Renewal, the Orchid....

Orchid Blooms....they're so pretty.

I thought I had lost this one, the stem going brown and dead last winter....

But here it is again in full bloom, with many friends on the way.

Wow, what a renewal!!

That is what today is about....

Renewing my thinking, how I look at the world...getting rid of the bad, brown stems.

It is time again to bloom, be a beautiful orchid...

Short of a Christmas Miracle

Yep, in the eyes of my children, yesterday was a wonderful day. I really enjoyed it too, but to them, it was miraculous!! It snowed in our little corner of the world, alot.  Here in Nothern Nevada, it gets cold, but rarely does it snow like it did over the past few days. Lots of hot chocolate with a few peppermints popped in and ginger cream cookies....mmmmm.....2 snow days and lots of playing and sledding in our very near future...what a wonderful gift! ; )

Yesterday wasn't completely a day of play though. A good part of my time was spent whipping my Etsy shop into shape for it's time in the spotlight in the Seller Showcase where I featured a good deal of my soaps. We'll see how that goes. I think it's a nice feature that etsy has, but I feel that you have to do a good deal of 'wading' through for anyone to find this promotion. It's very search word specific and I haven't seemed to be able to control which item will bring 'em in....Have you used this promotion with Etsy? How did it work out for you generating traffic and sales? We'll see how it goes. After today, I'll have a good deal of info to go on for my next promotion endevor......

Have a wonderfully creative day!! ; )

Joys of Fall-Volunteer Fruits

I've been watching our little apple tree out back sheepishly sprout fruit over the past few months. Patiently, ever so patiently, we've been waiting for these juicy morsels to finally be ready. Then this week, I saw birds checking out the beautiful red globes and decided to look at the apples more closly, had to get our share before the birds got to them all! So I took my little pasta stainer out and started joyously picking. It was a cool mid-morning and the apples that had already fallen were giving off a wonderful tang. (Reminds me of growing up in apple-country). I was able to get enough apples for a pie, left a few others for later and well, I guess the birds. Yah, I can share.  Just a little reminder of the finer things in life, the ones that are there boom or bust, rich or poor. In this hard time of economy, people loosing their homes and jobs, and the never ending drone of the news...a little simple bit of joy is what I needed this week.

Anyway, thought it would be fun to share my little volunteer apple tree. Bless her!

Ambitous Gardener

There's nothing like a vine fresh tomato dribbling down your chin. One than you just rubbed the dust off of....

Well, you could call me an ambitious gardener. Every spring, I get very excited, eager really for the new planting season. I can just taste the fresh tomatoes, strawberries and corn. I feel the potatoes forming under the dirt. Mmmmm...I do love it.

So, every spring I start a bunch of veggy babies at my patio door, coaxing them out of their seeds. The kids spray them with water mist and talk gently. Generally the spinach crop does fine, we have fine salads made out of their tender leaves. Then the strawberries come up from their slumber and we have a few great handfuls of their sweetness.

As the season progresses into summer, that's when it becomes tough for our veggie babies. We live in Northern Nevada. As you can imagine, water is not a plentiful source, the sun bakes the clay/sand soil and the 4000' plus elevation is a bit tricky as well. Maybe I'm using all these things as excuses, as I've seen other people's gardens in the area flourish. Maybe it's really because the kids and I love the garden, but are busy enjoying other things too...

The aphids munch on my brussel sprouts and grasshoppers ravage the corn. The ants ate my watermelons and cantaloupes. After much fertilizing, my cucumbers produced on little fruit. Oh the woe of my little garden. So much prep and time put into it, but due to my lack of tending it as it should be every day for an hour...it has become a dry, shriveled mess.

So, the main conclusion I have came to is that next year we will have an abundance of sunflowers, several tomato plants, spinach, potatoes and carrots. There will be raspberries and grapes.  And a little herb planting. It will be a snacking garden!

*side note* The garden shown above is not mine. Similar, but not quite. I didn't have a photo of my own available before post. ; )