I am writing today from the doghouse… because I am SO late in sending out orders taken during the Flower Show. I am SO sorry! I hate being behind. Little did I know that I would be staying home with sick children the week I got home… and then come down with the flu the next week. I promise that I didn’t fall off the edge of the earth nor have I forgotten about any orders!

Remaining orders will be shipping this week! Yay. The kids are back in school and I am finally out of bed and rearing to go. : )

While contemplating the benefits of lying perfectly still as to not feel any muscle/joint aches last week I came up with the sweetest little rabbit “get well soon” design. I can’t wait to paint it and it truly did make me feel better as I began to work out the little details in my head. Look for her in a couple of weeks!

As for this winter…. I have officially had it. I’m ready for warmer temps, daffodils, tulips, kids in shorts, tired dogs, horses with no blankets and open windows with Spring’s healing breezes trickling through.

Thank you Farmboy, you know me oh so well. Ain’t love grand? Jewelry (tile), glass and flowers… simple & sweet. What a treat. You will always be the one whom my soul loves. xoxo

The lovely hand blown vase is from Henrietta Glass in Rhode Island.

I did not come up with this idea… I wish I could take credit for it. I learned about it from Trudy in the Winter Sowing forum on GardenWeb a number of years ago and have since grown hundreds of plants using this method. I thought it would be fun to show how LaLa and I do it. This post will be linked to other post that I will be doing regarding gardening with children… so stay tuned for that!

First you get a milk carton and add your drainage holes.

Cut the carton in half leaving one side attached, then pet Gracie who is patiently waiting for a treat…

I find it easier to label them before the soil is added. I’ve tried numerous pens and markers but have found opaque paint pens to work the best to handle the elements outside without wearing off.

I usually fill the utility sink in the laundry room with potting soil if I will be filling numerous containers but today I only had 4 to fill and I thought this would be easier for LaLa.

People use various mixes to start their seeds. I don’t fuss over it too much. I normally use a regular potting soil (miraclegro) and add additional perlite to lighten the mix. It is not necessary to use seed starting mix although I do add it to my potting soil if I have it.

So… add your soil, add your perlite and get those little hands going! Children (and adults) love to get their hands in the dirt when there is 3 ft of snow on the ground! It gives me a little gardening fix to get me through the long winters in Upstate New York.

After your soil is mixed and moistened, then fill your carton.

I keep my seeds in an old wine box. For some reason I cannot find most of my perennial seeds so we’ll go with Delphinium, Oriental Poppies and Lupines.

Now sprinkle those seeds! If they are tiny like poppies, just gently pat them to make contact with the soil. You can plant as little as 1 per carton but I usually sow at least 6 or 8 seeds (even with large plants).  Once they get started they can be separated or planted out later. If your seeds are larger you can poke little holes to put them or just sprinkle more soil on the top once you are done sowing.

Gently water in your seeds. I water them numerous times… until the soil is completely soaked and draining from the bottom. Remember the top half of the carton gets put back on and they will use the water that you put in now as condensation as the mini greenhouses warm in the spring sun.

Watch your children when watering…  they can be very overzealous as we know!  You don’t want the water pooling up on the top and your seeds washing away down the sides of the carton. At this point I put them in the sink and let them drain.

I have found that using a hole punch on the top and bottom and provides a nice little way to thread a twisty tie to hold them shut. The last step is an important one. Tape your cartons around the middle. You want the air inside to warm as the sun shines on them. I use packing tape but duct tape works too. Don’t put the cap back on the carton.

After that… put those little darlings outside and forget about them until the weather starts to warm. When they are ready they will sprout.  Your children will enjoy peaking down into the hole to look for green sprouts! I promise.

My sweet LaLa. I’ve done this every year with the kids since they were old enough to stand on a chair without falling off. I didn’t realize until now that that was my condition. : )

For more information on Winter Sowing click here. The forum is full of information, encouragement and overall gardening joy but be prepared to hear alot of rejoicing about green babies, zone wars and container counts!

