly even knowing what we are dreaming about! Our name Verbeke is of Flemish origin and so now my dad and I have changed to looking for everything Flemish, say for instance the GIANT Flemish rabbit I just saw at the zoo and had to report back to dad about. Things like this and also talking a lot about The Battle of the Golden Spurs and that silly Catherine the II and also if we are Duke, Countess or long lost King and Princess of Flanders.

   Now back to Norm. Another piece of the puzzle with dad and I and the Flanders Mercantile is this: We have always enjoyed working on projects together. I think woodworking is by far our favorite and we have watched many an episode of the New Yankee Workshop when I was younger.
http://www.newyankee.com/index.php

    After Dad recently having double knee replacements we have decided that maybe he and I could start really tinkering around with our love of creating and making things with our hands. And what better name for our not yet anything shop except the .......(drumroll please) ...........  Flanders Mercantile!