Just because it says 'mist'...

I got a new hose nozzle a couple of weeks ago and I'm loving it! It's very heavy duty, has great heft, and all of the settings are different and work like as they should. Even better, it was rather inexpensive!

Today, I went out to check on my flats of winter veggies and found that they needed a bit of moisture. I dragged over my hose, knocked my handy-dandy nozzle to mist, and went at it.

Just because it says 'mist', I learned, doesn't mean that it's a gentle mist. Yes, it mists, but I'm short and being only a couple feet away with the nozzle is a bit too much for tender little seedlings. I've been working on my technique and found that aiming the nozzle over, rather than at, the flats works much better and the little seedlings maintain their heads.

So far, arugula, some spinach, broccoli raab, buttercrunch lettuce, swiss chard, kohl rabi, and kale are all making an appearance. I wish the fennel was showing, but the seeds I found were old and hadn't been properly stored. I may go get some fresh seeds for this winter, if I'm feeling motivated!

Some pretty Etsy things.

I haven't written much about my joining up with the Interior Design Team on etsy, so I figured it might be a good time to show some of the interesting and truly great things I've found through this group.

First would be MatthewHamblen. I can't even begin to explain how NOT an art critic I am, but I can't find one thing in his shop that doesn't pull me in and entrance me. Truly a beautiful tour and a wonderful artist.

Another fantastic shop is hillspeak. I'm not usually a fan of the 'shabby' look, but the mosaiced bird houses in this shop get lots of smiles from me. This is my absolute favorite.

I've come across BrazanDesign a handful of times and I always am completely drawn in by how clean and classy this shop is. I finally found a nightlight that my SO can sleep with, or one of these lovelies would be MINE!

Just a quick scan, for today. :)

Lemongrass divisions!

My father-in-law expressed interest at having some lemongrass divisions, so I was only too happy to send him some. I divided up one of my plants for the year a couple of weeks ago, and set them out to recover in cups. Well, I pulled two out of their cups to send to him and this is what was in the cups:

I love these plants! They're impossible to kill, resilient, and amazingly tasty. What more could you want??

alysonscure

A great etsy seller, MeridianStudio, has organized a shop to help the family of Alyson, a young girl with lymphoblastic leukemia.

Please check out the beautiful contributions of other etsy members in the shop alysonscure.

I have donated a new project, an etched glass, upcycled herb garden.

Treasury!

A great treasury by LetYourLightShine! Thanks for including my purple beebalm seeds. :)

Fused business 'cards'.

I had a lot of fun making these; and, while they're still obviously a first attempt and the design needs significant polishing, I'm pleased with the results. I've got several ideas for future designs, but I think these will keep me for awhile.

Assembled promos.

For the past couple of days, I've been assembling my promos for various people who've requested them for their functions. Bad picture, but it gets the point across. :)

Hopefully, I'll be posting pictures of my new fluffnfixings promos!

Yummy basil.

Thanks to FluffyFlowersVintage for including my lettuce leaf basil in this treasury!

A bit of a break.

I got to take a short break over the weekend while visiting my in-laws. It was quite nice to come back to two sales, one in my fluffnflowers shop and one in my fluffnfixings shop. I'm a bit disappointed that the first sale in my fluffnfixings shop was not one of my upcycled mailers, but that's how it goes and you can't argue with any incoming moolah. :)

I've got a lot I need to do this week and a two days are already gone from it. I got my first business card order from vistaprint, and I must say that I'm very pleased. The colors are excellent, the printing and alignment is excellent, and the quality of the paper is also excellent. Even better, it was very inexpensive. I'd rather support an etsian or private printer, but it's hard to argue with the budget. I spent the morning collating (without the intention of binding them ;) them and have them ready to attach to my sample seed packs. I've got four or five people waiting for promos to include in packs, so I've got a lot of work to do on them.

Because I was pleased with my first order, I've placed a second order for a small run of labels (free except for the $3.93 rush shipping) that I plan on placing on my fused plastic 'business cards' that I cut out the other day for my fluffnfixings cards. I think these will be a LOT of fun to hand out and can't wait to get them. They take considerably more work, so I won't be handing out as many as the fluffnfixings cards.

Beatin' back the thug.

Today I got to yank my heart monitor off, and I was free to go outside and get nasty and sweaty. Hurrah!

The first order of business was to get the chocolate mint under control, and it proved to be a bit more of a task than I thought. I ripped up about five buckets of runners, made two pots of tea, and have a ton dehydrating for this winter.

It took me about an hour and a run in with a lovely black widow, but I'm glad it's done. The runners are ready to go in the ground and I have no idea what I'm going to do with them!

I've got a promotion going in my shop for a free chocolate mint runner with a purchase of three packs of seeds or the cost equivalent -- $9. Check it out! :)

Some fun newness!

I haven't been feeling well over the past week or so (cardiologist appointment on Tuesday, woot!), so I haven't been up and about in the yard as much. Yesterday, though, my guy was cleaning up the office and was trying to figure out what to do with his old 14" long 3.5" floppy file. I looked at it and was inspired!

It's a HUGE step up from my prior 'organizational' method -- the seed baggies were just tossed in a box. Now, each flavor of seeds has it's own pocket and the pre-packed bags that are ready to be shipped out are easy to find and I've got MUCH better inventory control.

Having everything so organized made me realize how many seeds I've actually collected this year! This 14" long file is completely stuffed, and I still have vials of bulk seeds not packaged yet.

Other than that, my winter basil is coming up. My Red Rubin didn't go to seed this summer after my guy conveniently mowed it down, so I started another pot with last year's seeds to keep indoors this winter. The little sprouts are so cute! I love the color that these have and they make such a great addition to pestos. Purple pesto rocks!

If all goes as planned, I should have plenty of seeds from these lovelies available on etsy for next spring.

Furry little fellow

I saw this guy out in the garden the other day and thought he was absolutely charming. Not being the caterpillar expert, I refrained from handling him and have been searching for his identity. Anyone know what flavor he is? :)

Treasuries!

In honor of the More Meaningful Gifts BNR, jvdarcy set up this treasury. Thanks for including my violet photograph! Here it is!

Hot Cherry Peppers on Stage!

I really need to get Flash working (this is what I get for being a geek!) so I can click and comment on treasuries!

Here's a lovely treasury that has my hot cherry pepper seeds in it that was put together by VintageScraps. Thank you! :)

Another treasury!

Thanks, debralinker, for including my chocolate mint plant in her treasury!

But they're PLASTIC!

I got my latest order of seed bags in, and my SO asked me a very interesting question while I was working on putting together little promo packs.

Why do you use plastic bags rather than paper seed packs like you used to?

The switch to using the plastic zippy baggies came easily, for me, after a couple of seasons using the paper envies. I could never find a way to seal the paper envies well enough so that I could open and close them whenever I wanted and not lose any seeds. I'm not a person who normally uses an entire pack of seeds at once, so I found myself using three, sometimes four, paper envelopes over a couple of weeks for the same pack of seeds.

I got a trade in the little plastic baggies and I've been a convert ever since. For my personal use, I'll even reuse ones from other seed varieties. I also think it makes people feel more confident with buying seeds, because they can SEE them before they buy. I can open and close them whenever I want and have fewer lost seeds because of it.

I do miss the breathability of the paper envelopes, and it's now absolutely imperative that seeds are completely dried before packaging, but I've come to terms with that and think the benefits more than outweigh the extra day in the vent chamber of doom.

Instead of spending weeks making seed envelopes or buying 5000 a year (plus smaller emergency orders occasionally), I'm down to ordering 3000 a year and still having some leftover. Good thing all around.