Little Helen Chapel is her FULL name… after the character on NBC’s Wings. She was found as a tiny kitten by my kind hearted sister-in-law on a cold, snowy night outside the Dome after an Syracuse University basketball game. Allergic to cats, she put the word out to find a home for this little sweetie. We had just adopted 2 stray kittens and I was concerned about bringing another one into the house- but I have a hard time saying no to furry sweetness and so does Farmboy. When I first saw her my reaction was “Oh my goodness, look at those mitts!” She’s polydactyl and as a kitten she was definitely “all paws”.

We took her to my girlfriend Sue Losito at Fairmont Animal Clinic and she was given a clean bill of health but had to take kitten formula for awhile since she was so tiny.

The other cats soon accepted her but she latched onto Oliver our black lab/golden mix with a strong and precious attachment. They have been pals ever since. Here is a photo essay that I did of those two! How can you NOT photograph that tenderness?

Helen is my little companion. She joins me in the garden.

She helps me with the paperwork.

She and Pongo keep my copier warm

and she loves to help me fold linen guest towels.

She’s a great climber with all of those claws and she practically has opposable thumbs.

When I am in the kitchen she is on the windowsill or the kitchen towel basket. Even now she is napping on the back of my chair as I type. We’ve had lots of animals and hope to care for lots more. Of our 3 house cats she is the kindest, sweetest and most shy. I adore her. So… that is her story.

A happy ending in a warm home with family, friends and lots of love.

Oh my goodness. Do you hear that? Right now… silence. For the first time in 2 weeks the house is empty and quiet. As you can see I’m not much of a blogger during holidays. I get all worked up and then disappear. I can’t seem to steal the time away from the kids, friends and family. I’m usually not one to sneak away with my laptop… although at times I’d like to.

Santa came. Our kids require proof and apparently he answered their questions appropriately. The Bean told LaLa that now he was SURE there was a Santa because there is NO WAY Momma and Daddy would have gotten you one of those. Ha.

The kids are at their cousins. Farmboy is at the farm giving Ruby the Rabbit some run around time in the barn before the horses come in for the night. We had a brief thaw and this morning I took my time at the barn taking off the horses blankets for the first time in a month and lazily scratching their backs and combing their manes. I smiled when the masses of hair that I pulled from the mane comb made a little balls and were swept away down the aisle by a breeze. Barn cats sprung out of nowhere pouncing on the hairy tumbleweeds. Our little barn family is quiet lovely and I plan to photograph them soon.

Tomorrow starts a new year. Hmmm. I’m not much for resolutions. I have enough trouble keeping up with my normal good intentions much less giving myself new ones. But, I will try to excercise more and be conscientious of my portion sizes. Boooo! Over 40 is the pits. Until then I have made a lovely Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip to take to some friends house tonight to celebrate New Year’s Eve. It uses pureed Cannellini Beans and Light Cream Cheese instead of the normal sour cream and mayo. It’s heading into the oven shortly.

The kids are home. The silence has flitted away. Have a safe and happy New Years’ Eve friends!

You wouldn’t believe our Christmas trees growing up. Seriously. Do you want to go there? Really? You may need to sit down.

Cedar. You know those bushy evergreens that you see growing along the landscape down south that people line their closets with. Usually we would cut down a cedar tree from my grandparents land in McComb, MS and take it back to Brandon (a small town outside of Jackson). I DO remember one year my dad going deep into the woods where we used to foxhunt on private land and cutting one. I have a vague recollection of doing something against the law to get our lovely tree. It was scandalous. Maybe that’s why I remember it. See, I told you. Scandal.

I vividly recall my friends teasing me over the “outdoor” lights on our “indoor” tree. You know the big fat mulit-colored lights. I thought that’s what everyone used, didn’t you?

One day I will write about my father. He was quiet a character. His temper flared when it was time to get that tree in a tree stand. Perhaps it was his ice-blue eyes that made his face seem that much more crimson. My sisters and I stayed out of the way and let the TWF (Tree Wrestling Frustration) begin.

