What a year! Wrapping up 2020 (back post).

 i realized the other day that i've really been neglecting my blog. Life just seems to get busier and busier each year, and as technology has changed over the years blogs just no longer seem very relevant.  i've always kept this blog more as a journal or way to document important moments in my life and really want to continue to do that. Although i love hosting giveaways and sharing product reviews, the blog has really always been about daily family life and i would really like to get back to that.

So, here is a brief recap of 2020, since i sort of abandoned the blog while the world around us was turning upside down. 

My sweet little boy, grew up, graduated high school and is now attending William & Mary University in Williamsburg VA. To say i am proud of his achievements is an understatement. 

Moving my boy across the state during a pandemic was a pretty huge transition.  Empty nest syndrome is no joke, and even though Sage is still at home i got my first taste of empty nest and it kind of terrified me and made me really rethink my life. It may have been the beginnings of an existential crisis.

Honestly, 2020 is a complete blur. When Covid first hit i began making and giving away masks to friends and neighbors. Eventually i was making them for the schools, local stores and the veterinary office for a donation towards fabric cost. i made at least a 1000 and eventually began taking orders for custom masks and making them for sale. i admit, i had a lot of fun buying cute fabrics, something i haven't done since my patchwork days. 

With Covid spreading, we stayed pretty close to home. Although Kenan was spending most of his time in Floyd at the new shop, i was spending my time (when i wasn't sewing masks) in the garden and mushroom hunting.  i had to really dig through my photos, to find a few images from 2020, so these are the best. Just a few i found to show that we did actually grow stuff in 2020.  The garden was somewhat neglected, because my focus was on producing stuff for the shop and sewing masks.

We were still harvesting mushrooms from the logs plugged a few years before. The shiitake and oysters are the only ones that ever grew from the logs we plugged. We plan to plug a bunch more this year.  We are still (2022) getting occasional shiitakes and oysters from these same logs.

Since Covid kept me home more than usual, i was able to spend much more time in the woods hunting mushrooms. 2020 was a good year for mushroom hunting!  i'll probably put together a post soon of all the varieties of mushrooms i've been foraging. Every year i seem to find a new one.

In the fall of 2020, Blue Ridge Alchemy opened it's store front. It is now a working glass studio with a store front that is open to the public. We carry work from many local artists and it gives me an outlet to sell my own work, eggs and honey.  

i'm having to really dig through my FB posts to see just what exactly we did in 2020 so i can play catch up on my posts. i'm not really sure anyone evens reads this blog anymore, but i've always used it as an online scrap book to document life and really want to fill in the last couple years with more than just product reviews and giveaways.  Planning to spend the next few days back posting.  So if you still here reading. Thank you.