Annual Art & Art Quilt Supply Sale at the Inn

It's time once again for our annual sale of art and art quilt supplies! We stock supplies for the convenience of the students attending the workshops we host as Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, but at the end of the year we like to CLEAR THE SHELVES!

All supplies are at least 25% off, with some items marked down 30% to 50%. There are lots of great items at a wide range of prices - from stocking stuffers to "holy cow, what an amazing gift."

The sale continues until Dec. 31, 2014 and the shop is open Wednesday thru Sunday 10am to 4pm.

A quick photo tour of our shop will give you an idea of what you can find here.







Our Hudson River Valley Art Workhop t-shirts are also 25% off.







Don't forget about our Life By Chocolate shop has a great variety of gourmet chocolate confections - cordials, caramels, toffee, bark, and more. The chocolates are made right here in our commercial kitchen using organic chocolate: Dark, Milk, or Vegan. We have some very festive boxes for the holidays and chocolate Santas.








If you or someone on your gift list loves cute collectables, we have a great selection of Wee Forest Folk figures, including a number of the retired pieces!

Chocolate Review

Every now and then I like to highlight some of the chocolates that we make here at the inn under our Life By Chocolate banner.

Ok, I also just like to look at picture of chocolate and this gives me an excuse. Sometimes I have to taste them too just to make sure I'm describing them right!

We make a unique bunch of chocolate bars. They are all made with 72% organic dark chocolate and have little pockets of flavor. Some of the most popular ones are the Bee's Knees with honey and bee pollen and Wild Rabbitwith chili pepper! The wrapper design features images from some of my art quilts, which you may see hanging on the walls around the inn.



Halloween is practically around the corner, but we actually have our chocolate cats available all year around just because who can resist a chocolate cat! We make them in dark or milk chocolate.



Our crunchy butter toffee is also a popular holiday treat that we have available all year. The chocolate is organic and so are the almonds.



We have a large selection of chocolate bark in dark, milk, vegan, or white chocolate with all sorts of yummy things in them, such as almonds, dried cherries, pistachios, coffee beans and sea salt, and cranberries.




Our shop is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but you can also shop our web store at Life By Chocolates.com

Shopping for Your Sweetheart

Ah, the scent of melting chocolate is wafting through the air at the inn. We have been busy making chocolates to fill the elegant Valentines boxes for the first rush of wholesale orders. We are making caramels, cordials - cherry & apricot, maple creams, and more of our signature gourmet chocolates. The heart boxes can be all dark chocolates, a mix of milk and dark chocolates or all vegan chocolates.



We also have our new "Daily Dose" a full half pound of solid chocolate hearts in a cute little purse box. The hearts are just right for a daily treat of chocolate.

Wee Forest Folk collectable mouse figurines are another popular gift to delight your sweetheart. We have a selection of quite a few in our gift shop and they would be so adorable presented with a box of our Valentines chocolates.



Then while you're at it, why not treat your true love to a weekend getaway! This year Valentines day is on the Friday before the long Presidents Day Weekend. When you stay three nights or more at our inn you always get 10% off of our regular rates. (One night stays are always welcome, too!) Check out our Specials and Packages page on our website for all the cool extras you can add to your visit to make it really memorable.

Winter Ice Sculpture

I always love to see what the weather will do with the little creek that runs through our property. It comes up with the most amazing ice sculptures!

This is the latest creation. It was the result of temperatures that went from 50 degrees and raining to -8 degrees over night. The rushing water was frozen at ever increasing heights to form this magnificent icy waterfall. The photos just don't do it justice.



Another section of the creek had thick sheets of ice, that eventually cracked in the middle as the water levels fell below the ice.



Right now the creek is back to just swiftly flowing water, so the stage is clear and waiting for the next creation!

In the meantime, we are staying warm inside enjoying the heady scent of dark chocolate as we begin making Valentines chocolates!



Our wholesale customers are placing their orders already and our shop will soon switch from Christmas to Valentines.

However, now's your chance to take advantage of our 35% off sale on the Christmas chocolates. Solid chocolate Santa Faces and Figures in organic dark, milk, or vegan chocolate.

New Quilts for the Rooms In the Works

I love the snow and winter weather! Once reason is that snowy days are perfect for staying inside to work on quilts for the guest rooms! Every winter I try to get two to four more quilts finished.

I'm currently working on a Queen/Twin set for one of our rooms that have two beds. These quilts are composed of a 6-inch star that will be within a 12-inch blog. I finished all the stars (48 for the Twin and 72 for the Queen). Then I took them to Room 1 (which has enough space) to layout the stars in order to figure out the placement for all of them. I want to make sure that stars using the same fabric are not right next to each other.

So here is the layout of the stars for the two quilts.

The next step in the process will be to sew the borders on each star to make it into a 12-inch block.

Another task that heats up in the winter is chocolate making! Our Life By Chocolates shop is busy keeping up with the demand for luscious organic dark, milk, and vegan chocolates.

One of our seasonal chocolates, the Orange Cinnamon Truffle, has just been made and is available to order on our website or in our shop. These are melt in your mouth confections that we've brought back by popular demand. Get them while they last!

Horses, Marvelous Views, and Hospitality Plus!

Returning from our recent trip to Virginia, we stopped for a one night stay at the Inn at Westwynd Farm in Hershey, PA. What a wonderful place! I could have moved in at once and stayed forever! But, alas our stay was to be all to brief.

I'm definitely marking this inn down for a repeat visit. I want to hang out on the front porch swing watching the sunset and the horses. I also want more of those "fudgey cookies!" The inn is also only a short drive from the Hershey chocolate center of the world, with fine dining (we ate at Devon Seafood Grill - excellent!), a huge amusement park, and historic tours.

Below are some photos from around the inn.

Valentines - Wee Forest Folk Style

Happy Valentines Day! It was a pretty busy day in the chocolate shop yesterday and I'm sure that we'll get a bunch of last minute Valentines chocolate shoppers today, too. We've had to make quite a few batches of the raspberry cordials!

The newest Valentines figures by Wee Forest Folk arrived the other day, too.

This one is called Will You Be Mine. It is a limited edition figure and will be retired on Feb. 28th.

This is Valentine Sampler. The little cupid mouse looks like she is sampling one of our boxes of Valentines chocolates!

Love is in the Air is the title of this one. It is also a limited edition figure and will be retired on Feb. 28th.

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Peanut Butter Cups and Colored Eggs

Easter is always a busy time around the inn. This is because it is the biggest chocolate selling time of the year, so our chocolate manufacturing for Life By Chocolates is going full swing. When the chocolate temperer is going the whole inn smells fabulously of chocolate.

Besides the chocolate rabbits (organic dark, milk, or vegan), another popular confection with the folks coming to our shop were the colorful and delicious Peanut Butter Bites. The peanut praline filling is made right in our kitchen from organic peanuts and raw cane sugar. It sure beats a Reeses any day!

On Sunday, us kids, Mark and I, had fun coloring Easter eggs. We used water glasses to set up as the dye baths.

Some freshly dyed eggs.

Chef Mark showing his "professional" egg dyeing style.

The finished basket of eggs!