But one year… there appeared a crooked nail in the ceiling- right above where the tree stood. That stubborn, leaning, gigantic-lighted Christmas tree became tethered to a stud in the ceiling. The next year was the year that if you gently pushed the tree it would swing from the nail. Somehow my father managed to liberate that tree from that cumbersome, hell-provoking tree stand. It was free to swing in the wind from that bent nail. I took some ribbing from my friends about that one.

Our lights never got smaller. The nail never went away. It wasn’t until I moved away that I saw people used little blinky lights on their indoor trees and big, fat ones outside. “You mean you PAY for a Christmas tree??? Wow. You have one of those fancy Spruce ones? Impressive. ”

I used to lay in our living room and stare open-eyed at our beautiful tree until I fell asleep. The world was so big and so far away yet all I wanted was enclosed in that house.

When your kids want to stay up late and stare at the Christmas tree let them bask in the magical qualities and reflection that it brings. They will rest in their memories and their hopes of what they don’t even know is to come. Sometimes we all need a chance to just BE in a blessed twinkling light with our imaginations open and our hearts free from the stand on this earth that entangles and frustrates us.

So, think about it… this year are you a tree planted firmly in a stand? Are you alittle crooked and precariously perched? Maybe a little help from above isn’t so bad. Alittle freedom from a visible nail…

LaLa lost a tooth. The one that she had been wiggling and playing with all day. It’s not the first one… but so far it’s definitely the most traumatic.

Lost it while she was in the bathtub. I’m downstairs doing the dishes, water running and I think, “Do I hear something?” “Is that a child crying?” “What IS that noise?” Water off.  Listen. Wailing. Bloody murder screaming. I race up the stairs fearing a broken leg on the slippery tile floor. I get to the bathroom to see a naked child screaming… standing up (no broken leg), screaming. “What is it!?” I yell over the screaming. “What happened?!” Incoherent screaming ensues as she explains that her tooth has come out and blood is apparently gushing out of the wound.

I’m a girl. I CAN be dramatic if the need arises but Lord help me, that child has got Golden Globe written all over her. It was all I could do to hold myself together. It was one of the most precious things that I have ever experienced as a parent.

Upon hearing all of the screaming and feet running up the stairs LaLa’s dad comes flying into the room wondering what on earth is going on. The Incoherent Screaming Replay starts. I get her a towel and the three of us hug and sit on the ottoman. This is going to take a while. Farmboy assures her that all will be fine and goes downstairs to continue his game with the Bean. I get the privilege and honor of sitting there with my daughter listening to her raw fears and I am struck with her tender heart. The beauty. I hear wails of how that tooth will be missed. It will be so alone. The other teeth left behind won’t know where it has gone. The tears, so many, so big. Eyes so swollen and red. Oh, that the tooth never should have been loose. Oh, that it never should have come out. Now this is the same child that at dinner was determined to pull it out in front of us at the dinner table. Being the proper parents that we are… we told her she couldn’t do that. She would have to wait until after dinner and go into the bathroom. I guess, truth be told, we didn’t think she’d actually do it.

She cried because she had lost something God had given her. She cried because her other teeth would miss the lost one. She cried because she wasn’t ready. I cried inside because I wasn’t ready either. For any of it. She would talk and then lean into me and cry until all of the tears were out… for both of us. I reveled in that moment. Loving and embracing the beauty of it. I wanted to run and get it down on paper as soon as I could because my memory is terrible and I feared not recalling all of it.

How do you take a picture of a Kodak moment without a camera? Words. Girls. Little girls. Big tears. Red eyes. Despair is despair. Is there a measure to a child? What do they know of earthquakes, oil spills, world hunger and AIDS? Missing. She feared the other teeth would miss not getting to say good-bye to this one. Her teeth didn’t feel like her teeth anymore. She asked if she would have to lose other things… like her Blankie. Hell no! Of course not! I still have my Henry. The little teeth had to leave to make room for the bigger ones, that’s all. She was right on schedule. She is perfect. Just the way she was expertly designed.

Eventually the hugs, tears and sobs slowed and I suggested pajamas and a Toot and Puddle book wherein their little cousin Opal loses her tooth. LaLa was thrilled. A few tears fell while getting ready for bed. After showing her brother the hole and expressing her sadness over her different smile he reassured her that “her smile was always beautiful no matter what because SHE was beautiful”. Oh, how you make me proud tonight Big Brother.

So we piled up in the bed with her lovingly decorated envelope for the tooth fairy. Covered with stickers- her best, most favorite ones we tucked the envelope under the pillow and I proceeded to tell the story inserting “Tooth” for Toot and “Toot Fairy” for the “Tooth Fairy”. She was hysterical by the time the story was over. A precious night…had to write about it. Now, where is my glitter and where are my wings. ; )

Do you have any tooth fairy magic? Please share!

Michelle

End of summer… LaLa is dying to get on that school bus for her first day of First Grade. The Bean knows what is coming and doesn’t mind the days dragging on.

Farmboy and I thought that a corn stand would be great for The Bean this year. His cousins who are older were also interested.  The boys made a table in June in anticipation of holding this year’s harvest.

It’s hard for me not to have visions of a giant festival of corn when a “corn stand” is mentioned. I think big. Why not? I like a spectacle, don’t you? Farmboy often wonders “why does everything you do have be a spectacle?”  I tried to stay out of it… really, I did.

I helped set up my art festival tent at the end of our driveway. The boys took the golf cart down into the field and loaded it with corn. I painted a couple of signs, put some tablecloths out and the boys were good to go. It was an interesting experience. Friday I found out that earlier in the morning one of the kids accidently picked field corn instead of sweet corn. Eeegads. Embarrassing. Especially when Farmboy encouraged his friends at work to stop in for some of the best sweet corn they will ever taste. Ooops. We had a discussion about “quality control” and how important it is to double check what they are selling for its quality. We weren’t sure how much had been sold. Farmboy made a few calls to let people know.

It was painful to watch as they counted change back to customers. The Bean made it clear that they were perfectly fine without me there. I took advantage of the situation to spend a little time in the studio to prepare for an upcoming show. La La and I spent the entire day on Friday making cupcakes for her cupcake stand. On Saturday the 1st Annunal “Windswept Farm Sweet Corn Extravaganza” took place. There was sweet corn, of course, lemonade, cupcakes and brownies, not to mention some tomatoes and cucumbers from my garden. Farmboy, Aunt Kim and I moved the stand further down on the farm across the street from the community recycling station – its gets alot of traffic on a Saturday morning.

The kids earned some money, ate alot of cupcakes and brownies and drank alot of lemonade. This year we have decided to let them bask in the money that they have earned. They have a taste of economics and we will hit them with the full picture next year when they have to think about how much a bag of corn seed costs and how much fuel is required to plant that seed. They are all ready talking about how they will make next year better and I am encouraged by their enthusiasm. There were a couple of hiccups- the field corn and a woman came back because she had only 4 ears when she purchased 6. Gasp. Blush. Embarassement. But they were apologetic and generous giving her extra because of their mistake. I wish that I had been taught the principles of business when I was young. I look forward to teaching the kids.

Next year all of those balloons are going to have to be put into their budget. How have you encouraged the entreprenuerial spirit in your children? Any creative ideas?

I heard she was also seen at Sherwin-Williams last week.

Hi Friends! I wanted to post a quick note about AmpleHarvest.org and encourage those of you who have grown extra produce in your gardens this summer to consider finding a local food pantry and donating some of your excess produce to families who have been hit hard by the economy.

I did a quick search by entering my zip code on their website and found 3 food pantries within 12 miles of me. Pretty neat. So when your family has had enough of those zucchini, squash or whatever… go here and find a place where your excess will be greatly appreciated!

Big thanks to my twitter friends at TheSoilSisters.com for posting info about AmpleHarvest.org and reminding me to share the blessings! Check them out… you will be glad that you did.

Have a great day!

Michelle